Kiss This (16 page)

“So who’s he?” Ken asked casually, subtly
nodding to Brandon not too far away.

“My close friend.”

“And that guy?” he nodded to Nick at the bar
with Danny.

“Friend of close friend. I see you’ve been
doing proper surveillance, huh?”

He smiled again. “Kind of have to these
days. Don’t really feel like getting my ass kicked by a guy for
talking to his girl, and I don’t usually prefer to waste my time on
girls that don’t rate high on my list.”

Camryn raised an eyebrow but accepted the
subtle compliment. “Hmm, so how high did I actually rate?”

“Well…if I actually came over to talk to
you, then you’ve already rated pretty high, beating out every girl
in this room.”

“Well now I feel really bad for wasting your
one move for the night, Ken.”

“No-oh-oh,” he pretended to whine, dropping
his face into his hands. “Dang, I was
so
sure about you,
too.”

She smiled again, kind of liking this guy.
She patted his arm and said, “It’s okay, everyone makes mistakes. I
won’t hold it against you.”

“Okay, so at least tell me why. I’ll leave
you alone, but I’d just like to know. I’m a beast?”

“No,” she laughed. “You’re very
good-looking.”

“I’ve said something stupid?”

“Nope, I’ve liked talking to you.”

“Hmm, so you really weren’t kidding about
the boyfriend, huh? He’s just not
here
,” he concluded,
sitting back in his seat. He was studying Camryn for her reaction
but she made sure her expression didn’t change much. “Am I right?”
he questioned.

She crossed her legs the other direction as
she considered an answer. Teague’s face appeared in her mind like
it did a thousand times a day, but she had no right to stake a
claim on him. Not after leaving like she did, and especially after
not even calling him within the four days she’d been gone. His
blue-green eyes haunted her dreams at night, along with his smile
with that damn dimple in his cheek. His sexy voice spoke to her
constantly, causing her chest to tighten with regret…

“Well there kind of was someone, and I kind
of messed it up,” she finally replied. “So the answer to your
inquiry is no I don’t have a boyfriend, but I wish that he was.”
She shrugged, feeling a little dumb for being so honest with a
stranger, but also feeling like it didn’t matter.

Ken slowly nodded as he thought of a
response. “Well depending on how you messed up, I’m sure there’s a
way you guys can work it out. You don’t seem like the type a guy
could forget easily. Won’t he talk to you?”

She almost laughed out loud but it would
have been sarcastic. Teague had given her his phone number
twice
, and she was too scared to even send a damn text.

“He lives up north a ways,” she answered,
sticking to the simplified version.

“And what if he didn’t?”

Then her heart wouldn’t be hurting, she
wanted to say. “Then things might be different.”

Ken took a deep breath and glanced at his
watch. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Camryn, but I’d better leave
you to call your boyfriend for the New Year.” He stood as she gave
him a look of surprise. “Seriously. Just call him and wish him a
happy New Year. See where it goes from there.”

She was too shocked to give a response and
just watched him walk away.

With a sigh she dropped her chin into her
hand. This night sucked and she wanted to go home. She stood and
looked around for Melanie, not finding her right away. Moving away
from the table, she scanned the corners of the room, praying to God
her sister hadn’t gone home with someone without telling her. It
wouldn’t be the first time. And if she was mooching drinks off
guys, Camryn was going to be just as pissed.

Finally she spotted her by the stage, where
a small acoustic act had been finishing up. Camryn sighed her
relief and then searched the room for Brandon to make sure he was
still enjoying his time with the brunette. If he hadn’t been he
would’ve come to find Camryn, but she felt it her duty to check on
him anyways.

Couples were starting to unite as the clock
crept to a quarter till. Deciding to call it a night, she planned
her exit strategy so Brandon or her sister didn’t stop her. She was
halfway across the room when something made her look up—a feeling
of some sort—and there, leaning against the wall with his arms
crossed over his chest…

Was Teague.

