“Well, we’re on the other side of the fence. I have a feeling they’d have a problem if you went inside with me.” I handed a piece of bread to him. “Here.” He gave me a questioning look and I showed him the pockets in my green dress that I’d filled with two leftover dinner rolls. “I refuse to wear clothing without pockets.”
We fed the goats in silence, laughing about the way they butted in front of one another to grab the bread from us. The wind and sky felt ominous, like the weather wasn’t quite sure what to do.
“Uh-oh,” Andrew said, pointing up. “We better get inside.”
And then, as if he’d poked a hole in the clouds with his finger, the rain began. First a few cold drops, then a downpour, sending the goats running for cover under their lean-to.
I started for the house, but Andrew grabbed my wrist andpulled me to the little tin-roofed storage shed by the pen. “We can wait it out here.”
We ducked inside and he pulled the door shut behind him. The only light seeped through the cracks in the wood.
“Cozy,” I laughed as I took a half step backward to try to put some space between us. It was pointless, because we were basically toe-to-toe. The rain pounded above us on the tin roof.
He didn’t laugh. In fact, his expression looked dark, his eyes stormier than I’d ever seen them. I pressed back against the plywood wall to stabilize myself because I suddenly felt light-headed by his nearness and smoked cedar scent. My breathing went shallow as he continued to stare at me. I felt like a fraud because no matter how much I tried to talk myself out of it,thiswas what I fantasized about. Us, alone together, with nothing else registering but the sound of our heartbeats.
“Say something,” I said, trying to break the tension, because everything about where we were felt familiar. The confined space forcing us to be close. The dim light. The realization that no one knew where we were.
And the unmistakable pull to kiss the very person we hated.
“No.”
Andrew reached out and gently clasped the nape of my neck, drawing me to him so quickly that I let out a gasp. The idea that he wanted it too felt like a revelation even though I knew deep down that he did. This wasn’t drunken horniness like the last time; his warm hand on my skin was intentional. My breathing went shallow and I tried not to tremble as he slowly dropped his head until his lips were just inches from mine. Time seemed to stop as the faint pulse of his breath tickled against my mouth.
“Can I?” he whispered as he leaned closer.
I didn’t trust my voice and a tiny part of me worried that I might accidentally correct his English so I nodded. I was absolutely desperate for him. He waited a few painful seconds longer, letting his eyes travel around my face one last time, before finally placing his lips on mine.
chapter twenty-five
It was a million times better than I remembered.
There was no frenzy between us, no prelude to a potential hate-fuck like the last time. This kiss was achingly slow. I had to fight to keep from letting the little moans in the back of my throat from escaping as Andrew slanted his mouth against mine and leaned into me. I was embarrassed at just how badly I wanted this. I was so focused on the pressure of his lips and the delicious flick of his tongue that I didn’t even feel him easing me against the wall until my back was flat against it. It was as if my entire body had gone numb and the only thing I could feel was the brush of his mouth against mine and the fire he was igniting inside me.
This kiss was the promise of so much more, whether we wanted to admit it or not.
The last time we’d kissed, his body was all smooth planes and lean muscle. Current Andrew had new mysteries to uncover. I was desperate to touch everything I’d only been able to fantasize about since that night, to catalog the changes that had turned the man into a mountain. My hands slid up hischest to his shoulders and rested there with the slightest pressure, and Andrew jerked away from me abruptly like I’d scorched him.
“Do you want me to stop?” he rasped, his expression injured, like not kissing me was causing him physical pain.
“Oh my God, no,” I whispered, feeling woozy. “I want you toneverstop.”
His dark eyes turned predatory and he claimed my mouth again. The sweetness between us was slipping away, replaced by a hunger I could feel in every cell of my body. Andrew reached down to collect both of my wrists in his giant hand then pinned them against the wall above my head, trapping me as he kissed his way down my neck. Each press of his lips was a brand on my skin. I shuddered against him and I felt his lips curl into a triumphant smile. He used his thigh to part my legs and I let out a whimper as he pressed closer. I felt like I was holding my breath every time he shifted, worried that he was going to come to his senses and stop touching me.
He finally let my hands drop and I dragged them over his back, caressing him like I needed to make up for lost time.
“I hate what you do to me,” Andrew whispered in my ear as his hand found its way beneath the hem of my dress and started climbing my leg.
“Why?” I asked, my lips flush against his ear. I pressed a kiss to it and he groaned.
“Because you wedge yourself in my head and you’re all I can think about.Thisis all I can think about.”
Hearing him admit it sent a tiny thrill of victory through me.
Andrew’s palm felt like it was searing my thigh. I arched intohim, hoping the thumb that was smoothing the skin on my inner thigh would travel a little higher.
“Fuck!”Andrew jumped away from me like he’d been electrocuted, staring at the wall next to where I was standing.
“What’s wrong?” I looked around frantically.
