Chapter 9 #5
“Are you enjoying this?” she asked testily. Did he have any idea how much courage it had taken for her to kiss him in the first place?
“Oh yeah. Very much so. The seep of cold, wet sand at my back and warm, soft woman at my front… What’s not to enjoy?”
“Do you want me to get off you?”
“Absolutely not.”
His smile was contagious. “Are you going to tell me what I want to know?”
“Are you going to kiss me like you mean it?”
“Will that get me the information I want?”
“You’ll have to do it to find out.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Mr. McCarthy.”
He tilted his hips suggestively, pressing his erection against her belly. “Very hard.”
Knowing he was turned on and that she’d done that to him filled her with confidence as she tipped her head and brought her lips down on his again, this time keeping her mouth slightly open.
She slid her lips over his, back and forth several times until his arms tightened around her.
On the next pass, she dabbed her tongue lightly over his bottom lip, drawing a groan from him.
“Abby,” he gasped. “Stop teasing me.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“You know you are.”
She smiled at him, enjoying the teasing. Had kissing ever been so fun? Not that she could recall. There was something to be said for playful fun that had nothing to do with building something that might—or might not—last forever. This was about right now, right here, and it felt pretty damned good.
Abby decided to show him some mercy, kissing him again like she meant it this time, sending her tongue into his mouth to tease and flirt.
For the longest time, she wondered if he was going to respond in kind.
And then his hand was in her hair, anchoring her to him as he rolled them over, taking control of the kiss.
Her world was reduced to the cocoon of his body sheltering hers from the sunlight.
It didn’t matter that they were making out in the middle of the day in a place where they might be seen by anyone.
It didn’t matter that he was Grant’s brother or that they were nursing broken hearts.
All of that faded away as he took possession of her mouth in sweeping, passionate kisses that had her pressing against him intimately, asking for more.
Their tongues met and mated in an erotic dance that made her nipples tighten, wishing he would notice them.
He pulled back from her abruptly, staring down at her with a dazed look on his face. “Wow.”
She couldn’t seem to look at anything other than his sexy mouth. “Yeah, wow.”
“Can we do that again?”
“I don’t have anywhere to be today.” Until Mac and Luke finished their work on the gift shop at the Surf, she was free and clear. “Do you?”
He shook his head and came back for more, kissing her until her lips were numb and her body aching for fulfillment. As if he knew that, he shifted ever so slightly, pressing his erection into the V of her legs.
She cursed the jeans he’d made her wear for putting a barrier between them.
Since she couldn’t have what she really wanted, she sent her hands on an exploration of his muscular body.
Reaching the hem of his jacket, she delved underneath, seeking skin as his tongue explored her mouth in great detail.
When her fingers made contact with his back, Adam gasped and flexed his hips, letting her know what her touch did to him.
He broke the kiss and turned his focus to her neck. “God, Abby… I want to kiss you everywhere. I never expected…”
“What didn’t you expect?”
“This. You. Us.”
“It’s pretty hot, huh?”
“Ah yeah, you could say that.” He combed his fingers through her hair, making her scalp tingle.
“We could go for a swim to cool off.”
“You’re not letting that go, are you?”
“You’re not afraid, are you?” she asked with a challenging smile.
“Maybe a little.”
“Of what?”
“Of what might happen if we get naked together. I’d prefer a little privacy when that happens the first time. After those kisses, I can’t be responsible for my actions.”
It was, Abby discovered, a huge turn-on to realize he was wrestling with his attraction to her and trying to do the right thing. “If you tell me about being arrested, I’ll let you kiss me again when we’re back at my room.”
His eyes heated with desire that fueled hers. “In that case, I might tell you there once was a college spring-break trip to Florida that might’ve resulted in a night in jail that my parents still don’t know about because I was over eighteen at the time.”
“Ooooh, blackmail! I love it!”
“You wouldn’t…”
“Don’t give me reason to.”
“I’ve been warned. You’d kill my reputation and make Mac’s life complete. As far as my family knows, he’s the only one who’s ever been arrested.”
“For flattening mailboxes with Joe. That story is McCarthy family legend.”
“So you see how important it is that they never find out about me.”
She snuggled into his embrace. “You’d better be nice to me.”
“I have a feeling that being nice to you is going to be very easy to do.”
Abby smiled, pleased with him, with their day so far, and filled with anticipation about what else might happen before the sun went down.