Chapter Fifteen

Teague studied her reaction from a distance.
She’d finally noticed him and stopped dead in her tracks. Making
eye contact like that caused his chest to pound furiously, but it
was a mix of anger and something else as he still felt hurt that
this girl just ran out of town like she did. It was like losing
everything all over again and he couldn’t let that happen.

Finally Camryn took a couple of steps
forward, hopefully towards him and not the exit. He watched for a
few seconds before yet
another
guy approached her.

Fucking hell, this was getting old.

He pushed off the wall and stalked across
the room. Camryn looked up as he neared and she said something that
seemed like a brush off to the guy as she walked away from him. It
was a good thing because Teague couldn’t stand to see her talk to
or touch anyone else. And although the next ten minutes might even
kill him, he had to get through it.

Neither of them spoke as they came together
and stood facing each other. In heels, Camryn’s eyes were almost
level with his mouth, and if she hadn’t been staring at his lips
like she was doing, Teague might’ve gotten even more frustrated
with her lack of eye contact.

Finally he said, “I think you owe me an
explanation.”

Taking a silent breath of air she finally
looked him in the eye. “I take it you’re a little bothered that I
left without letting you know?”

“Yeah, just a little. I mean really, Camryn.
What the fuck is so hard about using a phone?”

“Normally a guy would get a great big “fuck
you” for that.”

He was acting like a dick, he knew it, but
her reaction only confirmed what he already knew. “The fact that
you didn’t even call to say goodbye tells me one thing, Camryn. You
know what that is? That you were running from me. I’ll admit that
it should have been obvious, but I was too selfish to see what this
was really about. There are a lot of things about you that I don’t
know, but I’m pretty damn sure you cared about me enough that you
couldn’t face me with a goodbye. Call me a fucker for believing you
actually owed me that much, but I
know
you didn’t want to
say goodbye.”

She didn’t respond.

“Am I right?” he asked sternly, leaning
forward so he was inches from her.

“Yes,” she barely answered.

Teague softened, just from seeing how meek
she looked at that moment. It wasn’t his intention to be
domineering, but he couldn’t leave without getting through to
her.

“Well, you still won the bet,” she told him.
“So if that’s why you’re here…”

Shaking his head he replied, “No I didn’t.
You lost. I didn’t win it;
you lost.
There’s a difference.
And this has nothing to do with the fucking bet.”

“So…you’re not even going to kiss me?”

Teague took her hand and pulled her to his
chest. He placed his mouth against her cheek and whispered, “I want
to kiss you so bad that it hurts.”

While his lips remained against her skin,
she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight. “You
scare me, Teague,” she admitted in a whisper.

He pulled back slightly to search her eyes,
and even though those words alarmed him, he knew right away she
didn’t mean physically. He recognized heartache from staring at it
in the mirror, and he could recognize it now. “You scare me, too,”
he replied softly, taking her face in his hands. “But…I think if we
face our fears together…it’ll be okay.”

She relaxed her forehead against his chin,
noticeably relieved. As the activity in the room got busier and
people prepared for the count down, Teague suddenly grabbed
Camryn’s wrist and began hauling her towards the exit. She tried to
keep up, but in heels it was difficult to walk that fast.

“Teague, I’m gonna break an ankle,” she half
laughed, half complained.

With a smile he scooped her up in one motion
and carried her out the exit. Camryn slid her arms around his neck
as she laughed, and then pressed her mouth against his jaw and
kissed him. He sucked in a breath of air as he stopped in front of
his truck and gently set her on the ground. Her back was against
the door and he placed his hands against the truck by the sides of
her head.

Teague stared into Camryn’s green eyes. He
felt she could look at him like that any time, any place, and he’d
go weak. And now he was going to do something as simple as kissing
her and it felt monumental. He noticed the volume increase from
inside the building, everyone cheering for the midnight hour, and
the excitement seemed to match the cadence in his chest.

