Page 27 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
“Tomorrow?” he said between kisses.
She made a noise that sounded like a whimper and an affirmation, and he couldn’t help devouring her again. Their tongues tangled, and he ground his body against her. She made another wicked sound, sending heat coursing through him. His thoughts spun as he explored the recesses of her mouth in deep, penetrating kisses, exactly the wrong way to kiss her after promising to go slow.
Reality slammed into him, and he tore his mouth away. “Tomorrow” came out like a command.
Her cheeks were flushed and scratched from his scruff, her eyes glassy. “Tomorrow,” she said with a seductive smile that told him sheknewshe’d sent him into a tailspin—and she freaking loved it.
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before picking up his helmet and taking a step back. She arched a brow and held her hand out. Only then did he realize he still had her keys. He pulled them from his pocket and set them in her hand, feeling like a lovesick, horny teenager.
She unlocked her door, and then she glanced over her shoulder and those gorgeous eyes slid down his body like a caress, causing him to become aroused.
“Night,” she said. She picked up her helmet and slipped inside, closing the door behind her.
His head fell back with a groan and he closed his eyes, letting the cool air wash over him. How was he going to make it through the night, much less through several weeks?
When he stepped inside his cottage, he swore he could still smell her perfume. He leaned back against the door and debated throwing caution to the wind and marching right back over to her place. What was the worst that could happen?
She could be gone in the morning.
That reality sent him away from the door. He stepped around the boxes containing his art supplies, set his helmet on one of them, and shrugged off his jacket. As he tossed it on the chair by his laptop, he was surprised by a knock at the door. When he pulled it open, Violet launched herself into his arms, and their mouths crashed together. After a second of confounded shock, relief and desire soared through him.
“I just need this,” she panted out between urgent kisses. “To be in your arms.”
“That’s where you’ve always belonged.”
He pushed off her jacket while they made out with reckless abandon, as if they might never get another chance, groping and nipping. She pulled at his shirt, and he tore it over his head. Then he made quick work of stripping off hers. All that colorful ink against her creamy skin took his breath away. He wanted to make herhis. To touch and love every inch of her body the way he’d fantasized, the way hecraved. But he forced himself to slow down, gripping her hand instead.
“Daisy, you’re killing me,” he said on a long exhalation. “I thought we said one step at a time. I can’t lose you again.”
“I just want to lie in your arms like I used to. Just kissing.”
They’d slept together naked for months without making love. But now that he knew how good they were together, how right their bodies and hearts fit as one, it would be ten times as difficult to hold back. He had no idea how he’d manage, but he wanted her in his arms more than he wanted his next breath, and he would figure it out.
He kissed her again languidly, deliciously sinking into her mouth, until those sounds he loved so much slithered into his own lungs, and then he led her toward the bedroom, weaving around the boxes.
“What is all this?” she asked breathlessly. “It looks like you’ve moved in for good.”
“Art supplies,” he said as they entered the bedroom, but boxes were the last thing on his mind. He’d walk through a minefield to be with her.
Moonlight spilled over her beautiful body, and he took a second just to drink in her softness, the neediness in her eyes, and the slight tremble of her hands. He stepped closer. She was so gorgeous, sohis. This time he wasn’t going to mess up. He cradled her face in his hands, kissing her deeply. How long had he wished for this moment? For a chance toseeher, touch her,kissher again? Toloveher the way she deserved to be loved? He should be terrified that she’d bolt, and maybe he was, but he was too greedy for her, too in love with her, to let it push past his elation.
He took his time, kissing the graceful length of her neck, slowing to gently suck the tender skin at the curve of her shoulder as he unhooked her bra. He felt her shudder against him, and as he slid the straps from her arms, the air rushed from her lungs. He traced the ink that stopped just short of the swell of her breast and pressed a single kiss there. If all they had was kissing, he was going to kiss her to the moon and back. He blazed a path of kisses down her belly and along the ink covering her ribs. She touched his shoulders with trembling fingers, and when he glanced up, her eyes were closed and a blissful expression curved her lips. She smelled like his favorite memory. He finished undressing her, took her hand, and lowered her to the edge of the bed.
Her keen, catlike eyes locked on him as he stripped down to his briefs. She went up on her knees on the mattress, reaching for him as he reached for her. He bent to kiss her, and she leaned slightly to the side, pressing her lips to his cheek, his neck, and finally to thefaith in lovetattoo on his shoulder. Heat slithered down his chest.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know,” he said, and took her in another smoldering kiss. “I never meant to scare you,” he said against her lips.
He eased her to the mattress and slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her painfully slowly and diabolically deeply. Her fingers played over the scar on his left flank, which he’d gotten three years earlier on another volunteer mission. He’d awoken to a woman’s shrieks and flames shooting out of a hut. He’d sprinted into the fire, and though he’d saved the woman and her four-year-old boy, the boy had hidden from the flames beneath a table. When Andre was down on all fours reaching for the child, a piece of the burning roof had fallen, catching his flank. In the months before he and Violet had finally made love, when they’d lay together naked, doing everything except allowing their hearts and bodies to truly become one, she used to touch him just like she was now.
Her hips rose, rubbing all her softness against him. He gazed into her lustful eyes and said, “Just kissing?”
She nodded with the sexiest grin he’d ever seen.
“I must be a glutton for punishment.”
He kissed his way down her body, and slicked his tongue along her belly.
