Page 36 of The Kiss Keeper
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kicked her feet playfully. “Is this what you do with all the girls? Seems a little caveman-ish,” she added with a giggle that went straight to his cock.
Dammit! He was grateful to get her mind off selling the camp, but his cock had no place in this deal. He could not think about how good she smelled or how sexy she looked in that trench. He especially couldn’t think about how much he liked having her in his arms.
“We can’t have you falling on your ass,” he answered, trying to think of the most practical reason for whisking a woman off her feet, as he continued down the path then veered right toward the rental cottages when she tensed.
“How’d you know which way to go?”
Shit! He wasn’t supposed to know anything about Camp Woolwich.
“I figured you’d tell me if I went the wrong way. You must know this place like the back of your hand,” he added, steering the conversation away from his slipup.
She relaxed in his arms. “I do. This is my favorite place on earth.”
“Oh yeah?” he replied, that damn tightness back in his chest.
She sighed. “The water, the woods. Everything seems so possible here—like it doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. This place wipes it clean and gives you a fresh start. Whenever I’m here, I see the world with new eyes.” She shifted in his arms and held his gaze in the moonlight. “Do you feel it, Jake? It’s all around us.”
He stilled. “What’s all around us?”
She smiled up at him. “Hope.”
He inhaled the salty-sweet Maine air as the summer breeze rustled through the trees. The hint of smoke teased his nostrils, and he would have sworn that there was a campfire going nearby, bringing him back to a simpler time, a happier time. Caught between the past and the present, he pictured himself the summer he’d spent here, hiking the trails, exploring the abandoned lighthouse, and jumping off the dock, his arms and legs extended like a starfish and smiling so hard his cheeks hurt. He’d loved the water once. He’d loved the lightness of floating on his back and staring up at the sky.
His gaze slid to Natalie’s lips, and the memory of the girl he kissed at the well came rushing back. The kiss that left him feeling invincible. That night, in his cot, after he’d watched from behind a tree as she made it safely inside her cabin, he’d promised himself that he’d find her. Sure, it was the last night of camp, but they could write to each other. He had it all worked out and had even pictured his desk drawers, teeming with delicately addressed stamped envelopes from her, whoever she was.
But he’d never gotten the chance to find her. Not when his uncle, and not his parents, arrived to collect him from camp.
He swallowed back the memories and tightened his grip on Natalie’s lithe body. It was as if holding on to her gave him the strength to stay rooted in that moment, safe from the ghosts of his past.
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Yes, I feel the hope.”
“Then you get it,” she replied with a smile so genuine all he wanted to do was kiss her to get a taste of the near-palpable joy that radiated off her.
“You’re going to get it if you don’t join us for truth or dare,” came Lara’s high-pitched shriek of a laugh followed by footsteps scurrying over the top of the hill.
What the hell?
Natalie dropped her head to his shoulder. “I figured we’d outgrown that.”
“Come on, Jake and Nat! It’s a camp tradition,” came Leslie’s equally grating voice.
He started up the hill as the flickering light of a campfire, and a trio of compact cottages came into view.
He glanced over at Team Podiatry, sitting around a firepit. “How many camp traditions are there around here?”
She groaned. “Too many to count. It may be better if we get it over with. Lara has the attention span of a fruit fly, so hopefully, this won’t take long.”
“Aren’t you the gentleman, carrying Nat all the way to the honeymoon cottages,” Lara crooned from her spot next to her husband.
Leslie waved them over. “Sit! We’ve got the fire going, and it’s a Woolwich tradition to play truth or dare on the first night of camp.”
“This really isn’t camp, Les,” Natalie replied as he gently set her down.
“We’reatcamp, so itiscamp,” Leslie snapped over the flames.
He met the woman’s hard gaze. When this deal went through, he would need to add a clause that this bitch didn’t get a penny. But when Natalie touched his arm, all the malice drained away as they sat down on a bench across from Leo and Leslie. He was no relationship expert, but even he could feel the waves of tension passing between the two of them. For a married couple, they didn’t seem to like each other very much.
“Okay! Okay! Okay! Truth or dare, Nat,” Lara clucked, clapping her hands.
