“Your favorite everything, really?” I narrowed my eyes.
“Really.”
“What’s your favorite day?”
He grinned. “Any day I get to see you.”
“Favorite color?”
“Blue, like your eyes.”
“Favorite animal?”
“Elephant.”
“Screw you.”
His eyes danced with amusement.
“Favorite food?” In spite of the boat and all the fishing equipment on it, I couldn’t reel that comment back in. Nope, I’d already cast it and he bit at it.
The arousal beneath me and the agonizingly slow way his tongue eased along his lower lip answered that question.
“Lake,” he whispered. “I’m fucking starving right now.”
Gulp.
I was a tad on the hungry side as well. “Um…” I cleared my throat. “I think what you have in mind is more of a private dining meal.”
He dipped his head and kissed my bare shoulder next to the thin black strap of my camisole top then licked a trail to my ear. “I love you.”
Unexpected. It was like riding a roller coaster blindfolded. I anticipated the “I love you” two seconds before he gave me a wedgie, and when I expected a picnic-on-the-boat comment, he took my breath away like a plunging drop with those three simple words.
“I love you too.” I grinned then tugged at his hat. “Even your hat is growing on me.”
“Oh, yeah?” He sat back.
I nodded.
“Well…” he leaned to the side and flipped up a seat with a storage compartment under it “…then it’s fate that I have one for you.”
A lavender bucket hat with lures hanging from it. It was hideous and breathtaking at the same time.
“I don’t want lice. How many women have worn this before me?”
“You’re the first female to ever step foot on this boat. I bought it for you. I put the lures on it for you.”
Losing my leg was easy compared to losing my heart to Cage, even if I did willingly hand it to him. With each passing day I knew I’d never get it back in one piece. Did he read the warning? Did he see the “Fragile. Handle with Care?”
“When your season begins and we don’t see each other as much…” I took the hat and put it on, Cage smiled “…can you do me a huge favor?”
“Anything.”
Pressing my palms to his cheeks, I whispered, “Don’t forget to love me.”
CAGE
The purple fishinghat fit her perfectly. I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. Total truth: Lake was the first woman to set foot on my fishing boat.
