Sand Castle Bay (Ocean Breeze) - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,78

closing her eyes in apparent ecstasy.

Boone chuckled. “I’m not sure you looked that thrilled when I was making love to you.”

She grinned at him. “Believe me, I was,” she assured him. “But this is pretty heavenly. Want some?”

“I think I’ll stick with the omelet,” he said, though he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the sight of her face as she moaned with pleasure over each bite.

“You keep that up and I’m taking you right back upstairs,” he warned. “You’re turning me on.”

“Not really. You’re just feeling oddly competitive, wondering if you can make me moan like this.”

“Sweetheart, you did your fair share of moaning upstairs. A little begging, too, as I recall.”

“Hmm. I don’t seem to remember that.”

“Trust me.”

“You might have to prove it,” she taunted.

When Boone took a step toward her, she held up a hand. “After the omelets.”

He laughed. “I swear I don’t remember you being such a tease.”

“Because we were never really together,” she said, her expression suddenly serious. “Not like this, with a whole house to ourselves and no curfew we have to meet. This is what it’s like to be together as adults.”

“And?” Boone asked, his heart in his throat.

She set down the ice cream container and stepped into his embrace, her arms circling his waist, her head resting against his shoulder. “It’s pretty darn amazing.”

Over her head, Boone allowed himself a relieved smile. It was amazing. And to think they were just getting started.

16

Boone was clearly anxious to get back over to Cora Jane’s before B.J. awoke. Even though it was barely daylight, he was pacing the whole time Emily was showering and dressing.

“I guess I was wrong last night,” she said eventually, frowning at him. “It seems we do have a curfew.”

“I just don’t want B.J. to wake up and start asking a lot of questions. He might not make anything of me not being there when he gets up, but if you’re nowhere around, either, what’s he going to think?”

“That I’ve gone for a walk?” she suggested mildly. “Or run to the store? I’m sure Cora Jane will have the perfect cover story.”

“And when you walk in wearing the same clothes you had on yesterday, don’t you think he’ll wonder about that?”

“Not unless he’s a lot more observant that most eight-year-old boys,” Emily said, but she did her best to hurry, because Boone was clearly freaking out.

In the car, she looked over at his set jaw and knew they had to deal with this. “Wait,” she commanded before he could start the engine.

He glanced at her. “What?”

“Boone, sneaking around when we were a couple of teenagers was one thing. Now, it’s not as much fun. I feel as if you don’t have a lot of respect for me or for what I thought we were trying to build here.”

Her words seemed to shake him, just as she’d intended.

“Em, you can’t believe I don’t respect you.”

“Right this second, this feels a whole lot like a casual, meaningless fling,” she countered. “The kind you wouldn’t want anyone to find out about.”

He looked genuinely upset by her words. “You couldn’t be further from the truth. You know I want us to have a future. There are just things we have to work out before we take this thing public, especially with my son. We agreed—”

“I’m reconsidering,” she said, cutting him off. “I don’t like the way this makes me feel. You just hustled me out of your house as if you’d hired me for the night and didn’t want a cost overrun.”

“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” he said, his temper obviously stirring.

“Okay, maybe that is going too far,” she conceded, “but I’m telling you how it made me feel.”

He sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. “What do you want from me, Em?”

“No more sneaking around,” she said firmly. “That’s my bottom line. We don’t have to throw this in anyone’s face, but I want to be able to have a cup of coffee or a drink with you in public without seeing a look of panic on your face every time we’re spotted by someone who knows us.”

“And B.J.? How do you see this working where he’s concerned?”

Because she understood Boone’s desire to protect his son, she softened her stance in that regard. “We won’t make a big deal of seeing each other in front of him. We’ll hang out with the family, go on an occasional outing with the three of us, stuff like that. No kissing,