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“Well, no, not literally. But we did kiss.”
“Yesss!” Mikayla reached across the table with her hand held high. Georgie gave her a high five, laughing some more. “And?”
She ignored the little frisson of heat that curled in her belly at the memory. “Ryan O’Shannessy sure can kiss.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“No, I mean, really kiss. Like the best ever.”
“Jesus. That’s a big statement coming from you. Georgie made out with a lot of guys, back in the day,” Leah explained.
“What can I say? I liked guys. And kissing. And…” She let the sentence hang, unfinished. Since all the other things she used to like to do were now off limits, there was no use thinking about it. “And, yeah, I’ve never been kissed like that before.”
They all sighed in unison, making Georgie giggle, then Mikayla said, “Now for the details, thank you. Don’t leave anything out.”
Well, that wasn’t possible without explaining her fears. She’d already told Mikayla more than she was comfortable with. She definitely didn’t want to get into it any further. So Georgie skimmed around that. Told them about the conversation beforehand, Ryan’s acknowledgement that he wanted to kiss her. It wasn’t easy, since that wasn’t actually what he’d said. He’d said he wanted to see her naked. But if she told them that, she would have to tell them how she replied. It was just too much. She knew Mikayla was watching her closely, thought maybe she’d surmised that there was much more to the conversation than Georgie was letting on. But she didn’t say anything, a fact Georgie was very grateful for.
CHAPTER12
Ryan stepped out of his cabin just as Mikayla was walking up from Georgie’s. She didn’t say a word as she came level with him, just grinned and held out her hand for a high five. He gave her one, grinning back at her as she continued up the track. He slipped his hands in his pockets and whistled a tune as he walked to Georgie’s.
Ryan had felt elated as they’d walked off the beach the day before. He understood that the Georgie Problem had changed in nature. Going from convincing her to have surgery to convincing her to let him have her, as it had. But he was always one for problem solving and he had extra motivation to solve this particular problem. Georgie, naked in his arms. He just needed for her to accept that to him, she was the most beautiful woman in the whole world. Rather than diminish her in his eyes, her scars made her more beautiful, because they showed her strength. How much she’d overcome. How she’d done all of it on her own. How she hadn’t allowed herself to become embittered by the cruel twist of fate that had landed her in the middle of that building collapse.
His blood hummed when she stepped through the door. “That sounds very pretty.”
“What’s that?”
“That tune you were whistling.”
Ryan stepped up onto the deck and pressed a kiss to Georgie’s smiling lips. “It’s a song about an old man, wandering to the hills, telling his love that she’s still as fair as she was when they were young.”
“Aw, that’s lovely.”
“Aye, it is that.” He kissed her again, for no other reason than that he could. His heart squeezed as she gazed up at him, her eyes shining. She was the lovely one, he thought as he gazed back at her. He was a patient man, he told himself, so he was more than happy to play the long game. But one way or another, Georgina May Quinn was going to end up in his bed and be more than happy to find herself there. He was going to make sure of it.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Brussels sprouts.”
“What?”
Ryan shrugged. “Not really. But you’d blush if I told you what I was really thinking about.”
“Oh, I see.”
He chuckled as he watched a slow blush creep up Georgie’s cheeks. “Yes, Georgie May, that’s exactly what I was thinking about.”
She rolled her eyes at him as her blush deepened. “We going for a swim, or not?”
Once Ryan had Georgie in the water, running through the exercise regime, he found it hard to keep his hands to himself. He didn’t think it was fair on Georgie to be groped while he was doctoring her. She didn’t make it easy though, running her hands up his arms, pressing herself against him. “Are you doing that on purpose?”
“Doing what?”
“Torturing me.” He’d meant it as a joke but he had to grab her when she pulled back, holding her up with his hands under her elbows. She couldn’t touch the ocean floor this far from shore and she couldn’t yet kick her legs enough to tread water.
“No, I wasn’t. I’m sorry.”
“It’s me that’s sorry. It was only a joke, mo chroi.”
