Free The Taming of a Wild Child by Kimberly Lang Page B

the escape route she needed from confusing thoughts back into the fun surrealism of the evening. She applauded politely. “Nice trick. Now I am
really
impressed. You should have done that before you pledged money.”
    He picked up another. “Open your mouth,” he said as he took aim.
    “No way.”
    “Come on,” he coaxed. “I’m trying to impress you, remember?”
    Something about this seemed almost charming—which meant she either needed to get her head examined or else afterglow was even better than beer goggles. If anyone had tried to tell her that snide, pontificating pundit Donovan St. James would casually pledge an amount equal to an endowed chair at a university just seconds before trying to convince a woman to let him throw food at her, she’d have laughed in their face. But she hadn’t seen the snide, pontificating pundit tonight. She didn’t even really recognize the man in front of her as the Donovan she’d hated since high school.
    No
. Not hated. Just ignored and dismissed.
    “Come on, Lorelei. Open up.”
    She shook her head. “If you miss I’ll end up with sauce all over me.”
    “I never miss. Although I just might have to this time.”
    “Because …?”
    He gave her a look that clearly said he’d be happy to lick her clean. It sent a naughty tingle all the way down to her toes.
Oh, why not?
Her proper upbringing frowned upon playing with one’s food—much less tossing it at another human being—but hadn’t she decided that tonightwas outside the bounds anyway? Feeling foolish, she opened her mouth.
    “Close your eyes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’ll flinch from it if you see it coming.”
    “Fine.” She sighed and closed her eyes, then opened her mouth again.
    “Tuck your chin in a little … Tilt your head a little to the left …”
    She followed along like a puppet.
    “Not that much … Okay, good.”
    It was amazingly quiet—quiet enough for her to hear the bubbles of the water in the pool. When nothing happened she started to get a little nervous. She kept her eyes closed, though, not wanting to end up with a pizza roll in them, but it was getting just a little awkward now.
    A second later Donovan’s mouth closed over hers. He caught her gasp of surprise, then his tongue swept in to tease hers.
    “Sorry. Couldn’t resist,” he mumbled as he moved to her neck.
    There was a small splash, and then Donovan was pulling her into the pool. The night was warm and muggy, and the water felt delicious lapping against her stomach. Somehow in those moments when she’d been waiting awkwardly, Donovan had lost his jeans, and she no longer minded being left to wait like that. The borrowed jersey floated up to her waist, allowing her bare skin contact with Donovan below the water’s surface.
    The contrast of warm skin and cool water, the tickle of hair against her thighs and stomach, and the heavy air above the refreshing water all combined with Donovan’s kiss to send her senses into overload.
    Oh,
yeah
. She was definitely impressed.
    Once again Lorelei woke in a strange bed with a man sleeping beside her. Her brain was faster this time in making sense of the situation—and she lacked the massive hangover from last week—but the feeling of déjà vu couldn’t be shaken.
    Weak daylight peeked in around the curtains, telling her it was early yet. She could hear Donovan’s deep, even breaths beside her, and one heavy leg had hers pinned to the bed. She was very glad Donovan was still asleep, otherwise this morning would end up being equally as awkward—but hopefully not as hostile—as the last time.
    At least this time she remembered all the details—even if she was still a little fuzzy on the “why” part. Well, not completely fuzzy. She knew why she’d had sex with him: because she’d wanted to. Why she’d
wanted
to was a bit trickier to nail down.
    It was all very confusing. And not something she really wanted to deal with right now.
    Slowly and carefully, she slid