Last First Kiss (6 page)

She looked at him.

Why is he asking me that? Does he think there’s still a chance for us?

“I’ve been seeing
someone
off and on
for a couple of months
,
but it’s nothing serious, more friends than anything else.”

It was true
. She
and David went out at least once a week
,
but she never thought of him as serious boyfriend material
;
and sh
e guessed he felt the same way about her
,
too.
They were just two people who enjoyed one another’s company every so often.

“How about you?” asked Sophie, not sure why she’d asked.

“I’m…”

Sophie looked at him, her heart slowly sinking because she knew what was coming next.

“I’m dat
ing a woman who’s
not from
Greenville
. She just bought
the beauty salon.”

Sophie nodded and then looked out of the window. So he hadn’t asked because he thought they’d get back together. He was just making polite conversation. And why would he want to renew a relationship with someone who’d committed the ultimate hurt
?

“That’s nice for you,” she simply said, now unable to look at him.

“
Her name’s Cathy Moran.
She’s older than me,
divorced and has a four year old boy.”

She didn’t answer, couldn’t answer
,
because she didn’t want
to hear about the woman who obviously
had his heart. Sophie leaned her head against the pane of glass
in the SUV and closed her eyes
,
almost on the brink of tears. Yeah, it was silly, but when it came to Wade…

“You okay, Sophie
?
”

“Just tired.”

“Why don’t you take a nap?
No snoring though.”

She almost laughed,
almost.

Chapter Four

Wade tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead of him
, and but every now and then he was tempted to take
the odd peek at
Sophie. Seeing her again had been
rougher on him
tha
n he’d ever imagined possible
.
He’d turned on the cruise control a
nd glanced sideways at her
.

Even as a child she’d been pretty
,
but her beauty had
literally taken his breath away when he’d turned and spotted her at the airpor
t. He hadn’t been able to catch it for a coupl
e of seconds as she’d hurried toward
him
.

Sophie wiggled a little
,
and then her head fell down further onto her chest. He hoped she wou
ldn’t get a kink in her neck. However,
he didn’t want to wake her because she looked so peaceful.

He snicke
red a little when he heard
a faint snore escape her lips.
The first time he’d found out she wa
s a snorer was
one hot summer day
when they’d built
a tree
house on her grandmother’s property
,
and
both
of them had
fallen
asleep. He’d heard her
snore now and then
,
and they’d
become more frequent and a touch louder.
When she’d
finally
woken up he’d teased her big time.

“I do not snore,” she
had
said.

“How would you know what you do when
you’re asleep?”

“I’d know
if I snore
. Grans would tell me because her bedroom is opposite m
ine
,
and we both leave our
door
s open so the dog can sleep on our beds when he wants.”

“She’s too polite.”

“
I bet it’s you who was snoring
,
and you’re blaming me.”

“How could I be snoring if I was wide awake?”

“Then it’s one of the horses because it wasn’t me.”

She’d folded her arms across her chest and pushed out her lower lip
,
and he’d burst out laughing.

“Don’t worry
,
Soph
,
because you’ll be marrying me, sleeping next to me for the rest of your life
,
so no one ever has to know your secret.”

Wade took in a deep breath. He wondered if her ex had heard her snoring and what
he’d thought. He shook his head. He didn’t want to go down that road and think about Travis right now.

When he’d set eyes on Sophie at the airport he’d fallen in love with her all ove
r again. Nope, that wasn’t true;
he’d never fallen out of love with her. As they walked to his SUV he’d had the strangest thought about the two of them reconnecting while she was home, becoming lovers even. But then he’d realized maybe that’s not what she
wanted
,
and he’d get hurt again. T
hey’d be embarrassed
,
and no
t
speak to one another for the next eight years. He never want
ed
that to happen ever again. Now they’d reconnected he wanted it to stay like that.

And then there was Cathy.

He
’d
told Soph
ie about her for one reason
,
and it wasn’t
to let her know he was off limits while she was home
,
but more
as a reminder to himself that he wasn’t available
.
He and Cathy had connected one night when they’d both been lonely and dining alone at one of
Greenville
’s cafes. He had to admit
that
up
‘
til now it
had been more a physical thing rather
than
a real romance.

