“Yeah?” he asked,amused.
“Yeah, Mr. Modest. Don’t sound so excited.” I snickered. “This is the first time I’ve sat onsomeone’slap.”
Those brown eyes roamed over my face and the hand on my thigh gave it asqueeze.
With shaky fingers, I touched one of those beautiful, sharp bones just below his eye, unsure if this was something I could do. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he leaned into my fingers a little more. “Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and think,man, I gotlucky?”
There was a sharp noise that had me glancing at the face Aaron was making before he laughed and shook his head. “What the hell are you talkingabout?”
“You. Do you ever thank your birth mom or your dad for giving you the best bone structure in the world?” I asked, tracing my finger over the bridge ofhisnose.
“No,” he chuckled. “I’ve never heard thatbefore.”
I stopped my fingers and glanced at his eyes. “Youhaven’t?”
Aaron scrunched up his nose and shook hishead. “No.”
I made a thoughtful noise. “I bet you’ve heard all about how handsome you are plenty oftimes.”
The hand on my hip gave it a squeeze. “Sometimes people only see what’s on the outside and don’t always care about everything else, Ruby. Looks can bedeceiving.”
With my fingers over the opposing cheekbone, I glanced at his face again, wondering what the hell had happened to him in the past to say that. Then I remembered, and I kept on moving my fingers along his cheekbone as I said in a low, steady voice, “Well, luckily for me, the best part of you is on the inside, huh?” Then I stopped my fingers and cupped his face with both hands all of a sudden, cupping his cheeks together, not looking him in the eye on purpose. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get used to looking at this face. It’s like… you shouldn’t be real. Like I shouldn’t be real. Like I shouldn’t be sitting on your lap right herebecause—”
Aaron reached around me and wrapped his long fingers around both wrists, his chin dipping down. “Get used to seeing it,”hesaid.
And then he cameforme.
Aaron leaned forward, his fingers still around my wrist, and slowly, so slowly I could have moved at any point or stopped him, the tip of that perfect nose touched mine. I could almost see every fleck of color in his eye from how close we were, and if he had any pores on that immaculate skin, I would have been able to see them as he rubbed the tip of his nose against mine, making me grin and feel like the world could have been on fire in that second and I would have died with a smile onmyface.
“I could get used to Eskimo kisses,” I said in awhisper.
And in a move I never would have ever given myself credit for, I tilted my face just enough to press my mouth to his. It was a peck. Dry lips on dry lips. It lasted all of a second of contact before I pulled back just an inchortwo.
Then it was Aaron who pressed his mouth to mine. Two seconds before hepulledback.
And then we took turns. Me for three seconds. Him for four. Me for five. Him for six. Seven.Eight.Nine.
By the tenth peck, I moved my mouth up to kiss that full upper lip. And then I pulled it into my mouth with a playful nip, like I really knew what the heck I was doing. My subconscious must have been totally aware that Aaron wouldn’t be the one to take it too far this time, so I did. It was my mouth that tilted to the side, that brushed my tongue across the seam of his lips. It was my hand that went to the nape of his neck to hold him in place. My fingers that brushed against the soft, short hairs rightthere.
But it was Aaron who opened his mouth and brushed the tip of his tongueagainstmine.
I hadn’t kissed a whole bunch of men, but I’d kissed enough, especially over the last few months. And even though I’d enjoyed most of those kisses, it was nothing compared to this one. No one had made the hairs on my arms stand up. No one had stolen the breath from my lungs or made me squirm closer for more. No one else had made me feel like this was exactly where I was supposedtobe.
Aaron kissed me and kissed me and kissed me with his hand around my hip, the tips of his fingers just under the hem of where my shirt had ridden up. He held me to him, and I’d swear I could feel something hard and thick right along my hip. And we kept on kissing. My face tilted one way, his tilted the other as his tongue stroked mine slowly and tenderly. I’d suck one of his lips between mine gently and he’d do the same to me. Our breathing grew harder. My hands moved deeper into his hair. My nipples went hard, and I wasn’t sure if I shivered because of the breeze or because ofAaron.
What I did know was that it was him who pulled away, his nose touching mine as he let out a ragged breath against my cheek with a dry laugh that didn’t sound all that entertained. “Jesus,Ruby.”
I couldn’t help but smile, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself. “Is that a flashlight in your pocket or did you think that kiss was as good asIdid?”
He laughed straight out, his chest bubbling. “Pretty sure we’re on the same page about that kiss,” he muttered, sounding slightly out ofbreath.
It was my turn to laugh. “Can we do itagain?”
Chapter23
Iwokeup with a stomachache the nextmorning.
It was our last full day in San Blas and… the idea of it sucked. It really did. I’d always been relieved to go back home after a vacation, missing my bed, missing my stuff, missing my life, but while I missed some parts of it, I didn’t exactly miss the rest of it. Not really. Not enough to calm the ache of knowing this was my last day withAaron.
