He shakes his head, coming to a stop in front of me, and draws off his sunglasses. “No way. I’m the winner, so pucker up.”
Rhyland joins Blaise’s side with his phone in hand. “As much as I hate to say this, I think it might’ve been a tie.”
Blaise and I simultaneously gape at him and say, “A tie?”
Rhyland holds up his phone. On the screen is a shot of Blaise and I crossing the finish line at the exact same time.
Londyn moves up to my side, with Bailey and Payton right behind her. “So, I guess you both lose then.”
“Or both win,” Blaise suggest, glancing at me.
Rhyland looks at me too, waiting for my answer.
I grimace over my two options. Either I can declare us both losers and no one wins anything, or I agree we’re both winners, get assurance that the Porterson brothers will leave my sisters alone, and get to kick Blaise in the junk. But that also means I’ll owe him a month’s worth of favors and a kiss.
While the idea of doing Blaise favors makes me want to vagina punch myself, I want my sisters to have peace of mind during our time in Honeyton.
I blow out an exasperated exhale. “Fine, we’re both winners.”
A trace of a smile touches Blaise’s lips. “All right then. My brothers and I won’t bother your sisters anymore. Just make sure to be at my house at seven o’clock on the dot tomorrow morning to do my first favor.” He starts to turn away and, for the stupidest moment, I wonder if perhaps he either forgot about the kiss or was only joking about it. But then he makes a U-turn. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the second part of our deal.”
He stops in front of me and cups the back of my neck. I want to spit out excuses, protest, but backing down isn’t my thing. So, I do the only thing I can. I kiss him first, not letting him have any sort of gratification in this.
Or, well, that’s what I tell myself. But the moment our lips connect and he’s kissing me—and I mean,reallykissing me, his tongue parting my lips as he angles my head back and kisses me deeply—I nearly groan as warmth spreads throughout my body, a mixture of angsty lust and fuming irritation.
He has a tongue ring and the way it feels against my tongue makes me feel like every inch of my body is getting kissed. I’ve never kissed a guy with a tongue ring before. Never really kissed a guy like this either, with his hands on my waist, our chests pressed together, and me letting soft moans.
I’m enjoying kissing Blaise. What the hell is wrong with me?
Snapping out of my brief trance, I jerk back, gasping for air.
“Holy fucking shit, that was hot,” Rhyland mutters from beside us.
He has his teeth sunk into his lips and his eyes are filled with heat. It makes my stomach do this weird fluttering thing and but I quickly tear my gaze off him, because seriously, what the hell, and focus on Blaise as his eyelids flutter open.
The heated look he gives me makes me want to kiss him again. But then that stupid infamous smirk of his appears and any desire I felt fizzles.
“You pulled away first,” he says, like that means I lost a battle.
I kind of feel like I did.
I need to get my shit together.
“Yep, I sure did. But only to do this.” I kick him between the legs.
He grunts, crouching over in pain.
Rhyland’s jaw drops. “Shit, you’re ruthless,” he mumbles, shaking his head as he gapes at me.
“Remember that.” I point at him then focus back on Blaise, who is hunched over and red-faced, clutching his man goodies. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, sweetheart.” Then I reel around and get in the car, telling myself that I’m okay. That I can handle this. That I can handle tomorrow. That I can handle anything.
“Are you okay?” Londyn asks me the second we are all in the car.
“Yep, just peachy,” I lie as I steer away from the turnout.
Londyn assesses me with a disbelieving frown. She knows me too well. “You lost control of the car there for a second.”
“It scared me,” Bailey whispers from the back seat.