Memo: Marry Me? by Jennie Adams

didn’t consider how his actions might look to the many people who observed them. He just reached for her and accepted this had to happen. ‘I think you owe me a birthday salute, at the least, for tricking me this way.’ What harm could it do to kiss her here, in a crowded room?
    She stiffened at his side. ‘Oh, no, I don’t think it would be a good idea.’
    ‘I do.’ He settled his mouth on hers without giving her a chance to protest further. Without giving himself time to think about it any more, either. Cupped her face in his hands, and tasted the soft fullness of her lips beneath his.
    That was all he intended. A simple taste. A chance to prove this wasn’t so amazing. That he could walk away and not regret it. But she melted into him, into their kiss.
    And he fell into a fathomless ocean of sensation and feeling. Her hands on his forearms, burning through the cloth of his coat. The soft, blurry fragrance of her perfume filling him as he breathed her in. Her mouth moving with his as though they’d always been together.
    A feeling of such rightness and of emptiness finally being filled swept over him. He held back a gasp. It took all his will not to drag her in until their bodies melded utterly and he forgot everything. All he had proved was how right they were with each other, and he didn’t know what to do about that.
    He forced his hands to relax their grip on her arms. His mouth to take one last, lingering taste, then disengage.
    The silence immediately near them filled suddenly with chatter and laughter. He didn’t know if talk had actually stopped, or he just hadn’t been able to hear it while she’d been in his arms.
    ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ She whispered the reprimand. Her flushed face revealed the same shock he felt.
    The slight puffiness of lips well kissed wrenched a gasp from deep inside him — he held it back, but could do nothing about the gaze that caressed her from head to toe.
    ‘Happy Birthday, Zach.’ She pinned on a tremulous smile that might have been meant to convince onlookers that the kiss had been a casual salutation.
    Would they believe her? Or would they perceive the depths of the exchange in the same way he had experienced those depths just now?
    Lily took a shaky step away from Zach, then another. ‘I hope you enjoy your…celebration.’
    All Lily wanted to do was to back away and keep on going. Her heart pounded, her hands shook.
    Zach had kissed her in front of a room full of people. Had touched her and drawn a response she’d thought had died the day Richard Pearce had abandoned her to a hospital ward, and a future he no longer wanted to share.
    No. That wasn’t right. She had
never
felt this way. Not with Richard. Not with any man. Did the people around them know it? Could they see Zach had unlocked something inside of her that could carry her away? Make her ignore everything that mattered?
    Anne Swift caught her hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. ‘Thank you so much for your help. I couldn’t have pulled this off without you.’
    Her friendliness and the absence of any kind of surprise or dismay gave Lily hope that the kiss
hadn’t
revealed as much to others as she had thought it might have.
    Anne turned slightly to include someone standing at her side. ‘You’ve met my second son, I think?’
    ‘Yes.’ Lily offered the boy a smile. She hoped it looked genuine, because she regretted her impulsive thoughts the last time she’d seen him. ‘Daniel and I met at the office.’
    ‘And how are you enjoying the job?’ Anne asked. ‘Was it difficult to come in part-way through and take over from, oh, what was her name?’ She laughed, and waved a dismissing hand. ‘My memory isn’t what it used to be.’
    Lily bit down on a half-hysterical laugh.
Tell me about it!
    ‘Her name was Rochelle.’ Lily tried not to go sour-faced at the name. ‘And I’m only filling in for a short time at your son’s office.’
    ‘You’re filling in for the length of