“Well, good night, Jack,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
He nodded. “Give me a few minutes, will you? Don’t leave until I get back.”
Stella leaned against the counter while she waited. In an unexpected moment of foolishness, she gave herself permission todaydream about what it would be like to kiss Jack. Without much effort, her imagination took off on feathery wings. Minutes later, her eyes snapped open when she heard Jack’s footsteps. She touched her fingertips to her cheeks, feeling her warm, flushed skin.
“Crusoe and Darcy will keep watch for Hook,” he said.
Baby-blue words as fluffy as goose-down pillows slid out from beneath her sandals.Don’t go. Come closer. Hope.She tried to step on them before Jack noticed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said, awkwardly riffling through her purse in search of her keys.
Jack reached out for her hand, twining his fingers with hers. “I’ll walk you home.”
“In this weather?” she asked in surprise, even though the idea thrilled her.
He grinned. “I’llrunyou home. Probably at a full-out sprint, but yes, I’d like to see you safely to Arnie’s.”
“Can you... leave the library?” Stella asked. Panic speared through her at the thought of something happening to him.
He squeezed her fingers gently. “There’s nothing to worry about as long as I come back. Will you let me walk you home?”
Stella nodded, and happiness swelled inside her. She flipped off the library’s lights, leaving the one light on over the circulation desk. She set the alarm, which would give them sixty seconds to leave, then she pushed open the back door only to have the wind slam it shut again.
“This is going to be fun,” she said, pushing open the heavy door again. “I hope you know how to swim. It might be more water than land out there.”
She and Jack rushed out the door and jumped down the stairs. They were soaked within seconds. The lawn between the library and Arnie’s cottage was a soggy mess, as if they were hightailing itthrough a marsh instead of across the grass. Her sandals gave her no traction, and she slid over the ground like someone wearing roller skates.
When they reached the cottage, Stella stood beneath the sheltered side porch, wheezing and laughing. Her wet curls were plastered to her face and dripping down her back. She shoved them off her cheeks. Jack’s face was shadowed in the darkness, but she could tell he was smiling. Watery words formed in the raindrops over his shoulder.Breathless. Whisper. Come here.
“Thanks for running me home, Jack. I really—”
He stepped toward her and pressed his mouth against hers, his lips warm and wet with rain. Desire moved through her lightning-fast, her body responding naturally to his closeness. A tingling sensation in her chest spread a slow, pins-and-needles-type burn, waking up all the parts of her that had been sleeping or hiding from intimacy for months. She pressed her palms against his chest, feeling the warmth of him through his wet shirt. He slid his hand to the back of her head and pulled her closer, then looped his other arm around her waist, holding her.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been properly kissed. Wade had kissed her, but they’d never found a rhythm that worked well, and she’d always thought of his kisses as a desperate escape for him, always on a timer.
Jack kissed her like he could go all night, and more than that, like hewantedto go all night.
He let his hands slide up her sides. She felt his heat through the thin, wet fabric of her blouse.
He stopped kissing her long enough to say, “I think I should come inside. Make sure you get in safely.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine—”
“I’dliketo come inside, Stella.”
Stella’s lips formed a smallo, and her heart thumped a frantic beat in her chest. He wanted to come inside. “You’ll be gone in a few days,” she said before she could stop herself. Just saying the words swept low-grade grief through her.
“But I’m here now. I don’t want to leave you yet.”
Stella’s heart pounded and begged her to dive into the moment. “I don’t want you to leave either.”
She fumbled for Arnie’s key on her key ring. Then she unlocked the door, turned the knob, and looked over her shoulder at Jack as she pushed it open. He looped his arm around her waist and tugged her toward him, leaning down to kiss her as they stumbled through the open door, locked together and dripping water all over the hardwood.
Chapter 16
Stella dropped her purse on the floor as Jack closed the cottage door with his foot, then reached back to twist the lock on the doorknob, never once breaking from their kiss. He slow walked them into the living room, and they moved as one, as though they couldn’t separate long enough to decide where to go.
A frenzy of longing overtook her. She couldn’t keep her hands off him. Every time her fingers grazed his skin she felt the pull to him grow stronger and more intense. For the first time in a long time, Stella’s thoughts were full of one person and nothing else. There wasn’t enough space in her mind for anything but Jack—his kisses, his touch, his hands in her hair.