When he slid a hand behind her neck, Camryn
responded by pulling him closer. They were sharing the same air,
the same anticipation that engulfed them with excitement, not fear.
The eye contact was severely commanding between them both, eager
and all-consuming. Camryn was watching his mouth come closer…and
closer…until their lips were scarcely touching and her eyes closed.
Teague paused in this moment, the heat already tangible against his
skin without any effort. He brushed her lips with his to move into
it slowly, and then gently took her lower lip between his to kiss
it softly. It was the most sensual kiss he’d ever experienced and
he was barely getting started. He convinced his mouth to press
harder but it was still gentle, and when Camryn gripped him
tighter, the intensity flamed like a wildfire.

Her mouth opened and his tongue skimmed
between her lips. When he did it again it was more persistent,
searching for hers. Their tongues met and she let out a moan as he
kissed her deep. He softly nipped her bottom lip with his teeth and
then sucked it. Teague’s fingers tangled in her hair as his mouth
angled perfectly to work with hers, and then he returned to the
tender, passionate assault of her tongue. Time was lost. Thoughts
were empty. Carnal desires were on autopilot, and hearts were
giving in to instinct. It was a mutual surrendering of a little bit
of body and a whole lot of soul… and it was only a first kiss.

Teague was barely aware that there were
people in the vicinity now, searching for cars or walking to other
destinations. It was like coming out of seclusion where all he’d
been aware of was the whooshing of his heart in his ears and the
sensation of Camryn’s beautiful body against him while her sexy
lips connected with his.

He pulled away from her reluctantly, his
lips lingering as he continued giving her soft kisses, but he
didn’t want others to share his time with her and eventually
released her mouth. He tucked her against him and just held her
close, wanting to savor the moment with her. They stood against the
truck for another minute, sharing the pounding of their hearts as
they both caught their breath.

“Teague?” Camryn finally spoke.

“Yeah?” he replied softly, pulling back to
search her eyes for something wrong.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He shook his head and held her close again,
enjoying the way she smelled and the feel of her hair against his
lips. “You don’t need to be. I just… It surprised me when I found
out you left and then you never called.”

“I just…didn’t want to say goodbye and
avoiding it was my way of…”

“Not making it happen. I know. I wished you
would’ve talked to me about it, though. I already knew you’d be
leaving, Camryn. I was thinking about coming with you.”

Her eyes widened as she pulled back to stare
at him again. “You were?”

With a shrug he said, “Yeah. I mean if you
wanted to spend more time with me as much as
I
wanted you
to, I could’ve spent some time down here. The thought of you
leaving… It didn’t settle with me. We’ve barely begun.”

“Yeah, so are you sure you don’t want to get
out while you can?” she teased.

“Hell no,” he replied, pressing his forehead
against hers. “There’s no way I could’ve let you go that
easily.”

Truth was, he truly was a goner when it came
to Camryn. He knew nothing about her except everything he
needed
to know: how she made him
feel
. She put a
light in him that had been absent for a very long time. In fact,
Teague wasn’t even sure if he’d ever felt so happy. When he was
with Camryn, he could put everything else behind him. He didn’t
have to think about his disappointed family or the career he walked
away from, or the heartache that he harbored all alone. When he was
with Camryn he felt…

Whole.

That was the only word he could think of. He
felt like he was himself again, only better.

“Teague?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m starving.”

He lightly laughed as he nodded his head.
“Okay. Let’s go eat.”

“First let me go find my sister. Will you
come in and meet her?”

“Yeah, of course.”

***

Camryn looped her arm through his and they
re-entered Trimble’s. Her thoughts were finally starting to catch
up to her feelings, and she knew she felt perfectly content after
kissing Teague. Her life with Zach was over. It had been painful to
get to this point, but after climbing that difficult mountain,
Teague had been there to help her over it.

It was time to move on, and she finally felt
at peace with that.

“Oh my God, there you are!” Melanie’s voice
screeched through the noise. She had Lynn and two other friends
with her. “Where have you been?! It was midnight and I—” She
suddenly realized that Camryn was not alone, and she froze in
mid-sentence when she caught sight of who was with her. “Inferno?”
she asked her sister.