Page 10 of Love Off-Limits
I gasped. “That’s a...?”
“A gator?” Tyler asked, humor in his voice. “Yep.”
I took a small step backward, and Tyler moved with me, tightening his grip on my arms. “It won’t get out of the water, will it?” It couldn’t be more than ten, twelve feet away, though it was possible the darkness was obscuring my depth perception.
“It won’t,” Tyler said, his voice calm enough that I trusted him. “It doesn’t want to mess with you any more than you want to mess with it.” His breath brushed across my ear, ruffling the tendrils of hair that had fallen loose. “But I wouldn’t get any closer.”
I turned and pressed my hands against his chest while his arms slid down and clasped together at the small of my back. “Funny how different things are only a few hours away from home. I mean, the French Broad River runs right through our property,” I said, enjoying the feel of his arms around me. “I swam in it all the time growing up. The most threatening thing living in a mountain river is a crawdad. Do you just swim in pools when you live down here?”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Or the ocean.”
“Oh, great. You just swap the alligators for sharks. Sounds fantastic.”
He chuckled. “Sharks aren’t near as troublesome as the gators.”
I patted his chest. “I’ll stick to my mountain lakes and streams, thank you.”
“I’ve been to Asheville a time or two,” he said softly. “Great food.”
I rolled my eyes. “That is what you would notice, isn’t it?”
I smiled. “If I came up now, that’s not all I’d notice.”
Oh,he was good. Too good. Good enough that I could easily imagine myself coming back to these arms over and over again. Which was an entirely impractical thought. He had a great job working with his best friends. And I had Stonebrook. I’d never leave Stonebrook. Not when I was finally close to fulfilling my dream of running it.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t pretend, just for one night, that things might be different. That Tyler wasn’t completely wrong for me, that a relationship between us wasn’t wholly impractical.
My hands slid across Tyler’s chest to his arms, where I wrapped my fingers around his biceps. “Can I kiss you, Tyler Marino?” It was something undergrad Olivia would have asked. Impulsive. Prone to ignore consequences. It was thrilling to beheragain. At least for a moment.
Tyler leaned down, his nose brushing against mine. “I thought you’d never ask.”
The kiss was tentative at first, but it only took a moment for it to explode with the pent-up tension that had been building between us all night. I’d never felt such sharp, immediate attraction. Never felt so connected to someone. It was almost overwhelming enough to scare me, but I pushed my fears aside and leaned into the kiss.
Because there was nothing at stake.
Tomorrow morning, I would say goodbye to Tyler and go back to my life at Stonebrook.
Tyler turned his head, his lips parting in subtle invitation, and pulled me just a tiny bit closer. He tasted like salt and strawberries and desire. A tiny whimper escaped from my throat as his hand slid up my back, tracing the skin at the top of my dress before pressing flat against my bare shoulder blade. He wasverygood at this. Not in a particularly polished or practiced way. I had been kissed by men who had a lot of experience—who kissed like they were driving a very expensive car, every move choreographed and intentional. This wasn’t anything like that. It was more instinctive. Not quite frenzied, but intense on a level I’d never experienced before.
Tyler’s lips moved to the curve of my jaw, then continued down to the soft skin just below my earlobe. I could hardly breathe as I leaned back, exposing more of my neck, my hands gripping firmly to his forearms. Without him there to anchor me, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay standing.
The line of kisses continued down across my shoulder in the most exquisite kind of torture. Sure my skin was going to burst into flame at any moment, I captured his face in my hands and pulled his lips back to mine for a quick kiss before I released him, finally putting some distance between us.
“We should...” I took a breath. We should...I didn’t know what we should do. Whatever it was, I wanted to have a clear head before we did it.
“Come on,” Tyler said, grabbing my hand. We headed back up the path but veered left toward the parking lot before we reached the reception.
“Where are we going?”
“We aren’t leaving, I promise,” he said, calming the tiny flare of uncertainty that had sparked in my chest. I trusted Tyler. Weirdly so since I’d only known him a couple of days. But that didn’t mean I was ready to climb into his car and drive off into the sunset.
We stopped at a dark, boxy jeep. Tyler pulled his keys out of his pocket, finally relinquishing my hand before opening the hatch, the faint interior light illuminating the space around us. He pulled out a thick blanket and handed it to me. “Hold this a sec,” he said as he dug farther into the trunk. He draped a pair of binoculars over his neck then pulled out what looked like a sheet of smiley face stickers. “Green or blue?” he asked, holding them up.
I wrinkled my brows. “You want to give me a sticker?”
“It’s for the mosquitos,” he said. “They’ve probably sprayed everywhere around the reception tent, but if we’re anywhere near the river, they’ll get pretty bad. This will help repel them.”
I nodded. “Oh, got it. Green, then.”
