Page 86 of Booked for Summer

He halted, turning to face her. ‘Then what’s the matter?’

‘Nothing.’ She swallowed. ‘Well, except for the fact that taking me to see her wasn’t fair.’

His browns scrunched together. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It was like you brought out the big guns.’

‘You’re calling my grandma a big gun?’

‘I don’t think you could get any bigger.’ She worried at her bottom lip. ‘Flipping heck, Liam, it was like watching Simba and Mufusa, Nemo and Marlin… damn, I can’t think of any grandson/grandmother comparisons but you get my drift.’

‘Honestly?’ The tension that had crept into his expression eased away, replaced with bemusement. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

She let out a huff of frustration. ‘I loved watching you with her, all right? It made me see a whole other side of you that I actually wish I hadn’t because I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop falling for you now, which is going to make things incredibly awkward for the next seven weeks.’

His throat moved as he swallowed. ‘Seven weeks?’

‘Yes. I counted it the other day.’

He inhaled a deep breath, letting it out slowly as his eyes locked with hers. ‘It doesn’t feel nearly long enough.’ As her heart thumped wildly in her chest, his hand slid slowly up her neck to cup her cheek. ‘You think I’mnotfreaking out about this? You aren’t the only one in danger of losing themselves.’

She didn’t know which was going to explode first, her brain or her heart. Both were racing like the clappers, pumping endorphins and adrenalin into her overheated blood. ‘Honestly, I don’t know whether to jump you, or run inside and lock the door.’

He let out a harsh exhale. ‘Ditto.’ His thumb smoothed across her cheek, eyes darkening to charcoal. ‘But I’ve never run from anything.’

Her heart thumped louder. ‘So we’re doing the jumping thing?’

He groaned. ‘If you want to jump me, you’ll get no complaints.’ He brushed his mouth against hers, sending a zing of awareness through her. ‘But you could also invite me in for a drink and we’ll see where this goes.’

‘We’ve been here before, so we both know exactly where it’s going if you come inside with me.’ But she took his hand and they walked together to the bookstore, her fingers trembling as she unlocked the door and waved him inside. Resisting Liam Haven was impossible. God knows she’d tried, A-plus for effort, but it seemed so pointless when she only had seven weeks left here. Sod sensible. She’d come here for an adventure, to find herself, and he was part of that. It was time to stop being scared and take the leap, because even though the landing would hurt, the journey would be extraordinary.

Her legs felt like jelly as his long fingers curled around hers and he led her towards the stairs. ‘This is crazy,’ she mumbled as she climbed ahead of him.

‘What is?’

‘My heart’s racing.’

When he reached the top of the stairs, he drew her jacket off her shoulders and laid it carefully over the back of her chair. ‘Are you nervous about having a drink with me?’

‘Yeah, you’re not here for a drink. At least I hope not.’ She rested a hand on her belly, trying to quiet the butterflies. Not nerves, she realised. Excitement. ‘This reminds me of that first time, when you invited me back to the yacht for a cocktail, and then you said if I really wanted one, I’d be disappointed.’

He smiled, hands sliding up her arms until they reached her shoulders where he slid them under the straps of her dress. ‘I remember.’ She gasped as he bent to kiss her neck. ‘Were you disappointed?’

‘You know I wasn’t.’

‘We were strangers that night.’ He dropped another soft kiss on her neck, only this time he didn’t stop, instead continuing across her collarbone, moving the material aside. ‘Now I’m kissing a woman I care about. A woman who knows me more than anyone else ever has.’

It was a reminder that he didn’t allow people close, and for a good reason. As his grandma had confirmed tonight, he’d spent most of his life being shunned, both the boy and the man. He too had fears to push aside, pain that was hard to forget.

‘I know you, but you also know me.’ Needing a distraction from the emotions he pulled from her, she smiled and reached for the buttons of his shirt. ‘So you should know you need to get naked because I’m a big admirer of the body you keep hidden under your clothes.’

His breathing quickened as his smouldering gaze met hers. ‘It’s yours to do what you want with.’

* * *

At his words, a gleam entered Jade’s beautiful blue eyes. But then she ducked her head and focused on undoing his shirt, mumbling a curse as her fingers snagged on the buttons. It made him smile, which quickly turned into a hiss as her knuckles brushed against the sensitive hairs of his happy trail.

‘Maybe I should take over,’ he muttered, erection hard and pulsing against his zip, begging to be released.

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