Chapter 130

“You kissed me,” she said, there was a scratchy sort of awe in her voice. “We kissed. You and me, Tyler.”

“We did.” His gaze dropped to her mouth, that mouth he’d studied, dreamed about, fantasized over. And could now taste against his own. He wasn’t sure he could believe it. “I did.”

She lifted a hand to touch her lips and he couldn’t tell if her fingers were shaking, or if she was simply hesitant. And he was Tyler Connelly. He was renowned for his confidence, though his detractors used other words to describe it. Whatever it was, he had it in spades. He could walk into any room, talk to anyone, raise up empires on the strength of his handshake. And yet this slender creature with soft eyes and an elegant neck made him forget that he was one of the youngest billionaires in Olkfield—and the world. She made him forget that he was normally treated like a man a good ten or twenty years his senior, such was the power he exuded and the ruthless competency he brought to any given situation.

Lexi looked at him and just like that he was once again nothing more than a poor wee lad from the worst neighborhood, out of his element, and terrified that at any moment he’d cock the whole thing up. Absolutely certain every moment of every day that he was about to be found out and summarily sent down, because the smartest kid in a neighborhood like the one he’d grown up in didn’t mean smart enough for the pampered toffs who swanned about the dreaming spires.

And in the middle of those years of anxiety and ambition, there had been Lexi, who’d been his friend.

It wasn’t lost on him that lusting after her for all these years was a bit of a betrayal of that friendship. Nor was it lost on him that in kissing her the way he had, carnal and raw, he’d made absolutely certain there would be no going back. No matter what she’d said.

But then, she was marrying a man she didn’t love. The way he’d always known she would. The way she’d always said she would. It shouldn’t eat at him the way it did that everything was going along according to plan. And she might think that a man like Victor wouldn’t care if she stayed friends with her old pal from her university days, but Tyler knew better. No husband in his right mind would be all right with Tyler hanging about—because a husband would see Tyler for who he really was.

He was friendly, understanding, patient, endlessly supportive and undemanding only for one person on this earth. Her marriage was the end of things. Tyler couldn’t regret kissing her the way he had, no matter what she was about to say next. But the thing about Lexi was that he could know her inside and out, and she still surprised him.

She did now. Because she smiled. That wide, faintly wicked, fully joyous smile of hers that made him feel as if it was the middle of summer, not winter. As if it was bright daylight, instead of night.

“We kissed,” she said again. “Can you believe it?”

She leaned forward and braced herself on his chest again, tipping back her head with the ease of someone who’d done it a thousand times before. When she hadn’t. Because there had always been barriers. There had always been distance. Because Tyler had needed to maintain some level of sanity. But he knew how she tasted now, and the hunger in him felt new. Wilder and sharper than before.

Lexi's eyes looked more gold than brown. “Would you say that kiss was a proper kiss?”

Tyler felt nearly grim with want, drunk with desire, but he laughed anyway. “It would be hard to find a kiss more proper, in my opinion.”

Her smile widened. “And do you think that was representative of your work?”

There was a teasing note in her voice, and he found himself grinning in return. But not that happy, friendly, toothless grin he’d always given her in the past. Because the door was open, and he had already shouldered his way through it. That was who he was and always had been, in every scenario but this one. And now it was too late. There was no going back to pretending he was her lovable old buddy, Tyler.

Not when she was plastered against him and her lips were still damp from his. Not now.

“A proper kiss is an excellent advertisement for proper fuck, yes,” he assured her, doing nothing to rein himself in. “At least when I do it. What do you reckon, Lexi? Have I scared you off?”

And her smile faded a bit as she gazed up at him, making his heart kick at him again. Because he honestly didn’t know what he would do if she said that yes, he had succeeded at last in scaring her away from this course of action.

Cry like a bitch, mate, a voice in him said. Caustically. You’ll cry like a little bitch, and who could blame you?

“You haven’t scared me off,” Lexi said, her hands still pressed against his chest and her eyes solemn. “And I appreciate your attempts, but you’re not going to. The only thing that’s going to stop this from happening is if you don’t want to. If you’ve changed your mind. Or scared yourself off.”

Tyler laughed again, but not because anything was funny. “Impossible.”

He jerked her to him and took her mouth again, indulging himself all over again. He sank his hands into her hair, finding it silky and thick, and warm there at her scalp. He tugged her head back, giving himself the angle he wanted, and then it was on. A little rough, a little intense.

All magic. Because this was Lexi, his Lexi, and he was never going to recover from this. And if she was going to go ahead and marry herself off, he was going to make sure she had something to remember him by. He was going to imprint himself on her, the way she’d imprinted herself on him at first sight.