Page 25 of A Million Times, Yes

“You know, it’s too bad I had to shower when I got home the other day. I would have liked to smell that scent forever.”

“What’s my scent?” I challenged.

“Green apple and lime.”

The two main notes of my perfume. I was shocked he’d picked up on that.

I turned at the upcoming street. “That’s all you missed? Seems a bit trivial.”

“No, that’s just the beginning.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course you would say that.”

“You know what I thought about all day yesterday? The feel of your lips.”

“All day, huh? Sounds a bit strange coming from someone who didn’t show up when he could have had my lips.”

“Am I sensing that you missed me?”

I laughed again to hide how I was really feeling. “Miss? No.”

“I think you’re underplaying that.”

“Underplaying what?”

“How yesterday affected you.”

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, the need to set him straight so overwhelming, I couldn’t take another step. He halted a few paces after me and backtracked, the two of us now facing each other.

As I was about to reply, he reacted even quicker, and before I had a chance to speak, his hand was suddenly cupping the back of my head, his other hand on my cheek and his lips on mine. He didn’t just part my mouth, giving me his tongue—he breathed me in.

He inhaled me.

He pounced on me just the way I wanted him to.

And even though I was upset and I’d been ready to give him a piece of my mind, his lips were making me forget everything that had bothered me. To the point where the only thing I could focus on was him.

The tongue that I’d been craving.

The mouth that pulled this burning desire out of me.

“Another thing I missed,” he whispered after he’d slowly separated us, “is the way your body reacts when I touch you. I can feel the way I turn you on, Maya. The way you lean in to me like you want more.”

Because I do.

He kept his face close. “Just so you know, I was all ready to go out for a run yesterday and an unexpected work thing came up that I had to deal with. If I had your number, I would have called you.”

His admission unraveled within me.

So he hadn’t been avoiding me. He wasn’t playing hard to get. He wasn’t satisfied and done.

I couldn’t believe the amount of relief I felt. How fast it came over me. How deep it hit me.

For the first time today, my lips pulled into a smile, and I traced them with my fingertips where they still tingled from his kiss. “You’re saying you want my number?”

“If you want to give it to me.”

I laughed. “That’s not an answer.”