Page 62

We queued up at the pretzel cart. The snow had begun to flutter down a little more steadily now, contributing to the festive atmosphere. Across the square stood a small podium with a comically large red button that Sally would press to turn on the lights. It wasn’t actually connected to the lights, of course—​just for show. The real switch-on was done by a bloke in the back who fiddled with the supply to the streetlights in order to light the decorations attached to them, timing it to when Sally pressed her button. But it was all worth the spectacle.

We reached the front of the queue and purchased our savory treats.

“Mulled wine or hot chocolate?” Kerr asked me.

“Let’s get mulled wine,” I suggested. “Because I make a mean hot chocolate and I can make us some if you come back to my house afterward.” My gaze dropped to his mouth as I uttered the last few words, unable to keep the suggestion out of my tone. The more I was with him, the more I craved of him, and it was getting to the point that I needed it all. My fingers grazed the fading bruise at the base of my throat, and his gaze snagged on my movements.

His eyes darkened, his throat working as he swallowed hard. “Sounds good to me.”

We added a couple of mulled wines to our order and took the food and drink over to stand in the crowd gathered by the podium. Kids eating huge marshmallows on sticks drifted past, and families bundled against the winter cold, the children brandishing various light-up wands and twirly things freshly purchased from the stands. The gorgeous aroma of sweet and savory food, coffee, mulled wine, and hot chocolate wafted past in various directions, depending on which way I turned my head. Christmas tunes tinkled from speakers placed at the edges of the square.

I happily munched through my tasty pretzel, savoring the bite of salt and sipping at my spice-​laden mulled wine. Once we’d finished up, Kerr took the packaging and placed it into the recycle side of the public waste bin, then returned and crooked his elbow for me to slide my arm back through. I did so happily, snuggling into his warm side. I looked up at the appealing angles of his handsome, lightly stubbled face, feeling for the first time in ages that things were going to be more than okay.

He noticed me staring and raised his eyebrows. “What? Have I got something on my face?”

I shook my head, smiling shyly.

A slow smile spread across his features as he turned to face me more fully. “You might have got a little something, just here,” he said softly, pulling off a glove to brush his thumb over my bottom lip.

Heat coiled low in my belly at the gentle graze of his touch and the way his eyes roved hungrily over my face, as if he wanted to devour me.

He rubbed his forefinger over his thumb and somehow it was the most erotic thing I’d ever witnessed. “Hmm. I must have been mistaken,” he murmured. “Nothing there.” He lifted his eyes to mine again, his pupils about swallowing up the whole of his irises. “Better just make sure though.” He leaned in, brushing his lips over mine, then slid his tongue over my bottom lip on the second pass.

A flame curled up my spine, propelling me against his chest, my arms going around his waist and his hand pressing into the back of my scalp, his other hand still cradling the side of my face.

He kissed me again and again, each time softly and appropriate for an audience, though I had forgotten the crowds around us as I drowned in the dark warmth of his eyes, my knees turning to jelly and all but giving way. I clung to his waist, sensation rushing downward, pulsing low into my belly and tightening between my legs. All of a sudden I was desperate to get him back to my place so that we could be alone.

“Nisa?”

That voice made the heat traveling through my body instantly freeze, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as my limbs shuddered.

I turned to meet the moss-​green-​eyed stare of Drew, standing next to us, his sandy foppish hair fanning his forehead as he gave me a look that could only be described as incredulous. I let my hands drop from Kerr’s waist and he, somewhat reluctantly, released his hold on me.

“What are you doing here?” Drew asked, his eyes darting from me to Kerr and back again.

“I mean,” I said slowly, trying to parse the sharpness in his tone. “The same thing as everyone else. Waiting for the Christmas lights switch-on.”

He let out a harsh-​sounding laugh that made the hair on the back of my arms stand on end, even under all my winter layers. “No. I mean what are you doing here.” He pointed a finger between me and Kerr.

Anger flared in my chest, sticking my breath in my throat and trapping my words. I noticed that Drew’s mouth was all wrong. Upside down, his bottom lip narrower than the top. Unlike Kerr’s generous mouth, which had moved so exquisitely over mine only seconds ago. “I fail to see how that’s any of your business,” I said, once I managed to find my voice.

My spine stiffened as he let out another one of those harsh laughs. “It is my business, when you’re making a fool of yourself in public. I mean . . .” He glanced around. “Everyone in town will see that you’re all over the guy who is the ex of my ex. And draw the same conclusion I do, that you’re either desperate or trying to get revenge on me.”

I darted my gaze around the crowd despite myself, heart sinking and skin prickling painfully. Was he right? Was everyone looking at me and thinking what a fool I was? The newfound feeling of confidence to be myself that I’d discovered in Kerr’s company withered, leaving the familiar old paranoia that Drew had instilled during our relationship. My normally sharp comeback skills fizzed out, as if doused in cold water.

I sensed a shift behind me as I grappled for my words, and Kerr grasped my hand just as the crowd started counting down to the switch-on. He moved to stand between me and Drew like a human shield, then stilled for a couple of seconds, looking down at Drew with an expression like the blackest of thunderclouds, throwing all the surroundings into terrifying darkness. Drew blinked, looking up the couple of inches that Kerr had over him. I couldn’t help but notice that Kerr was broader too.

“Ten, nine, eight . . .” chanted the crowd around us.

“I hate to break this to you, Drew, but the world doesn’t fucking revolve around you. And Nisa’s life certainly doesn’t,” he added, pinning Drew in place with his rock-​hard stare. “You left, and that’s the end of it. What she does now is her own business. So might I suggest that you piss off to find your pregnant girlfriend, and leave us the hell alone.”

My gaze skittered up to where Aileen was standing a number of yards away, wearing a red woolen hat over her long, straight blonde hair, darting her gaze around the crowd as she no doubt searched for Drew.

“Three, two, one!” Sally pressed the button, and the lights beamed on.

Kerr turned his back on Drew, who I glimpsed still standing there, unblinking like a rabbit in headlights, before he was blocked out by the commanding breadth of Kerr’s shoulders.

“Eyes on me,” he told me, stroking my face, and I darted my gaze from his shoulder to his dark eyes. His voice was low. Soothing. “Don’t let him ruin this. Tell me, how do you like the lights?”