Page 121 of By His Vow
My body temperature soars, and I swear a trickle of sweat runs down my spine.
But when he moves again, thankfully, he doesn’t drop to one knee or pull out a ring. Instead, he leans in.
My heart skips a beat.
So many times over the past few days I’ve thought he was going to kiss me. Despite my better judgment, I’ve been desperate for it.
This was not how I thought it was going to go.
One second he’s got his hand wrapped around my neck and is staring into my eyes as if I’m something special, and the next, his lips are on mine.
My entire body locks up in surprise. I stop breathing despite the fact my heart is beating at a million miles a second.
No sooner has it started is it over.
It’s a chaste kiss. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel it all the way down to my toes.
When I open my eyes, I have to blink twice, because the person I was expecting to see before me isn’t there.
The attention of everyone around our table burns into me, but I ignore them in favor of searching for the man who just tilted my entire world on its axis.
I find him striding toward the stage like a man on a mission.
Desire pools below my waist just watching how he confidently moves across the stage and shakes hands with the master of ceremonies.
He hands Kingston the microphone and goosebumps race across my skin in anticipation of hearing his voice filling the entire room.
A weird sense of pride washes through me as he steps up to the podium and prepares to speak.
Before he says a word, he finds me in the crowd.
Our eyes lock and a strong wave of desire floods my system.
Right now, he’s in full arrogant businessman mode. He’s everything I hate about the world we were born into. But that’s the last thing on my mind.
All I can think about is the way his lips felt against mine. How every single one of his touches, innocent or not, makes me burn up inside.
The second his deep voice hits my ears, every single hair on my body lifts and tingles erupt. The reaction is so strong, so visceral, I don’t even get a chance to question it.
“Thank you. As always, this award means the world to us. We give our lives to?—”
“You’re good for him, you know.”
Shocked by the words spoken quietly in my ear, I rip my eyes away from Kingston as he continues with what is quite clearly a well-practiced acceptance speech.
I want to watch him, soak up everything that is the confident CEO, but his brother apparently has something important to say.
I look into a set of green eyes that are just a shade darker than Kingston’s and wait for him to continue.
“I know you might not believe me, but since this…” he says gesturing to me, “started, he’s… different.”
“More pissed off, you mean?”
Kian laughs. “Well, aside from that. He’s lighter. There’s a twinkle in his eye that I didn’t realize was missing until recently.”
“Pretty sure that’s just his level of irritation hitting max.”
He laughs again. “You could have a point there. But I think it’s more than that.”