“I don’t really have time to. In fact, in the eighteen months I’ve lived here, I never have.” She frowned. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Even on a not-so-beautiful day.”
Sophie breathed in deeply — without coughing, even — probably more deeply than she had in a week, or maybe a year, and closed her eyes. Allowed the briney, damp sea air to infiltrate her still-healing lungs, her senses. She felt it on her skin, smelled it, tasted it like she hadn’t in ages. Her head swam with a troubling realization as she opened her eyes again to the overwhelming, magnificent view. “I could’ve died without ever appreciating this.” She flung her arms out to both sides. “That’s sad.”
“But now you can,” Nate said in a gentle voice that soothed her.
“I’ve been kind of tunnel-visioned. Blind to everything but work, but if I’d died, none of that would matter.” She swallowed hard. Sure, she’d changed some buildings for the better here and there, and she liked to think what she did was important but if she didn’t do it, someone else would. Eventually. That hard truth seeped in and shook her to the core.
“We’re all just doing the best we can, Soph. You believe in what you do. That’s something not everyone can say.”
“You believe in what you do too,” she said, looking up at him, feeling a jolt to her core when his eyes met hers.
“I do. If I didn’t, chances are we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
“I wouldn’t be standing here right now.” She barely noticed her eyes had watered up as she turned back to watch the layers of waves roll in. Other than her pursuit of a black belt in krav maga, which she also treated more like a job than a hobby, her entire life was Green Systems. That wasn’t really a life, was it? It was missing out on … other stuff. Everything else.
It was possible to work one’s butt off and still have more. Wasn’t it? “What do you do when you’re not working?” she asked him.
“Me? All kinds of stuff. Play volleyball, basketball, softball, watch sports, go out with the guys, fish a little bit. I try to get hockey tickets a few times a season.” He shrugged. “Whatever comes up, I guess.”
“I can’t remember the last time I did ‘whatever comes up.’”
“You work all the time?” The fingers of his left hand made little circles at her waist, and his right arm stretched along the railing in front of his body, his hand resting near her, drawing her attention. Coarse hairs dotted the back of it, his fingers relaxed, belying their strength, but she knew firsthand both the power those hands held and the gentleness they were capable of. She had no trouble imagining what they could do to a woman’s body, and that’s when she dragged her gaze back to his face and jogged her brain to remember his question.
“Yes. I work, I eat, I go to my krav maga workouts, I work some more … sleep…”
“You need an intervention,” he said, his tone light, without judgment.
Something about the moment and the man and … who knew what else, probably her brush with death … she was able to see the truth in that. His eyes didn’t waver from hers, and she was drawn into their depths, the openness in them, the sparkle of life that came from doing more than just working all the time.
At this moment, she wanted more too.
The sound of the surf roared through her as she turned ninety degrees to face him. He followed suit, his hand slipping to her other hip.
She didn’t know how to change the way she was, but she recognized, in this second, she could change this moment. For now, she could take more. Give more.
Live better.
Not stopping to think about what she was doing, Sophie slowly lifted her shaking hand to his chest. Her fingers were met by solid, defined muscle, and she ran both her hands up and down, over the glorious ridges and valleys of his pecs, his upper abs, his shoulders. The pupils of his eyes enlarged, and his hand eased beneath her sweatshirt hem, onto the bare skin of her waist, branding her flesh with his heat.
Her gaze dropped to his lips, to the faint sheen of moisture on them, the need to taste them pulsing through her with every accelerated beat of her heart. She trailed her hands up to the back of his neck and rose to her toes. He leaned down to meet her halfway, and their lips touched. Unsteady breaths mingled. Mouths locked together. Her tongue darted out to explore the soft heat of his lips, to taste him, and it tangled with his, a tentative courtship at first, rapidly becoming a duel of exploration. His facial hair scraped against her skin. Their bodies crushed together and mouths fused, tongues twisting and caressing. Her insides turned to molten liquid as a low, sexy groan escaped from deep in his throat.
The incessant roar of the gulf faded to nothing as her entire existence narrowed to Nate’s kiss. His hand burrowed in her hair, holding her close, and his tongue was thorough and seeking and still somehow careful with her.
“Interventions are good,” she said, her way of trying to tell him she was fine, that he didn’t need to treat her with kid gloves just because she’d just gotten out of the hospital.
She felt his lips smile and his growl vibrate against her suddenly sensitive breasts. As his lips devoured hers, she dropped one hand to his waist and found the hem of his T-shirt, pressed her fingers beyond it to his bare skin. To his flawless, hard abdomen and higher, again to his beautiful sculpted chest. As her hand kept caressing, exploring, her fingertips brushed over his nipple. A sensitive nipple, judging by the way he moaned again and forgot to be so careful with her.
His reaction was heady, empowering, and the next thing she realized was his hand beneath her sweatshirt, easing its way toward the bottom curve of her breast, dipping beneath her bra. When his work-roughened fingers rasped over her nipple, a shock of sensation shot to her core. Her head swam, and her knees weakened. She grasped on to his sides to keep from swaying from the onslaught.
Nate lightened the kiss and moved his hands to her waist to steady her. “Sophie.” His voice was coarse and sexy and she’d done that to him. The knowledge was dizzying. “You just got home,” he said with some effort. “We need to take it easy.”
Her body screamed that she wanted anything but easy, but her confidence wasn’t quite there yet and kept her from telling him as she tried to breathe evenly. Forget evenly … just tried to breathe.
“I’m…” Her voice was barely there, so she cleared her throat. “I’m good.”
A low, sexy laugh rumbled from his chest. “You are definitely good.” He brushed his lips over her jaw, up close to her ear, making her shiver. “But you’re still recovering, and I’m being a selfish jackass.”
She opened her mouth to argue, and he planted a kiss there. He wove their fingers together, his strong ones dwarfing hers.
