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Noah didn’t know what the hell he was doing. But his mouth was on hers, and she tasted even better than he’d imagined⁠—

Not that he’d imagined it.

But if he had—and okay, he fucking had—it had all been bright and wild and chaotic, when the reality was that she tasted sweet. She made his chest hurt, and his heart felt too big, and the sweetness swept through him in a rush.

Then she tilted her head to one side and everything went white-hot.

His hands were on her face, his tongue was finding hers and tangling, and everything around them seemed far away and unimportant.

Like the only thing that could possibly matter was the way her mouth fit his so perfectly.

A car passed by then. Noah heard something like laughter, and that was the only thing that got him to pull back.

His heart was catapulting against his ribs. He could feel his blood hot in his veins and everywhere else, like he’d lit himself on fire.

He had been in situations overseas that had left his pulse less agitated than his was now, with Raemy staring up at him, those blue eyes bright on him.

And all he could think was that he’d made a terrible mistake.

But then, as he watched, that smile of hers bloomed.

So bright. So unbelievably beautiful. And aimed directly at him—no mistake to be made about that.

“Noah,” she said, with all of that sunshine and laughter in her voice. “If you’re about to tell me that kiss was a mistake, I’m going to be very upset.”

“Of course it was a mistake,” he gritted out.

“Nothing that good could possibly be a mistake,” she retorted.

Then she launched herself up on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him some more.

And Noah had never been a spontaneous kind of guy. He liked strategies. Tactical decisions based on all the available research. He wasn’t reactive. He planned. He had never gone with the flow in his life. Even if there was a need to go with a flow—an unlikely turn of events, he was certain—he wouldn’t be the one starting it.

Or so he would have said before tonight.

But everything about Raemy threw him out of whack. Everything about her seemed to make him into someone he couldn’t recognize.

Because he knew himself, and the man he knew didn’t do things that could ever be misconstrued. He never drank too much. He never gave women false hope about his intentions. He never stood around on the main street of the town where he lived, kissing like he might actually die if they stopped.

That wasn’t who he was. It had never been who he was.

But when Raemy Miller took him by the hand, laced her fingers in his, and led him back to her cute little room in an inn overlooking the beach, he went with her.

He pushed her back against the door when they got inside. And he couldn’t seem to help himself. He kissed her again and again, until they were both breathless, and maybe even he was laughing the way she was.

Like this was a cause for wonder, this sparkling bit of fire that was lighting them both up like this.

He thought he might take his time undressing her, but she was impatient and demanding and refused to let him. And somehow that was also part of the brightness, and there was laughter mixed in with all the heat and impatience, making it all burn a little hotter, somehow.

She kissed her way down his chest, smiling as she traced the outline of the tattoo he wore on his pec, a typical USMC bit of art featuring an eagle, an anchor, a globe, and semper fi woven through it.

He expected her to have tattoos all over, and was surprised that she didn’t. Not a one.

“I teach elementary school,” she said, with mock-horror. “What would the parents think?” When he frowned, she shook her head. “The real truth is that I can never decide on what to put on myself. Permanently.”

There was no reason Noah should think he had an answer to that.

Eventually they were both naked on the bed together. They rolled around and around, both of them seemingly wanting to memorize the other with their mouths, their hands. He couldn’t get enough of the feel of her against him, so silky and smooth. That gloriously wavy hair of hers was everywhere and he dug his hands in it, holding her head still when he wanted to plunder her mouth.