Page 9 of The Keeper

Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed the front of the T-shirt Dane had thrown on when we left the pool and tugged his mouth down over mine.

His lips lacked the softness from before and moved against mine with the desperate urgency of a man shipping off to war. I twisted thematerial of his shirt beneath my fingers, anchoring myself as much as preventing him from pulling away.

Anyone could walk out of their room and see us, but I was too far gone to care. Nothing else existed outside of the hands braced on the wall on either side of my head and the insistent press of his lips to mine.

“God, I wish you didn’t suck at giving advice,” I confessed, peering up at him through heavy-lidded eyes.

Dane ran his tongue over his bottom lip as if he was still tasting me, his breaths coming in sharp, shallow pants. “Oh yeah? Why?”

“Because...” I hissed as his hand trailed down the side of my throat.

“Because?” He tilted his head to the side as if he didn’t know exactly what had caused my sudden lack of focus. “You wanna elaborate on that?”

My stomach rolled like the loose change on the floorboard of my car as I admitted, “Um, I don’t—I don’t kiss on the first date ever, but I just broke that rule with this guy I just met.”

His laugh was low and husky. “Scandalous.”

“And now, I want—” I sucked in a breath as his fingers skimmed along the halter strap of my bikini before stopping just above the swell of my breast.

He nodded, encouraging me to continue. “And now you want...”

“I want more than a kiss goodnight, but I’m not sure if I should.” Saying it out loud felt like stepping off a ledge without looking down first, which was admittedly a terrific way to end up dead—and, oh my god, why was he smiling like that?

“More, as in you serenading me with ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and recreating your favorite scene fromTitanic?” Dane’s eyebrow arched suggestively.

I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in my throat. “First off, you would be so lucky,” I said primly. “Second, there was room for both of them on that door, and I’ll die on that hill.”

He shook his head with a smirk. “Fair enough. So, the private concert’s out. What else could there possibly be?”

“I was thinking of something a little more hands-on, if you know what I mean.”

Dane’s eyes darkened, his pupils expanding until only a sliver of brown remained. “What kind of hands-on are we talking about here?”

I made a show of glancing up and down the hall before crooking my finger. “Come here. I don’t want anyone else to hear.”

He obediently lowered his head, and I leaned in, my lips brushing the shell of his ear. “I was thinking maybe we could read together.”

“Reading together,” he repeated, slowly shaking his head as if waiting for the punchline. “That’s more intimate than kissing?”

Even confusion looked good on him. It wasn’t fair.

“Mm-hmm.” I fought against the insistent twitch at the corner of my mouth, trying not to give myself away. “You don’t do that with just anyone.”

Dane pulled back with a nod, dropping his hands to his sides. “Okay. We could see if there’s a bookstore nearby.”

“That’s not necessary. I have plenty of books in my room.”

“Sure. Sounds good,” he agreed, masking his disappointment well.

Unless he wanted to sit and read romance together...

I licked my bottom lip, noting how his jaw tightened as he tracked my tongue’s movement.

Oh, this man definitely wanted more than a book in his hand. And as much as I wanted to draw it out, I was suddenly more interested in a different form of teasing.

“It’s notTitanic, but I was thinking we could read a few of my favorite scenes, preferably while your hands are on my body. Then, if you’re up for it, we could recreate them.”

“Christ, woman,” he growled, his voice rough with want. “You’re killing me here.”

---