I stepped forward, cupped her face in my hands and kissed her. Right there, under the moonlight, next to the rushing river, I kissed her.
She melted into me, soft and fierce, her mouth answering mine with breathless urgency. My hand drifted to the back of her head, threading through those long blackcurls, fisting. Her fingers skimmed my stomach, lighting fires everywhere she touched.
Mine.
A possessiveness I’d never felt before shot through me like a pulse.
She pulled away first. Eyes shining. Lips parted. Chest rising and falling heavily.
“What was that for?” she whispered.
I took a step back, heart thudding in my ears.
“I don’t know,” I whispered back.
But I did.
She was in my blood now.
And there was no going back.
33
JAGG
Moonlight shimmered off her hair as she stared back at me, cheeks flushed.
She felt it too.
Whatever had just happened between us was mutual. I knew it in my bones.
A second passed as I debated a flurry of half-formed actions through my head. One, pulling her into my arms and kissing her again. Two, tearing off her clothes and making love to her right there on the riverbank. Along with these erotic thoughts, I felt the unprecedented desire to ask her if what had just happened was okay. Should I apologize? Had I gone too far? Was she going to turn me in for inappropriate behavior?
The world around me slowly began to register again. The rushing water, the evening breeze, the break-in at her house. I inhaled and broke the silence by getting back on track with the reason we were standing on the riverbank in the first place, a reason that somehow seemed less impactful than what just happened between us.
“You have no other dogs on your property, right?” Iasked, a tremor in my voice giving away the fact that I had not fully recovered from the kiss.
“Right.” She replied quickly, thankful for the change of subject. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thrown off. Good. That made me feel better.
“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen now. We’re going to go back up to the house and I want you to go directly into my Jeep. The police will be here soon. Don’t enter the house, don’t touch anything. Get in the Jeep and stay there. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she responded without a fight, much to my surprise. “But my dogs…”
I looked at the cages and opened my mouth?—
“No.Jagg, I’m not locking them up and leaving them down here. If you want to put them in the cages, I stay with them. Or, they come with me. Those are your two options.”
There she was. That hot-headed, stubborn Sunny I knew. Damn it all to hell.
“Fine. They can come up too, but they don’t go into the house either. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Will they stay with you? By your side? I repeat, theycannotgo in the house.”
“Yes. I promise.” She grabbed a handful of leashes from a box hanging on the side of the cage. “I’ll tie them up next to your Jeep, next to me.”
“Are you sure because I don’t want to have to deal with?—”
