Page 55 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

“Yes, because I want to hug you equally as much as I want to kiss you,” he says, his eyes lingering on my lips.

My gaze travels up his broad chest, across the tanned skin of his Adam’s apple, and over the sharp defining line of his jaw and the fullness of his lips until my eyes find his. His are roaming my face, like he’s memorizing the tiny details he doesn’t yet know. They pause on my mouth and then lock on to mine. His hazel to my blue. At this moment, I want to drown in him, as heat races down my spine and butterflies take flight in my stomach. No one has ever looked at me the way Jonah Dallmann is. The way he does.

Scooting closer, I unconsciously lift my hand to push the fallen hair back off his face, but he captures my hand and flattens it to his cheek, his eyes briefly closing at the connection.

“So why don’t you do both?” I whisper.

Laying his forehead against mine, he lets out a deep exhale and wraps his arms around me until we’re pressed together.

“I know this probably sounds completely wild to you, but I missed you.”

Surprisingly, this doesn’t sound crazy to me at all, and I feel nothing but truth and honesty when I tell him, “I missed you, too.”

We had something that night. I knew it then, and I know it now. I had convinced myself that I had made it all up, that these feelings were one-sided, and it turns out they weren’t. As I hear him say these words, the disappointment I’d felt over how things ended between us drifts away. I know why he didn’t show up that day, but tragedy aside, I wasn’t really sure how he felt about me. I only knew how I felt about him. And with that, his mouth lands on mine.

Many times over the past two years, I’ve thought about what it felt like to be kissed by Jonah. It isn’t simple, and although some of his kisses are sweet and tender, after that night, that’s not how I would normally describe them. They’re consuming. A whole-body encounter. Which is what I’m experiencing now.

Large hands have wrapped around my head, and his fingers have tangled in my hair. He’s angled me how he wants me. His lips are full and soft as they coax mine open, and his tongue tastes delicious as it dips inside to refamiliarize mine with his.

Good gracious. This man undoes me.

Time passes as Jonah takes this moment to thoroughly kiss me and make up for the loss of the past two years. He sucks my tongue into his mouth; he bites my bottom lip and then licks it to wipe away the sting, and he breathes air into my lungs. I try to think back to the last time I made out with someone just for the sake of kissing them, and it turns out it was with him.

It was only ever him.

He pulls me through the water by my waist until I float over his lap and straddle him. Just like the night we met. Yes, the water is warm, but I feel like his skin is even warmer. His hands roam over my hips, butt, and back, and everything below my waist tightens as he shifts me closer, and his hardness settles perfectly between my legs.

No one in this world has a more perfect body than Jonah Dallmann, and I take advantage by tracing the hills and valleys of his stomach, running my fingers over the individual bumps of his spine, and flat handing his broad shoulders and upper arms.

From here, his hands slide up my thighs, and his thumbs dip into the crease of where my legs meet my body. They’re so close to touching me intimately that I exhale harshly against his damp lips.

He pulls back just a little, and his eyes find mine. I’m mentally shouting the word yes at him, and by the way his mouth twitches on one side, my message is received. I want to be close to him, as close as possible. His hands then shift and both of those thumbs rub straight down the middle of me.

I’ve died and am floating away.

I don’t know what it is about Jonah. Never in my life have I ever wanted someone the way I want him. I crave the nearness and the connection with him to the point it makes me feel crazy. His skin and the way it feels and smells, the roughness of his cheek against mine, his arms when they wrap around me, and his hands when they’re on me. I want it all, and I’m almost embarrassed to say, all the time. Physically, I want to grab him and never let go. Emotionally, even though I know something is there, I’m doing my best to push that aside. I can’t think about that now. I don’t want to think about that now. After all, what good will it do if I end up leaving?

Chapter 22

Jonah

Ididn’t think I could get any harder until a noise leaves Sophie that’s so full of want and satisfaction as I run my fingers over her. She’s so perfect, and at this moment, so mine, I feel like I have wanted her for forever, and I’m not slowing down unless she tells me to.

Leaning forward, she sneaks her tongue out and traces my bottom lip before she sinks it into my mouth to rub against mine. Being given the green light, I move her bathing suit bottom over and dip one finger inside while my thumb continues making circles. She pushes down on my hand, and I add a second finger.

Her hand lowers between us, and she pulls on the string that ties my shorts. It comes undone, and she slips her hand inside.

“Sophie,” I groan, but she doesn’t stop. Her hand wraps around me and then slides up and down. It feels so good I can barely breathe. “Go slow. I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

“I haven’t either,” she whispers against my lips.

I pull back to look at her. “No Isaac?”

“Nope. That was part of the problem. Apparently, I didn’t want him, and it took him pointing it out for me to realize he was right.”

“Do you want this? Me?” I ask her even though I already know the answer.

“More than I know how to articulate.”