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Her heart skipped a beat. A sunrise with Quinn? What could be more romantic?
Yet again he was proving to her that he was nothing like her workaholic father, who would never have been up before sunrise unless there was a plane to catch or a meeting to attend. Another layer of wariness fell away, replaced with the warmth of trust.
“I’ll be right out.” She didn’t even take the time to change, just stepped into a pair of jeans and threw a cardigan over her top, then hurried out to the porch.
Quinn smiled as she came through the door, his eyes moved slowly over her, lighting sparks all across her skin. “You’re so sexy,” he said in a raw voice right before he took her mouth in a kiss so full of unfettered desire that he stole her breath completely away.
She grabbed his shirt and tugged him closer, deepening the kiss. She wanted to kiss him all day long, wanted to start at sunrise and just keep on kissing him until it set again. He wrapped one strong arm around her waist, his body heating her from knees to chest and every delicious spot in between.
“God, I love kissing you.” He pressed another wild, desperate kiss to her lips. “But if we keep kissing, we’ll miss the sunrise.”
Sunrise? She could hardly remember what that was anymore, when all she wanted to do was drag Quinn back inside, lock the door behind them...and spend the rest of the day making love.
“Won’t there be another one tomorrow morning?”
His laugh vibrated through her, along with the wonderful heat of his body. “I’m trying to woo you, you know, but you’re not making it easy.”
“I do rather like the sound of being wooed.” And she truly did, especially when she knew that Quinn wooing her rather than just thoughtlessly taking her to bed was yet another way of showing her that he could be the man she needed him to be. The man that she deserved. “So let’s go see that sunrise, after all.”
The sand was cool between her toes, and the predawn air still held the chill of the night, but she was warm tucked beneath his arm. Being with him this early brought back memories of the mornings she and her aunt had watched the sunrise from her aunt’s deck. They’d cuddle up under a thick blanket and watch ribbons of color thread through the sky, bringing a new day, and always a new adventure, too.
“There’s a house down this way that I’m thinking of renting,” she said as they passed the resort.
“You really are serious about coming to the island, aren’t you?”
“I’ll have to look into space in town for the café and talk to my suppliers, but yes. I think I am.”
Shelley pointed to the cottage on the dunes. “That’s the house. It’s got a gorgeous view, and it looks like it hasn’t been lived in for a while. I’m going to call the Realtor today. I haven’t been inside it yet, but when I peeked in the windows it looked really nice and open. I like open floor plans. It has a fireplace for the winter and—”
“A beautiful stone mantel,” he finished for her as he handed her his coffee cup so he could spread out the blanket. At her surprised look, he said, “I know the house well. When I first opened my business and came back for the holidays, I almost bought it.”
He sank down to the blanket and guided her down beside him. She was already addicted to the weight of his arm around her, the feel of his body beside her. She thought about how quickly her feelings had become real. Her memory of the night she and Quinn had met was still a little fuzzy because of the champagne she’d drunk, but the feel of that night wasn’t fuzzy at all. And since spending more time with him, she felt him every time she thought of him, from the way his eyes washed over her skin and felt like a caress, to the warmth of his hands on her. Even the way he called her Shell made her heart go pitter-patter. Plus, whenever she thought about how hard he was working to prove himself to her in the aftermath of their one awful night, Shelley could feel herself relaxing into him more and more by the second.
“Why didn’t you buy it?”
“My business ramped up faster than I expected, and I knew I’d rarely come home for long enough to enjoy it. I’ve had my eye on it for a long time, though. It’s a fine property.”
“I won’t rent it if you want to buy it.”
He opened the brown bag and handed her a chocolate croissant. He must have been listening to what she’d said on the boat about loving them, even when she thought he was too sidetracked. He scooted closer as they bit into their pastries.
