Chapter 5
Tori
You’ve been in Jacksonville for three weeks, and you’re already seeing someone?” my brother, Cash, asked.
I held the phone against my shoulder and tied my sneaker. “Yes, and before you hound me, he’s a good guy. Proper gentleman, good upbringing.” Even if I suspected there was something more that he wasn’t telling me. “He treats me really well, Cash.”
“Better,” he grumbled. “I don’t want to have to fly down there to hurt him.”
My eyes rolled as I sat back up. “You’re so overprotective. I’m twenty-four, not eighteen.”
“Still young,” he mumbled.
“I’m fine, Cash. He’s taking me to the zoo today.”
“Jacksonville has a zoo?”
I checked my hair one more time and headed into my living room. “Yes. I’m told it’s really nice. Although I’m not sure how nice walking around in hundred-degree weather will be.”
“That sounds miserable,” he groused. “I think I’d rather spend the day getting a root canal.”
“Dramatic much?” I teased.
Gabe’s knock had excitement stirring in my stomach. “I gotta go, Cash. He’s here.”
“You tell him he better keep his hands to himself,” he threatened as I opened the door and accidentally hung up on him without saying goodbye.
My breath caught as Gabe’s hazel eyes met mine. Dressed in black shorts and a tan polo shirt that emphasized his sculpted arms, he was almost too hot. He had his hands tucked in his pockets like he was nervous, and it added an adorable touch to the hotness. If this had been the seventeen hundreds, I would have swooned. As it was, my knees didn’t seem too steady.
“Morning,” he said, his eyes dropping to peruse my body in a heated gaze. “You look entirely too sexy to share.”
He took a step in and gathered me into his arms the way only Gabe could. “I didn’t know sharing was on the table,” I said, smoothing my hands over his chest.
“It isn’t.” Terse and deep, that response was like a claim of ownership. His mouth was on mine before I could respond, and his kiss rushed through me like a rogue wave. I may have swooned because I swore if he released me, I would have tumbled to the floor.
Kissing was all we’d done, but Gabe’s kisses were enough to leave me satiated for hours. Still after three weeks, he hadn’t made a move to go further, and as much as I wanted him to, it endeared him to me more. It almost seemed like he was holding himself back, but I didn’t know why.
“I’m tempted to keep you home, so no one sees how delicious you look,” he said as our lips untangled. His hand skirted over my bare back, causing goosebumps to rise on my skin. “Did you put sunscreen on?”
I scrunched my eyes trying to figure out if his change in focus was for his benefit or mine. I would have preferred it remained on my skin.
“Yes, all but my back where I couldn’t reach.”
Giving me a kiss on the nose, he left me there after spotting the sunscreen on the counter. Squeezing some onto his hand, he tugged on one of my braids before pushing it over my shoulder. I’d wrangled my hair into two French braids that unfortunately aged me down so that I was certain I looked like I was still in college or worse, high school.
I inhaled when he kissed the back of my neck. “You need to protect this delicate northern skin,” he said, dragging his mouth down my shoulder.
“We can’t all have that ‘I live at the beach’ tan like you do,” I quipped, trying my best not to melt at his feet as he bit my shoulder gently.
“I haven’t been to the beach in years.”
I tried to turn, but he stopped me with a caress of his hand down my back. Shivering, I replied, “How do you live so close to the beach and never go?” And that meant his gorgeous, tanned skin was natural. I remembered him saying his mother had Italian roots, a heritage passed down to him in more than her cooking.
“Never had a beautiful woman to go with me.” A slide of his finger down my spine as he applied the sunscreen had my pulse racing.
His mouth traced the back of my neck as another finger slid down my exposed skin.
“So maybe it’s time to change that since I have one now,” he continued, causing a blaze of heat in me that sent an icy-hot sensation over my body.
