On the Run (Whispering Key #2) - May Archer Page 0,42

I’m gonna talk to a guy I know at the Fish and Wildlife Commission as soon as we get back and make sure—mmmph!”

I broke off as Toby launched himself almost into my lap, whacking my forehead with the bill of his hat—my hat—as he pressed his mouth to mine. If my hand hadn’t been braced on the tiller, I might have toppled off the back of the boat out of sheer surprise… and then out of pure, unadulterated want.

Toby’s kiss was sweet, crystal perfection, more invigorating than cold water on a hot day. Without conscious thought, my hand slid up into his hair, knocking the hat off his head, his mouth opened over mine, and every one of my brain cells powered down in a chain reaction, like a video I once saw of a power outage rolling through a city.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. Toby scrambled backward into his seat and grabbed his hair with two hands.

“Sorry! Fuck. Sorry. I specifically told you I wasn’t going to jump you and I did, and just fuck. But that was so… and you were so… and I’m really not cut out for adventure.” He stared at me and panted for a second. “Which is not an excuse, I know it’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation. Because I have a low tolerance for adrenaline?” He stared down at his fingers, which he knit together and pulled apart. “And now I’m babbling when I never babble. I blame Florida. At least partly. I’m really not at my best here.”

He peered up at me, gauging my reaction. Trouble was, I had no idea how to react. I knew what I should feel, but I couldn’t deny the deep coil of need that unfurled in my belly, stronger than anything I’d felt last night, or this morning, or ever before.

“Say something,” Toby insisted worriedly. “Call me out or throw me overboard. I mean, don’t actually throw me overboard, please, just—”

I grabbed him by his T-shirt and hauled him toward me to kiss him again.

Our lips slotted together perfectly, and Toby groaned. Those smooth, soft hands kneaded the muscles of my thighs over my shorts, and I gasped against his mouth. I cradled his jaw in both palms so I could hold him still and settle in to savor the shocking rightness of our tongues gliding together.

Toby made a breathless, encouraging noise and fit himself against me as much as possible while balancing his ass on his seat. One of his cool hands reached up to cover mine on his face, and the other reached under my shirt to splay against my lower back. For once I was enjoying myself too much to care about what came next or worry about what I ought to be doing. I was all in.

Which of course was when we hit something in the water that launched the tender half a foot in the air. I grabbed Toby around the waist and pulled him down to the bottom of the boat, covering him with my body and pulling the safety key from the motor. The engine stalled.

We lay there for a second, staring at each other in the sudden quiet, legs tangled as the boat rode the swells. Toby looked every bit as stunned as I felt, and I couldn’t tell if it was adrenaline, or the kiss, or both, but my cock was suddenly hard as a rock, and if either of us moved an inch, Toby would know it.

I immediately rolled off him and sat up, bracing myself on the stern of the boat and looking out into the turquoise water to see if I could spot what we’d hit. It looked like a giant piece of driftwood bobbing nearby.

“Was it another boat?” Toby croaked, crowding in beside me. “Or a giant fish?”

I couldn’t meet his eyes as I reattached the safety chain and restarted the motor. “Fish are smart enough to get out of the way. It was debris in the water. Pieces of shipwrecks and old docks get shaken loose by storms and tides and float to the surface. Which is why you have to be watching for it.”

And I hadn’t been.

I sucked in a huge lungful of air and blew it out, forcing my muscles to loosen. In my entire life, I’d never not paid attention while I was manning the tiller of the boat. That was Safety 101. Inviolable. The very thing I’d just cursed at the people