In a flash, Nick’s act of expediency turned into a real kiss. Gracie’s familiar scent and taste flooded his senses. A wave of lust, thick, fast, and damn near irresistible, stole his breath away. Emotions he’d thought long buried stirred, stretched, exploded into life. He became aware of the softness of her skin, the fragrance of her body, the quivering of her mouth as she struggled against his invasion.
Slowly, she relaxed into him.
He traced her lips with the tip of his tongue, murmured her name on a breath. When she didn’t draw away, he caressed the small of her back and pressed her body against his, stilling her restless movements, and thrusting himself against her softness.
Oh, yeah! That’s what he’d been missing.
Her lips parted on a low moan, allowing his tongue the entrance it craved.
He deepened the kiss and touched the smoothness of her cheek. When he traced a lazy pattern down her neck, her pulse rocketed under his thumb.
She’d swayed into him a little, when the voice of Gracie’s aunt dragged him back to sanity. “I hate to interrupt, children, but someone’s coming. Do you really want them to find us here?”
They sprang apart.
A small knot of party-goers sauntered into the parking lot. Once the group departed, Nick noted with a pang that Gracie turned away, almost as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. She radiated hostility, while every fiber of his being wanted to beg her to stay.
Before he could make a bigger mistake than he had already by kissing her, he forced a grin. “It’s time y’all high-tailed it on home.”
Beth hopped into the driver’s seat. Gracie moved toward the passenger side without protest, a sure sign of emotional turmoil.
Beth lowered the window and stuck her head out with a grin. “I’m the getaway driver.” She lowered her voice to a confidential whisper. “If you’re as smart as I think you are, you won’t let her get away from you this time.”
The Chevy peeled away with a squeal of rubber and a cloud of smoke, leaving Nick to deal with his craving for another taste of Grace Donnelly.