Page 27 of Bad Boy Crush

Aware of the whistles coming from the crowd, he ended their lip-lock. He was dazed. Like he’d suffered a crack to the skull, with no way of knowing how long he’d been out. Had their first kiss lasted seconds or minutes?

The announcer offered a hearty laugh before saying, “Definitely the most unique gift of the morning!”

Lou’s lips were parted, her eyes round. She looked as stunned as Ant felt. Before she could reprimand him, or worse—reject him, he took a wide step away from her. “Sorry.”

Without looking back, he stomped over to the first event, the axe throw. He pulled off his hat, raked a hand through his hair, and tried to forget the kiss. It didn’t work. Neither did shaking out his arms or jumping in place. He’d wanted to kiss Lou for years, and he’d waited until now—in front of everyone and God Himself to do it?

“Fucking idiot,” he muttered as he grabbed an axe by the handle and tested its weight. He’d blown it. Completely and utterly blown it.

“Jesus, Renaldo.” Hunter, who had no sense of self-preservation, ambled over.

Ant pointed at him with the blade. “Don’t. That’s your only warning.”

Hunter held up both hands in “I surrender” fashion.

The target seemed to recede into the distance the longer Ant stared at it. How he’d hit that thing when he wasn’t sure he could graze the broad side of a building he had no idea. Especially given the shake working its way up both his arms from the spent adrenaline after publicly kissing Lourdes Daniels.

“Fuck.” It was as good as his battle cry. He pulled his arm back for a practice throw and released the axe.

* * *

Lou needed a moment.

Hell, she needed two.

She removed her headpiece, intending to bolt for her car and drive around the Cove to collect herself. Ant had kissed her. Her lips were still warm from the tantalizing pull of his. Her head felt as if it had disconnected from her neck and was floating overhead like a hot air balloon.

When she’d asked him to impress her, she’d expected a gift. What she’d received was his firm mouth on hers. She shouldn’t have kissed him back, but boy, had she kissed him back. She hadn’t been able to help herself. It’d been ages since she’d been kissed! She could have reacted that way to any of the contestants.

But then she thought of the way she’d flinched when Hunter’s mouth lowered to her hand. She’d welcomed a kiss on the mouth from Ant.

The announcer shut off the megaphone after telling the crowd there would be a fifteen-minute break before the axe-throwing competition.

“Make sure you’re back quick!” he told Lou as she pulled her fingertips from her recently-kissed lips. “You don’t want to leave that chair empty.”

“I thought I was finished?”

“No, ma’am.” Paul Bunyan the Second shook his capped head. “If you leave now, the competitors will believe their offerings were for nothing. You’re their good luck charm. Don’t you want to watch the games and support them? Or at least the fella who kissed you?”

Yes. What about that fella? “Of course.”

“Wonderful. I’ll fetch you a lager so you don’t die of thirst. I’ll fetch myself one too. Did anyone tell you we drink for free?”

“No, they didn’t.” She settled onto her wooden throne once again. It seemed there were a lot of things she hadn’t been told. That she was master of ceremonies, that she could drink for free, that when Ant kissed her, her thighs vibrated…

Paul ran off to the nearest beer stand as May rushed over in a blur of purple. Her V-neck dress matched her handbag and her sandals. “Girl. What?”

“You look amazing.” But then again, when didn’t May look amazing?

“Don’t change the subject. We have but a precious few minutes before the axe-throw, and you are going to use every one of them to apologize to me.”

“Apologize? For what?”

“For not believing me—nay, challenging me. I told you Ant was crazy for you. I thought you two were going to tear each other’s clothes off in front of everyone.”

“May!” Lou laughed, uncomfortable. Not so much at the mention of being naked with him, but the tempting hold it had on her if she allowed herself to think about it for more than a few seconds. So, she didn’t. “He didn’t have a gift, so he improvised.”

That made sense, right? She hadn’t fully wrapped her head around what had just happened. The last few minutes were a blur of Ant yelling at Hunter, Hunter taking the microphone, and then Ant planting a kiss on her.