Free Taboo Kisses by Helena Harker Page A

all. “Who wouldn’t kill for a job like this? I get to help women pick out lingerie .”
    No wonder Gemma fell for him. She’d raved about Ryder at fever-pitch. As a couple, she said, they were the sun and the moon, orbiting each other in a celestial dance that would last forever. Ah, teenage girls and their hyperboles about love!
    To be honest, I had a little crush on him myself. Look at him. Built like a Chippendale dancer. I’d seen him in a Speedo, and he gave me hot flashes that were off the charts! When I looked at his lips, I longed to experience more of his kisses too. Because we’d already shared one. Did he remember our kiss as clearly as I did, the taboo touch of our lips, his callused palm on my skin?
    “You don’t scare off the customers?” His brown hair was so disheveled I wanted to rake it into place with my fingers.
    “So far it hasn’t been a problem. But Mom gave me the morning shift, just in case.”
    “That’s when I come here, because I know it’s quiet. I’d shop online, but it’s impossible to buy a bra unless you try it first. When you’re five foot ten, nothing you buy over the Internet ever fits worth a damn, especially when it claims to be one-size-fits-all.”
    “Women come in to chat with me sometimes.”
    “I can imagine.” Boy, could I ever. “Do they buy stuff?”
    “More than you’d think.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I’m allowed to offer a ten percent discount as an incentive, so I made an announcement in front of my biology class last week. A lot of girls dropped in. Mom was impressed. She thought standing in the middle of thigh-highs and garter belts would be embarrassing for me. She was inspired by those reality shows where judges sentence criminals to humiliation-based punishments. Like making shoplifters stand outside stores with big signs that say I’m a thief .”
    “Something tells me you’re going to pay off the damages a lot faster than Lorena expects.”
    “You can help me out by buying the bustier,” he suggested, a wicked glint in his eye. “It’ll look gorgeous on a woman with your figure.”
    Oh yes, toss compliments at me left and right. Excellent sales tactic, you naughty boy .
    When he’d pick up Gemma for a date and she’d be upstairs putting the final touches on her make-up, we’d chat about his latest airborne acrobatics. One day he arrived, still sky-high on adrenaline, announcing that he’d completed his first motocross back flip. These days, I envied risk-takers who bit large chunks out of life and swallowed them whole. I used to be one of those people. In my early twenties, I’d piloted gliders, soaring silently through the skies, rising on thermals like a hawk. Then I took up sky-diving, plummeting like a stone at over a hundred miles an hour. When that got old I switched to hang-gliding, where I got to experience the thrill of leaping off a cliff.
    In my past life, I was a lot like Ryder.
    “Do you want to try it? It’ll look beautiful on you.”
    I barely heard what he said. Oh, the bustier. “Will it?”
    “Guaranteed. If it’ll help,” he suggested, his voice low and rough, “I’ll gladly give you my opinion.”
    I heard his words, but it took a while for them to register. He wanted to see me in lingerie. How did that make me feel? Off-balance. Confused. Eager. Aroused. A little numb.
    Ryder removed the bustier and thong from the rack. “I’ll show you to a changing room. Follow me, please.”
    My legs moved with a mind of their own, past rows of schoolgirl outfits, lace teddies, and tables covered in sexy satin panties. God, what would Lorena say? And Gemma? And Maddox? Oh, Maddox.
    Sailing through the air, the sky and asphalt blurring as I hit the ground, tumbling and tumbling, skidding to a stop in the grass, my entire body ablaze with pain.
    What would Maddox say if he could see me heading to a changing room with the hot young stud who used to date our daughter?
    What are you doing, Jacinda ? Think