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“It sure sounded like you did.”
“That’s not what I meant. I was distracted and it just came out.” When she persisted in giving him a “seriously?” look, he huffed out a breath, staring straight ahead again. “Forget it.”
“Whatever.” She flopped back against the cushions as well, watching the show without really seeing it. For some reason, the thought that Chandler might be interested in having a one-night stand with her would not get out of her head. And the more she thought about it, the more this weird buzzing sensation fizzed through her bloodstream. She’d never act on it because… Yeah, no. Not happening. Still, he’d dropped the subject like a hot potato, making her wonder about something else. “Are you seeing anyone right now?”
“Huh?” He frowned. “No. I’m not interested in dating right now.” Chandler scowled at the screen again for a while before asking, “What about you?”
“Me? Nah.” Eden shook her head, the tone way more adamant than she felt. She wasn’t anti-love, but she was definitely anti-heartbreak. As short as her marriage had been, she’d loved her ex. When he’d turned out to be unreliable and immature—not to mention indifferent to her frustration with their marriage and uninterested in working to fix it—feeling her love for him wither had hurt. The divorce hurt even more. She’d returned home humiliated and raw and determined never to be that vulnerable again. She was happy with her life now—well, the parts she could remember, anyway—and she didn’t want to mess it up by throwing a relationship into the mix. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure a fake relationship is all I can manage right now with my schedule.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes until finally Chandler said, “Why don’t you put on the rest of the spy thriller movie? You know, the one we watched the other night? We never did finish it.”
“Okay.” She clicked a few buttons and soon they were back inside the high-speed chase across some European city. For all its overhyped action, the film was actually pretty good, and Eden soon found herself invested again in the heroine’s survival. Chandler must’ve felt the same because each time the stakes notched up in the movie, they both inched closer together, until finally, near the climax of the film, they were shoulder to shoulder at the center of the sofa.
When the final confrontation came and the heroine battled for her life against her former colleagues who had betrayed her, Eden reached over without thinking and gripped Chandler’s thigh hard. He put his arm around her shoulders and they both watched wide-eyed as the heroine conquered her fears and overcame her enemies to save the world.
“Wow,” he whispered near her temple. “Quite a climax.”
“Yeah,” Eden said, shuddering and looking up at him, not realizing until it was too late just how close he was. For a second, all she could do was stare into his hazel eyes. Had they always been that green? With tiny flecks of gold near the pupils? Mesmerized, she leaned closer, even as Chandler did the same.
“Eden?” he whispered, his gaze flicking from her eyes to her lips, then back again, leaving tingles in their wake. “I…”
His breath was warm against her face, and she could see the shadow of stubble on his chin and had the crazy urge to lick it. Lick him all over, actually. Suddenly, the idea of a one-night stand with this man didn’t seem like such a bad idea at all. Or maybe not the sex. Maybe just a kiss. One little kiss wouldn’t hurt anything, right? She dropped the remote on the sofa and grabbed the front of Chandler’s shirt.
Before she could second guess herself, Eden closed the tiny gap between them and kissed him. At first, he remained stiff and motionless beneath her. Then it was like a switch had been flipped and he was cupping her cheeks, his thumbs tracing her cheekbones as he moaned low in his throat. Raw and needy and hot as hell, he swept his tongue over her lips and she opened for him, wanting to taste him more than she wanted her next breath. One of his hands slid to the back of her head to keep her there, while his other went to her hip, pulling her fully onto his lap, her legs straddling his. Positioned like this, she could feel his ever-increasing excitement.
In the back of Eden’s mind, a warning bell clanged that this was not good, that she should stop, that this was a mistake, but the heat inside her drowned it out. She pushed her fingers through his short hair, loving how he shivered against her. It was so good. It wasn’t enough. It was…
“In tonight’s news…” A loud voice echoed from the TV behind them.
Shit.
Beneath her knee was the remote and it must’ve switched the TV from streaming to network.
They both pulled back, breathless and shaken from what had just happened.
Chandler let her go and Eden scrambled off his lap, mortified.
What the hell is wrong with me?
He looked anywhere but at her as she straightened her clothes. Eden ran a trembling hand through her hair and slowly backed away toward the hall, like the coward she was. “I, uh… I’m just going to go to bed now. Busy day tomorrow. See you…”
Before he could respond, she was out of there. Running away from all the emotions churning inside her and the mistakes she swore she’d never make again, like letting someone close, letting them in, letting them anywhere near her heart.
Because no matter how much she might tell herself otherwise, that kiss had felt like way more than a simple fling. And that scared her more than anything else could.