While he and
Cathy
hadn’t moved into the seriou
s zone in their relationship
,
and he wasn’t sure if they ever would,
he wasn’t the kind of guy who’d drop a woman at
a
mo
ment’s notice when another one
stepped
back
into his life.

Not any
woman.
Sophie, you idiot.

He had a tough road ahead of him. Being around Sophie and not wanting to hold her hand, kiss,
her, and yes, make love to her would be a killer. They’d never gotten to the having sex bit before. Now s
he’d only been
back
in his life less than twenty
minutes
,
and
the
blood was
already
rushing to his groin and cock
. Just like it had been when he
was a teenager and she was turning
into a
young lady.

Wade signaled right and turned onto the road leading into
Greenville
. Just another couple of miles
,
and she’d be home. He assumed she’d want to stay at Mountainview. He could of course take her to his place
. No,
the
temptation would be too great for him. If he
drove
her
there, he’d just carry
her inside, put her on the bed
,
and… Mountainview it was.

He took the back road into the B and B and turned off the lights when the
y got to the main parking lot. Judging b
y the number of cars there,
a few more guests had
obviously
checked in since he’d left earlier that afternoon.

Sophie was still asleep. He hated waking her
,
but she couldn’
t spend all night out in his SUV
. Not that he wouldn’t mind spending it with her
,
but by morning they’d probably both be paying the price with stiff back
s
and legs.

“Sophie,” he whispered. He gave her arm a slight nudge.

“What, where am I
?
” H
er head shot up so fast, even he heard it pop
. She put her hand on the back of her neck. “Ouch,” she said.

“Hey, you okay? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I’m fine. I just forget where I was at
,
and my neck cracked.”

“Yeah, I heard it.”

Without thinking about the consequences
,
he put his hand on the nape of her neck and began massaging it. Her body relaxed and
melted
into his palm.

“
That’s the
exact spot,” she said.

“You’ve always had the softest skin I’ve known.”

Wade leaned in, his mouth just inches from her ear. He c
ould smell her perfume
. If he wasn’t mistaken it was the same one she’d worn since she’d been a teenager.
She asked for the same one every Christmas. It was light, smelled like fresh flowers with a touch of something exotic.
Yeah, that was the
smell of his Sophie, all right.

It made him lightheaded,
pushed his defenses down
,
but he needed
to control himself. He took away his hand.

“Let’s get you up to your room
so you can get a good night’s sleep.”

Sophie went ahead of him. H
e got
her bags out the back of the vehicle
and followed her inside the back entrance that lead up to the owner’s section of Mountainview. He hadn’t been through
this particular part of the building
since the day…

He froze on the spot.

Can I do this?

Could he see
the
bedroom where he’d le
arned firsthand of her betrayal?
And right now he was standing by the very bush he’d thrown up underneath when he run outside hoping it was all a horrible nightmare. He hadn’t even bothered to drive his car back home. He’d just run a mile down the road to the safety of his house and never returned to Mountainview. His dad
had
had to com
e back and get the car for him the following day.

Things were different now. It was
water under the bridge
as they said
,
and they were moving on.

When he stepped inside the owner’s apartment
Wade tried not to look anywhere
in particular
, hoping that would be enough to
stop any bad memories from surfacing
. He
took a deep breath when he got to Sophie’s old room.

He stepped inside and put her bags on the bed.

The place looked exactly
the same. The bed was the same. Well,
two people weren’t in
it
making love.

“You okay, Wade?”

He nodded.

“Shit, I hadn’t thought about asking you to come in here,” said Sophie.
“
You haven’t been back since that day
,
have you?”

“It’s okay, Soph, really it is.”

She stepped toward
h
im
,
arms outstretched
,
and pulled
him
in close
.

Now he was a goner. He put his arms around her. They looked at one another
,
and then it happened.

He kissed her.

Not a welcome home kiss thi
s time, but the beginning of an old lovers
’
reunion
type of
one.

She opened her mouth to him
,
and he couldn’t resist letting
his tongue slip by her lips
. Fire burn
ed i
n his groin, smoldering hot. He
neve
r held Cathy quite like this. In fact, he
neve
r felt this worked up about
her either
.