“What’s that?”
He reached out and cupped her cheeks. “The good-night kiss.”
“Paddy…” she started.
If she intended to say something else, he didn’t give her the chance. He couldn’t.
He lowered his head, his lips finding hers.
He kept the kiss gentle, an exploration, a soft stroking, more glancing touches than true kisses. Emmy didn’t try to pull away. Instead, she lifted her hands to his shoulders, resting them there lightly as if waiting to see where he was going to take them next.
He turned his head slightly to deepen the kiss, pushing her lips open with his, tongue searching for hers. She met him halfway, their breath mingling. He slowly built the kiss, twisting their bodies as he did so, until Emmy’s back was pressed against the door.
He pushed closer, needing to feel more than just her soft lips. His chest was tight against her breasts, his legs tangled with hers, his left thigh shifting ever closer to her pussy.
Emmy lifted her hands from his shoulders, gripping his hair almost desperately, using the grasp to keep his lips on hers, her breaths coming more rapidly.
His hands drifted from her cheeks to the sides of her neck, his thumb brushing the pulse point there.
Her heart was racing. So was his.
She rotated her hips, just slightly. An invitation for him to rub his thigh against her more firmly. She gasped when he applied pressure just where she needed it most.
A growl rumbled low in his throat when she tried to turn her head to suck in some much-needed air. “Paddy,” she said, breathlessly.
He wasn’t finished with the kiss. Not by a long shot.
He twisted her face back to his and kissed her again. All traces of gentleness were gone now. This kiss was rough, demanding.
Jesus. Padraig had never kissed a woman like this before.
It was passion, hunger, desire. Agony.
That was when he realized Emmy’s hands were back on his shoulders. Only this time, she was pushing him away.
Padraig broke off the kiss and—while it wasn’t easy—forced himself to take a step away.
“Em,” he whispered, awareness dawning slowly. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know,” she interrupted, her smile sweet but sad. “That’s why I stopped. It makes sense, Paddy. After all, we spent the whole night talking about Mia. I’m sure it brought up some feelings…maybe loneliness?” she suggested. “And you reached out.”
She thought he’d kissed her because he missed Mia?
He’d intended to say he hadn’t meant to be so rough.
Before he could correct her, she continued, “I’m glad I could be here for you, but I don’t think…we can’t let it go any further. I mean, I don’t…I can’t…”
He watched as she fought for the words to say what she was thinking. He was having the same problem himself, struggling to explain his actions, his feelings.
He was reeling from that kiss.
Finally, he let them both off the hook. “It’s okay, Emmy. I let that go way too far, too fast. Maybe we should take a big step back from this.” He started to add, “for now,” but stopped himself.
She nodded, clearly relieved he was giving her a reprieve. “I’ll see you at the soft opening on Friday,” she said.
He didn’t like the idea of not seeing her for nearly a week, but given the current cyclone of emotions ravaging his insides, it was probably a good idea for him to take some time to figure his shit out.
“See you Friday.” He left, listening as she locked the door to her apartment, then he walked down the two flights of stairs and out into the chilly night.
Tugging his coat around him to ward off the frigid February wind, Padraig walked to his apartment, trying to wrap his head around what he’d just done. What he’d felt.
He hadn’t kissed a woman since Mia. And he hadn’t expected it to—fuck—affect him like that. One touch and it was as if he’d lost all sense of time and place. And there was no question in his mind that if she hadn’t pushed him away, he would have dragged her back to her bedroom, tossed her down on that mountain of clothes, and…
And what?
He would have had sex with Emmy.
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk as he let that idea play out.
He would have slept with her.
As that reality sank in, he waited for it. The guilt, the pain, the confusion. Any of that. Maybe all of it.
It didn’t come.
What the fuck did that mean?
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his phone. Colm answered on the third ring.
“What’s up, bro?” Colm asked.
Padraig didn’t mince words. He didn’t have to with his twin. “I kissed Emmy tonight.”
“Good for you.”
Padraig snorted and rolled his eyes. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got for me?”
“What do you want me to say, Paddy?” Colm asked. “Because if you’re looking for someone to chastise you or tell you it was a mistake, you called the wrong number.”
He swallowed hard and said the one thing that kept coming back to him. “I…I didn’t think about her.” That was the part that was the most shocking to him. The entire time he was kissing Emmy, she was all he could see, smell, taste, think of.
He’d expected Mia to be there, always in the back of his mind. But she’d been absent.
Once again, Colm didn’t need clarification. Sometimes it seemed as if they shared a hive mind. “That’s good. Progress. Means you’re ready to move on.”
Then Padraig heard Kelli’s voice in the background, and Colm said, “He kissed Emmy.” That was followed up with, “Dammit, Kell! I’m talking,” before Colm said, “fine. Here.”
“Paddy.” Kelli’s voice came through the phone, and he grinned. Before Emmy came along, Kelli had been his best friend, the one he told everything. Then his brother opened his eyes and realized Kelli was actually the woman of his dreams. Since then, Kelli had become something so much better than a friend. Padraig now had a sister. One he adored and loved.
“Hey, Kell.”
“So you finally pulled your head out of your ass. ’Bout damn time.”
Padraig started to reconsider the adore part. “She’s joined one of those online dating things.”
“I know.”
Padraig approached the front of his building but hesitated before going in. “She has a date this week.”
“I know that too. And you’re going to resist the alpha male voice in your head that’s screaming she’s yours and let her go on that date.”
Padraig was surprised by Kelli’s insistence. “Kelli, I—” he started.
“She doesn’t have a lot of dating experience.”
“Yeah. I sort of figured that out.”
Kelli huffed as if that should explain something—anything—to him. “You need to let her go on that date because it will show her what those of us who spent way too long in the playing-the-field pool already know. Dating sucks.”
“What if she likes the guy?”
While he couldn’t see her face, he could hear the eye roll in her voice. “Did she kiss you back?”
“Yeah.”