Chapter Twelve #2
Heat and shock flooded my body as I realized what I had done.
I was just about to push him away when I remembered where we were, but the sounds of cameras constantly clicking and gasps from those in the audience invaded my thoughts.
Before I could even accept what was going on, his tongue slipped between my lips and washed through my mouth.
I felt his arm wrap around me, pulling me closer, and he tapped my right elbow with his finger. I brought my right hand to his cheek. I closed my eyes, allowing his kiss to take me over. Then my brain caught up with my actions and where we were, and I broke the kiss.
“Colton, answer the man’s question,” I murmured, glancing up to see nothing but a sea of cameras, which meant that the photographers I’d arranged weren’t the only one’s present.
“Well, Colton?”
“When I get around to it, that is when it will happen,” he answered, looking me directly in the eyes.
What kind of answer was that?
“When he gets around to it, that’s when it will happen. Emma, what are your thoughts?”
I cleared my throat and said the only thing that came to my mind. “To me, it never matters if he ever proposes. Like I said, as long as he is mine and mine forever, that is all that matters to me.”
As we stared at one another, the room broke out in applause, and the cameras kept snapping pictures and somehow my lips ended up pressed against Colton’s once more.
When the interview ended, we stayed for a few more pictures, but once that finished, we were free to return to the hotel and get ready for the game tonight. Colton had gotten a call just as we’d left the interview that the team was meeting prior to the game tonight to go over some plays.
I’d hoped he’d just get ready for his game and forget what had gone on at the interview, but the moment we’d returned to the hotel and were safely behind the locked door of our room, Colton grabbed hold of my hand and stopped me from walking away.
“What the fuck was that?”
“I don’t know. My friend at the magazine provided me with the questions. I answered them for you, and…somehow the interviewer added in his own questions.”
“That isn’t what I’m talking about.”
I froze. I knew what he was talking about—the same thing I’d been thinking all the way back to the hotel after the interview. The same thing I’d been thinking ever since he’d kissed me first the other night.
“What are you talking about?” I questioned, hoping that if I played dumb, he’d just let up on the subject.
“The kiss, Emma, what the fuck was that?”
My cheeks heated, as did the rest of my body. I needed to get out of here. I could still feel his lips against mine, and everything in me wanted to feel them again.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask yourself that? You kissed me back! In fact, you kissed me first!”
“That I did, in the privacy of my home, not in front of all the cameras and reporters. I certainly didn’t start it this time.”
“We don’t have time to talk about this. You have a game to get to,” I said, trying to get out of the situation.
“Oh no, we have plenty of time,” he said, his voice deepening.
I glanced at my watch and shook my head.
“Well, we can either discuss it, or perhaps we should just recreate that kiss and find out exactly what was going through your mind when you leaned in and kiss me in front of the cameras.”
I stood there, afraid to move. I wanted to feel his lips against mine so badly I could taste it.
He was watching me, staring at me, almost willing me to step into him.
Instead of giving him not only what he wanted, but I wanted as well, I spun around, opened the door, and took off down the hall to the stairwell.
I sped off down the stairs, praying he wouldn’t follow me.
I took comfort in the sounds of nature as I walked through the enormous park down the road from where we were staying.
When I came to a park bench, I took a seat and looked out over a large pond where children were feeding ducks and smiled to myself.
Then, I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the chain of messages between me and Chantal.
She still hadn’t responded to my message that I’d sent a few days ago.
Emma: Got time for a quick chat?
I hit send and then placed my phone on my lap and sat there listening to the sounds of the birds. Within seconds, my phone vibrated against the bench.
Chantal: My goodness, I’m so sorry I didn’t see your message from last week; things have been chaotic.
Emma: No worries.
Chantal: Emma, it was our SOS message, which means you really needed me. How are things going with the sexy hockey player?
Emma: Got an hour?
Chantal: Oh dear.
Emma: Okay well maybe two.
Chantal: What’s going on?
Emma: What isn’t going on?
Emma: First, Mark thinks I used this case to leave him for Colton. He has been so unfair to me over the past few days, horrible actually, what you would call downright abusive.
Chantal: Uh huh. So, even though you are legitimately working for Image Hackers, Mark thinks it’s all a lie.
Emma: Yes, but only because this time I had to get my hands dirty. In case you haven’t seen the news, I’m in a ton of articles and pictures with Colton, which Mark thinks are legit.
