With a shake of her head, Tess watched her friend’s retreat. Only to discover she suddenly had no idea what to say to Lucas.See you later, and thanks for all the great sexseemed flippant.Hope you didn’t hurt your wrist rubbing my clit with such talented industriousness last nightseemed a bit too graphic for an early-morning conversation.Holy Christ, I think I could fall in love with you way too easilyseemed…well, ill-advised at best.
Desperate, she turned toward the water instead of him.
The ocean, sparkling and aquamarine, lapped against the dock’s pilings and tumbled in gentle waves onto the white sands of the shore. It was beautiful and pristine, and a good place to fix her gaze while she figured out what to say.
After setting her backpack on the dock, his free hand squeezing hers the whole time, he broke the silence. “We should exchange information.”
Oh, yeah. At the moment, she had no way of contacting him except through the hotel, and he had no way of contacting her at all once she left.
The realization struck home. They’d known each other for a total of five days. Five. Days. Yet somehow they were already entangled, and—damn her doubts—she ached for even more ties binding him to her.
For now, acquiring his contact information would have to suffice.
“I always have a stash of pens and sticky notes in my purse, just in case.” She unzipped the middle compartment. “Do you want me to write down everything for you, instead of dictating it?”
He paused, his brows drawn together, before directing an odd, amused glance her way. “Sure. I can scrawl my contact information for you too, if you have an extra pen.”
He let her hand go, and she dug into the depths of her purse and emerged with the supplies they needed. A block of sticky notes for him, another for her, and two pens. They both used the dock’s rail as a writing surface.
She bit her lip and looked up. “I gave you my cell number and my e-mail address.”
“I did the same.” He carefully peeled the note from her pad and passed her the one he’d written. “There you go.”
After dropping her pens and sticky-note blocks back into the middle compartment of her purse, she tucked his information within the same zippered side pocket where she stored all essentials. Tampons. Her lip balm. Her lucky piece of jade. And now him.
He folded her sticky note into a small, neat square and deposited it deep within the pocket of his athletic shorts, then looked at her.
He was still smiling. “You realize we could have just used our cell phones for all that.”
“Oh.” Damn, she was old. “Yeah, but electronics malfunction or go missing. I don’t want to risk losing your information.”
That teasing smile died, his eyes turning soft and warm as he gazed at her. “Same here. But let me text you my information, just in case.”
They exchanged information the modern way too, and once he was safely stored in her contacts list and he’d saved her data in his own cell, he took her hand again.
“So…” His fingers, warm and strong, played with hers as she watched. “Are you free tonight?”
She’d known. She’d known. Only a fool would consider his actions that morning—the near-constant physical contact, his company on the dock, his flirting, his request for her contact information—the polite gestures of a man ready to scrape off an unwanted one-night stand. But the confirmation of his continued interest steadied her anyway.
In the distance, a horn tooted. The small ferry boat, nearing the dock.
“Belle and I will be gone most of the day, and we have dinner reservations, but after that…” She lifted a shoulder. Smiled at him. “I’m available.”
The furrows in his forehead eased. “Good.”
The dock manager was exchanging shouted greetings with the captain of the ferry, and Belle had risen to her feet and stepped closer to the boarding area of the dock. The ferry hadn’t officially arrived yet, though, so Tess didn’t move.
“Do you want me to text you when I get back to the hotel tonight?” she asked.
He inclined his head. “Yeah. And if you want to spend the night, pack a bag.”
“Is that whatyouwant?”
It was a challenge, a request for him to declare himself. Also a sign of her lingering worries, whether he knew it or not.
He didn’t hesitate before bending forward, his bristly cheek a tantalizing scrape against her skin. “I want back inside you,” he whispered into her ear. “I want your taste on my tongue. I want to watch you come so hard around my cock you can’t breathe, and I want to do that as often as possible.”
Fuck, she couldn’t breathenow. “None of that requires spending the night.”
