Page 47 of Where I Found You
He opened his mouth to tease her further, but couldn’t remember what in the world he was going to say. Her smile waned as awareness hit her eyes.
His breathing shifted, subtly, until their rhythms matched. She inched closer, or maybe he drew her in—didn’t matter. Only inches separated them, giving him a close-up view of her freckles and those cheekbones that itched to be traced.
He obliged, dragging one knuckle gently across their length. Her breath hitched off rhythm, and she licked her lower lip.
So much for treading carefully.
Red flags waved across the back of his mind, but he didn’t want to think about them. Or about impossible clues, or about losing the inn because of stupid mold.
He just wanted to feel eighteen again.
* * *
Good gravy—Noah Hebert was going to kiss her.
A dozen voices stammered at Elisa to run. But she ignored them, drawn toward Noah like a moth to an open candle. A masculine candle that smelled like the sun on the bay and the forest after a heavy rain and all her favorite things about the island.
The back of his hand grazed her cheek, and she turned her face into his touch, breathing in his warmth and the caress of his knuckles. He held her eyes with his deep brown gaze, drawing her chin up and providing her a better view of his whiskered cheeks. She wondered if they felt as rough as they looked, and her hand longed to find out.
Before she could, his fingers continued an exploration along her jaw, then trailed quickly down the side of her throat until his hand cupped the back of her neck. She remembered that move. The first time he’d kissed her that summer, it’d been the exact same progression. A less secure woman would wonder if he’d pulled such a thing on every woman he’d dated since, but the smolder in his eyes assured Elisa it was reserved for her.
The warmth of his hand sent contrasting shivers down her spine, and she stepped closer toward the fire—toward being burned. Her finger buried into his shirt, knotting the material with both hands. One palm came up to graze his cheek. Just as prickly as she imagined…as prickly as sheremembered…yet she wouldn’t change a thing.
He ducked his head and she arched toward him on her toes, her body operating completely on autopilot as if the past twelve years had been an unfortunate blip on the radar. This was bad.
But so, so good.
Her breath hitched. She should move. Abort.
But she might as well have been chained to him, chained to the past. Her eyes fluttered closed.
“Elisa Bergeron!”
Her eyes flew back open at the slamming of a door. That wasn’t the sweet mutterings of the man about to kiss her—it was the voice of her father.
“Dad?” Elisa’s bewildered, high-pitched tone hurt her own ears as he strode across the floor. She wasn’t sure if she had stepped away first or if Noah did, but sudden distance spread between them. Had her dad seen what had almost happened?
Whathadalmost happened?
She stared at her father, whose red face testified he’d seen plenty. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same.” Dad crossed his arms over his polo shirt. “I left several messages.”
She automatically patted her jeans pocket for her cell, but it was back on the coffee table, near the abandoned pizza boxes.
“Not you. Him.” Isaac’s gaze swung sideways to include Noah.
Noah repeated a similar pat down, to no avail, looking as flustered as she felt.
“But I can see you were otherwise engaged.” Isaac frowned.
Oh, boy. “Dad. What are you doing here?” Elisa kept her voice calm.Be a good girl…
“I wanted to check on the proceedings for the mold mitigation. When no one answered, I thought I’d swing by.” He nodded toward Noah, his lips pressing into a hard line. “I can see I came just in time.”
Noah cleared his throat, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Proceedings are under way.”
“Proceedings to fix the Blue Pirogue, or to weasel back into my daughter’s life?”
