“For fuck’s sake,” Rick said. “All they’d needed to do was walk around a corner. We’d have never known why they’d missed the countdown.”
“Maybe they planned...” They weren’t kissing, but they might as well be.
On the count of three, Rick looked at Jenna again, and she’d never felt so much empathy for another person.
Trying as hard as she could not to cry, she moved right into Rick’s personal space but she couldn’t look away.
“One! Happy New Year!”
Payton leaned closer to Faith. So close there was only one thing it could lead to. One second after Payton’s lips touched Faith’s, Rick put his hand on the back of Jenna’s neck and pulled her into their own midnight kiss.
The moment his mouth touched hers...fireworks.
3
RICK PULLED JENNA closer and kissed her again. He thrust into her mouth as the cacophony around them spurred him on. Even through his tux he could feel her fingers digging into him, her lips and tongue as fierce as weapons, the anger and the heat between them more dangerous by the second.
He hoped they were watching. That prick Payton needed to see what he’d lost. Never in his life had Rick experienced anything like this. In the back of his mind a voice whispered that none of it was real. Soon he would wake up, and the betrayal would have been a nightmare.
Jenna nipped his lower lip and broke that spell. It was real, all right. Revenge built on humiliation and pain, and he didn’t give one damn.
He inhaled sharply as Jenna pressed against him, against his hardening cock. Good. Great. He pulsed back, but when his balls started to tighten, he pulled away. Not far. He had her by the shoulders and she looked...well, she looked beautiful, but wrecked.
Tears had smudged her makeup, and there was a very small nick in her lower lip. Even though her pupils were blown, he could see the desperation in them. Wanting, he knew, to turn back time. Trying to make some sense of this bizarre twist.
“You want to get out of here?”
She nodded immediately. “Anywhere else.”
When he looked down the packed hallway, the lovebirds had finally stopped kissing and remembered who they’d come with. Payton looked stricken, which was a pity because Rick would’ve liked to have struck him first. Faith looked flat-out guilty.
Whether they’d actually spotted them, Rick couldn’t be sure. But when the two of them began squeezing past people, pushing through the crowd, Rick took Jenna’s hand and he bullied their way to the stairwell.
As the door shut behind them, he paused a moment. “I don’t know if you saw, but they were headed toward us.”
Her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her tiny purse. She shook her head and the sad smile she wore when she turned it off got to him. He much preferred the smile he’d seen at the buffet, when the world had still turned on the right axis. He doubted he’d see that anytime soon.
His phone rang, too. Like Jenna, he turned it off. Just for now? Maybe. He wasn’t in a position to walk away from Faith. Their lives were connected. And as far as he knew, they’d only kissed. That pissed him off all over again.
“Come on, then,” he said. They started down the steps. It wasn’t the quickest getaway ever because a lot of other folks had had the same idea, but they weren’t stalled often. Amazingly, when they made it to the coat check, the line moved along nicely.
Not quickly enough to distract Jenna from her thoughts, though. Her shoulders rose as if they could hide her. If he had a say, he’d keep her so busy for the next couple of hours that she wouldn’t have time to look like that again. “You’re from Boston. Where to?”
She blinked at him, coming out of her hurt, looking surprised to find him holding up her wool coat. “I don’t know,” she said, slipping her arms into the sleeves. “I rarely come downtown or to the harbor.”
“That’s okay.” He hastily shrugged into his coat. “I know where there’s a party.”
Her hands shook as she slid on her gloves. He pulled on his own, and then took her hand. They hurried through the swarm of revelers, some still wearing the silly paper hats the hotel had provided. He wondered how many other hearts had been broken at the stroke of midnight.
The second they were out in the cold, Rick pulled her closer. It was freezing, and there was a huge line of people waiting for taxis, so the train it was. Luckily, it was just across the street.
Inside the terminal the mood was festive despite the terrible smell of overindulgence, but Jenna started shrinking again.
