Like he’d flipped some internal switch.
He stepped back, hands falling away, eyes dark and unreadable, but mouth curved with something that was absolutely smug.
I blinked, breathless, trying to remember my name. “What the hell was that?”
“A kiss.”
“That wasnotjust a kiss.”
He shrugged, all casual-like, which made it worse. “Maybe I wanted to test a theory.”
My hands were still halfway in the air like I didn’t know what to do with them. “A theory?”
“That you taste amazing anywhere you are.”
I stared at him, jaw slack.
He lifted his brows and grinned.
Then I shook my head, a laugh escaping before I could stop it. “Do youenjoytaunting me?”
“Deeply.”
He crouched to open the food baggie like we hadn’t just shared a kiss that cracked open the sky.
I stood there, slightly trembling, entirely annoyed that one man could leave me this undoneandsmugly fish out deli meat like he was doing me a favor.
“You’re infuriating,” I muttered, plopping onto the nearest sleeping bag and stealing a sandwich from the stack.
“You’re welcome,” he said, tossing me a bottle of water.
I caught it one-handed and gave him a pointed look. “I’m not going to survive this trip, am I?”
He didn’t answer, but he sat beside me, close enough to touch, and bumped my knee with his.
And when I glanced sideways at him, he wasn’t smirking anymore.
He was justlooking.
At me.
And God help me, I never wanted him to stop.
I watched him take a bite of his sandwich, lips curving faintly at the corners, and it hit me like a rock to the chest. I didn’t want him to leave.
Not just in theI’ll miss those shoulders walking around the lodgekind of way, but in a deeper, quieter ache I hadn’t felt in years. Not since before the last guy I let in slammed the door on everything soft in me.
But this? Sitting here with Ben, shoeless, shirtless, sun-damp, freshly kissed, and currently chewing with a surprising amount of charm, I felt something new. Or maybe somethingold,something I hadn’t let myself want in a long time.
It was terrifying.
And then, just as quickly, reality swooped in with its big boots and louder voice.
He’s leaving.
Two weeks. That’s all this was.
Actually, it was worse than that. He’d already been here for several days, so he’d be flying back in a week and a half or less. I didn’t do the math.
