Then a splash. Dom lets me go. He steps back, and I straighten myself up. Back into my bra goes my breast.
"Are we close to the pool?" Dom asks. "I thought we walked in a straight line, but maybe we were in more of a circle than I realized."
"I'm positive we walked away from the ranch." I turn around. Meet his eyes. He looks ragged. Out of sorts. He looks like he wants me, like we were interrupted.
His eyes rove over my face. He reaches out, runs his thumb across my lower lip, and I find my face lifting into his touch, wanting it so desperately. "You're swollen," he husks.
"I was properly kissed," I say. "In a way that would make my family blush."
Dom's eyes heat. "As you should have been."
My heart pinches. When he says things like that, it makes me feel uncomfortable in a good way. I don't know how to grapple with someone who makes my experience,me,a priority. But Dom does, unfailingly.
"Do you want to go see what the ruckus is about?" He offers me a hand.
I nod. "Yes." I place my hand in his, expecting him to walk us toward the sound, but he hauls me into him, taking me by surprise.
"One more," he says, "because I'm not sure there will be another." He captures my mouth, holds me to him, moldingagainst me. My arms wrap around his neck, holding on, riding the high. With the way we respond to each other, perhaps it is better if this is it.
When we've stepped away from one another, attempting to get our bearings, he says something that takes me by surprise. "I looked up the official definition of menace, and after today I am more convinced than ever that it is the right word to describe you."
My eyebrows lift, urging him to continue.
"A person or thing that is likely to cause harm." His head shakes slowly. "You, Cecily, could not be more of a menace."
CHAPTER 33
Dominic
I've never kissedanybody like that. I've never been kissed like that.
Earth-shattering. If I read that in one of my authors' manuscripts, I'd accuse them of using hyperbole.
But that kissdidshatter my world, never to return to precisely the position it was in prior. I'm just a man, knocked off his axis by an earthquake named Cecily.
She leads the way now, to the sound of water and chatter. She peeks back at me, eyebrows furrowed. I feel the same way. Have we stumbled upon an oasis in the desert?
We round the base of the mountain, where the barely marked path drops in elevation. There, in a copse of trees, the sun glints off the surface of a small body of water.
Cecily pauses, turning back to me. "What if they are desert dwellers?"
I do my best to take her seriously, but it's difficult with the taste of her lingering in my mouth, the feel of her seared onto my fingertips. "Are you referring to people who live in the desert? If so, that includes you."
"No," she whisper-hisses. "I mean, what if they are a band of people who live in the middle of nowhere, subsisting solely on rainwater and desert creatures?"
I do my best not to laugh at her serious expression. "I think they are too close to civilization to be considered such."
Cecily nods her head in agreement after pausing to consider it. I must not have done as good of a job holding back my mirth as I thought I did, because she says, "I suppose you don't believe in ghosts, either?"
"I do not," I respond, but the laughter in her eyes makes me wary. "Why?"
"We're staying at a haunted hotel in Flagstaff." She grins broadly, accompanied by a sassy shoulder shake, and all I want to do is take her mouth one more time. I know we said only one kiss, but maybe we could extend the parameters. Kiss until we get back to the ranch? Kiss only for the duration of our hike?
"Ho there," someone calls to us. A man.
Cecily's eyes widen, remaining on my face. "I think he called me a ho."
"I'm positive he was talking to me," I joke, but I step in front of Cecily so half my body shields half her body.
