boldly, to show him just who could kiss whom...and to see once and for all if what she’d wanted so desperately in high school had been worth all the sleepless nights.
Oh, yes. Worth every one.
Matt wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him as he kissed her back, setting her senses ablaze, and then, while she could still think straight—or relatively straight—Liv pulled away, out of his embrace, touching her fingertips to her swollen lips.
This time it was Matt who looked stunned as his hands dropped back to his sides and through an onslaught of conflicting emotions, Liv felt a distinct sense of satisfaction. And a need to escape. Too much to process in a short period of time.
“I have to go,” she said.
Matt shoved his hands into his pockets and it was all she could do not to follow the motion with her eyes. She wanted to look at what she’d felt pressing against her during that last kiss, but decided it might not be the best move.
“Because...”
“Because this is not what I want.”
“You seemed to want it a few seconds ago.”
“Changed my mind,” Liv said as she started toward her trailer.
“You seek me out, claim to ‘kind of’ care, then this. What the hell, Liv?”
She rounded on him, found him only a few feet away from her. How had he managed to get so close? “What the hell? I’ll tell you what the hell. Don’t kiss me, okay? Don’t touch me.”
Matt raised his hands, very much as he did when he’d finished tying a calf’s legs together. Only this was a gesture of surrender, not victory. “Whatever,” he muttered. He turned on his heel and walked back to his horse, leaving Liv staring after him before she stalked to her truck and trailer, where she unlocked the door with shaking fingers.
She hated confrontation. Hated being tongue-tied. Hated being kissed when she wasn’t ready.
You are no longer that tongue-tied, confrontation-hating person. You are able stand up for yourself.
That might be so, but Liv also wished she didn’t know that kissing Matt was every bit as good as she’d once thought it would be.
“Liv!”
Her head snapped up and she saw Matt heading back toward her, a serious expression on his face.
Why couldn’t he have just let her drive away? Be done with him? “What?” she asked.
“You’re right.” He stopped a few feet away from her, allowing her some much-needed distance. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Yeah” was all she could come up with. An uncomfortable silence followed as she studied the dusty ground near his scuffed-up boots.
“Liv?” She slowly raised her gaze to his, telling herself she couldn’t pretend this wasn’t happening. “What’s going on?”
More than she was comfortable with, that was for sure, which was why she was in high retreat mode. She cleared her throat, which suddenly seemed to be closing on her. Panic perhaps. “I don’t know,” she said softly.
“Bull.” The word was equally soft, surprisingly gentle. Not what she expected from him after...well, after.
“This is not the place to discuss it,” she said as a couple of ropers rode by, nodding at Matt who gave an unsmiling nod to each in return.
“If not here, then where? When?” he asked once the riders had passed.
“Is there anything to discuss?” Discussing meant acknowledging and Liv felt much more comfortable in denial right now. If she denied and kept her distance, then she wasn’t going to have to deal with Matt. Matt, who kissed so well. Matt, who was standing in front of her right now, waiting for a response she didn’t want to give.
Matt, who took a slow step forward, as if afraid of spooking her. Liv’s breath caught. Truthfully, she had no clue how to handle her attraction to him. It just didn’t fit into her master plan—the one where she controlled her own destiny.
If she hooked up with a strong-willed guy like Matt, a guy who had one hell of a time taking no for an answer, then she was basically digging the grave for her independence.
And she would not do that.
So she took the coward’s way out. “I need to go, Matt.”
“When?”
She pressed her lips together briefly. Take control. Do what you want to do. “I’m not seeing any time clear in the near future.”
Matt’s expression hardened. “Because I kissed you?”
“Partly.”
“And because of McElroy’s knee treatments?”
“Partly.”
“And the rest?”
“The rest is all me.”
* * *
SHAE HAD SEEMED oddly subdued during the cake tasting and the lunch that Vivian treated them to afterward, and Liv felt exactly