Page 76 of Hometown Hottie

My heart thudded against my ribs. She stared at me without answering. Her silence was an answer in itself, I thought. Then she leaned into me. Pressing up on her toes, her arms wound around my shoulders and she pushed her fingers into my hair, pulling me down until my mouth met hers.

She kissed me with her whole body, her torso melting into mine as she hung onto me, even bringing one of her legs up to hook it around my thigh. I groaned, relief, joy, and a whole different kind of tension coursing through me.

As I kissed her back, I closed my eyes, but not just because I was kissing her. I sent up a prayer of thanks to whomever had intervened on my behalf. I let go of her face to wrap my arms around her waist. I held her to me and lifted her clear off her feet.

I spun us around, so damn happy that I couldn’t stand still. She giggled. I grinned against her lips, breaking away from them for just a moment to look into her eyes. “Is that a yes?”

“That’s a yes. There’s something here.” She slanted her mouth over mine once more, still smiling.

She kissed me like she was never going to stop. I was okay with that. I was already wondering how we were ever going to leave her cottage again now that it was finally official.

Well, sort of, anyway.

Deciding to figure it out later, I picked her up and gently laid her on the sofa. She pulled me with her, and when she started tugging at my shirt, I grinned and lifted my arms to let her take it off.

I kissed her again, spreading her legs apart with my hips to make space for myself between them. Then I reached for the hem of that cute pajama top of hers and made quick work of tossing it with mine on the floor.

After all these years, Nova and I were finally together, alone in her cottage with a whole night ahead of us to make up for the time we’d lost, and I was planning on putting it to good use.

I had no idea how to be a boyfriend or what she would expect from me going forward, but that was the beauty of all this. These kisses? They were just the beginning of a whole new story for us, and I was really fucking excited to see how it was going to end.