Forbidden Bride - Penny Wylder Page 0,7

up buckets of desire from a well I’ve tried unsuccessfully to close off for years.

I am in so much trouble.

3

Nicola

I pull out of Tristan’s arms quickly. “Thank you. Sorry for running into you.”

“It’s not a problem,” he says, and that voice does things to my body that I absolutely can’t ignore. “Feel free to fall into me anytime.”

“Thanks,” I say, but I’m incapable of saying anything else, even though it feels like I have so much to say. So many questions. But I can’t breathe, because Tristan is reaching out to touch me.

I swear that time freezes and my heart stops as he strokes his fingers down my cheek. That look is in his eyes again, like he’s trying to memorize me and consume me and draw me closer, and I don’t want to think about what it means. Because if it doesn’t mean what I want it to, I’ll be devastated.

Tristan leans in, and his lips touch mine without hesitation.

Holy shit.

This is exactly what I just said can’t happen. There’s so much wrong with this right now, including the fact that we’re in the hallway where anyone could see us. And there are four years of silence and yearning and questions that have to be answered.

But my body isn’t listening. I melt into his embrace without a second thought, and it feels like I belong there, just like it did that night four years ago. So impossibly good that I never want to resurface from this kiss. But we have to.

I have to.

“Tristan,” I say, managing to pull back barely an inch. “We can’t.”

“Why not?”

Whatever I was going to say is lost in his next kiss, and it takes my breath away. His hands stroke down my ribs, and I shiver. The heat from his fingers sinks through the fabric of my dress and this is doing nothing for my resolve. It’s crumbling faster than I can believe.

“You want me to list the reasons?”

“Yes,” he says, moving his lips to my jaw, pressing me against the wall as he does it. “I do.”

I bite my lip to keep back my groan as his lips trace further down my neck. “For one thing we could get caught. If someone sees us, I don’t know what will happen, Tristan. You just got here. You want to lose your job?”

He doesn’t respond to the question, just focuses his attention on the line just below my jaw. Wetness gathers at my core, and my nipples go hard beneath my dress. Fuck, he’s good at that, and it’s everything that I’ve ever wanted—his lips on me. I dream about it all the time. “Keep going,” he murmurs.

“I don’t know you anymore. I haven’t seen you since…everything happened. We’re strangers now. You don’t even know if I’m involved with someone.”

His head snaps up when I say those words, eyes like fire, pinning me to the spot. “Are you?”

I swallow the lie I had on my lips. If I could muster it, it would make it easier on both of us, but I can’t do it. I can’t tell him that I’ve been with anyone else. I remember the promise that I made to him, even though I’m not going to admit that.

It doesn’t matter how much I want this, have begged the universe for it. We can’t. Not like this. “No, I’m not.”

“Good.”

Pulling the bathroom door open, Tristan sweeps me inside and locks the door behind us, and then his mouth is on mine again, and now that we have privacy, my body is a traitor. I’m kissing him back, my hands finding their way to his shoulders and then around his neck. My ass presses against the sink as he leans into me, and I can feel all the incredible hardness of his body and…other things.

Our tongues dance together, and this is better than everything that I imagined. Pure fire and heat and aching need gathering together and pulling me closer to him. “Tristan, we should stop.”

“Should we?” He looks down, and I see the same fire and lust in his eyes. “If you really want to stop, tell me. I will.”

But I can’t say that, and he knows it too. I don’t want him to stop. I want him to keep going until we both have everything. A small smile tilts the corners of his mouth, but his eyes are serious. “If you want me to stop, I will. If you want to throw me out of this bathroom and never see me