“Do you think he saw?” Emily said, a big smile on her face, her lips still swollen from the kiss, and her lipstick smeared.
I resisted the urge to push her up against the wall and part her lips again. I wasn’t sure why she was having such an effect on me. I’d never done something like this in public before, but I refused to regret it. Still, I needed to figure out what was going on in her head.
“Who are you talking about?” I glanced over my shoulder, looking for a man, but didn’t spot anyone who might have been able to spot our little tryst. “Did you see someone?”
“I was too busy kissing you to look around.” She giggled.
I let out a snigger. “Who were you expecting?”
“Lionel,” she said, her voice breathy.
I didn’t know a lot about her, but I did know that was her ex-husband. My mother had taken care great pains to fill me in on the guy’s infidelity. I
had no respect for the man. My parents were married over fifty years before my father’s death, and he’d never had an affair.
I’d spotted Lionel earlier at the party. That is to say, my mother pointed him out so she could gossip about him and run him down.
Some girl way too young for him was hanging on his arm. Maybe I was biased because of my interest in Emily, but when I looked at him, he practically sweated dishonesty. In my defense, I’ve been damn successful in business, and I didn’t get that way by letting other people trick me.
“Your ex?” I said, just to be sure.
“Yeah, my ex,” she said, slurring her words slightly. “That cheating son of a bitch.”
I stuck my head into the main room. A quick survey of the room revealed mostly older women, no ex-husbands or their dates.
Was I little a bit disappointed that she’d kissed me to get back at her ex?
Honestly, no. Who cared? I still got to kiss a beautiful woman, and I learned that Emily wasn’t maybe the boring and too busy woman I’d thought. The kiss had ignited something deep in me, and now I wanted to know more about this woman I’d been so ready to brush off a day before.
I chuckled to myself. Yes. I was officially interested in her.
“What’s so funny?” she said. “Did you see him or not?”
“I’m sure he saw,” I said. Maybe I’d had too many glasses of champagne myself. “Maybe he ran away after realizing what he’d lost.”
Emily nodded quickly. “I hope so.” She tilted her head. “Did you like it?” Her words sounded even more slurred than before.
“Definitely.”
“I’m sorry about the other day,” she said, looking down. “I… well, it doesn’t matter because you are fantastic at kissing.”
I chuckled quietly and bowed. “I live to serve.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist. She closed her eyes as I pulled her forward and parted her lips again with my tongue.
It was a slow invasion this time, rather than the desperate ambush and response from before. She hiked her leg over me, rubbing against me and my cloth-covered hard-on. I thought about pulling away and going for her neck.
No. I pulled away, my breathing heavy. This was going too far, too fast in public. Even with the passion she kindled in me, I still had a responsibility to my hostess and my mother. What would I do? Have sex with Emily during the middle of a party in her mother’s house?
A familiar sharp voice cut through the air. “What are you doing?”
I looked to my side. My mother stood there, her hands on her hips, her face contorted in irritation. A few other of her society lady friends stood behind her on either side.
When I returned my attention to Emily, I realized I still had my hands on her waist. I gently released her. Whatever excuse I might have come up with about what we were doing would have been pointless, especially with the lipstick in disarray on her mouth.
“Um, Mother, I was just…getting to know Emily better,” I offered after a few seconds.
The two women behind my mother laughed quietly. Her face hardened.