For Seven Nights Only - Sarah Ballance Page 0,60
something. This is big.” He eased to the floor, explaining, “I really don’t want to ruin this by accidentally looking outside and seeing water.”
“Nice life jacket.” Yeah, joke around. Like you can breathe. Like your whole world doesn’t hinge on this man. And quite possibly this moment.
“The life jacket stays. Now where was I?” He grinned. The boat dipped, erasing the grin, but he managed to hang on. “I am not the man I used to be. You changed me.”
Straight to the chase. And the lies. “I saw you two days ago with a blonde in your lap.”
“She wasn’t invited. A second later, she was gone. I almost went up to you, but that wouldn’t have been fair. I wasn’t the man you needed.”
She frowned. “Did you come here to tell me that?”
“No. I came here to tell you I was wrong. That the reason I spent my entire life running from relationships wasn’t because I didn’t want one. It was because I hadn’t found you. And I wanted you to know that.”
A teardrop slipped down her cheek. Dammit. He was a pro at feeding lines, and unlike two weeks ago, she wasn’t starving. But the man had braved water for her, and he hadn’t been faking his aversion to that.
He offered a gentle smile. “Kelsie, baby, you made me want something more. Hell, you made me come out on the water to get it. So in light of that, I’d like to ask you something very important.”
“If you ask me to marry you,” she said, “I’m going to kick you.”
“Noted for future reference,” he said. “For now, Kelsie Reed, will you do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend?”
She blinked. “Are you serious?”
“Serious enough to go to the opera, if that’s what it takes. And the library and the museum, too. I’ll even let Minidick gnaw on my ankle. Hell, Kelsie. I’ll even eat your cooking. I just want to be with you. Just you and me.”
“Oh, Sawyer,” she sniffled. “I won’t make you eat my cooking.”
“Good, because that was more of a bluff.”
She punched him playfully in the arm, mostly to hide the fact that she was about to dissolve into a puddle on the floor. She settled for letting him pull her down into his arms.
“I’m in no position to say I know what love is,” he said against her ear, “but I want to find out. I want to find out with you.”
“Just as long as you don’t give up being a sex guy,” she joked. “You know, I have an idea about this boat situation.”
“What’s that?”
She stood, crossed the small cabin, and double-checked the lock, then returned to him and took his hand, drawing him to his feet.
“Standing isn’t a good idea, sweetheart.”
“Find something to hold on to,” she said, working his zipper. “I think we need to give you a new water-related memory.” She tugged him out of his pants and closed her mouth on him, drawing him deep to the back of her throat.
“I like the way you think,” he muttered as she worked her tongue against him. “Oh, fuck, that feels good. You’re not going to convince me you’re inexperienced.”
She drew back just enough to say, “Who said I was inexperienced at this? I believe we established dating was my problem.”
“Not funny.” He rocked his hips until he was free of her, then pulled her to her feet. “And if you don’t want your makeup messed up, I suggest you finish that later.”
“New boat memories,” she protested.
“Done.” With that, he kissed her, hard, and walked her backward until they hit the sofa. Then he gently pulled her down into his lap. He rearranged her dress and immediately his mouth covered her nipple, his tongue twisting tight circles over the stiff peak, cruelly heightening the sensitivity until she thought she’d burst. And he completely ignored everything else. As that intrepid, incessant ache buried itself into the deepest parts of her, he oh-so-casually licked and nibbled at her feverish skin like she was a melting ice cream cone.
She was definitely a melting something.
“Well, I certainly have a new fondness for boats,” she murmured.
“Me, too.” Then he kissed her, deep and tender, his mouth moving against hers in a sensual caress that turned her insides to gelatin. His clothing brushed against the breast he’d exposed, leaving her nipple tight and needy, but he rushed nothing. His fingertips hadn’t so much as brushed the ache hammering between her legs, and while she knew the contact would