“All right,” he said. “I’m whipping out a cliché, but only because when you mentioned you were a teacher, you lit up. What’s your favorite book?”
The question appeared to win over her despair, and she surprised him with the smile he’d figured was a lost cause. “I do light up, don’t I?” she said. “I know it’s not glamorous, but I love turning the kids on to the magic of books. I honestly believe that being a reader changes lives for the better.”
Oh, yeah. This was more like it. “I agree. But you’re not getting out of answering my question.”
“I get asked that a lot, but I never know what to say. I don’t have a favorite. I learned how to read when I was four. My favorite back then was an alphabet book.”
“How about when you were...fifteen. When the hormones kicked in.”
Their train pulled up, and they scurried into the car, not even minding that they had to stand. “Let’s see if I can remember. Um—” she lowered her lashes for a moment and he fought the urge to wipe away the traces of her tears “—okay, it was All-American Girl by Meg Cabot.”
“Mine, too.”
She laughed.
He wanted to kiss her. And punch Payton into next week.
The moment they’d reached Copley Square, something changed. The light that had sparkled in her seconds ago had dimmed. Rick led her to a shadowed corner. He stared into her sad, confused eyes as he shoved his gloves into his coat pocket. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said and used his thumb to wipe the damp tracks from her cheeks.
She sniffed, but she didn’t make a move. “It wasn’t you. God, every time I think of how he—” A shudder shook her body. “I’ve already picked out my wedding dress.”
“I have no idea what he was thinking. Anyone who could cheat on you is an idiot.”
Jenna tried to smile. “If you were in my class you’d get an A for effort.”
“Nah, I would’ve already flunked out.” Rick grinned at her raised brows. “Too hot for teacher.”
“Faith is the idiot,” Jenna said with a soft laugh, and leaned closer.
Or maybe they both did. He wasn’t going to kiss her, even though he wanted to. But he wouldn’t object at all if she kissed him.
She brushed her lips across his and whispered, “Thank you.”
He caught her elbows and pulled her even closer. She came willingly, her lips parted, her warm breath an invitation he couldn’t refuse.
Everything else dimmed. The noise, the lights, the crowd. They were back to that space, that separate reality. From strangers to this in a single hour.
“Son of a bitch.”
The man’s voice was low and angry. “That’s my spot you’re using. Don’t you be messing up my spot with your nasty business.”
Although he was big and held a large black case that would make an impressive weapon, he looked pissed off, not scary. “Sorry, man,” Rick said. “Wouldn’t dream of trespassing.”
With his arm around Jenna, he walked them out to the edge of the flow of traffic. It must have been the right spot because the busker was pulling a sax from the case, which he left open for tips.
Jenna was frowning into her purse just as Rick pulled out his wallet. “Everything okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Tiny purses don’t hold much, especially cash on New Year’s Eve.
“I’ve got it covered.”
The music began, jazz, just loud enough and easy, that even the really drunk wouldn’t have a problem with it. He left Jenna’s side for a moment to drop a twenty into the case. When the busker paused, Rick said, “If you can play something to dance to, that’ll double.”
There was no way to tell if the saxophone player would go for it. But the moment Rick reached Jenna, the music segued perfectly into an old Gershwin song, “Embraceable You,” which was one of the best slow-dancing songs ever.
Rick pulled Jenna close, already moving his feet to the music.
“What are you doing?”
“Dancing. In the subway. On New Year’s Day.”
“No, wait,” Jenna said, her words riding a laugh. “I’m a terrible dancer.”
“Nope. Sorry. That excuse is for other nights, other subway stations.”
“That’s fine, but I’d have to be a lot drunker than I am now. So let’s just stop and listen to the nice man’s saxophone.”
Rick moved them into a shadow as other people stopped to listen. It was mostly an older crowd, but that was cool. No one was watching them, though, as he reached inside his coat pocket and brought out two miniature bottles of vodka. He snuck them into her peripheral vision and she barked out such a big laugh people did look. But Rick didn’t care. “Drink up,” he said.