“Me too. And I like your honesty.” He rolled onto his side, and she didn’t hide her appreciation for the flex of his six-pack or the hard, wide planes of his chest as he preenedforher.
Men. They were all the same, from peacocks to gorillas to Navy SEALs. She wanted to rub him behind his ears and call him agoodboy.
Maybe if they continued to get along like this, she’d get an opportunity to do exactly thatlater.
“Like right now, for example.” His gaze was hard and challenging. “I want you to tell me what you’rethinking.”
“So bossy,” she murmured, glad she was wearing her sunglasses still. “And that’s usuallymyjob.”
“So you told meyesterday.”
“And you said you wanted toknowmore.”
“Ido.”
She stood abruptly. “I’m hungry. Would you like to havelunch?”
When he stood up—and up, and up, towering over and around her in the most delicious way—he took his time answering. But when he did, it was exactly the right response. “I’d love to. Where are youtakingme?”
She pointed down the beach, back towards her resort. They took their time walking there. He swung around her, taking the surf side of the hard-packed sand along the water’s edge. The slope evened out their height difference a bit, and as they zigged and zagged around swimmers and children playing in the sand, their arms brushedrepeatedly.
If she were any other woman, she was quite sure Quinn would have tried to hold her hand. If she was any other woman, she’d totally have let him, and maybe even angled for thatherself.
But even more delicious than holding his hand was the tension that zinged between them because she didn’t. Anticipation and promise were the stuff that really amped her up, and Quinn gave her both inspades.
She just hoped he liked it as much asshedid.
As they neared her resort, she moved away from the water. He followed. Not a fan of distance between them, she noted. So she’d reward him with nearness and punish him bypullingaway.
She frowned to herself. She didn’t like the idea of punishing Quinn. This wasn’t going to be like that. He hadn’t said anything about impact play, but that wasn’t her core desire, anyway. Making him wait, yes. That turned her on in a big way. Making him suffer held noappeal.
“They do an awesome fire-roasted pizza here,” she said, pointing to the cafe that jutted out over therocks.
“Sounds fantastic,” he said with aneasygrin.
Her heart turned into a puddle of goo. It was good he wasn’t a submissive, because she’d have to twist herself into a pretzel to see a way to punish Quinn Parry. He was far tooagreeable.
All of that—his personality, her reaction to it, and the general confusion he stirred inside her—all pushed her out of her normal flirting routine and into more ordinary chatter as they ate. TV shows, travel, food preferences and the latest YouTube video they’d both busted agutover.
“Did you see the follow-up, with the dog?” she asked Quinn as he reached across to snag her last piece ofpizza.
He gave her a shameless wink as he sat back in her chair. “Nope. Must have missed it. Maybe you can show melater.”
“Sure.”
“Maybe you can show me other things you like on theinternet,too.”
She laughed. “Is that your way of suggesting we watch porntogether?”
“Hell yes. I bet you’ve got some very creativetastes.”
“Maybe they don’t make porn for how creative my tastes get,” she said, teasing alittle.
He shook his head. “Not possible. Rulethirty-four.”
She groaned and nodded her head.“If it exists, there is porn of it – no exceptions.”She recited it like she was reading the Urban Dictionary definition. “So you are a geek,afterall.”
“Sure am. A kink geek. Collector of freaky porn and totally open toanything.”
