A Magnolia Friendship - Anne-Marie Meyer Page 0,52

until I was facing Danny. He looked surprised, but he didn’t loosen his grasp on me. Instead, his hands found the small of my back, and he held me there. Despite my desire to move his hands so he couldn’t feel the rolls that resided there, I pushed those thoughts away and lingered against his chest.

My hands found his chest, and I sprawled my fingers out so I could feel his muscles, his breathing, and his heart beating in time with mine. He was as nervous as I was—which made me happy. I wasn’t alone in my insecurities.

“Do you want to see what happiness looks like to me?” I asked as I allowed my gaze to trail from his eyes down to his lips, where the desire to kiss them burned inside of me.

“Yes,” he said, his voice turning husky.

So I acted. I threw aside all of my worries and doubts as I rose up onto my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. At first, I wasn’t sure what to do. Had I shocked him? He wasn’t moving, and neither was I. It was as if we were each trying to figure out the other.

And then slowly, softly, Danny brought his hand up to my cheek and cradled it. He began to move his lips against mine. That was all the confirmation I needed. I dragged my hands up his chest to the nape of his neck and entwined my fingers in his hair.

He groaned and parted his lips. His tongue slid into my mouth, which only caused the hunger inside of me to intensify. I wanted this. No, I needed this. Excitement mixed with fear was an intoxicating concoction. Part of me knew I needed to back away while the other part wanted more.

So much more.

His hands found my waist, and he pressed them into my back, pulling me closer to him. I could feel his body’s warmth as it washed over mine. I wanted to touch and feel every part of him.

Throwing caution to the wind, I fisted his shirt in my hands as I pulled him down to the sandy ground beneath us. He chuckled as he obediently followed. I lay on the ground as Danny towered over me. His hip was against my side, but his arms were around me as they caged me in.

His lips never left mine as we fell into a dance. His tongue played against mine, causing my heart to pound out of control. This was what kissing felt like. This was what it felt like to be wanted by a man. I’d never felt this kind of passion from Craig. This fire of desire that raged inside of me.

I wanted more of Danny. I wanted all of Danny.

When he broke the kiss, I groaned, pulling myself up to meet him again. He chuckled as he obliged me for a moment longer before breaking off. “I need a minute,” he said. He didn’t move to get off of me. Instead, he lingered above me, smiling as his gaze raked over my face.

I suddenly felt shy. Never in my life had I allowed myself to be so open and so raw with someone else. I’d shown him my heart, and now I was terrified what he was going to do with it.

“Why the furrow?” he asked as he dusted off his hands and used the tips of his fingers to trace the center of my brows.

“Furrow?” I asked, reaching up to feel my forehead.

He nodded. “You look worried.”

I swallowed, hating that my insecurities were so plainly written across my face. I closed my eyes for a moment as I took in a deep breath. I needed to be confident. Danny was going to be turned off by me if I wasn’t the confident woman that he deserved.

“I’m not worried,” I said quietly.

His lips pressed against mine, startling me into opening my eyes once more. But he didn’t move to end the kiss, so I fell into the confidence that I got from being next to him. A confidence that came from having him care for me.

I lost myself in our kiss. I lost myself in the way that I felt for him. I lost myself in the strength that I gained from having him next to me. The strength I got from the idea that, perhaps, I was no longer confined by the life I thought I had to live, and instead, I could live the one that I wanted to live.

The