“What are you ladies talking about so intently over here?” Sara asked, joining the small group. She was wearing aMaid of HonorT-shirt, but didn’t look any less elegant than she had in her dress earlier.
“Books,” the aunt said. “You know how we are about book talk and Carly owns a bookstore in New Hampshire. How perfect is that?”
“Totally perfect, Aunt Kay. I knew that and meant to introduce you at some point, but then everything got so busy and I forgot. I’m glad you found each other.”
Carly and Sara had crossed paths several times since her arrival, and she genuinely liked her. And she could see why Emily would want to pair her sister up with Noah, even if she didn’t share all of his outdoor passions. On the surface, they’d be an attractive pair and there was probably some appeal to sisters having a double-date night with two guys who were friends and professional colleagues.
Emily didn’t know Noah as well as she thought, though. With the exception of his parents, nobody knew him as well as Carly. Hell, she knew him so well she could tell what he was talking about by the way he moved as he spoke. And Sara was the kind of woman Noah would date, and he’d date her longer than most women because she was awesome. But eventually, the constant compromising about what she wanted to do versus what he wanted would chafe and he’d break it off.
And since she was thinking of Noah for the umpteenth time that evening, she glanced over at him. He was looking at her, and he winked before turning back to the guys.
Sara sighed. “I think I already told you what a lucky woman you are, but I’m just going to say it again. You’re a very lucky woman.”
“Owning a bookstoreanda man like that?” Kay shook her head as she sighed wistfully. “I love my life but if I was about ten years younger, I might try to talk you into trading for a few days.”
“He’s coming over here, Aunt Kay, so behave yourself,” Sara warned, and sure enough, Noah was walking across the sand toward them.
Carly cursed the quickening of her pulse even as she felt the smile tugging at her lips. She couldn’t help it. He was wearing a white tee with jeans, and his hoodie was in a pile with hers, for when the sun went down. With bare feet and a bottle of beer dangling from his hand, he looked like a walking magazine ad.
And he was hers. Maybe only for this weekend in the carnal sense, and someday he’d have to share the spotlight with her future husband, but he would always be at her side.
“I hate to interrupt, but I have an urge to dance with Carly,” he said, after blessing them with his most charming grin.
When he held his hand out to her, she didn’t have any choice but to take it and let her lead him toward the place in the sand the wedding planner had used ribbons and bows to mark as a makeshift dance floor. They set their drinks down on a table they passed and Carly bit back a sigh as he pulled her into his arms and started swaying to the slow, romantic ballad being piped through the speakers.
“This is a first.” She was compelled to make conversation so her mind wasn’t free to dwell on how much she liked the feel of his hands on her body. “I don’t think we’ve ever danced together before.”
“I’m not much of a dancer,” he said, and they both laughed because that was an understatement. “I guess this is just a weekend of firsts.”
That it was. “And you decided you suddenly wanted to dance why?”
He shrugged, but a hint of pink touched his cheeks. “Everybody else has danced. I thought it might look weird if we didn’t.”
After glancing around to make sure nobody was dancing too closely to them, she tipped her head back to look at him. “I guess we succeeded in making everybody think we’re a real couple.”
“We did.” His gaze was so intense, she blinked. Then he smiled. “We must make a good fake couple.”
“We must.”
When his mouth closed over hers, she closed her eyes and melted against him.Perfect.Everything was so perfect, she thought, and she broke off the kiss so she could gaze up at his face. She wanted to remember this moment forever. The way he looked with the ocean behind him and the taste of his kiss on her lips.
“I was exploring a bit and I found a very, very secluded spot that’s not visible from here or the inn,” he said with a very suggestive arch of the eyebrow.
“I’m not into having sand in all the wrong places,” she told him firmly.
“We can just make out a little bit.”
“Like I trust you,” she said, and he laughed. “A little bit of making out and next thing you know, I’ve got sand up in places I don’t even want to think about.”
“I think about those places,” he said, sliding his hand from her waist over her ribs and toward her breast. “I’ve been thinking about those places all day.”
Carly had zero interest in getting naked anywhere near sand, but he was a hard man to resist. “We can go for a walk.”
He gave her a triumphant smirk, but she chose not to set him straight as his fingers laced through hers and he led her toward a path she hadn’t even noticed. Her clothes weren’t coming off. Sand or rocks or whatever were a hard pass.
They walked along the path in a silence broken only by the lapping of the waves and the faint sounds of merriment from the party on the beach. It was barely a path at all in places and they had to pick their way over rocks and around tide pools, but he kept hold of her hand the entire time.
They finally came to a small patch of sand surrounded by rocks and it was like being in a world of their own. Nobody could see them here and they couldn’t hear the reception anymore. It was just Noah and the moon shimmering on the calm water behind her.
