Page 70 of Tame Me

After two close escapes where his grunts matched my giggles, his hands trapped my waist, and he wrapped his arms around me like a giant bear. “Gotcha.”

“Yes, you do.” I could barely talk. “What’re you going to do with me now?”

He laughed a deep, hearty laugh. “Well, aren’t you the cheeky one this morning?”

“Yep.”

He unwrapped his arms, and as we caught our breath, we fell into stride together and continued to walk away from the hotel.

Everything about this moment was perfect—the sun on my face, the rolling waves crashing into the shore at my feet, and the sexy man at my side.

Life truly didn’t get much better than this.

A soccer ball tumbled down the sand toward us with a young boy chasing it. Corben picked up the ball and when the boy arrived, he tussled the child’s hair and handed the ball to him. “There you go, kid.”

The boy looked up at Corben with his mouth wide open. I imagined the poor kid thinking he’d just met Dwayne Johnson. Corben could easily pass for The Rock, with his dark sunglasses, buzz haircut and bulging muscles.

The boy wrapped his arms around the ball. “Thanks.” He ran back up the beach toward another couple of kids.

I smiled at Corben.

“What?”

“You like children, huh?”

“No.”

“No?” I pushed a wayward hair off my lip. “You looked pretty comfortable with him.”

“That was five seconds with a complete stranger. I have no intention of having my own.”

My jaw dropped, and I blinked at him, wondering if I’d heard right.

He cocked his head. “What?”

“You don’t want children?”

“No. Never have. That would mean settling down.”

I didn’t know what to say.

I’d never met anyone who didn’t want kids or to settle down.

He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him. “What’s the matter, Memphis Jane? Have I shocked you?”

I wrapped my arm around his waist and enjoyed his muscles moving beneath my hand as we continued walking arm in arm. “As a matter of fact, yes. You never know what the future holds.” But no matter what, I wanted children one day.

He shrugged. “Maybe, but I know it doesn’t hold children. That family-life stuff just isn’t for me.”

I stopped, and when we broke apart, he turned to look down at me. The sun glistened off his sunglasses, and I wished I could see his eyes. My heart hammered in my chest at what I was about to say. “In that case . . . I don’t think we should see each other anymore. I really want?—”

“Okay then.” He shrugged as if what I’d said was an everyday occurrence.

I gasped. “Okay then? You’re not upset?”

He shook his head. “Oh, Memphis Jane . . . it was never like that.”

“What was it like then? Just sex?” It flashed through my mind that I was being hypocritical, but I couldn’t help it. I hoped to settle down one day, and I needed the man I fell in love with to want children with me.

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