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“And here you go.”
Before he had a moment to draw breath, she had one arm wrapped around his neck, her body pressed close and her lips on his. He froze in shock. Before he could gather his scattered wits, she was pulling away, back pedaling hastily. “Oh, no you don’t!” He said, grabbing her wrist, dropping the freshly washed sweater on the floor before pulling her back, into his arms. “You think you can come in here and lay a kiss like that on me, then walk out the door?”
“Well, you didn’t respond, so I thought…” He saw the doubt and uncertainty clouding her eyes and could only imagine how much courage it had taken her to do what she’d just done, shy as she was.
“You thought wrong,” he said gently, before lowering his head and claiming her lips in a soft, gentle kiss. She sighed, sliding her arms around his neck, molding her body to his. He deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue across hers when she opened her lips, his blood singing. He fought the urge to drag her into the bedroom and do what he’d dreamed of doing for months. Courting, that’s what she needed. Good, old-fashioned courting. He raised his head, steadfastly ignoring the pang of regret he felt at ending the kiss when her eyes fluttered open, dark green now in the wash of light from the loungeroom. “Maybe just give me a bit of warning before you kiss me like that.” He said it with a smile, but he saw something flicker in her eyes. Something painful. “What is it?”
She shook her head. “Just, you know, if you don’t want me to kiss you, you should say so.”
“Leah, there’s never a time when I don’t want you to kiss me.”
“Really?”
The tone of disbelief in her question hurt his heart. “Really. But with a kiss as hot as the one you just gave me, I need time to brace myself.” He saw a glimmer of amusement flicker in her eyes.
“Oh, I see. Okay then.”
He kept perfectly still, holding her loosely when she stood on tiptoe, brushing her lips over his lightly, carefully. Then she slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down, giving him a long, sultry kiss, full of promise.
“Can I say something?” she asked as she broke the kiss.
“Of course.”
“There’s never a time when I don’t want you to kiss me, either.”
“Good to know,” he replied, ignoring his lurching heart as he let her go.
???
Leah couldn’t help but laugh at Bluebell as she dashed to the shoreline, then scurried back when the waves lapped at her feet.
“She’s an idiot,” Callum said, taking a bite of his salad wrap.
“Yeah, but a cute idiot,” she replied. She felt so good, just sitting there on the warm sand next to Callum, a soft ocean breeze toying with her hair. She’d been surprised and touched when he’d come into the Long House just after midday and asked her if she’d like to have lunch with him. She’d said yes without hesitating. She took a moment to be grateful to Mikayla. If she hadn’t pushed her to lay a kiss on Callum, she never would have done what she’d done last night. It sure had cleared the air and she was immensely glad of that. So now there was just this comfortable silence between them again, no awkwardness.
“Your power should be fixed up today.”
“Great.”
“Dad’s onto the insurance assessor. He’s trying to pin him down to meet us at yours tomorrow morning. We’ll have the quote ready, he’ll see it’s all legit and should agree to a cash payout. If he does, we can get moving on the job the day after tomorrow.”
“That fast?”
“Sure. We’ve got the supplies on hold, waiting for the go ahead.”
“Should you do that without the insurance approval? It might be risky.”
“The job needs to be done, with or without insurance, so yeah.”
“Right, but I can’t afford to pay for it without the insurance.”
“I can.”
“Callum!”
“What?”
“You can’t possibly imagine I’d let you pay for my house repairs.”
