“Put your legs around me,” he said against my mouth.
“I am wearing a dress, sir.”
“I know.” He bunched the material, dragging it higher to cup my ass. “Ah, man. Thong? You know my weakness for those.”
I grinned at him. I sure did. “Didn’t want my panty line to show. But you better not steal these. Hmm, who do I call when the sheriff is a klepto?”
“Wiseass. You’re going to kill me.”
I wrapped my legs around him and locked my ankles at the small of his back. “But we’re outside, Sheriff.”
“Why are you calling me Sheriff so much all of a sudden?”
I quickly tucked a lock of my whipping hair around my ear. “Maybe I like it.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you like seeing me go a little crazy? Lose my professional control?”
“Maybe.” Okay, definitely.
He nibbled my lip. “With all the mayhem inside, I forgot to ask about the shower. How was it?”
“Good. Tiring. Erica was fretting a bit, but she’s still a glowing, excited mama-to-be.” I smiled. “I’m much happier to be here right now.”
Here we were on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and he was actually with me. Not worried about going back to the station, not distracted with some endless chore in town, or some training he thought he had to catch up on.
Just me.
Just him.
Just a cloudless blue sky and the water lapping around us.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked huskily.
He strode down the dock. “I’m going to violate my brother’s boat.”
I let out a strangled half scream and half laugh as he jumped onto Mason’s boat. It rocked with the force of us both hitting the deck. The bouts of unseasonably warm fall weather had made for a longer than usual boating season. It was a large pontoon boat made for long summer days on the lake. I knew, since I’d been on it many times with his family in the year since Mason had returned to the Cove.
Most of the time without Jared, since he was married to the badge. But there had been a lot of amazing memories made on it. And just maybe, we could make one more.
I slid down him slowly, every breathtaking muscled inch of him, until my heels hit the deck. He held up a finger then moved to the front of the boat. He crouched in front of the small locker and swore a few times as he spun the dial on the old-school combination lock.
I twisted my wildly flying hair into a loose tail over my shoulder. There wasn’t much to the boat, but what it lacked in amenities, it boasted in space. My heels clicked along the slip-resistant flooring as I crossed to the railing to look out on the vast Crescent Lake. Houses dotted the landscape in the distance. This side of the lake wasn’t as populated and was almost desolate this time of year. The beach was public, but it was most definitely the off-season.
His warm hand slid along my middle, sneaking into the loose folds of my wrap dress to cup my breast before pulling me back to rest against his chest. “Do you want me to take you back?”
“No, why?” I twisted my neck to look up at him.
“You look a little sad.” With his other hand, he played with the tie of my dress at my hip.
“Just thinking about how lonely it feels out here. There’s always so much going on in town. Why I love your house so much. It’s away from everything and so quiet.”
He dropped a kiss along my shoulder and slowly moved up my neck. “Ahh, but I’m never lonely with you, Bee. Ever.”
I sighed. “No. Even before we…” I swallowed. What? We had been moving so incredibly fast I didn’t really know what to call us. I just knew he was the love of my life. “Before we were an us.”
He hugged me tighter. “I can’t believe it took me so long to make a move. Without Sami, I wonder if I would have.”
I laid my head back against his chest. “We both were afraid to ruin anything. I’m trying not to be afraid anymore.”
“Of me?”
“Of losing you.”
Of you finding out that I may never be everything you need.
“You’ll never lose me.” He turned me into his arms and his kiss was firm and fierce. “Never.”
I went onto my toes and held on. I let him sweep me up into his arms, into the wildly raging passion that