t of an empty building. Dizzy and shivering, it was impossible to operate heavy machinery while she freaked out.Letting her body drop into the seat as soon as she threw the car into park, Libby let the shock fade. Pressing her fingertips to her still buzzing lips, she closed her eyes. The scent of Reagan’s skin was burned into her senses, the weight of her kiss tattooed on her lips.
What the hell did I do?
She didn’t need to replay the events in her mind to know that she’d been the instigator of the kiss. The kiss. Libby squeezed her already closed eyes even tighter. It wasn’t like any kiss she’d ever experienced. She’d mauled her like an animal in heat.
Under the crushing embarrassment, her chest tightened as she fought the urge to be sick. I’ll never be able to look at her again.
She’d acted like a horny teenager who’d escaped under the bleachers for the first time with her crush. Worse.
Another wave of su ocating shame wrecked her. She’d been even worse than that because she was a thirty-two-year-old
woman and hadn’t ever moaned and keened so dramatically while kissing anybody. Even in significantly more intimate moments, she’d never made so much noise.
Davis had always joked that they could have sex in a library, and no one would ever notice. In all her life, she’d never understood the theatrics of loud sex and was convinced it was a cultural fiction, something people did because they thought they should.
Libby covered her face even though she was alone. As her groaning haunted her, she wished she could disappear from herself.
When she’d chugged a bottle of water and managed to think about anything other than the mortifying way she’d rubbed her body all over Reagan, she turned to the complication she’d created.
Through the haze in her cloudy mind, Libby could see what she’d done. On the verge of passing one of the greatest tests, she’d fallen for the attention Reagan had given her.
She’d been so starved for intimacy that she’d taken the contractually obligated acts of a nice woman and convinced herself it was real. She’d shown up to the bank with nothing to deposit but Fool’s Gold.
Leaning forward, Libby pressed her head against the steering wheel. The kiss happened so fast, she’d probably stunned Reagan into inaction before writhing all over her.
She pushed away the memory of Reagan’s hands on her body and her teeth scraping against her bottom lip.
At the thought, her body reacted with the same shattering desire that had spurred her on.
Get a hold of yourself. She was probably so embarrassed for you she didn’t want to shove you o .
Libby’s stomach churned painfully. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and melt away. Her cell phone rang instead.
“Libby? Are you coming? Gale Jackson is waiting for the second interview. She’s the person we’re considering for Jennifer and I—”
“I know. Please tell her I’m extremely sorry. I’m on my way. I’ve just been held up,” Libby explained to the disembodied voice talking to her through the car speakers.
After another few minutes and a quick meditation session later, Libby pulled herself together enough to drive again.
Even as her body stopped its physical reaction, her head wouldn’t let her have a moment’s peace.
Every time she blinked, she was transported to Reagan’s lips. There was no denying that she’d never been kissed like that in her life. She’d definitely never slipped her tongue so far into anyone’s mouth.
During the drive, Libby revisited Reagan’s lips, her arms, her scent, her hair. Each time she reminded herself that it wasn’t real, that she needed to shake it o and focus on saving her business. Her family’s legacy.
The admonition only bought her a few moments of reprieve. As soon as her pulse slowed and her mind drifted, she was back in Reagan’s lap. Each time she remembered a little less and fantasized a little more. She envisioned what might have happened if Freddie hadn’t forgotten his bag.
Would Reagan have thrown her against a table and had her way with her? Would she?
Lust turned to an aching hunger building between her thighs and compromising her nervous system, her muscles, her skin. It continued to build like an unstoppable flood of desire until she let herself imagine the full scene until the shuddering pinnacle. By the time she arrived at the o ce, she was breathless.
Shit. What have I done?
C H A P T E R 2 0
LIBBY KNEW she was busying herself with trivial work, but she was twenty-four hours post kiss and had less clarity than when she’d been sitting on the side of the road hyperventilating. With her cellphone stashed in her purse, she sat at her o ce computer and started writing.
Her love and dating advice column were one of her favorite things. For that reason, she had a bank of articles ready to publish and thousands of emails from people wanting her help.