“That’s just it. It isn’t, but I want to tell you. I want you to know. I can’t have you thinking I’m an asshole.”
Her light giggle warmed his heart.
“I don’t think you are an asshole. Just the opposite. I think you’re a kind human being. Just look at you. In this cabin, you are keeping watch over me when you have absolutely no obligation whatsoever to do so. That behavior is certainly not that of an asshole.”
Her sincere words filled his heart with so much emotion he could hardly stand it. Now, he really needed her to know his past and that he kind of understood what she was going through, She needed to know he could love the way a man should love a woman. He had until Blythe stomped all over his heart.
“I was once engaged,” he blurted.
Her eyes widened.
“Yep. Me. I thought I loved her and that she loved me. I truly did.”
Emma’s hand tightened around his.
“The blow came a couple of weeks before the wedding. She called it off and I hadn’t seen it coming at all.”
Emma pressed her free hand to his cheek. Her touch was soft, warm, and comforting. Her gaze was empathetic.
“She evidently decided I wasn’t good enough for her—not rich enough. I was shocked. Her family, like mine, was just your average middle-class family. I couldn’t understand how we got so far down the marriage path without her saying something sooner. She broke my heart, and I felt humiliated.”
“I’m so sorry, Cap.”
“It gets worse.”
He heard Emma’s quick intake of breath.
“Evidently, one of my best friends was rich enough for her. She left me for one of my groomsmen.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It truly sucked. For lack of a better word.”
“Her loss.”
“That’s what people say, but it still stings, even five years later.”
Emma’s eyes watered.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to dredge up bad feelings for you and make you cry. I just…I don’t know. I guess I just wanted you to know since you asked.”
Though he felt guilty for making her cry, a rush of relief swept over him. His heart beat freely without anxiety or fear of loving again. It was as if telling Emma his horrible story had set him free from the grudge he carried. All that in an instant. It was both strange and exhilarating.
“My tears aren’t for me, Cap. They’re for you. For your pain.”
“I want to kiss you so badly right now,” he said.
“Then why don’t you?”
Without another thought, his mouth landed on hers. Her lips unleashed a fire and she seemed to be on fire as well. He slipped his tongue through her parted lips. Her mouth was hot and needy. The kiss turned hotter and wetter. She tasted so sweet he couldn’t get enough of her, so he deepened the kiss. Her response was exactly what he’d hoped for. Their tongues tangled greedily.
He slid his hand under her pajama top and filled it with one of her plump breasts. When she sighed into his mouth, he gave her breast another squeeze, then he pulled her along with him into a seated position, released her breast, and yanked her pajama top over her head. She lay back down. Her perfect, round breasts were fully exposed to him. His mouth watered, and he leaned forward and wrapped his lips around one as his hand kneaded the other. He flicked his tongue over her nipple, and her moan echoed in the tiny room. He did it again and again before moving his mouth to her other breast.
One of Emma’s hands pressed to the back of his head, pulling him closer to her chest. Her other skimmed down his back, leaving a fiery path burning his skin along the way.
“That feels so good,” she whispered.
He stilled and lifted his head to make eye contact with her.
