Between Marriage And Merger. Karen Booth

by it. His hand slipped under her hair and around her neck. She sat straighter. She angled herself closer. Every nerve ending in her body was cheering him on. His thumb settled in the soft spot under her ear. His touch was more than warm. It was a superhuman zap of heat. It might turn her into something she’d never been before.

      His lips parted ever so slightly and she raised her chin as he lowered his head. His hair slumped forward. She loved that. She’d fantasized a million times about running her hands through it, feeling the thick strands between her fingers and smoothing it back. She wanted to stare at him forever, but she also wanted to savor every delicious heartbeat of anticipation. Her eyes fluttered shut. When his mouth met hers, she waited for it to change her life, but it was a soft brush of a kiss. A first date kiss. An oh hi nice to meet you kiss. It was nice. So nice. But nice wasn’t going to cut it. Her body didn’t merely tell her so, it was screaming it in both ears. She slanted her head and pushed up from the seat, aiming her shoulders straight for his. He pulled back. Her eyes flew open. Their gazes connected, both of them searching. It was an entire deliberation about their next kiss, wrapped up in two seconds. He smiled. She swallowed. He was coming in for the real thing.

      The next thing she knew, she had all ten fingers working into his hair. Her arms landed on his shoulders. His hand was molded around her hip, squeezing like he was trying to get down to the bone. Their lips were in a mad scramble, parted, making way for tongues to roam. In under two seconds, they’d gone from zero to sexy sixty. The kiss was flat-out reckless now, like neither of them cared about ramifications. She was a woman and he was the hottest man she’d ever set her eyes on. One well-placed rub and they might as well be dry tinder. A fire was inevitable.

      Lily dropped one hand and worked her way inside Noah’s coat, which he’d been kind enough to leave unbuttoned. She palmed his firm chest, and even through layers of clothes—his suit coat, his shirt—she could feel the frantic pounding of his heart. She wanted nothing more than to experience that with bare skin against bare skin. Noah’s hand traveled down to her knee and under the hem of her skirt. Lily felt like she might burst into full flame. He didn’t waste a second, heading north, his palm caressing her stocking. Her heart was beating like a kid dragging a stick across a picket fence. He came to a dead stop when his thumb reached the top of her thigh-highs. Noah pulled back, breaking their kiss, breathless. Thankfully, his hand hadn’t moved.

      “Are those?” His eyes were dark with a brew of lust and curiosity.

      She nodded, her lips floating back to meet his and steal one more kiss. “I can’t stand regular panty hose,” she murmured against his mouth. She took a soft nip of his lower lip.

      A low groan escaped his throat.

      The divider between the driver and the back seat started to lower. Lily scrambled to find a more demure position. The driver, most likely accustomed to this scene, didn’t look at them. “Mr. Locke. We’re here at Tiffany.”

      Noah gawked at Lily. Maybe he hadn’t expected her to go for it. Carpe diem, Mr. Locke. Carpe diem. “Um. Ready?” he asked.

      For what? she almost answered. For you to tear off my clothes? “Hold on a sec.” She reached out and combed her fingers through his silky hair, which was just as tangled as her thoughts right now. “Your hair.” It was even softer than it had been a minute ago. Maybe it was because she wasn’t wholly distracted by his lips and chest.

      “Thanks for looking out for me.” He then scrutinized her hair and smoothed back one strand that was grazing her cheek. “You weren’t nearly as disheveled.”

      Embarrassment crept over her, shrouding her from head to toe. She hadn’t merely gone overboard, she’d behaved like a teenager who’d spent her adolescence locked up in an all-girls school. Lily made a mental note: practice some damn decorum. At least this was probably the norm for Noah, women going crazy for him. He didn’t seem particularly fazed by it at all.

      * * *

      Noah was quite frankly shocked that he could climb out of the back seat and straighten to his full height. It felt like his pants had shrunk two sizes and not in the waist. Thank goodness for unseasonably cool weather, as well as his long wool coat. It could hide a multitude of sins. And stiffness.

      He took Lily’s hand as she stepped out of the car. The flush in her cheeks filled him with an unavoidable sense of accomplishment. He liked knowing that had been her response to him, but even better was having experienced it firsthand. She’d gone for far more than a practice kiss, which had honestly surprised him. She was always so businesslike in the office, never showing any interest in him outside the professional. Which was fine, and as it should have been. But it had disappointed him from time to time, for sure. Was there more there? Or was she amped up because her whole financial future was about to become so much sunnier?

      Either way, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to be his father. He couldn’t go overboard like that again. He had a professional relationship to maintain with Lily. Kissing like they just had was a one-way ticket to ruin.

      They stepped inside Tiffany & Co., the beautifully appointed showroom with a maze of glass cases filled with jewelry, towering displays of crystal bowls and the ever-present flashes of their signature blue. Lily squeezed his hand a little tighter, which only made him want to reassure her that they were in this together. As unorthodox as their arrangement was, they had each other. For a few days.

      An older gentleman at the first counter stepped out from behind it. “Mr. Locke?” His British accent made him even more distinguished than his appearance. His silvery hair was impeccably groomed.

      “Yes. You must be Mr. Russell.” Noah turned to Lily. “I made an appointment. I didn’t want us to have to wait.”

      “Absolutely not. I understand you are a very busy man, Mr. Locke.” He then turned his attention to Lily. A warm grin crossed his face and he stood even straighter. “And this must be the future Mrs. Locke.” He reached out his hand and shook hers, regarding her as if she were made of fine china.

      “Yes. That’s me. Won’t be long and I’ll be Lily Locke.” Mr. Russell let go and Lily smiled nervously at Noah. He got it. He hadn’t thought about it in terms of her married name yet either.

      They followed Mr. Russell to a counter in the middle of the store. He pulled out a velvet-covered board with at least a dozen engagement rings on it. “I took the liberty of picking out a few things to start. You had said platinum, right? And something larger than a carat? But you also wanted something ready-made. Not a custom ring, correct?”

      Noah nodded. He didn’t much like the idea of something right off the sales floor, but thus was their timeline. “Yes. Correct. We don’t want to wait.” He put his hand on the small of Lily’s back. “What do you think?”

      Lily leaned down, perusing them, but didn’t touch a thing. When she turned back to Noah, there was a decidedly panicked edge to her expression. “These all seem really big.”

      “Yes...” His mind went blank as he tried to decide what sort of pet name Lily might like. “Honey. We talked about this before. Remember? I want you to have a beautiful ring. A ring that’s just as gorgeous and amazing as you.” That was the sort of thing a romantic guy would say, wasn’t it?

      “But aren’t these a little extravagant?”

      He shook his head as sweetly as possible. “No. I don’t think so.”

      Mr. Russell cleared his throat. “Oh, dear. A few of these aren’t quite as clean as they should be. Let me polish them up and I’ll give you two a chance to chat.” He’d obviously been doing this for a very long time. He seemed quite practiced in the art of ducking away when a couple was about to have an argument. “I’ll be right back.”

      As soon as Mr. Russell was gone with the rings, Lily started in. “They’re too much, Noah. It doesn’t seem right that I would get that on top of the one percent. I want to be compensated, but I also don’t want to take advantage of you or Sawyer.”

      “I hear what you’re saying. And it’s sweet, but you