“The sound of you shushing me?”
“Shhh!”
I have to laugh.“Inner Shores isn’t entirely terrible,” I admit, tugging Chloe even closer, cradling her against my chest.
Chloe’s palms clutch my lower back, and her lips part with a contented sigh.
Fuck, I need to stop pretending I don’t feel this.Despite my best efforts to fight it… I like her.
I like her in a way I haven’t liked anyone for a long time.
This is bad.
This is terrible.
This is like fighting a fucking riptide.
A tightrope inside me snaps, and I lift her off her feet, my mouth crashing against hers.Chloe gasps as I mold our mouths together, sucking and biting her lips until they part and our tongues collide.A deep groan tumbles out of my mouth into hers, and the sensation is so fucking dizzying that we sink into the sand together.
I fall onto my back, pulling her over top of me to cushion her landing.
She’s gasping my name, kissing my mouth like she can’t get enough of me, and I grip her jaw hard and drag our tongues together until she moans.
I could make it my life’s mission to wrench sounds like that from this woman, but somewhere, deep in the back of my skull, I hear the voice.
What the hell are you doing?You said you wouldn’t do this.
“Chloe,” I beg, but she’s straddling me now, and my body doesn’t give a shit what my head thinks.My hands clutch her waist, and I thrust upward, her head falling back as I punch my hips hard against her.Her eyes blister as she presses down onto me.
Holy fucking shit.
Okay, stop before you fuck her right here.
STOP.
A shock of cold air blows over me as I break away from Chloe and sit up on my elbows.She doesn’t look perturbed, though.She just gazes down at me with her eyes shining and her lips curled up.
“Don’t panic,” she says with a laugh.“It’s just a kiss.”
She’s wrong.
That wasn’t a kiss.
That was a fucking earthquake.
My phone jingles from my back pocket—an alarm going off for God-knows-what.Probably a reminder to go to bed so I don’t stay up too late reading.
Chloe laughs into her hands, then gently climbs off me.I feel her smiling eyes on my face as she sits beside me.
“Is it bedtime, already?”she teases.
I can’t give her the satisfaction of telling her she’s right, so I make a noncommittal grunt.
“Come on.”She helps me to my feet, but once I’m up, she doesn’t let go.
We hold hands all the way back to her front door where she rises onto her toes and deposits a soft, lingering kiss on my lips.
For a moment, neither of us moves.
