Free Breaking the Bachelor (Entangled Lovestruck) (Smart Cupid) by Maggie Kelley Page B

date with a goodnight kiss is absolutely fine.
    Jane’s common sense unraveled in a mad dash of kissing as she dragged him out the front door of the bar.
    Charlie Goodman.
    She was kissing her sexy, rule-breaking, drive-me-wild ex. Even though he wasn’t technically her ex. She drew him into a dimly lit corner of the art deco building and kissed him as if her life depended on it. The flickering streetlamp across the alleyway egged her on, telling her to “go for it.” But she dragged her lips away before her brain short-circuited completely.
    “I’m not about to fall for you,” she said.
    “I’m not asking you to fall.” His voice was an invitation to sin and she wondered if holding out was the smart move. But he was leaning. And hovering. And so close to kissing her.
    “Good.”
    “Great.”
    “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    And then she was kissing him again. And again. As they stumbled to the curb to hail a taxi. Up against the vinyl backseat of the cab as it sped across town. Until they spilled out of the cab onto the sidewalk in front of her building, all lip-locked and breathless.
    She was giving into a jealousy-fueled and highly territorial impulse to stake her claim, and while she knew it was wrong on so many levels, to stop kissing him right now would shatter her heart into a million broken little pieces, so she was going to go along for the ride. She needed to keep her heart intact. The rest of it she’d figure out tomorrow.
    Tonight had felt like her pre-fantasy island days with Charlie. Talking pool at Temptation. Listening while he confessed all the missteps of his dating life. Hockey. Hot wings.
    Everything.
    But better. She was kissing Charlie Goodman.
    As the taxi sped away from the curb, she took his hand and drew him up the snow-covered steps outside her front door, ready for a post-date, goodnight kiss. Her eyelids dropped to half-mast as she sank her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth down hard on hers.
    He pulled back, his gray eyes dark with curiosity and heat, but—and maybe it was her imagination—almost tentative at their edges. “What about the no kissing rule?”
    Jane bit her bottom lip. His low, husky voice uttering the word “kissing” caused her stomach to do a world-class somersault as she remembered their two amazing weeks of fun in the sun…and the shade…and pretty much everywhere in-between. Sweet, hopeful memories of Charlie’s hands—hands that had previously explored all the secret places of her body—flooded her system. Making love with Charlie Goodman had been like setting off a string of fireworks, watching them explode into the night sky. All color and heat…and illegal in a few states. And she wanted to feel that way again.
    The thought of Charlie taking his date home tonight, sharing Belgian waffles and special dark roast coffee in the morning was a freaking wake-up call. And as for playing pool…well, pool was their game. Her game with Charlie, and logical or not, she didn’t want to share. “Rules are made to be broken.”
    A possessive shiver ran through her body and he raised her collar, mistakenly protecting her from an uptake of cold night air.
    “Cold?” he asked.
    A whispered, “no”, served as her response.
    He didn’t know she couldn’t feel the chill in the February air. Couldn’t hear the noise filling the Manhattan streets. All she could hear was the blood rushing through her veins, clamoring in her mind, its heat infusing every inch of her body. Even as her brain repeated the criteria on her sensible list, his hands curved around her waist to hold her steady on the snow-covered steps, and she accepted the fact that she loved kissing this man. And she wanted more.
    She grabbed the collar of his coat and brought his mouth crashing back down on hers. All the pent-up emotion of the last six months erupted between them, making the kiss grow insistent, full of all the desperate longing of the past. Her heart raced as he