He snorted. “May I call you Lilah?”
“You’re going to anyway,” she groused.
“True.” He caught her gaze and held it. “Here’s what you need to understand.”
“What?”
“I brought you pleasure, and to express regret for that would be a lie.”
“Oh.”
The awareness that ever simmered between them heated up by a degree.
Again, here was that urge to reach out and pull her close and press his mouth to hers.
But he kept his hand still at his side.
She bit her bottom lip between her teeth and released it. A new light shone in her eyes. One he’d only observed from a distance. This light had never been directed at him…until a week ago.
And now, again.
A wild light.
“You never told me what my price for the return of your clothes should’ve been,” she near whispered.
Why was she pushing this—pushinghim? For the knowledge of his unanswered price shone in her eyes.
Then it occurred to him—walloped him over the head, really.
Here she was, voicingdesire.
Here was her enthusiasticyes.
She wanted to pay the price.
He lifted his hand and slid his fingers through short, loose curls around to the nape of her neck. He angled forward, invading her space, so his mouth was only a whisper’s breath away. “This.”
Sweet.
That was his first impression of Delilah.
Her lips tasted of summer sunshine and fresh strawberries and salt picked up from the ocean breeze.
She tasted of everything he’d ever wanted in a kiss.
He swiped his tongue across her bottom lip. She gasped, then smiled against his mouth. She liked that. He did it again, and her tongue ventured out to meet his, its tip sliding across his lower lip, tangling with him.
Of course, these weren’t the first lips of Delilah’s that he’d experienced.
His cock, which had been at half-mast since he’d first spotted her in the dunes, went hard as stone.
And so, too, had those lips been wet.
He pulled her closer on a growl.
He’d never growled in his life.
But he was now.
