Home party in her honor.
It’d been a long while since she’d been kissed by someone who wanted her as much as she wanted him. And oh, did she want him. Despite her thin arguments to the contrary. This close to him, she mused she could drown in his sea-green irises and not regret a thing…
“Elliott.” His voice was husky and low, his hand still cupping her face. “Is your answer still not yet?”
“My answer…” Her heart thrummed with excitement as she considered a host of possibilities. In the end, she went with the one she wanted most. “My answer is right now.”
A ping of certainty registered in her belly. She was sure, so sure. Feeling sure was a newer sensation. One that made her feel powerful and strong. She wanted to satisfy her own needs and his. A slow summer day’s worth of lazy kisses and sex so hot it’d scorch the earth sounded divine.
He took her hand as he stood and backed from the kitchen, his eyes on her. She followed.
“Point me to the nearest bedroom,” he told her as he lifted her into his arms and climbed the stairs.
“There,” she obliged with a rolling laugh.
Brady was safe. He was sexy. He was impermanent.
That made him perfect.
“I don’t usually do this.” She felt the need to explain as he set her on her feet in the guest bedroom.
“Then I’ll have to show you what you’ve been missing,” he said. Then he lit her afire with a kiss.
Chapter 12
She broke the kiss to sit on the bed, and a second later, all six-foot-something of Brady was over top of her. Tanned skin. Sun-kissed dark-blond hair. Trance-inducing green eyes. She caught his face in her hands and his lips with hers, pulling in a breath through her nose as he kissed her hard.
Her head was swimming with ideas—there were too many things she wanted to do, and all at once. A faint warning rang in the back of her head, reminding her to be smart. Not to get taken advantage of, and to maintain control before they spiraled out of it…
“Brady, wait,” she breathed.
He froze, his body taut, his arms locked straight as he held himself away from her. The desire was alive in his eyes and heavy in the erection resting against one of her legs. Just like that, he’d heeded her command. Having power after years of powerlessness was intoxicating. Her finger on his face, she traced the faint blond whiskers along his jaw.
“Second thoughts?” he asked.
She reconsidered before shaking her head. “None.”
She wasn’t going to be in the Cove forever. She would eventually go home to Chicago and find a job and an apartment. She was here to remember who she’d been before Neil had eroded her self-confidence. Since her stay in the Cove was going to be brief, this chance with Brady was once in a lifetime.
“What about you?” It seemed only fair to ask.
Brady chuckled, the deep sound encouraging. “Elli Bean, I am not having second thoughts.” He blew out a breath. “Can barely think about anything except what’s hiding under your bikini. He lifted the edge of her shirt and tickled his fingers along her bare belly.
“Good.” She pressed a fast kiss to his lips.
“Good.” He pulled her shirt over her head, and her ponytail canted to one side. She yanked the elastic from her hair as he whipped his own shirt off with one hand in a sexy, fisted, over-the-head grab. Even the way he took his shirt off was sexy.
She unclasped her bikini top, and he tossed the scrap of fabric over his shoulder, his smile feral. Again, her heart rate ratcheted up. She was crazy excited to take what she wanted. She wanted him.
Their mouths mated, his lips tugging at hers while his fingers mimicked the motion with first one of her nipples, then the other.
She shut her eyes, and sparks burst on the inside of her eyelids. She was lost in the sensations his seeking mouth and the rough pads of his fingers created. When his lips left hers and he suckled a nipple into his mouth, her mind blanked. When he kissed his way down her stomach, she thought her head might explode.
He rolled the bottoms of her swimsuit down her legs, his eyes dark and locked onto what he’d revealed. Standing at his full height, he stripped himself the rest of the way. She took a long look.
Long was a good word for him.
“I like the way you look