I adjusted my glasses and looked away before it went too far. My dad was right here, after all, and I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to my question.
“Done!” Dad joined us in the middle of the tent. “Preston, you kissed seventy-two people today, and Halley, you kissed eighty people exactly. You win.”
Oh, hell.
I lifted my shoulders to my ears and smiled sweetly at Preston. He swore under his breath and dug in his pocket for his wallet. I took the fifty he handed me with glee and moved to deposit it in my bucket.
“Shall I add the extra five to my board, or would you like to do it?” I asked in an innocent tone.
“I’ll do it in a minute.” He smirked. “One all, then.”
“One all.”
Dad glanced at his watch. “I have to go—good job here, kids, you’re doing great. Halley, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Bye, sir,” Preston said as I tossed up a wave.
My mouth dried out when the curtain fell closed. Preston’s bright blue eyes were focused completely on me, and his lips were curved into a smirk that was far too sexy to be fair.
Something passed between us, something intangible that made my heart skip a beat.
“So. That tally.” I jumped up and scrambled to my feet, looking for the marker to add the one kiss I was owed to my board.
The wooden boards creaked as Preston joined me. My heart thumped against my ribs, and I froze when he stopped right behind me and took the marker from my hand. He didn’t move as he wrapped his arms around my upper body to uncap it.
Very slowly, very carefully, and oh-so-deliberately, he drew one line next to the running tally on the board.
I swallowed hard when he clicked the lid back on the pen. He dropped it, leaving it clattering to the floor, and moved. His chest brushed against my arm as he moved so he was standing in front of me instead.
I was staring at his chest. I couldn’t look him in the eye, because I knew what was coming.
The sooner I looked at him, the sooner it’d happen.
“I never answered your question.”
“What question?” I darted my eyes to the side.
“Just now. You asked me if I wanted to kiss you.”
I did, didn’t I? Right. “Oh,” was all I said.
Slowly, he moved his hand to my chin and gently lifted it. Still, I didn’t look at him, keeping my eyes firmly trained on the front of the tent, even though I was facing him.
“Halley.”
“Yeah?”
“I want to kiss you.”
My eyes darted to his.
“I thought that’d do it.” His lips twitched, and he lowered his head until I had to fight the urge to close my eyes in anticipation of the kiss that was coming.
I swallowed, my lips parting.
Preston moved closer.
And he kissed my cheek.
I jerked out of whatever trance I’d just been in. “What the hell?”
He jumped off the stage, grinning. “I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to break the stalemate, won’t we?”
“Oh, hell no!” I jumped off, stalking him to his side of the stage. “You just stood there in front of me and told me you want to kiss me, then kiss my cheek? The hell was that?”
His eyebrows shot up, amusement flashing in his eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you wanted to kiss me, too.”
“Irrelevant,” I shot back. “But you’re a special kind of asshole to tell a girl you wanna kiss her and then not do it.” I turned around, then stopped. “You know what? When I beat you tomorrow, you can kiss my ass.”
“You’re way too mad about this.”
“I’m not mad!” My voice raised a few octaves. “I couldn’t care if you want to kiss me or not. I most certainly don’t want to kiss you.”
“Why are you shouting at me?”
“I’m not—” I was shouting at him. “Whatever,” I said in a normal voice. “Make sure you take that money to the bank. Tell Tish I sent you.”
I left him on his side of the curtain and went to get my purse. He could get fucked. After all that, where I think I was so damn nervous I broke a sweat, he didn’t even kiss me.
I wasn’t lying with what I said.
He could kiss my ass.
I’d even wear my good panties and bend over for him.
I snatched my purse up and turned my back to him, heading for the tent door. He was going to the bank thanks to the errant churro someone had dumped in his bucket, so I was done here for tonight.
“Halley—”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Preston.” I shook my head and carried on walking through the tent.
Why was I so mad?
Earlier, I hadn’t even wanted it to happen. But it’d been so close. His lips had been only a breath away from mine, and it’d—
You know what? It didn’t matter what it was. It hadn’t happened. If he wanted to kiss me, he would have. If he meant it, he wouldn’t have come so close to doing it, only to divert to my cheek.
At least when I’d kissed his cheek, I’d gone straight in for the kill.
There was a creak from behind me, and right as my fingers brushed the velvet curtains at the front of the tent, a strong hand gripped my wrist and yanked.
I spun on the balls of my feet, my sneakers digging into the grass and kicking up dirt. I lost my balance and quickly tried to regain it with one foot behind me, but I barely had a chance to do that before I lost it again.
This time, I fell into a hard body.
I opened my mouth to cry out, but Preston’s hand cupped the back of my neck. Before I could say a word, his lips were on mine.
Shock rocketed through my body, swiftly followed by what felt all too much like an electric current that made all the hairs on my arms stand on end.
His lips were full and soft, and his kiss was firm and probing. He was unapologetic in his exploration of my mouth as our bodies moved closer to each other.
My heart was beating double-time, thundering against my ribs, sending shocks of pleasure through my entire body. It wound itself into tight knots of tension that settled in my shoulders and my stomach.
Except my stomach was flipping, and I had no control over my body as my hands sought to find Preston. Within seconds of me realizing it, my fingers were wound in the sides of his shirt, and my body was flat against his.
And his kiss—oh, my God, it was the kind of kiss people wrote poems about. A kiss that touched every part of me, one that would linger in both my memory and on my lips for a long, long, time.
CHAPTER TWELVE
* * *
PRESTON
My fingers crept beneath the fabric of Halley’s shirt and splayed across her lower back.
She tasted like coffee and cotton candy. It was the weirdest mix, but on her, it made sense. It was how I’d always expected her to taste—strong yet sweet, exhilarating and heady.
I was lost in her. Completely. Fucking utterly, utterly lost. Never had a kiss consumed me half the way this one did.
Maybe it was because I’d waited so long to do it. Maybe it was because she was right in front of me for days and the temptation had been so great.
Maybe it was because it was Halley.