Page 54 of Javier

“Um…” I turned around, and leaning against the veranda, faced off with him. “Would you like to… talk?”

“Talk?” The alarm that flashed in his gaze had him straightening on his feet. “No. Let’snottalk. No need.”

“Okay. No talking.”

I hesitated for a moment before I made up my mind. I was sick and tired of being me, timid, boring, cautious, uncertain. Something had shifted in me. It demanded action that excluded fainting and included bravery.

At the same time, I was so nervous that I had to clasp my shaking hands and force myself to take a breath. Summoning my courage, I ambled up to Javier and planted one hand on his chest, then the other.

“Angel?” His powerhouse of a chest rose beneath my palms. “What are you doing?”

“I… um—” It took all I had to utter the shaky whisper. “I need to know.”

“Know what?” he asked hoarsely.

“If it was all in my head.”

Pushing through a mental wall of fear and nerves, I lifted to the tip of my toes, stretched my neck, and closing my eyes, brushed my lips over his bristled jaw.

He didn’t push me away, but he rumbled like an awakening volcano. “Missy…”

I opened my eyes and spotted the same molten heat that flowed through my veins in his caramel irises. The way he looked at me took my breath away. Slowly, I slid my lips to the corner ofhis mouth and lingered there, breathing his air in short, greedy gulps, gorging on his scent, fire, earth, and salt embracing me, unlike his arms.

I almost quit.

The nervous tension strumming through me almost won, but the uptick of his heart drummed hard under my hands, sending my pulse to swish in my ears. I savored the contrast between the harsh texture of his beard and his smooth, enthralling lips.

This is so unlike you.My wits made an appearance.What on earth are you doing?

Ignoring my own questions, unable to still the pounding of my heart, I went on. I skimmed my lips over his until our mouths aligned. His lashes lowered, drawing a half-curtain over his eyes. His breath deepened. His inhalations swelled his chest and his exhalations wafted over me in ferocious gusts that filled lungs with his air and my world with his presence.

I leaned into his mouth, a contact so light I could barely feel the touch of his lips. Trembling from head to toe, I ran both of my hands up to his neck and then moved them in opposite directions to caress the ridges of his wide shoulders. Allowing my fingers to slide down the sides of his arms, I glided my hands over his flexed biceps, recognizing the strength that swelled them, the tension that stiffened every muscle in his body, the power that pulsed within him.

He didn’t move, but he didn’t ask me to stop, either. He just stood there with his hands fisted, as if built of granite. An undercurrent of heat rippled like lava beneath his skin. He wafted his delicious heat over me, radiating emotions I didn’t dare guess.

I dropped my hands and brushed my fingertips over the fine hairs that covered his forearms until I reached down to his fists. I stroked his tightly bunched together fingers, willing themto open for me.

It was like caressing stones.

You’re so much braver than you know, Sister Elsa’s word echoed in my head.

“I dreamed of you,” I whispered against his mouth, pitting my willingness against his reluctance. “I dreamed of this moment weeks before I knew you.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he grumbled through stiff lips. “But this is not fair.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “What isn’t fair?”

“You, here, now.” He winced as if he was in pain.

“You’ve kissed me before, remember?” My need reached out for his need. The voltage of our charged bodies hummed back and forth between us, a raw, almost audible buzz. “Do you want me to stop now?”

“No.” His voice was a low growl. “But…”

“But what?” Our eyes locked and the turmoil in his gaze made my chest squeeze with both dread and hope.

“You don’t know anything about me,” he muttered.

“Maybe, if you let me, I could learn.” Bold. I was being so bold. And nervy, but I really needed to know. “Right now, all I want is a kiss. One kiss. Can we do that?”

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