Page 69 of Not On Your Life

I maneuver around him until I’m crouching over his face, lipstick tube in hand. I slip off the lipstick cap. My hand is jittery, and my pulse thrums in my ears with anticipation. I bring the lipstick toward his face, letting my hand hover an inch above his mouth. Sweet, sweet vengeance.

His eyes pop open, and he snatches my wrist. “The only way you’re getting that on my lips is if it comes off yours.”

His eyes are brown right now. A deep, warm brown more tempting than chocolate.

The thrumming in my ears becomes a pounding.

“What do you have here?” He twists the lipstick in my hand and reads the label. “Red passion?”

My mouth goes dry. Why is it so hot in here?

“My favorite.” He tugs my arm and I fall onto his lap, my hands splayed across his chest.

His heart races beneath my palm. His eyes dart to my mouth. My lips part, and I’m not sure why. I’m not really going to kiss the man I’ve spent five years hating. I can’t.

So why am I moving closer?

His eyes travel over my face, searching for the answer to his unspoken question. I should hate him. I should push him away for what he did to me, for what he’s always done to me, but right now I can’t make those reasons pull me back.

“Maddie?” he whispers, the desire in his voice pulling me achingly closer. I need to feel his lips on mine and the scratch of his beard against my cheeks. I need to see what kissing Connor feels like. Just once. Then never again.

I close my eyes, leaning into him. My lips brush his, soft and warm, but with caution, warning me that if I go further, I’ll never be the same.

But Ineedmore. More than a touch.

I grip the loose buttons of his shirt and—

“Maddie! Is this baby daddy?” A heavily accented female voice breaks into my bliss.

My brain rears back, yanking my body with it from the realization that my mother is here.

I fling myself off Connor so fast I fall onto the coffee table. But my momentum doesn’t stop there, and I flip over backward, landing in a heap on the floor.

“Maddie!”

I don’t know who yells my name. It really doesn’t matter. The next item on my agenda is to crawl under the table and die.

It’s Mom who pulls me up. “Maddie, what are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Too late.I avoid Connor’s heated gaze and focus instead on my mom’s interested one. “What are you doing here?”

Mom frowns and straightens the collar of my shirt. “I had an appointment, remember? You say you take me to dinner at that seafood place.”

“Right.” I want to smack myself for agreeing to that… and for giving her a key to my apartment—serious oversight.

“So,” Mom beams from ear to ear. “Who’s the boy?” As if theboyisn’t sitting on the couch still smiling. Can nothing erase that thing?

“No one,” I say quickly.

“Don’t be rude, Filha.”

I peek at Connor. He doesn’t seem upset. Quite the opposite, actually.

I gulp.

“Yeah, don’t be rude, darling.” He stands next to me. If I had two good feet, I’d move away, but I’m too slow, and he wraps his arm around my waist, trapping me against him. “Now what is this I heard about babies?”

“Kill me now,” I mutter under my breath.