the ways a man kissing a woman was supposed to make her feel. Mostly, I’d left feeling frustrated and a little bit used.
Evan stood just outside the door, drying his hands on a clean rag. Even here, in the open air, he took up so much space. His essence pressed against me, making my heart race and a blush heat my cheeks. Just seeing him made a knot of conflicting emotions clench inside me.
What would have happened if I’d met Luke first? I still would have been drawn to Evan, like a moth to a flame.
To my detriment. Evan was impossible to crack. He was all hard lines and rough edges, every bit of him jagged. And determined to be alone.
His eyes bored into me as I got out of my car. Was he angry that I’d gone? Worried that Luke had changed my mind?
Sasquatch ran over to greet me, then followed close at my heel while I walked to the shop.
“Everything okay?” Evan asked.
“Yeah, fine.” I moved past him into the garage. “He wasn’t happy, but I expected that.”
“He give you any trouble?”
I hesitated. Was it any of his business that Luke had asked me out and kissed me? Despite the whirlwind of feelings he always managed to produce inside me, Evan and I weren’t dating. Not even close. He was a friend, and now I worked for him, but nothing about that relationship meant I had to tell him everything.
Still. I felt like he needed to know.
“No, he didn’t give me any trouble. He asked me out, though.”
Evan’s jaw hitched, but he didn’t respond.
“And he kissed me.”
Save for an almost imperceptible twitch of his eye, his face didn’t change. He took a breath, his nostrils flaring, and when he spoke his voice was dangerously low. “He what?”
“I didn’t ask him to. And I turned him down. The job, a date, the kiss, everything.”
He didn’t move, just stared at me. No growling or rolling his eyes. No stalking off and turning up the music, effectively ending the conversation. Just those whiskey-brown eyes looking right through me.
Without warning, he closed the distance between us. One second he was staring me down and the next his arm hooked around my waist, hauling me against him. His other hand gripped my hair and tilted my face up.
His mouth landed on mine like a storm breaking—strong and powerful. There was no hesitation, no holding back. He forcibly parted my lips with his tongue, delving into my mouth like he owned me.
My heart hammered in my chest and for a second, my mind went blank. Evan Bailey was kissing me. Kissing me hard and possessive, like no one had ever kissed me before. He lit my body on fire, sending heat through my veins, rushing to my core.
Except… wait.
Planting my palms on his chest, I pushed him away. A throb of need jolted through me at the loss of contact—my body wasn’t happy. But my brain was catching up and I was not going to be the toy these two boys fought over on the playground.
“What the fuck?” I asked, breathing hard. “I tell you some guy kissed me and that’s your response?”
He licked his lower lip and I almost dropped dead on the floor. Why did he have to be so freaking sexy? I was trying to protect my heart, here.
“You don’t want me to?”
“I don’t want to be the object of a game of I licked it, so it’s mine. How do I know you didn’t do that just because you’ll fight Luke over anything?”
He stepped close again, crowding me with his size. “That kiss was because I’ll fight Luke over anything. Especially you. But this one’s because I fucking want you so bad I can’t take it anymore.”
His huge hands took control of me, one splaying across my lower back, the other fisting in my hair. He jerked my head back, and without conscious thought, my body submitted, going slack in his arms.
The slow sweep of his tongue through my mouth wasn’t possessive this time. It was filthy. A promise of more, of things I didn’t even know I wanted. He kissed me like he wanted to devour me whole. Like he’d never tasted anything better.
And he didn’t stop. With his hand still wrapped around my hair, and his huge body pressed against me, he kissed the breath right out of my lungs.
The scratch of his stubble against my skin and warmth of his mouth tangling with mine stirred me into