He set aside the beer and snagged her hand. When he tugged, she didn’t resist but instead curled up beside him, her hand resting over his heart. He flipped her hat off, and all those silky blond strands cascadeddown onto his shoulder. “Pretty day,” he murmured.
“Peaceful,” she replied on a sigh.
“You like peaceful?”
“More than I like to admit.”
He traced a slow circle on her hand. “Nobody watching. You could go to sleep.”
She inched her leg along his. “Youcould go to sleep.”
Even through their clothes, her touch set his skin on fire. His pulse ricocheted through his veins, and all his blood surged south of his belt. “Didn’t sayIwanted peaceful,” he said.
“Sugar, you’re with me. Not wanting peaceful is a given.”
“Not always.” He rolled them so she was on her back beneath him.
Her fingers settled on his cheeks.
He pulled her sunglasses off and tossed them aside. Her eyes were big bluequestions, a peek at the vulnerabilities and insecurities she kept hidden from the world. She was full of big talk, but he’d seen her with her students. He’d seen herfightfor her students.
Kaci Boudreaux had a soft side he suspected few people were privileged enough to know about. “Kaci?—”
“No talking,” she whispered.
He should argue, but she tilted her lips up and brushed them against his.
He’d missed her kisses. Her touch. Her laugh. Her smart mouth. Her bravado.
That soft side.
He was deploying soon. She’d damn well better go to Germany, and who knew if she’d still be here when he got back? She could be recruited to go work for a university overseas.
When he left, he didn’t want to leave with regrets.
He wanted to leave with good memories.
So he lowered his mouth, suckled her bottom lip, and lost himself in the world that was Kaci.
Kaci wokeup with a start when her Jeep stopped moving. A steady pitter-patter of raindrops plinked off the canoe up top.
They were home.
She needed to go check on Miss Higgs.
“You know you drool in your sleep?” Lance was aiming those soft, kind eyes at her again. Not the smoky,let’s get naked againeyes he’d used for two more stops along the river, or the amusedyou’re being obnoxious, but it’s strangely enjoyableeyes he’d used when she’d been, well,herall afternoon.
But the gentle, understandingwe can still be friends after we quit sleeping togethereyes he’d used the few times she’d reminded him that they were temporary.
As if he knew exactly how bad she’d fallen for him, but he didn’t want to embarrass her by pointing it out.
Because he wasthatkind of nice.
“Kace? You awake?”
She forced herself upright and rubbed at a kink in her neck. “Shoot, if you’d driven any slower, we would’ve been going backwards. How many old grandpas passed us on the way?”
“Twenty or thirty,” he said with a smirk.
