He needed to fix this. Fast.
“Okay.” He lowered his hand and extended it. “Let’s take it from the top, like last night never happened. Hi, I’m Jack Fialko.”
* * *
Zoe stared down at his outstretched hand and weighed the possibilities. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing the sinewy muscles of his forearms. Every time they touched, she melted like ice cream on a heated summer sidewalk.
Her knees knocked and her heart pounded. Better to just turn and walk away. Didn’t she already have a full plate of emotional issues? But for the first time in her life, desire raced through her veins like a brush fire.
She took his hand. Sparks radiated through her arm, causing her body to tingle and her thighs to tense. She grew wet between her legs. The breeze blew off the ocean and further hardened the points under her wet bathing suit top. When she tried to pull out of his grip, he gently held her back.
“Let it happen, angel. Feel it.” He whispered to her in the wind. “It’s nature’s way, witch to witch.”
Heat raced down her back through her limbs. She stared up at him, feeling a mixed sense of vulnerability and power. Her body screamed for more. Why not just jump into bed with him? They were both grown adults. She might never feel this sexual pull again.
She shook her head and slipped her hand from his firm grip, common sense and self-preservation winning over lust.
“I’m Zoe Burton. Nice to meet you, Jack. But we’re done here. I don’t think I’m up for your weird courting. The way I recall, it seems to me you were pretty disinterested last night.”
His stunned silence was the perfect opportunity to turn tail and run like hell. The small voice that had moments ago declared she needed to have sex was wrong. Very wrong.
Jack was on her heals in less than a millisecond. Before she knew what was happening his hands were around her waist. He held her with one hand strained against her lower back, while the other grasped the hair at the nape of her neck, his mouth so close to hers that she could feel his hot breath on her lips.
“Don’t run from me, Zoe.”
She started to protest, but his kiss silenced her words. He was surprisingly gentle. If the man had made any other move, she would have continued to resist, but the sweetness knocked her off balance.
Jack groaned, took her chin in his hand, and forced her to look into his eyes. “Are we settled on the question of whether or not I’m interested?”
His cock pressed against her stomach and his heart thumped in counterpoint to the wind and waves. She stared back into dark pools of desire. When his lips met hers again, she couldn’t help but open up to him. His tongue swept into her mouth, creating a fire she couldn’t control.
His gaze sharpened when they came up for air. “You can feel it. The connection. I know you can.”
“Yes…No…” How was she to know anything when he was touching her? “I don’t know.”
He went for a deeper kiss, tasting and playing. His tongue did delicious things inside her mouth, and his teeth nipped at her lower lip. She arched against him, his touch overriding her common sense.
She couldn’t think straight, and she sure as hell couldn’t fight the attraction when he was kissing her. With every ounce of self-respect she had left, she pushed away, stumbling back on the warm sand.
He lowered his chin, eyes narrowing. “Zoe–”
“No.” She held her hand up to stop his approach. “No more touching. No more kissing. Not until you tell me what’s happening between us.”
He sat on the bench’s top edge, then patted the seat next to him. “Sit.”
She carefully considered the request and took a seat as far away as possible.
He chuckled. “I don’t bite.”
Zoe frowned and shook the sand off her dress. “That remains to be seen.”
The man kept smiling, and the dimple dug deeper into the muscle of his cheek. The wind tossed a roguish lock of hair over one eye.
“I assume Olivia gave you the book to read?”
She nodded and eyed him warily. “You really believe there is something between us?”
“You tell me.” His voice went gravelly and low, like her favorite jazz sax player. “What causes that kind of want in the warring clan during the solstice?”
