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That twitch becomes a full faced grin. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re smitten with me.”
“You’re delusional.”
I mean, Ididjust admit I want to meet one of the most important people in his life. But not in a creepy, stage-five-clinger kind of way. More like a totally casual, get to know him better way.
Oh, god.
My pulse comes to a heart-starving halt. Am I smitten with Marcus fucking Matthews?
“What finally wore you down, the chiseled jaw or the effortless charm?” he asks, playfully crushing me against him while posing with his face lifted toward the sun.
What’s behind door number three?Oh goody. A lifetime supply of denial.
“How about neither,” I mumble with my cheek and mouth smashed into his chest. Sucking in a breath when he gives me a couple of inches of space, I seethe. “And you’re not nearly as charming as you’d like to think.”
With obvious amusement, he returns his attention to me and brings his lips intentionally too close to my ear. “Must have been myinsatiableappetite, then.”
A slow burn builds along my arms, creeping toward my neck and grinding jaw. How does he always manage to make me feel like a prude?
“Admit it. You like Augustine, you like my annoying cousin, and most importantly, you like me.”
“I’d rather choke.”
His eyes are impossibly blue against the river’s shimmering reflection. Dropping them to my lips, he rumbles, “That can be arranged.”
“I think we’re finished here.” More wiggling to no avail, and then I’m given another one of his belly-fluttering smirks.
“We’re not though, are we?”
A seductive caress glides between each word, matching the tenderness of his touch, and with certain clarity, I know whatever happens next will end one of two ways—naked ornaked.
He tucks a lock of stringy, damp hair behind my ear. “For the record, I think you would have made an adorable mermaid.”
“I sincerely regret telling you about that.”
Marcus starts humming a song from The Little Mermaid that I haven’t heard in ages. “How does it go, again? The one where they’re in the boat.”
“How should I know? It’s been years since I’ve seen it.” But who am I kidding? I’d recognize ‘Kiss the Girl’ anywhere.
He pushes off the rocky bottom, drifting us through the water, and like an unused muscle, my feet awkwardly swish and kick as we move.
“Maybe I’ll sing it so badly, you’ll be forced to remember the words.”
“I seriously doubt that,” I deadpan as he grabs my hand and leisurely twirls us around.
Adrenaline heightens my senses to the cool liquid whirling around my skin, and in this moment, I wonder if Marcus is intentionally helping me make peace with my past. Like some form of immersion therapy, he blends both my childhood fantasy of being a redheaded mermaid while submerging me in waters similar to those Jeremy had harmed me in.
“Okay, it’s something like—” He closes his eyes, and sure as shit, starts belting the lyrics. They’re the wrong lyrics, but that’s clearly not stopping him. “She don’t got a lot to say, mm-hm-mm-mm, something about that girl.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, trying like hell not to laugh.
“I mean this with the utmost sincerity, Marcus. But please, don’t ever quit your day job.”
“And you don’t know why,” he croons, ignoring my protests and tugging me by both hands. We spin in a dizzying circle, and when he waggles his eyebrows as if he’s doing such an impressive job, I nearly lose it.
“But you’re dying to try,” I grumble the next line, but decide that whatever happens, it was more than worth it for the ridiculous amount of mirth transforming his handsome face.
A hiss severs my answering smile the moment my back smacks a frigid, unyielding surface. I peer up at the ledge we’ve run into on the opposite side of the bank. The abrupt stop shocks air from my lungs, but not nearly as much as the man towering before me.
