Evan paused and gave her an incredulous look. “I already paid for your drink. And I guess you calling me stupid means that little moment we had a minute ago has passed. I didn’t get out of here fast enough before the good feelings went to hell.”
“Well, you are being stupid. It’s way easier for me to give you a ride than for you to sit around waiting for a cab. And the reason the moment passed is because you decided to bolt.”
Bolt? She thought he was capable of bolting? That was a surefire way to put his back up. “You calling me chicken?”
“I think we’re both chicken. That’s why we wound up not together in the first place.”
Evan drew himself up to his full height and looked down at the little spitfire in front of him. “I don’t back down from anything. On the track or off.”
“Oh, yeah? Then let me drive you home.”
She had crossed her arms on her chest and tilted her chin to meet his gaze defiantly, and Evan knew precisely what he was going to do. “I will if you give me a kiss.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I don’t think so!”
Evan fought the urge to smile in triumph. “Chicken.”
“I’m not chicken on or off the track, either.”
“Then kiss me.” He had her neatly cornered and felt damn smug about it.
She, on the other hand, looked furious. “I could just let you get a cab after all, you know.”
“But you won’t because that would be like letting me win.”
Kendall stood silent for a second, clearly weighing her options. Then she nodded. “Okay, if that’s the way you’re going to be. I admit that I can’t let you finish something I started. It’s a character flaw.”
Evan grinned. “One I’m about to enjoy.”
Kissing Kendall was like playing with matches and a big old vat of moonshine, but he was the first to admit he wasn’t exactly known for slow and logical. He was the poster child for speaking without thinking.
Her arms were still crossed and she did all but purse her lips as she stood there waiting. Evan tossed his phone onto the bar, and took his time moving in closer to her, studying her jawline, her pert nose, her luscious lips, her rich amber eyes watching him nervously. It pleased him to think that he could make her nervous, that the thought of a kiss just might have her insides twisting the way his were. When he lifted his hand to her face, she jerked a little, her backside bumping up against the bar.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Touching you,” he murmured as he cupped her cheek and leaned down over her.
The palm of his hand slid against the smoothness of her skin, while his fingers tangled into her hair, his lips drawing closer and closer to hers. Evan had positioned himself one leg on either side of hers so she was surrounded by him, a small but sexy nod to submission.
“Just get it over—”
Cutting Kendall off with his lips, Evan stifled the rest of her sentence, with the only goal making her forget to want any kiss with him to end. But the second his lips touched hers, he forgot whatever it was he was trying to prove. The second his mouth caressed hers, it was like he was nineteen all over again, hot and flushed and excited and in love. His mouth remembered Kendall, even after a decade, and he knew exactly how to tilt and touch her.
Desire shot through his body, aching shot through his heart, understanding shot through his mind. Gripping his hand in her hair tighter, Evan pulled her closer to him, pressing her chest against his as she opened her lips and surrendered to his kiss. What started out as one soft press of his lips to hers turned into a series of long, delicious, demanding kisses, his tongue slipping inside to taste her.
Past and present collided, sensory memories assaulting him, yet the desire was very much real and now, the tension between them new, their touch wary and mature instead of reckless and fumbling. She moaned, a breathy little sigh against his lips, and Evan followed suit when she dropped her belligerent stance and threw her arms around his neck.
She’d gone up on her tiptoes, and Evan moved his hands down her back, down to the curve of her ass, and squeezed. It felt so good, all of it, so good, that he forgot where he was, who he was, and what he was. Nothing mattered but tasting her, taking her mouth over and over and owning it.
But Kendall dropped down to the balls of her feet and pulled back when his hand slipped to the inside of her thighs. Definitely disappointed, definitely grateful that at least she’d had the sense to call a halt given that they were in public, Evan stared down at her, an erection that could cut glass straining against his jeans while he waited for her to ream him out. She was breathing hard, wiping her dewy lips, her eyes ginormous.
“Told you I wasn’t chicken,” she said.
Evan grinned. “Neither am I. Now I guess you should give me a ride home, huh?” And if he had his way, they’d be making a little pit stop en route and trying that kiss on for size a second time.
KENDALL just about stripped her gears pulling out of her parking space, she was that unnerved. She drove a Corvette, a good old American sports car, full of speed and detailing and country sass. It had over 620 horsepower, and while its front weight bias might mean it would have a hard time beating out some of the other super sports models head-to-head on the open track, it was a damn fine car. It had been what her father had always wanted, and Kendall had bought one for him and one for herself. Her dad had wanted black. She had gone for the cobalt blue, that perfect shade that landed somewhere between royal and midnight, and it made her happy.
A symbol of success.
But at the moment, she was taking no pleasure in driving it with Evan Monroe riding shotgun. Because over the years she had thought about thumbing her nose at Evan, about rubbing his face in her success, just a little.
Now she was sitting here with him next to her realizing that the past decade had been a ridiculous gigantic misunderstanding and that everything she’d thought and felt needed to be shoved through the do-over machine. All that was confusing enough, but when you added in that killer kiss, well, she was as jumpy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Evan had dared her into that kiss, knowing full well if he had just tried to kiss her she would have balked. He knew her well enough to know that if he challenged her, she wouldn’t back down. It was scary to realize he still knew her that well, and mortifying to think that she was so competitive she couldn’t walk away from something stupid when she was dared.
It had also been a shock to realize that the second his lips pressed on hers, it had been like nothing had ever changed. It was like she was eighteen all over again, and she had flung her arms around him and kissed back for all she was worth.