“A world away,” she said.
“A world away,” he agreed, a distant expression carved into his handsome face. “A far cry from Brooklyn.” The sardonic timbre in his voice was not lost on Marianne, and she considered asking for more details, but the easy cool she admired was already back in his voice. “Of course, this is where I proposed.”
The shift in his manner was so lightning-quick that she blinked, not quite following.
But when he grinned over at her, the pieces fell back into place. “Got down on one knee, the stars shining above us, the city at our feet, a hot kiss at the end.”
Her cheeks warmed and she wondered what that dreamy moment would feel like with a man like Nick. “Quite a romantic proposal.”
“Quite.” He looked over at her, smiling that irresistible smile, and there was no reason to wonder why women fell at his feet. His gorgeously naked feet, she thought, glancing down at the flagstone. He playfully bumped her shoulder with his, more Brooklyn kid than SoHo bad boy. “If you were to be kissed in this place…how would you want to be kissed?”
“To be kissed?” She bit down on her bottom lip. He was talking about kissing. Not that his casual mention of kissing her, here, in this beautiful place meant anything. Flirtation was a simple reflex for the man. Nothing to do with her.
He bent his head to try and catch her eye. “A kiss may be required at some point.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Required?” Marianne drew in a steadying breath, but it failed to calm her nerves. He smelled so good, so clean and masculine, but she wasn’t 100 percent sure about the whole siren, unkinking the ropes situation. If he was going to flirt with her, the way he was flirting now, she needed all her faculties to manage the hypnotic effect.
He leaned closer, a teasing expression on his face. “Most engaged couples do kiss.”
Of course, he was right. Statistically speaking. If she and Nick were going to make their faux engagement look real enough to convince his colleagues and make her ex wish he’d never shacked up with leather and lace, then…kissing was called for. Besides, kissing wasn’t sex. Kissing was kissing. Kissing she could handle.
A quick one. Semi quick, anyway.
Like the night of his birthday party. Except without the Cinderella finale.
Ready or not. She adjusted her glasses against the bridge of her nose. “Did you know on average, a person spends two weeks of his or her life kissing?” Obviously, she’d not been ready. She was making the whole thing sound like a science experiment. “Or more precisely, 20,160 minutes.” She blinked twice. Wow, had she really just reduced kissing to a calculation? Talk about un-sexy.
“Interesting stat.”
Her heart started racing. The closer he came, the more her nerves fired in a strange, new, haphazard way that confounded her thoughts. She forced her brain to focus. “Yes, and did you know that a real kiss quickens your pulse to over one hundred beats a minute?”
“No, I did not.” Looping a wayward strand of her hair around his index finger, he tilted forward until he was close enough to whisper. “But I think it’s a theory worth testing.”
He smiled. She smiled back. His hands moved to frame her face, tilting the roof on an invisible axis and seemingly tossing them into the middle of the city’s twinkling lights and the stars. And then…he kissed her. Her eyes dropped closed as his lips moved across hers in a sweet, mesmerizing kiss that seemed to shift the ground beneath her feet. A sigh fell from her parted lips, inviting him closer. And he kissed her. Kissed her the way he’d kissed her in her dreams and, when he pulled away, the lingering effect left her dizzy.
They stood there for a moment, his fingertips against her flushed cheeks, her breath shallow and soft, both seemingly surprised by the electricity between them.
Another glimmer of curiosity surfaced at the back of those deep blue eyes, and Marianne felt her stomach flutter. If she kept kissing him, he’d figure her for the girl in the cake before midnight. Would he call off the deal? Or worse, be embarrassed for her? The New Girl who jumped out of his birthday cake and ran. She pressed her palms against her belly. The thought of Nick feeling sorry for her was unbearable. Not when all she wanted to do was keep kissing him.
He took a step back, and a small smile broke out across his face, transforming him immediately from sexy-sexy to sexy-adorable. So much harder to resist. “Best guess—think your heart made it to one hundred beats?”
She looked up at him as if coming out of a daze. One hundred? Try one thousand. Any faster and her heart would explode like one of the stars winking down from the darkening sky.