I should push him away.
Why is he kissing me, anyway? The man obviously hates me.
But my God, when was the last time I was kissed?
Have I ever been kissed this way? This passionately? By someone this good-looking?
I grip his shoulders, ready to yank myself away from him, but instead, I melt into him and part my lips.
A low growl emanates from him, and he sweeps his tongue into my mouth.
He tastes of tomatoes, garlic, a tiny tinge of sweetness from the whipped cream and berries.
My God, it’s the most intoxicating flavor ever. Who knew kissing someone who tastes like garlic could be so amazing?
I shouldn’t be doing this.
He works for the Wolfe family, and he’s supposed to protect me.
But my God…
I let my tongue slide into his mouth as I deepen the kiss.
Another growl from him.
But then—
He breaks the kiss with a loud smack. Pulls away from me. Presses his back against the wall of the hallway and closes his eyes. “Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I figured.”
He opens his eyes then. “Hey, you kissed me back.”
“It was…instinct. Pure and simple.”
“That what you’re calling it these days?”
I whip my hands to my hips. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, Kelly, that you kissed me back. Maybe it was a mistake for me to kiss you, but you could’ve stopped it. You could’ve pushed me away, and you didn’t. So if there’s a mistake here, it was made by both of us.”
My instinct is to fight him. Tell him he’s wrong.
But he’s not wrong.
I did kiss him back.
I liked it.
I liked it a lot.
I swipe the back of my hand across my lips, trying to wipe Leif from me.
My lips are tingling, as if warm blood is flowing to them for the first time in…forever maybe.
We didn’t kiss on the island. The men weren’t interested in that, and we certainly weren’t interested in kissing them.
And the truth of the matter? I’ve only dated a few men in my life. My mother didn’t allow me to have dates when I was living at home. For the five years I lived in an apartment and waited tables, I dated a few men. Kissed a few men. Slept with a few men.
But that kiss that Leif and I just shared?
It was more exciting than going to bed with any of the men from my past.
Macy says a lot of the women from the island are afraid to feel.
Feeling has never been my problem. My problem, she says, is that I focus too much on the negative feelings.
Anger, envy, jealousy.
If I can refocus that into the positive emotions, I’ll be a happier person.
The only problem is? I don’t know what happy feels like. The closest I came were the five years between high school and my abduction, when I worked my ass off waiting tables and lived paycheck-to-paycheck in a small apartment I could barely afford.
It was better than living with my mother for sure, and better than living in my friend’s home and feeling beholden. But life was hard.
Happiness seemed to be a luxury that I didn’t have enough time for.
“Go in,” Leif says. “I won’t leave until I know you’re safely inside with your doors locked.”
I don’t move, though. My door has relocked, and I need to slide the card again. I reach for it, but Leif takes it from me, slides it through. The lock clicks, and he opens the door, gesturing for me to go in.
And all I can think about is how much I want to kiss him again.
“Most of the restaurants in the area open around nine to get ready for the lunch crowd and then the dinner crowd. I’ll be by to pick you up at nine thirty, and we’ll see about finding you a job.” He rakes his gaze over me. “Wear something a little more conservative. Black pants and a blouse if you have it.” Then he closes the door, and it clicks locked.
I stand, my back against my door, and slide into a squatting position.
Still feeling his lips on mine.