Page 33 of Catch and Release

Shawn’s heart pounded as he looked at Willa.

Holy fuck, she was actually following through. When she’d said he could use her as an excuse—as his fake girlfriend—to keep the tourists away, he didn’t think she’d show up at his bait shop and help him with the ruse.

“Hi,” he said, breathlessly.

She smiled at him.

God, being on the receiving end of that smile felt like catching a 40-pound grouper—like he was the luckiest son of a bitch on the Gulf. He felt the edges of his lips curve up in response until she pouted.

“Aren’t you going to kiss me?”

A temptation too hard to resist.

He barely registered pushing past the blonde who had cornered him and grabbed Willa’s hip with one hand and her cheek with the other before claiming her mouth. She tasted better than he imagined. Like strawberries and sunshine and salt.

He’d daydreamed about these lips—about what it’d be like to suck and nibble and bite them, and so he did. He tugged her closer and she fisted her hands on his chest before digging her fingers into his hair. He couldn’t hold back a groan when she thrust her tongue into his mouth, and he consumed her. He wanted to taste every inch of her, wanted to get lost in this moment, this kiss?—

Suddenly, she was gone.

Someone had cleared their throat behind him.

Willa looked over his shoulder, still panting from the kiss.

The kiss he wouldn’t have stopped if she hadn’t pulled away.

He rested his forehead against hers.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi,” she responded, her eyes drifting to his mouth again.

“So is this your girlfriend?” the busty blonde asked.

“The one and only,” Willa said, pushing past him and crossing her arms as she studied the tourist. “Maybe you shouldn’t touch men unless you know they want you to.”

“He certainly didn’t seem to mind it.”

“Not what it looked like to me.”

“How would you know?”

“Trust me,” Willa said, her voice thick with meaning as she rested a sultry gaze on Shawn, bringing a hand to his cheek and rubbing her thumb across his lips. “I know.”

Shawn’s heart thumped.

He was still recovering from that kiss. If someone had told him the world stopped spinning while his lips were locked with Willa’s, he might have just believed them.

His little crush was getting out of control.

He didn’t question it when she asked for a kiss. He’d thought about it enough since last night. Since the pure joy on her face when she won Bingo. Since the way she looked at him after he dropped her off. He’d jacked off this morning, thinking about those plump lips around his cock, those delicate fingers dragging him into her mouth.

“Look,” he said, feeling light-headed from the kiss he’d never stop thinking about. “Like I said, I can’t take you on a ride this week. Happy to help you find some rods or lures, if you want some. But I’m booked solid for anything else.”

The blonde stared at him for a split second before responding.

“Time to go, girls.”

As the door jangled on their way out, he turned back to look at Willa, who was staring at him with square shoulders and a lifted chin.

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