Kiss and Tell Read Online Free Page A

him with a familiarity that was baffling. Who the heck
was
he?
    His arms were solid—his whole body was solid and strong. She didn’t know any men on Sunrise Key with a body like this. Except maybe Simon. But this sure wasn’t her brother.
    “Do I know you?” she whispered into the place under his mask where his ear should have been.
    But he didn’t answer her. He only held her closer, tightening his arm around her waist until she was fully pressed against him, from her knees all the way up to her chest. The dance floor was so full, it was impossible to do more than rock back and forth. Still, he moved gracefully.
    And he smelled good. Fresh and clean, as if he’d just stepped out of a shower. It was that more than anything else that made Leila give in to the moment and rest her head on the man’s shoulder. She felt him sigh, felt him touch the side of her face with gentle fingers, and she closed her eyes.
    When was the last time she’d been held like this?
    Not since she’d been dating Elliot, that much was for sure.
    “Fifteen seconds to the new year!” Simon shouted, and Leila lifted her head as the crowd around them joined in with the countdown.
    “Ten, nine, eight, seven…”
    The ninja was watching her, and she stared back into his eyes, trying to guess their color in the dimness.
    Hot. Whatever color they were, they were hot. He wanted her—as if she didn’t already know that from the intimate position of their bodies.
    “Four, three, two, one! Happy New Year!” “Auld Lang Syne” blared from the loudspeakers.
    “Happy New Year,” the ninja soundlessly said to Leila.
    And then he kissed her.
    It started out as little more than a sweet brushing of his lips against hers.
    Leila wasn’t quite sure what happened, whether she was jostled by someone in the crowd, whether she lost her balance, or whether the ninja decided that one small taste was simply not enough and pulled her closer to him.
    But suddenly, somehow, he was holding her even tighter, and her mouth had opened under his and he was
really
kissing her. It was a kiss of possession, a kiss of fire and flame, and Leila felt seared right to her heart. He tasted like champagne, seductively sweet, with one fantastically dangerous kick.
    But just as suddenly as he’d begun, he pulled away.
    Off balance, Leila wobbled, unsteady on her feet despite the fact that she’d taken off her high heels. She could see pure shock in the ninja’s eyes, shock she knew was mirrored in her own face as he reached for her, to steady her. That had been one
hell
of an amazing kiss.
    Above them, the sky exploded into color, and they both looked up to see fireworks streaming down like giant, glittering sparklers.
    The ninja smiled. And then he kissed her again.
    This time he didn’t stop. He drank her in, inhaled her, devoured her in a long, slow, deep kiss as the music swirled around them, as the fireworks whistled and pounded and erupted overhead.
    And, just as hungrily, Leila kissed him back. Her arms went around his neck, and her fingers explored the softness of his hair at the base of his hood.
    Around them, people were laughing and dancing and blowing on noisemakers, but Leila shut them all out. Nothing mattered, nothing existed but this man, this…stranger, who was kissing her with all of the emotion, all of the heart and soul and passion of a long-lost lover.
    “Auld Lang Syne” drew to a tremulous close, and without the music blaring, between bursts of fireworks, Leila slowly became aware that they were beeping. No, not them. The ninja.
    She pulled back and he reached for her again, unwilling to let her go.
    “You’re beeping,” she said.
    He looked down in what might have been surprise—Leila didn’t know—and sure enough, he was wearing a beeper attached to the waistband of his pants.
    He opened his mouth to speak, and another song came on, obscuring his words. But he made a gesture with his hands that mimed a telephone, and Leila