Double Dare You. Cara Lockwood

didn’t want to be rescued. She wanted to stay just where she was and that was what worried her.

      “Maybe I will.”

      Beck stared at her for a beat. “You’re not moving.”

      No, she wasn’t. It felt like she was caught in Beck’s gravitational field, fixed like a moon in orbit.

      “I don’t think you want to go,” Beck said at last. Damn him for reading her mind. She scooted a bit against the wall, but her elf boot hit the edge of a nearby mat, and she stumbled. He caught her, steadying her. His strong hands on her elbows made her remember how talented they were in exploring other parts of her body. How she felt so delicate, so little, in his arms. Allie froze then, the moment turning serious suddenly. He ran a finger down the outside of her upper arm. His touch felt hot. She watched his finger trail the seam of her sleeve, remembering how well his hands already knew her body. Despite all her logical misgivings, some part of her still burned for him. “I think you want to kiss me. I think you haven’t gotten enough of me.”

      There was no boast in the words. It was true, after all. How could he read her so well?

      She blinked fast. Her heart ticked up a notch. She wanted to kiss him, but she was scared. One kiss and she might be a slave to him again, a slave to her own passions, all logic and will gone. Beck moved forward, and she was in the dark corner of the alcove now, away from the bar, out of the line of vision of anyone there. The bartender wouldn’t be able to help her now, but she didn’t want anyone’s help.

      She decided then and there, she wasn’t going to be afraid of Liam Beck. She could kiss him and not feel anything. She could do this and prove to him and herself that she was beyond him.

      “I’ll kiss you, just to prove that weekend meant nothing,” she said. “I don’t feel anything for you, Liam Beck.”

      Beck nodded, once. “Good. If that’s true, then I’ll leave you alone.”

      She needed Liam Beck out of her life. And if kissing him one last time was the way to do it, then she’d do it. It’s just a kiss, she told herself. It would mean nothing. And then she’d be free of him.

      “Fine.” She tilted her head up, lips ready. Beck wasted no time. His big palm sneaked behind her back, and he pulled her to him. In seconds, she was pressed flat against the massive muscles in his chest. He was so big, she felt tiny. She held a breath, her heart fighting like a rabbit trying to get out of its cage. Beck took his time. His eyes studying hers and then moving ever so slowly down her face to her lips. They parted on their own accord, already tingling in anticipation. It won’t mean anything. I won’t feel anything, she told herself.

      He pressed his full lips against hers, tentatively at first. Gently. She kept her lips still. If I don’t move, then everything will be fine. But she knew already this wasn’t going to be a quick peck on the lips. Beck had something else in mind. The second his lips moved on hers, the entire last two months disappeared. It was as if they’d never spent a second apart and they were right back in that lodge.