“I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. He was close to me now. I didn’t remember taking quite this many steps into him, but I was close enough now to smell his cologne. I could see the blues and grays of his eyes and the small spot he missed shaving near his earlobe.
How did he infuriate me so easily? Why did being near him cause my heart to go crazy and my ability to think disappear? I glared up at him, riled and looking for a fight. I wanted to get a reaction out of him. I wanted him to react to me.
I wanted to knock him down and kiss him, and I wasn’t sure it was in that order. The space at the arch of my legs ached for something only he could give me. I hated him, yet my body wanted his touch. Lust surged through me in hot waves.
I hated that I wanted him, but that only made me want him more.
How did he get under my skin and turn me on?
Without thinking, without my brain’s permission, my body leaned forward and kissed him.
And oh, God, did it feel good.
Every part of my body sang with need and kissing him made it better and worse at the same time. He threaded his hand behind my head and into my hair, kissing me back.
And the man could kiss. His lips were soft, yet demanding. He tasted better than he had in any of my dreams. Sweet, yet rich with hints of champagne.
Before I knew what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around his neck, not letting him go. I needed his kisses, his touch, and so much more. I needed him more than I needed to breathe. I hated him and needed him in equal parts.
What in the world had he done to me? I went from hating him to wanting to screw him in the space of a single kiss.
“We should go someplace less public.” He broke the kiss just long enough to whisper the words, and even then that was too long.
I nodded, hating that he pulled away from me. My body ached to feel him against me, and even though I knew I would get more, I hated that I didn’t have him that instant.
He grabbed my hand. With my lips still tingling
from Mr. Darcy’s kiss, he pulled me away from the crowd.
To my writer friends
Thanks for keeping me sane (ish)
Chapter 1
“Will you hurry up? We’re going to be late,” Lydia complained. She leaned against the bathroom door and watched as I finished putting the last touches on my mascara.
“And what?” I asked, turning to look at her. “We’ll miss the waiters walking around with the little trays of fancy hot dogs you don’t like? You’ll live. Promise.”
My little sister rolled her eyes at me. For being twenty-one, she still had all the abilities of a teenager in the eye-roll department. She took a deep breath like I was trying all of her patience and checked her hair in the mirror one more time.
“I guess it is fashionable to be late,” she said, smoothing down her dark hair. “We’ll look more important and more people will be able to see us arrive.”
I couldn’t help but shake my head. It was hard to believe we were related sometimes. We both had the same slim build, dark hair and dark eyes, but the similarities ended there. She was impulsive, naive, and fame-hungry, which drove me absolutely batty. She was sure she was the center of the universe.
I, at least, acknowledged that I was only the center of the solar system, not the entire universe.
“Have either of you seen my silver earrings?” our roommate Jane asked, poking her head into the bathroom and looking around. “Oh, you’re wearing them, Lydia.”
“They look so much better on me,” Lydia replied with a shrug. “You should wear the blue ones. They bring out your eyes.”
“Can you at least ask next time?” Jane asked, crossing her arms. She managed to look beautiful and statuesque even though she was angry. She always managed to look beautiful and statuesque.
“Fine,” Lydia replied with another classic eye roll. “But you know I’m right.”
It was Jane’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Lizzie, you’re sure this is a fancy, exclusive event, right?” Lydia asked, pushing up her cleavage in her skintight black dress. “Famous people will be there?”