Chapter One #3
“To everyone in town, you are.” She gazed out at the meadow and he took the moment to study her profile unabashedly.
Pretty upturned nose, thick lashes surrounding those dark eyes, and rounded cheeks.
Not model-status but cute in that girl-next-door way.
Funny because that’s what she’d been, living a few doors down from their house.
Her mom still lived there, as did his parents.
“And if people I know aren’t taking off with their careers, they’re getting married, settling down and having kids. ”
“You want all that.”
She turned to him again. “Doesn’t everyone?”
Hell, no. “Not me.”
Chloe frowned. “Well, you already have your career. So I’m sure that’s satisfying enough.”
Hell, no again, but he didn’t feel like arguing with her. “You’re not satisfied?”
“I love my job, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy teaching and I like that the school is so small,” she explained. “It feels like I’m close with everyone, you know what I mean?”
He knew exactly what she meant. It was more than half the reason he escaped Lone Pine Lake in the first place. Everyone knew him, everyone knew his private business, and there was no escaping it.
So he’d left.
“But I always feel like I’m missing out.
What, I’m not exactly sure.” She laughed as if she’d embarrassed herself.
“I know it sounds silly, yet I can’t help the way I feel.
Like there’s something deep within me that longs to be free.
I want to explore, have an adventure, do something shocking, you know?
” A soft sigh escaped her. “I’m stuck here.
Teaching, taking care of my mom, fixing up my little house.
I have no business complaining. It’s a good life, if not an exciting one. Sometimes.”
She wasn’t excited and he’d had enough adventure to last twenty lifetimes. “You’re not happy?”
“I’m happy. Enough.” She sighed again, the sound zinging him straight in the heart. He rubbed his chest. “Funny how that word doesn’t sound like enough.”
He agreed, which threw him for a loop, because he hadn’t thought he had anything in common with Chloe Dawson.
Another song started up, a slow, romantic tune, and again he thought of asking her to dance. Pull her into his arms and hold her close. Whisper in her ear that he could show her an adventure if she only asked…
“I’m boring you with my silly issues.” She waved a hand, dismissing them. “I’m sorry. I should go back inside.”
She started to walk away but he stopped her, curling his hand around the crook of her elbow. Her skin was soft, silky. His knuckles brushed against her chest, sending a shockwave through him that rendered him completely still.
“You’re not boring,” he murmured. “Everyone moves at a different pace. Everyone has a different purpose. I think you might’ve already found yours.”
She swallowed hard. He saw the delicate movement of her throat. Without thought, he drew his thumb across the inside of her upper arm, swore he felt her shiver from his touch. Electricity crackled and sparked between them, heady and fluid, and he drew her closer. Closer…
“I should go inside,” she repeated, her voice shaky. “I sound like such a baby, complaining when one of my dearest friends just got married. Your sister. God, you must think I’m completely selfish…”
He cut her off with his lips, rendering her completely silent. She did talk too much. Way too damn much…but she also seemed sad.
A little lost.
And he could relate. Despite her thinking he had it together, he didn’t. He was as lost as she, maybe even more so.
Holy hell, she tasted good. He kissed her again, softly, seeking. Testing her, testing himself. He withdrew, studying her upturned face. Her eyes were closed, her hand gripped his forearm as if she needed to for support. Such a sweet, sexy offering, he couldn’t resist.
And so he settled his mouth on hers one more time, deepening the kiss. Her lips parted, opening to him, until he touched his tongue to hers and she responded in kind. A murmur of pleasure escaped her as he pulled her into his arms, his tongue delving, his hands skimming along her curves.
She tasted of sunshine and innocence. And beneath that, an aroused, sexy woman. It had been a long time for him—more than a year, what with everything that had happened, which meant she was temptation personified.
Her voluptuous body pressed into his, her breasts nestled to his chest, her slender hands clung to his shoulders. He slipped his arm around her waist, slid his hand lower, over her curvy backside, desperate to pull her fully into his body and show her exactly what she was doing to him…
Reality crashed over Cam, a wet blanket that immediately chilled his mood. What the hell was he doing, kissing Chloe Dawson? Miss Dreaming of White Picket Fences was so not the woman he should be doing this with.
He shouldn’t be kissing anyone who lived within the vicinity of Lone Pine Lake, let alone their homegrown elementary schoolteacher.
Cam broke the kiss, his breathing hard, his mind awhirl. Chloe reared back, her breathing as irregular as his, her lips damp and swollen. “Sorry,” he muttered, feeling like a jackass.
She squinted. “Sorry?”
Now he felt even more like a jackass. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Done what? Kiss me?” She withdrew from him completely, his hands falling away from her. “If you say next it was a mistake, I’m going to kick you in the nuts.”
He wanted to laugh. He was also seized by a not too irrational fear of her pointed shoes. “Not a mistake. More like an impulse.”
Chloe frowned. “An impulse?”
She asked a lot of questions and expected him to explain. How could he when he had zero explanation for why he’d kissed her? “You just…you know. Looked a little sad. Said you were looking for an adventure.”
“And kissing you was supposed to be some sort of grand adventure? To plain little ol’ me?” She scowled.
Okay, now she was mad—and maybe embarrassed, considering the pink tinge to her cheeks. But maybe that was better. “I didn’t mean…”
“Or maybe you felt sorry for me. Is that it?” She was fuming now. Her eyes were glassy and her face flushed. Or maybe the flushed face was from the amazing kiss he’d just laid on her, he didn’t know. But damn, she was prettier than ever.
Which meant he was a sick, twisted bastard.
“I—” he started but was interrupted by the DJ’s announcement from inside the reception hall.
“Everyone gather around, we’re about to cut the cake!”
Chloe sent him one last long, withering look before she turned away from him. “I should go.”
“Chloe.” She didn’t acknowledge him. Merely turned on her heel and fled into the darkness.
Leaving him there alone, his breathing ragged, his mouth swollen. Hell, his lips actually tingled and his body was tense, on fire for her, and he could do nothing about it.
Shit.