Page 24 of Don't Call Me Sweetheart (Something Borrowed 1)

Oh for the love of chocolate, why did he have to say something like that? The sheer imagery was making her knees tremble… and she was sitting down!

I can do this. I am a professional. It’s just one little kiss. Think about the job. The check. Getting the hell out of Sweetheart.

“Fine.”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “But if you kiss me back, then you can’t keep treating me like a freaky fungus attached to your shoe.”

“I haven’t—”

The pressure against her mouth increased, silencing her. “You have.”

Marley swallowed. Hard. “Then I apologize.”

Luke slid his thumb across her cheek as he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and she struggled to hide the shiver his touch created. “I don’t want your apology, darlin’. I want you.”

Marley’s heart slammed against her chest as he lowered his head and took her mouth with his.

And kept taking it. His tongue teasing against her sealed lips and she fought the trembles, the shocks of electricity as his hand came up to cradle the back of her head.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

Too late, she realized her mouth had opened and his tongue was tangling with hers. She stopped counting as her hands came up, cupping the sides of his head as she kissed him back, forgetting that she was supposed to be resisting his warmth, the spicy scent of his cologne and the deep, rumble in his chest as he groaned.

A loud knock on Marley’s window made her jerk away from Luke in horror, while he cursed a blue streak. What the hell had she been thinking? Kissing a man she hardly knew in the parking lot of The Love Shack Hotel?

She rolled down the window and found Dustin Kent standing outside her door, grinning.

“Hey, Marley, I thought that was your car.”

Marley’s jaw clenched. Dustin knew damn good and well it was her car and had knocked just to be an ass. They had known each other their whole lives, but no one could call them friends. The Kents were the wealthiest family in Sweetheart, owning the Castle Vineyard, and Dustin had become a millionaire by selling an app he designed in college. That and the fact that he resembled Tom Welling from Smallville, with his piercing blue eyes, dark hair, and angel face, should have made him the top of any woman’s hook up list, but Marley couldn’t stand him.

“What do you need, Dustin?”

He raised one dark eyebrow, his blue eyes twinkling. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?”

“No, now what do you want?”

Dustin’s lips pressed together and he slid a pair of sunglasses over his eyes like an 80s movie villain. “Oh nothing that can’t wait until you’re back in the office tomorrow.”

What in the name of all that was holy did that mean?

“You two have fun.”

He turned away, whistling like one of the seven dwarves as he swaggered toward the silver penis-shaped car he drove.

“Who is that guy?” Luke asked.

Marley closed her window, her back still to him. She could feel the heat in her cheeks and hated that she’d let herself get caught up in him. “An annoyance.”

When she turned around to face him again, she expected him to try to kiss her again, but he just sat there studying her.

“So, you work with him?” he asked.

“No I—”

Suddenly, her body went cold. He was going to the office tomorrow. What if he told Kelly what he’d seen? If Kelly asked her who she’d been making out with, there was no way she could lie.

But she couldn’t get fired, either.