Suddenly and without warning, Landon leaned down and kissed me. Not a friendly peck on the cheek or lips, or the cute little forehead kisses he often gave me. He full-on kissed me.
And oh my word, what a kiss it was.
It didn’t take long to open up to him. The feeling of his warm breath caused a rush of electricity as his tongue found mine. I couldn’t help myself, I moaned. He growled low in the back of his throat and pulled me closer. Before I knew what I was doing, I brought my hands up and curled them around his neck. I laced my fingers through his thick hair, and I fought the urge to tug him even closer. God, I wanted to crawl into his body and get lost in there. The way my body naturally reacted to his both surprised me and made me fall easier into the kiss.
It was the most sensual kiss I had ever experienced. The way his mouth moved against mine was rough, yet sweet. Demanding, yet sensitive. My Lord, the man could kiss. When he pulled away, I was left dizzy and nearly panting for more. Landon wrapped his arm around my waist tighter to hold me up.
“There, that should convince him—if that was actually what you wanted to do.”
I gave my head a small shake, his words not making any sense. “What do you mean?”
“Jason. I assume you said we were engaged to make him jealous. We just gave him something more to be jealous about.”
I felt my mouth fall open. For the first time in my life, Landon did something I never thought he’d ever do. He broke my heart. Maybe not a full-on breaking, but I still felt it crack like I had never experienced before. I could instantly feel tears in my eyes.
He looked down at me and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“That was why you kissed me?”
The line between his eyes grew deeper. “Did you think I kissed you for another reason?”
Suddenly I felt like a stupid fool. For one brief moment, I had thought we’d shared something. Was that the way he kissed all women? Was I no different?
I pushed against him, needing to be free from his hold. I couldn’t push very hard though considering I didn’t want to cause a scene.
He held me tighter, and I could see the concern in his eyes. “Emme, talk to me.”
For once, I decided to be honest. Not only with myself, but him as well. “Yes. Yes, Landon, I did think there might be another reason.”
“What?” he asked, his voice sounding strained and just as confused as I felt.
I shook my head and pulled back from him some. “Never mind, it clearly doesn’t matter because you didn’t feel what I felt in that kiss.”
I hated how my voice sounded so weak. I was tired and ready to leave this stupid charity event. My part was over, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for days.
“Emmerson—”
I shook my head. “We need to get one thing clear right now. I did not say we were engaged because I was jealous of that dipshit. I’m glad we broke up, and I never saw the relationship going anywhere with him. Have I been lonely? Of course. That doesn’t mean I want him back. I’ve been in a weird place the last few weeks, and I’m feeling…confused.”
More and more people joined us on the dance floor, but I ignored them. I didn’t even care if I wasn’t fake smiling or trying to look happy.
“It’s all of it,” I said. “Hailey announcing her wedding, Noah most likely on the verge of getting engaged to Amy. All my friends calling me to do their wedding planning. I guess tonight, when we ran into Jason and he started to brag, and then that witch of a fiancée started eye-fucking you, and then Jason said I was unable to love, I sort of lost my mind for a moment.”
Landon’s brows rose. “For a moment? You lost your whole goddamn mind, Emmerson. Have you forgotten about the money from the auction?”
With a sigh, I said, “You told me not to let her win. That one is your fault.”
“My fault?” he asked as he pushed me out into a spin and then pulled me back to him as someone danced by us.
“Congratulations, you two!” the older woman said with a bright smile.
Landon and I both smiled and said thank you at the same time.
“We can fix it. Everyone in this room will forget about it when some other juicy gossip comes along,” I stated. I firmly believed it too.
“It’s not just the people in this room, Emme. In case you forgot, there are reporters here. It’s probably already being published on the Internet as we speak. You already gained exposure today from the whole article in People magazine with the wedding you planned for that actress. Now add this bit of news and me sprinkled on top. It makes for a good little piece of gossip.”
I forced myself to sound more confident than I felt. “This will blow over in a week. Tops.”
Landon looked at me with an expression that said he wasn’t as sure. But right in that moment, I couldn’t think about our fake engagement or what our parents or the world might think. There was only one thing I could think about. Only one thing I wanted to think about.
That. Kiss.
Landon
THAT. KISS.
It was the only damn thing I could think about as the dance came to an end and people started to congratulate us or tell Emmerson what a lovely event it had been.
Somehow, Emmerson and I managed to avoid our parents, but Hailey and Mike finally cornered us behind the DJ booth about thirty minutes after my entire world was blown up with that kiss. After Hailey had a good round of laughter, she wiped her tears away and asked us how we planned on getting out of the mess we’d gotten ourselves into. I reminded her that it was Emmerson who had dug this hole, not me.
To which Hailey pulled out her phone and showed us the news articles that were already popping up. Both of us were tagged on Instagram, Twitter, and a plethora of other social media platforms that I didn’t even know existed.
It was everywhere. Emmerson pulled up her Instagram and gasped at all the messages she had. Then she checked her email and groaned.
My phone had started ringing right after the kiss. It rang again now, and when I looked at it, I saw Heidi’s name. Heidi McMurphy was my manager. The only time I ever heard from her was if we had an offer from an old sponsor of mine to do an ad or make an appearance. I was still under contract with a few companies, and every now and then they would ask me to do a commercial or NASCAR would want me to do guest commentary. It wasn’t often that she reached out, especially since I had left racing over a year ago. But she’d called me at least three times already tonight. I didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out she’d already heard—and seen—the news.
“Fuck, Heidi keeps calling,” I said as I glanced out at the ballroom. Things were starting to wind down as more and more people left for the night. Any moment now, I would find Malcolm walking up to me, fists clenched at his sides and a look of pure anger on his face. Especially if he’d seen me kiss his daughter like that. I never meant for the kiss to be so…
So what? Intense? Mind-blowing? So fucking amazing my cock had yet to go down?
“Fuck,” I mumbled once again, threading my fingers through my hair.
Emmerson chewed on her lip. “Okay, so maybe this isn’t going to blow over after all. We’re just going to have to break up.”
“I’ve got a better idea!” Hailey said before I could inform Emmerson that we couldn’t break up because we weren’t even really together.