Chantal: So the facade is working, which is a good thing then. God, I love your life. You’re like a secret agent, so mysterious.
Emma: Yeah, I’m a secret agent who’s falling apart.
Chantal: Look, these insecurities this man has was going to be the downfall of your relationship anyway.
No successful happy, and I stress happy, relationship would have one of the couples being this way.
It’s not a bad thing you two are no longer together.
This is a good thing Emma. Now, tell me, how is it going with Colton?
Emma: Well, I decided not to allow our past to co-mingle with this project, and I was staying focused on the task at hand. It was going fine, until….
Chantal: Until what?
Emma: Until the other night, and then again this morning
Emma: I broke down after one of the events and told him about my breakup.
I needed someone to talk to, and he just happened to be there when I was on the cusp of a breakdown.
He kissed me, and then I kissed him, only he kissed me in the privacy of his own home, I kissed him during this morning’s interview I’d set up which means there are legitimate images of us kissing that will be all over the media.
Chantal: YOU WHAT?
Chantal: *running to check socials*
Emma: Oh god, no, don’t do that, I haven’t even looked yet. GAHHHHH
Emma: I know, I shouldn’t have, and I have no idea what I was thinking when I did it, but I did and…
Chantal: What happened during the kiss this morning?
Emma: *whispers* He kissed me back
Chantal: eeeepppp ….and
Emma: I was afraid you were going to ask me that.
Chantal: Well?
Emma: It was amazing. The worst part is that it was amazing in front of all kinds of people, but it was the same amazing as it had been behind closed doors.
Chantal: Do you think this could lead to something more?
Emma: It was a kiss…okay two kisses, and while they were wonderful…
I tapped the edge of my phone, trying to figure out what I wanted to say, when my phone pinged.
Chantal: I think you should find out.
Emma: Oh god no.
Chantal: Why not?
Emma: Because I’m not that person anymore
Chantal: Bullshit, until you met Mark, out of all the guys you dated, all you did was talk about what a loss Colton Fox was when you’d break up with them, and how you wished you could have a second chance.
Emma: Chantal, I did not.
Chantal: You did. Please do yourself this one favor and stop lying to yourself. Perhaps this is life’s way of giving you both a second chance.
Emma: You have no clue what you’re talking about. Colton would never be interested in a girl like me.
Chantal: Why not? He kissed you didn’t he?
I stared at her message, and then my phone rang, scaring me to pieces. I quickly answered, “Hello.”
“He kissed you, didn’t he?”
“He kissed me out of pity, because I’d been crying.”
“Woman you are impossible. This is it, Em, this is the chance you’ve been waiting for.”
“You make it sound as if I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for another chance with Colton Fox.”
“Uh, not in the literal sense, but subconsciously you have.”
“Now who is the impossible one.”
“Emma, I love you like a sister. You may not have come directly out and said it, but I’m the one who has been listening to you for years.
Throughout college and most of our twenties, all you ever did was watch his games for a glimpse of him.
You tracked the teams he played for, waiting for trade announcements when you knew he might be moving. ”
“So what?? I like hockey.”
“You like hockey? Really, the only time you ever watched was on the nights he played.”
“So, I liked his team.”
“Right, Emma, again, babe, I love you, but a hockey fan who loves the Predators, is a fan of the team regardless of the players who play on it. They don’t switch being the fan of a team because a player leaves.
Sure, they may still enjoy watching them when their team plays against the team they moved to, but they don’t change teams.”
“What are you saying?” I questioned, afraid that what she was going to say was something I’d only thought to myself.
“Go after him, say goodbye to the fake life you’re living, and say hello to finding the real you again, with the man you’ve wanted forever.”
“Yeah, but what about working things out with the relationship I just lost? Don’t you think that is worth a try?”
“Emma, I’m going to be very honest with you here.
I never liked Mark from the day I met him.
My best friend changed when she met him and turned into a person who few people liked.
I stuck around only because I knew the real you, not the fake one you portrayed, and when we got together and Mark was gone, you were the real you.
The message when it popped up on my screen tonight was from the real you, the one Colton brought out in you, the one I miss dearly. ”
“Chantal…”
“If being around him for a week has changed you this much, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he’s the one for you. Just trust it.”