never going to stop,” I said gruffly, letting my hand rest on her chin, waiting to see if she would move away. Instead, she leaned into it a little.
“I’ve been imagining the different ways you might say that to me for so long, and this was way sexier than anything in my head.”
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” I swallowed, unable to break the gaze we held. This was ridiculous. Twenty-four hours ago she’d been ready to kill me. Now she was inviting me to kiss her. And I really fucking wanted to.
Instead, I placed a chaste kiss on her cheek and got up to grab some napkins.
“What was that?” she demanded when I returned.
“I thought I’d give you a chance to change your mind.” I wiped my mouth with a napkin even though I was fairly certain I didn’t have anything there.
“I’ve had ten years to change my mind,” she laughed. She leaned forward and, before I realized what she was doing, pressed her lips to mine. Her mouth was closed and her eyes were open, cautiously watching my reaction, but there was no way in hell I was pulling away. Instead, I slid one arm around her shoulders and let the tip of my tongue tease the seam of her lips.
Those gorgeous blue eyes of hers fluttered closed and her mouth opened just enough for her tongue to toy with mine. For at least a minute, maybe two, we sat there with our lips pressed together, our tongues doing a gentle, playful dance. I didn’t plan to, but my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own and deepened the kiss, demanding a little more, and she let me.
When I pressed my tongue into her mouth, she made a sound that was the purest, sweetest, most enticing thing I’d ever heard. It wasn’t a moan or a sigh or a groan, but more of a whisper, as if her soul was talking to mine. I didn’t know what that meant, but I wasn’t going to think about it too hard because right now the most beguiling woman I’d ever known was kissing me back. Kissing me like we’d kissed ten years ago. Except this was better, and we weren’t hiding from anyone, and I fucking never wanted it to end.
“Wow.” When we finally pulled apart, her eyes were glassy and her lips a little swollen. She looked thoroughly well-kissed and knowing that I was the man who’d put that look on her face got me hard as a rock.
“Now look what you’ve done,” I said, nuzzling her neck. “You’ll have to walk in front of me for at least an hour.”
She smiled. “Or we could just sit here and make out. We have ten years to make up for.”
I drew her head back to mine, taking her mouth with a little more finesse this time, stroking her tongue more urgently, hoping to get her as worked up as I was. I didn’t know what my end game would be, because I wanted her so much more than I’d thought I would, but it felt like I’d been waiting my whole life for this moment.
“Should we be doing this here?” she whispered against my mouth.
“Probably not, but if I get you alone, things are going to go a lot further than kissing.”
“That’s kind of what I was hoping.”
“Shannon, I don’t—”
“Shut up,” she said with a soft smile, pressing her forefinger against my mouth. “I’m a grown woman and I’ll kiss you if I want to. Right here in the middle of the Christmas market too.”
“I like the sound of that.”
And that’s what we did. Though we kept our hands and body language relatively chaste, we kissed like horny teenagers who were away from their parents’ prying eyes for the first time. At some point, when it seemed like there was nowhere to go unless we wanted to strip down right here in the square, we exchanged a meaningful look as we finally pulled apart. It didn’t seem like there was anything to say, so we finished eating our potato pancakes and then she slid her hand into mine and we started to walk. I was sporting a fairly uncomfortable boner, but that was okay because she was worth every second of discomfort.
I untucked my T-shirt and let it cover my crotch area as we walked. We joined the busy market, stopping at different booths as she finished some Christmas shopping and I even did some. Though Erik