The look in his eyes—the one that made it clear it would be more—set her heart racing.

Still, Lily’s offer had been sincere. If William didn’t want to take this attraction any further, she wasn’t going to push him. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, he seemed torn enough as it was, and she just wasn’t the kind of person who would pursue someone who wasn’t—or fought not to be—interested.

Stalk their photos on the internet for a while, sure. But she certainly had no intention of popping into his life at regular intervals in an attempt to try to win him over.

The only thing she did want, however, was an answer. Hopefully accompanied with a kiss. Even if it was the first and last one she would ever get from him.

Maybe forgetting about William bloody Charleston would be infinitely harder this way, but she’d already let too many opportunities in her life go to waste just because she was too reserved to give it a shot.

Well, she’d be damned if she ran off before offering William a chance to decide.

Wallowing in regret for the rest of her life wasn’t exactly a prospect Lily looked forward to, especially after she’d already made such progress and formed actual sentences instead of gulping down her wine and hiding in a corner as she normally would have done.

Only the blush that warmed her cheeks remained—a testimony to that shy part of her that didn’t step aside despite this unfamiliar confidence taking the wheel. Or maybe it was just the attraction, electrifying the air and hardening her nipples to the point where she wanted to moan and beg him to take one in his mouth, that gave her the necessary boost.

Fucking hell, and now she was stuck with that image in her mind. Her hormones stirred, the slick sensation between her thighs increasing.

“How about you have coffee with me tomorrow?” William’s breath brushed against her skin. “And we’ll see where we’ll go from there.”

She tilted her head to the side, barely resisting to lean forward and snog the life out of him. “When and where?”

“Do you know that Irish pub, two streets south from here?” He lined her bottom lip with his thumb as she nodded. “At seven?”

Honestly, she didn’t think she’d last until seven, but she agreed.

Good lord, she actually had a date with William Charleston.

William bloody Charleston with his fucking silver-touched hair and arms to die for.

This had to be a dream.

But the man standing before her was undoubtedly real. Felt real. He was watching her with those mesmerizing eyes, now green, his face still so close Lily knew she could have his lips on hers if she moved just a tiniest bit towards him. And she wanted to. God, she really, really wanted to.

But what if that made her seem to eager? Someone who was in it for a quick dash of fun instead of—

Wait… Instead of what? No, she wouldn’t even go there.

Figuring out what this madness truly meant was a task that required a full glass of wine and Audrey’s company.

If only William weren’t so fucking close.

She shoved down the groan of frustration that climbed up her throat. “Well”—she smiled, silently cursing how breathless she sounded—“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Tomorrow.”

William still wasn’t moving. And neither was she.

It was like her body flat-out refused to peel itself away.

“What?” he asked, mirth touching the corners of those damned attractive lips.

She opened her mouth to make some half-assed excuse, but before she could get a single sound out, William’s hand snaked around her neck, drawing her to him. Her mind barely registered what was happening when the crush of his mouth scattered everything even remotely resembling rational thought.

His lips were soft, plying hers apart with the gentlest of pressure that was so at odds with the burning need spreading through her flesh. She moaned as the taste of him exploded on her tongue, her back arching under the weight of pleasure.

Fuck, the man was good.

There was nothing sloppy about the kiss, nothing timid, either. He claimed her mouth with hunger and that toe-curling touch of possession she was all too eager to submit to.

She didn’t even notice they’d moved until her back hit the wall, her arms now around William’s neck and his body pressing into hers. Nothing mattered but the feel of him, the taste of him, the possibilities laid bare between them…

“This is dangerous,” he whispered into her mouth, then traced his lips down the curve of her neck. “Too dangerous.”

Although she wasn’t sure how, she managed to say, “Why?”

William pulled back enough to meet her gaze, but their bodies remained touching, the hard length of his cock making it next to impossible to think about anything else but how it would be to run her tongue all the way to the tip. She was willing to bet every inch of him would taste just as good.

As if sensing just how bloody aroused she was, William ground against her—just a small movement, but one that left her panties dripping.

“It’s dangerous because I have half the mind to take you inside and find someplace warm. Private. Where you wouldn’t mind losing your coat,”—he kissed one corner of her lips—“your shirt,”—then the other—“your skirt.”

By the time he looked at her again, she was trembling. Heat burned between her thighs, the ache to feel him buried inside her almost too strong to bear.

“And why would that be so bad?” she rasped.

In all honesty, she couldn’t imagine anything better than dropping all those unnecessary layers of clothing.

To hell with someplace warm, she’d be willing to do it right here.

“Because I don’t want to fuck you, Lily Summers.”

She flinched at his words even as a part of her reveled in the way he said fuck.

His gaze dipped from her eyes to her mouth, then back up again. “I want to make love to you.”