The Last Kiss Read online

  Contents

  Brigid Coady

  Dedication

  The Last Kiss

  Love Romance?

  About HarperImpulse

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Brigid Coady

  I was born in the UK but raised round the world and spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book. When I was seven I wrote my first proper story about a magic puddle that flipped up to reveal a secret world underground.

  I’m now a non-practicing engineer who works in project management. I write romance and young adult stories. I’ve been a voice-over and radio continuity artist. I love country music and used to have my own radio show. My boyfriend says I have an unhealthy obsession with Kenny Chesney. I live in London.

  For #flame

  The Last Kiss

  First kisses are the ones that everybody celebrates, the ones you remember. The ones you treasure as it happens, storing in your memory to take out and relive at any given moment.

  But what about the last kiss?

  Do you even remember them?

  Sometimes the relationship has faded away, so that the last kiss becomes like a blurred faded Polaroid, bleached in the sun. Other times it’s wrenched from you when the relationship implodes, leaving a gaping hole. That last kiss turns into a negative photo of a relationship you once believed in, but are no longer sure if any of it was real.

  And then there are those last kisses salted by unshed tears.

  He grasped my fingers and played with them as we waited for the flight to be called. I wished now that he hadn’t come to the airport with me. That we had said our goodbyes at the hotel, the place where our small but perfectly formed affair was born and lived so briefly. It was where it should have ended. But neither of us could bear to be parted until we had to. We were clinging to the hope that somehow we could make this work.

  “Should I write?” he asked staring at where our hands were joined. My hand was clenched in symmetry with my stomach. “I know we said we wouldn’t, that it couldn’t work. But…” he stopped and looked up into my eyes.

  And I was as lost as I had been when he had smiled across the bar at me in our hotel in Majorca. So clichéd. Falling for the holiday rep… the boy had a different girl every week as holidaymakers came and went. And yet… his eyes had pulled at me.

  I’d had a summer romance taken straight from the pages of books. I was the chosen golden girl who got to hang out with the cool boy who was in charge of all the fun. It didn’t matter how many drunk scantily clad and even naked girls threw themselves at him, he only had eyes for me.

  “You’ll have a new girl as soon as the next set of guests arrive,” I said knowing that would be precisely four hours after I’d left.

  “I won’t!” he had said this before. That I was the only one he’d felt like this with. That when the season was over he was coming to find me. That we would somehow make this work.

  I so wanted to believe him. And at night when we’d put the partying masses to bed and were curled up together I almost believed it. But I knew the score. I could see the other reps rolling their eyes and whispering about how I was just another one of Ryan’s girls. I wasn’t about to let myself hope.

  “Shhh… don’t spoil it.” I leant in and kissed him. Praying that I wouldn’t cry. It was just a light touch, but the sparks shot through me just as they always had. I backed away.

  “Don’t,” he whispered.

  He brought his hand up and stroked my hair. Then gently he kissed me. It was the sweetest kiss. My lips clung to his, unwilling to let go. Breathing fast we leant our foreheads together.

  “EasyJet flight 260 to London Stansted is now boarding at Gate 23.” The Spanish accented voice blared over the tannoy.

  “Don’t go” he gripped my head against his. “You could stay. Get a job in one of the bars here. Live with me. We could make this work.”

  And for one, crazy second I could see it. Ryan and I, the King and Queen of Magaluf. Living and loving, spending every night together. Laughing and kissing without any cares in the world.

  It was the most amazing dream… and it could only be a dream. I had ties to people at home. Strong and unbreakable, if they pulled them, which they’d have to, I’d be ripped away leaving chunks of me behind.

  Better to leave now when the damage would only be a scar that could heal.

  “Ryan, please no,” I pressed my hand against his cheek. Feeling the stubble there for the last time.

  I wrenched my head back and stood up, grabbing my bag. He stood too and towered over me. He was frowning and biting his lip.

  “Katie…” he said my name and I felt as if my heart would shatter.

  I wrapped my arms round his waist and held him, smoothed my hands over his back and breathed in the scent of him. The aftershave, sunscreen and salt, I would never smell them again without remembering him.

  And then we kissed. It was desperate pressure and gasping breaths as both held back the tears and then I turned to walk towards the gate. My legs were trembling.

  Don’t look back. Don’t look back. I told myself, but I couldn’t help it. I stopped and turned. He was standing there watching me, like I had torn his heart out.

  I don’t know why but I dropped my bag. I ran back, threw myself at him and one desperate touch of the lips later my heart shattered and left pieces of itself like shrapnel in his. Then with a sob, I peeled myself away and turned again and left, scooping up my bag as I carried on through security.

  I cried on the flight home. I could hear the whispering from my fellow travellers but I didn’t care. My perfect week was over.

  “Hello Katie! We’ve missed you.”

  There was another hug and kiss in an airport when I got back. A slobbery, snotty kiss from the other boy in my heart. I took my son from my mum’s arms and burrowed my nose in his neck to smell his little boy scent.

  “I’ve missed you too.” I hugged Nate closer, knowing I had made the right choice.

  “Did you have a nice time? Meet anyone special?” My mum winked.

  “No one worth talking about,” I lied, feeling the shards bury themselves deeper inside of me. I would always remember that last kiss.

  The End

  And don’t miss the second short story in The Kiss Collection …

  The First Kiss

  Available December 12th 2013

  Buy The First Kiss

  Love Romance?

  Try one of these other titles from HarperImpulse

  Buy Your Room or Mine

  Buy Waking Up in Vegas

  Buy The Keepers: Archer

  Buy Sinfully Summer

  Buy Confessions of a Chalet Girl

  Buy On the Scent

  Buy The Songbird & The Soldier

  Buy Do You Remember?

  Buy The Outlaw of Cedar Ridge

  About HarperImpulse

  HarperImpulse is an exciting new range of romance fiction brought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins. Our aim is to break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US, bringing you the very best in romance. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking.

  Romance readers, come and meet the team at our website www.harperimpulseromance.com, our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HarperImpulse or follow us @HarperImpulse!

  Writers, we are simply looking for good stories! So, what are you waiting for? To submit, e-mail us at [email protected].

  HarperImpulse an imprint of

  HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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w.harpercollins.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2013

  Copyright © Brigid Coady

  Cover Images © Shutterstock.com

  Brigid Coady asserts the moral right

  to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue record for this book is

  available from the British Library

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

  The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

  the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

  actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

  entirely coincidental.

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  and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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  Ebook Edition © November 2013

  ISBN: 9780007544332

  Version 2013-10-23

  Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.

  About the Publisher

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  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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  United States

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  Brigid Coady, The Last Kiss

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