As his mouth seduced her, his hands were on the move again, touching her, stroking her, causing a riot of lovely sensations as his fingers skimmed her shoulders, glided along her neck and eased up into her hair.
He gathered the mass of it into a fist, pulling her head back to kiss her more deeply.
She moaned. With a low growl in response, he loosened his grip and combed through the strands in long, soothing strokes.
“All day, all I’ve wanted is to be with you,” he whispered. “I was pretty sure I’d blown it for good this time.”
“Uh-uh. No way. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I kept telling myself it was the best thing, anyway, to leave you alone.”
“No. Wrong. That would be theworstthing.”
He kissed the tip of her nose and the space between her eyebrows. “How did it go at Daniel’s?”
“It was great. Aislinn and Jax asked where you were. I said we weren’t speaking. They seemed to think we would work it out.”
“Were they right?”
“I’m still back there with how you thought leaving me alone was the best way to go.”
“Yeah, well. I’m here, aren’t I?”
She faked a sulky face. “And I probably shouldn’t be so glad about that.”
“Maddy.” He bent closer. His warm breath ghosted across her skin. “Won’t you please forgive me for being a doucheberry?”
She chuckled against his beautiful mouth. “Doucheberry. That’s pretty bad—and of course I forgive you. The truth is, when you’re kissing me, I could forgive you just about anything.”
“I just want you closer.” He hauled her even tighter against him. The kiss got deeper and wetter.
What he was doing to her? She’d never known anything like what she felt with him. His kiss stole the breath right out of her lungs.
“I just want this time with you,” he whispered, the words rough and ragged against her parted lips. “Every minute we can steal.”
Steal?They weren’t stealing anything. She wanted him and he wanted her and it was all wide-open, aboveboard, wasn’t it?
Then again, who cared what word he used?
What mattered was that he was here and she was here and this perfect moment would never come again.
“It’s all right.” She meant it, she did. He’d been a jerk, yeah. But she’d pushed things too fast. And she wanted what he wanted, anyway—to be with him, right now, however it worked out when her time in Oregon was through.
At some point in life, a woman had to let go, take what was offered, give up the goals and the planning and just let the good things happen for once.
He framed her face again. “Can I come in, then?”
She grinned. “But you’re already in.”
He glanced left and right. “Currently, we are standing on the threshold.”
“Hmm.”
He frowned down at her. “I’m not sure I like the way you’re looking at me. Like you can’t decide whether to let me stay or make me go.”
“Hmm,” she said again, but then she took both his hands and stepped back, pulling him with her as she cleared the doorway.
“Come here.” He kissed her some more, a hungry, exciting kiss. He smelled like cedar and the cool night wind off the ocean. She couldn’t get enough of just breathing him in.
