Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(54)

“We were in the high school cafeteria in front of all our classmates. I asked you to kiss me in order to win a bet. We’d never spoken before, but you agreed to play along, and then you pretty much jumped me.” His smile turned crooked. “I suppose I should have warned you that you’ve never been able to resist me.”

He tried to bring his mouth back to mine again, but this time my head cleared and I was able to scramble away from him. “Wow, ego much?”

I was annoyed and embarrassed by my completely inappropriate lack of self-control, and horrified that I’d just proved all of his cocky claims to be true. But more than that, I was overwhelmed. Could what he said be possible? Could my heart remember something my brain didn’t? It was the only thing that made sense.

It certainly felt like we had a connection. It gave me hope, but it was also terrifying. I kept thinking of Teddy and how miserable I’d been trying to live up to his expectations. I couldn’t forget that, and I couldn’t forget how he’d hurt me. But as much as I was afraid of repeating that with Ryan, I’d never once felt that way with him.

“Don’t worry, babe,” Ryan said, trying to reel me in for round two, “I can’t resist you, either.”

Panicking, I yanked myself away from him and put a good four feet of space between us. “Stop, or I will roast you. I swear to you I will. I don’t know what that was, but I have no intention of getting into a relationship with you. I told you that.”

Though, admittedly, I was rethinking the idea after that kiss.

Ryan folded his arms, giving me a defiant look. “Then it’s a good thing I have other intentions, isn’t it? Because I have waited six months for that moment, and you didn’t let me down. A kiss doesn’t lie, Jamie. Even if you don’t remember me, you want me. Why fight it?”

I could not believe the nerve of this guy sometimes. I couldn’t win. But I couldn’t back down, either. Not when he was being so full of himself. Giving him a flat look, I grabbed our teacups and headed past him out to the deck. He grabbed the blanket and followed me out.

“You’re so sure I’m going to fall for you this time?” I asked as I sat down on a patio sofa in front of the fire. “I have to tell you, the whole egotistical thing you have going on isn’t exactly working for you.”

Ryan snorted. “Sure, it’s not.”

“It’s not!” I sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. I couldn’t help it. He was driving me crazy.

Ryan smiled again, as if enjoying another inside joke, and then said, “So is too.”

Rolling my eyes, I begrudgingly thanked him when he draped the blanket over my shoulders. As I gripped it, I handed him his tea and he sat next to me.

For a moment we sipped our drinks in peaceful silence, staring into the flames of the fire. Ryan set his cup aside and lifted his arm around my shoulders. He smirked at the warning look I shot him, and tucked me securely into his side. “You’ll have to zap me to keep me away.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

My threat fell on deaf ears. “I made you fall for me once; I can do it again. Only this time it won’t take me nearly as long.”

He leaned in suddenly, in a way that had me gulping. His mouth was just centimeters—no, millimeters—from mine. When his gaze dropped to my lips, my breath turned ragged. My heart pounded so loudly that I’m sure it was the reason Ryan smirked. “I know all your weaknesses, Jamie Baker,” he whispered.

My brain was effectively scrambled. “What weaknesses?” I licked my lips in anticipation, praying he would close the distance between us before I lost all dignity and kissed him first. Again.

“Me, for one.” He took my face gently in his hand and brushed his thumb lightly over my lips, torturing me with his nearness until I was shaking. “And this…”

His fingertips trailed down my throat, then brushed along my collarbone, over my shoulder and down the length of my arm, burning everywhere they touched and leaving goose bumps in their wake. “You have heightened senses. Touch is a very powerful sense, and it’s not only about pain. You love to be touched.”

At some point my eyes had rolled back in my head, and I laid my head back on his shoulder. He was so right. I didn’t know about my love of touch until right that very second, but the way his fingertips were gliding over my skin had stolen my breath and muddled my brain. I could have sat there like that forever.

Ryan turned my face to meet his and brushed his lips back and forth over mine until I feared I might whimper if he didn’t just kiss me already. Finally, he captured my mouth with his, sending a tidal wave of relief and an entire ocean of pleasure through me. He kissed me slowly, soft and sensual, working his lips and tongue with the confidence of a lover who knew exactly what he was doing. He seemed to know how I liked to be kissed even when I didn’t. I was putty in his capable hands that were now tenderly holding my face to his, turning it this way and that so that he could kiss me from all different angles.

He kissed me until I thought I would die from ecstasy, and then he pulled back, allowing me to catch the breath he’d stolen from me. “It hasn’t even been close to a whole week yet,” he teased. “I didn’t give myself enough credit before.”

“That’s not fair!” I gasped. “You can’t exploit weaknesses that I don’t even know I have.”