A Toast to the Good Times - By Liz Reinhardt Page 0,14
of this elaborate, grown-up plan? And you try to tell me you aren’t descended from some crazy scheming overlord? Cause I’m not buying it.”
She pulls both her hands back into her lap, then holds them in front of her body and, finally, moves them up to my face. She cups my jaw, pulls me forward gently, and kisses me.
It’s not careful. But it is sweet. So damn sweet, but with an edge of something darker, something hidden deep under all those layers of quiet calm. Something wild and new and completely shocking.
She pulls back abruptly, and it’s like someone yanked a plug out of the wall and cut the only light in the room. I feel disoriented, eager for more, and equally as eager to get as far away from her and the second crazy kiss of this cursed holiday evening.
She takes a long, shaky breath and runs her fingers over her lips. “That was…I’m sorry. I didn’t even wait to ask if you’re with anyone, and don’t tell me if you are.” She holds her other hand up like she’s stopping traffic in an intersection at rush hour. “It was one kiss, and I know for a fact it didn’t mean a thing to you.”
I open my mouth and she transfers her fingers from her lips to mine. “Don’t. I don’t know why I did that. I think it was to show you that I’m not that girl you broke up with after high school. Or maybe it was just you. You’re still all perfect cheekbones and that hair? What guy makes curly hair work? Don’t say anything, okay? You’re sexy. You’re still just as sexy as you were, but, the difference is that I’m sexy now, too. It wouldn’t be so one sided anymore, would it?”
“Ton—”
“Shut up!” she laughs and bites her lip. “I’m obviously just…having a moment, Landry. I just…I never expected to see you on the train tonight. Why would you be on this train tonight? The one night I stayed late and caught the last train home? And a week after I was thinking about us and what we could have had if I hadn’t been such a total priss and you hadn’t been such an insensitive prick. Even though I had to be. I did. But I don’t just go kissing random guys on trains. Not that you’re random. I mean, we were together for three years. For three years you were mine.” She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head. “Okay. Enough. That’s…I’ve made a big enough fool of myself. Okay. Done. I’m leav—”
I pull her back down, back next to me, and cover my lips with hers again. The kiss is short and a little rough, because I want to make her be quiet, and I want to dig fast and sure back to that place where we just were.
She arches towards me and I press my hand against her back, doing my best to pull her close through the layers of clothes she has on. My tongue runs along the inner edge of her lips, and she opens for me, her hands yanking at the back of my neck and pulling me closer.
Her kisses press sure and sort of frantic, across my mouth and along my neck, back to my ear, down my jaw. She’s half on my lap, her skirt edged high enough that I can see the tops of her stockings, thigh-highs secured with little black bows.
Unexpected and sexy as hell.
When my hands start to edge where they shouldn’t, she peels back and holds both her hands pressed to her cheeks.
“Whoa. No. Wow.” Toni shakes her head and the laugh that hiccups out of her throat is slightly embarrassed. “What is it about you?” she asks me, squinting as she pulls her coat back on and buttons it right up to her chin, even though she’s obviously warm from our energetic make out session. “It’s those curls, I think. Seriously, I’ve never seen another guy who can get away with curly hair and make it sexy. And you have the bluest eyes. I guess I’m just a sucker for the Black Irish look, and you’ve got it, Landry. Holy shit, you’ve got it, and I fall for it every damn time.”
“I’m feeling kinda used,” I joke, and when I smile, she sighs and shakes her head.
“Why did you have to be on this train tonight? Why?” She flicks my collar back into place, but when I go to