Page 74 of The Facade

When she slid her hand up my arm and then my shoulder, touching me tentatively, like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to, I knew I was the luckiest guy in the world to have this moment with her. Because unlike what I’d done in the past, she didn’t do this with every guy willing to kiss her for a weekend. She’d saved it. Saved it until this very moment when she finally shared it with me.

The thought that she’d saved this kind of moment for someone like me made me feel both so unbelievably special and undeserving at the same time. Because how in the world could I dare hope to deserve a moment like this with someone as special as Cambrielle Hastings?

But as undeserving as I felt, when her lips joined mine in the give-and-take, I could also sense that despite everything that should have pushed her away from me, she wanted this to happen, too. She craved this kiss and this moment alone as badly as I did.

I wasn’t sure exactly what I should do with my hands, since she was new to making out and I didn’t know how receptive she’d be to my hands exploring her mostly bare back and sides while she was only wearing a bathing suit. But the more we kissed, and the more she touched me—letting her thumbs trace along my collarbone and slide across my shoulders and arms, making a path of fire blaze everywhere on my skin—I knew I had to touch her, too. Needed to feel more of her so I would know this was real and not just another fantasy that my mind had conjured up to torture me with tomorrow.

So, ignoring all the warning bells in my head that told me her brothers would kill me if they knew I’d touched their sister in the hot tub, I dared to reach my hands under the water and gently slid them across her ribcage and up and down her back.

“Yes, please,” she mumbled against my mouth, the yearning in her voice causing my lower stomach muscles to clench. “Pull me closer, Mack.”

I went still for a split second, caught off guard by the desire in her voice, but then I traced my hands down the bumps in her spine and slid them outward to her hips and pulled her onto my lap.

23

Cambrielle

Mackand I had only kissed each other once before—just those few stolen moments in the gazebo in the park last night. But the instant our lips touched, it was like we’d never been apart because we picked right back up from where we’d left off.

Only this time, we were in the hot tub in his backyard, and instead of having our jackets and T-shirts between us, it was just our swimsuits and skin. So much more skin than I was used to feeling on a guy.

But as I let my hands trace their way across the corded muscles of his shoulders and arms, and when he pulled me onto his lap, I couldn’t help but think that this was the perfect scenario for a second kiss with Mack.

His arms tightened around my waist, and he gently pulled me with him as he leaned back into the jetted back of the hot tub’s wall.

“Is this okay?” he mumbled, breaking away for a second and sounding as out of breath as I was.

“Yes,” I said, thinking it was sweet of him to care about how I was feeling. “This is exactly what I wanted to happen tonight.”

His lips curled up into a contented smile. “Me too.” And then his lips were pressing against mine again.

As I’d gotten dressed in my bathing suit earlier, part of me had worried that I wouldn’t know what to do if I got the chance to kiss Mack again. Part of me worried I might make the same mistake that I made last night with he who shall not be named and never be able to face Mack after I left this hot tub. But as Mack pulled me even closer in the water and as he deepened the kiss, nothing embarrassing happened. I didn’t do anything that sent me jumping out of the hot tub and running back to my house next door.

No, when Mack’s tongue slowly grazed against my bottom lip, I welcomed the deepening of the kiss and just let myself get lost in the exchange.

And it felt so good. So unbelievably good to open myself up and experience Mack this way.

I’d never thought I’d be interested in French kissing someone before, but there was something about the way it felt with Mack that was addicting. And the only thoughts that I could make out as my mind clouded with the desire I had for him was that I wanted more.

More time alone with Mack. More of the warmth swirling through my veins as he kissed me. Just more time to get to know him this way.

He trailed kisses along my jaw and down my neck, making me gasp as a path of fire followed everywhere his lips touched. And as I let my head fall back while he kissed across my collarbone to my shoulder, my mind became mush. I wondered if I’d ever be able to draw in a decent breath again because it felt so good. So incredibly good.

“This must be what it feels like to be taken up to heaven,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

“So you like that?” Mack mumbled against my neck as he made his way back up. “Do you like it when I kiss you like this, Cambrielle?”

“Yes.” I sighed, pressing my fingers into his shoulders more tightly. “I. Don’t.” I breathed. “Ever want you to stop.”

I never wanted him to stop because there had never been another moment in my life that had felt this good. I’d never felt this kind of euphoria before.

“Good,” he said, his lips curving up into a smile on my skin as he chuckled. “I’m not planning to stop until you tell me to.”

His hands slid down my back and smoothed across my hips, and when he pressed me impossibly closer, I had the first thrill of nerves hit me because I realized where this could lead if we weren’t careful.

And even though I doubted Mack had plans to take things further than kissing tonight, I knew things sometimes got out of hand when hormones and hot tubs were involved.

“Did I do something wrong?” Mack pulled his head back, as if he’d been able to read my anxious thoughts the moment they slipped into my mind.

---