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kiss, and as the countdown had fallen she’d looked at the strangers around her and been ever so grateful when Joss had slipped his arm about her waist.
    Then, when she’d looked up at him, the world around her had melted away. The throng of people had become nonexistent as she’d waited with mounting apprehension for his lips to be pressed to hers. Now that they had she couldn’t believe the way her heart was pounding double time against her chest. Nor the way her stomach seemed to be flip-flopping with delight. Or the way her knees had turned to jelly, causing her to lean into him some more. The hard, solid muscle of his chest pressed up against her, filling her with overwhelming warmth and excitement.
    They were jostled again from behind, and Melissa stared up at Joss as he stared down at her. Both of them were looking at each other with wide-eyed shock and surprise. What was meant to be a brief peck of a New Year’s kiss had turned into something more…something untapped…something sensual.
    Fireworks were bursting high above them, spreading their colour, sound and smell far and wide in the cloudless night sky. As the loud bang from the explosions reverberated around them she felt as though her own set of fireworks were going off inside her. Honestly, what had just happened?
    ‘Right. Now, move over, Doc,’ a bloke said from just behind Joss. ‘It’s my turn.’
    ‘And then me,’ another said.
    ‘I’m next in line,’ chorused yet another.
    Joss broke his gaze from Melissa’s to turn and look at the men in question. ‘This isn’t a kissing booth,’ he joked as he took a step away from her, needing some distance. ‘You’ve gotta wait for the Australia Day Fair for that to happen.’ It was a throwaway line, and said in complete jest, but that wasn’t the way it was taken.
    ‘The new sheila doc’s doing a kissing booth at the Fair?’ one of them asked.
    ‘Whoo-ee!’ The other clapped his hands together. ‘I’ll be looking forward to that.’
    ‘No. That’s not what I mea—’ Joss tried, but it was too late. Word was spreading like wildfire, and he looked down at Melissa and shrugged.
    ‘There’s a kissing booth at the Australia Day Fair?’ she asked, a little perplexed at this town’s idiosyncrasies. ‘Bit outdated, isn’t it?’
    Joss crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Outdated, eh? What would you suggest in order to bring Didja into the present century? A booth where you can dunk someone in water?’
    ‘Well, why not? It’s still fun.’
    ‘Would you be willing to be dunked?’
    ‘Better than a kissing booth,’ she murmured, trying not to speak too loud in case she offended any of the men surrounding her. ‘And by outdated I meant that in this day and age, with knowledge about communicable diseases and the like…’
    ‘So you’re telling me you’ve just given me a disease?’
    ‘That’s not what I meant.’ Melissa sighed, feeling completely exasperated. What had happened in the last few seconds? One moment Joss had been kissing her, and now he seemed to be teasing her. She just didn’t understand.
    She hadn’t come here to become romantically involved with anyone. In fact, it was the last thing on her mind. One failed engagement was enough for her, and when Renulf had ended the engagement she’d once more been left all alone. Scared and alone. It had seemed to be the way her life was destined to be…until Dex had agreed to meet her. Therefore romantic entanglements were way, way down on her list of priorities.
    So where did that delicious kiss from Joss fit into her new world? He was her colleague, her new boss and her neighbour. He was Dex’s best friend. She shook her head, unableto believe she’d allowed herself to lose her head for a moment. She would forget it had ever happened. That was what she’d do. Joss certainly seemed unaffected by it. And yet…the feel of his mouth brushing across hers was still so very real, so very new, and her heart was still