Page 15 of On the Line

“Several.”

His hand slides down my back and pulls me flush against him, and I can feel exactly what kind of problem I’m causing. That should probably make me stop and think. Mostly it makes me want him more.

“Your place,” I whisper. “Is it far?”

He goes still. “Across the cove. You sure?”

“Yes.”

He’s back behind the wheel so fast that I laugh.

“That was quick.”

He laughs. “Hang on tight. I’m pushing this pontoon as fast as she’ll go.”

His house sits up on a little rise above its own dock. I couldn’t tell you what it looks like. I notice his hand around mine on the path up, and the way he locks the door behind us and turns to look at me, and after that neither of us is joking around anymore.

He crosses the room, and my back meets the wall, and his mouth is on mine again. I wrap my arms around his neck. He kisses down my jaw and then my throat.

“Tell me if you want me to stop.”

“I don’t.”

“Good.”

He pulls the sweatshirt over my head and stops to look at me, slowly enough that my skin warms everywhere his eyes go.

“Damn,” he says.

“What?”

“You.”

I laugh softly. “I bet that line works on all your fake girlfriends.”

“You’re my first.”

I like that more than I’m willing to say out loud. I reach for the hem of his shirt. “Take this off.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

His shirt hits the floor, and I stare. I can’t help it.

“Something wrong?” he asks.

“Definitely not.”

He laughs and kisses me again, and I run my hands over his chest and shoulders and down his stomach. When my fingers reach the waistband of his shorts, he sucks in a breath and picks me up. My legs wrap around him like they’ve done it a hundred times.

“Bedroom?”

“Yes.”

He carries me down the hall, and I’m laughing when he drops me onto the bed. Then he follows me down, and the laugh turns into a gasp. His mouth is on mine and his hands are under my tank top, and it’s all warm skin and tangled sheets.

He takes his time, a lot more than I expected. Every time I try to hurry, he slows me back down with his mouth and his hands and the way he looks at me, like there’s nowhere else he’d rather be. By the time he slides my shorts down my legs, I’m shaking.

He kisses his way down my stomach, then lower, and I grab his shoulders. “Liam.”