Playing Games(18)

He came to my side and held his hand out for his backpack.

I threw my arms around his neck and planted my mouth on his.

It was impulsive and a little crazy. Okay, a lot crazy. But I didn't care. I kissed him, pressing my lips against his and feeling the bite of metal at the edges of his mouth. For some reason, that was a bit erotic, and it distracted me.

It was, however, not half as erotic as when his tongue snaked out and brushed against my lower lip.

I was so startled by that, I almost stopped kissing him. Instead, I made a small noise of surprise in my throat, and my mouth softened. His tongue dipped into my mouth, and I felt a tongue stud brush against my own smooth tongue. And oh god, that was…really good.

"Guess he's sharin' his gift o' gab," someone called out merrily behind us, accent thick.

"Sharin' somethin'," someone else commented.

I broke apart from Liam, my face flushing. "Um…good job," I told him, brushing my fingers along the edges of my lips thoughtfully.

He stared down at me, as if trying to figure me out. After a long moment, he said nothing and simply handed me the disk.

I took it in trembling hands and flipped it over to read. "Drive your way," I began, but I noticed he was leaning in close, and I could practically feel his breath on my skin. My voice was squeaky and weird, and I had to clear my throat and start again. "Drive your way to Trinity College in Dublin. Head to the College Library and you will receive your next task there."

"Shall we go, then?" Liam's voice was low, and just a bit husky.

"Sure." I didn't know what else to say, and there was the weirdest blush on my cheeks. "Sure," I repeated, and didn't protest when he grabbed my backpack again.











The drive to Trinity College took a few hours, and they were weird hours. Neither myself nor Liam were in a chatty mood. We'd gone back to our efficient sort of quiet, speaking only when directions needed to be given or to speculate about the race.

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't blame him for being silent. We'd gone from hating each other last night in the igloo to practically making out atop Blarney Castle this morning. He probably thought I was nuts.

Hell, I wasn't sure that I wasn't nuts.

I did keep playing with my lip as he drove, though, thinking of the feel of the metal in his mouth against mine. His lips had been soft in contrast to that. The lip ring on his lower lip had pressed into my skin, and I'd felt that tongue stud graze against my tongue in a way that had made me dazed. I'd known that he'd had it, but I just hadn't thought about it when it came to kissing.

And now I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Almost there," Liam told me in his quiet voice, breaking my reverie. His dark gaze locked on my face via the rearview mirror.

I put my hand down, realizing with a slight flush that he’d caught me playing with my mouth. “Great.”

"I see two other cars," he told me as he pulled into parking.

"Maybe we'll see Tesla and Brodie," I told him. And then a horrible thought occurred to me. What if Liam and Tesla were an item? Oh god, and I'd kissed him on national TV. No wonder he'd stiffened up like that. No wonder he was acting weird now.

But…I was also pretty sure he'd kissed me back. It was mystifying.

We grabbed our bags, and he carried mine again, despite my protests. With our gear in hand, we hiked across the campus, following The World Races signs toward the library. Several red-brick structures surrounded us, and as we headed to one massive building, I wasn't sure that it was the right place. It seemed too large to be a library.

Of course, as soon as we opened the doors, I changed my mind.

The breath escaped me. Holy cow, that was a lot of books. I stared in fascination as I walked in, surprised at just how many books were in this building. Row after row after row of bookshelves lined up as far as the eye could see, neatly cordoned off by red velvet ropes. Each aisle had a bust of someone old or famous at the end, and when I looked up, I could see that there was a second floor of even more books.

"Wow," I said.

"I hope you don't have to find a particular book," Liam told me in a quiet voice, staring around us. He looked equally impressed.

"Oh god, I hope not, too. I'm a baker, not a librarian," I told him.

"A baker, huh?" He seemed amused by that. "I'd have guessed camp counselor with the pigtails."

I rolled my eyes. "The pigtails were a casting decision."

He chuckled. "They're cute."

Cute? Was he flirting with me? I cast him a look, but he was pointing down the long alley of bookshelves. "I see our guy."

I followed his gaze and sure enough, there was The World Races flag. We picked up the pace, stepped onto the mat, and retrieved our next disk.