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“Nervous?” His hands fell to my hips, lightly holding me against him.
“Can’t say I’ve ever done…thisoutside.”
His lips tipped up as his fingers slipped under my shirt. “This alabaster skin has never seen sun?” He scraped the tips of his fingers along my midriff. “I’m not surprised. You’re soft as water under here. Sure you want my rough hands on you?”
He slowly went up another few millimeters with each upward stroke only to tease me and return to the waistband of my jeans. When he was just about to graze the underside of my breast, he slid around to stroke up my back instead. I let out a slow breath, trying not to end with an annoyed sigh.
“Helena?”
“What?”
“Is this okay?”
“More than okay. You’re killing me.”
“Says the woman with her perfect ass rubbing on my hard cock.”
I hadn’t realized I was rolling my hips in time to his touch.
“Don’t stop.” His voice was rough.
I bent down to take in his citrus scent, my fingers roaming up his chest to his neck. “Is there a reason you haven’t kissed me yet?”
He’d had his hands on the most intimate parts of me, but not his mouth.
A quick flash of his face between my thighs made me flush.
Beckett’s lips were a slash of thin lips with a hint of a smile. “You were imagining my mouth somewhere else?”
I swallowed. “Maybe.”
He quickly rolled me onto my back. I yelped as he pulled me under him. “I aim to provide the best service. We like a very satisfied customer here at Brothers Three Orchard.” He caged me in with his elbows, but he didn’t move to kiss me.
I tugged his sunglasses off and tossed them toward the cooler. He did the same with mine and we both laughed. The crinkles by his eyes spoke of years in the sun, as did the glint of gold in his dark blond hair. I reached up to twine my fingers through his hair.
His eyes slitted at the stroke. His eyelashes were so long and blond tipped from the sun. My nipples instantly reacted to the bliss on his face at my touch. The pulse of a muscle in his jaw urged my fingers to search it out and lightly graze through his short beard. His heavy-lidded eyes opened once more. My heart hammered against my breastbone at his direct gaze. His eyes reminded me of the summer sky and the faded blue jeans I was wearing. Clear and bold with hints of softness.
Somehow the day had started with hurt and now, thanks to borrowed clothes and an old quilt in a secluded space, I was ending it with a man intent on showing me what a day could hold. In all my thirty-three years, no one had taken the time to show me such a simple kindness.
Yes, there was the sex element simmering between us, but it wasn’t a manipulated move. It could have been, and for any number of men I knew it would have been. Nothing here on this blanket, or since I’d gotten on his horse, spoke of a rush to get me out of the way.
It was a day out of time.
I didn’t know why I knew that, but I was thankful for it.
I lightly brushed my fingertip along his lower lip. There was patience in his gaze and a smile that made everything inside of me shimmer with expectation.
He nipped the tip of my finger. “You gonna kiss me or not?”
I laughed at the question. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been the one to initiate anything. Everyone in my life had taken the lead.
I brought both hands up to frame his softly bearded face. I was surprised by the texture of the bristles. I expected it to abrade, but instead it urged me closer. I stroked my thumbs along the angles of his cheeks and then his jawline.
When my gaze lifted to meet his eyes, the playful tone in his eyes had tipped into a flicker of intensity. A hint of the Beckett he mentioned outside the bathroom door. There was more underneath the easygoing facade than he offered up to most people.
I kept my eyes open as I touched my lips to his. The citrus blend of his scent, the strawberries and wine, and oh, the heat. It was all there. The way he caged me in with his body without crushing me, the weight of him, and the warmth of him allowed me to tap into the bravery I didn’t believe I possessed.
My eyes fluttered shut as the kiss drifted from chaste to soft sips. Unhurried as a late spring breeze, we learned the shape of each other’s mouths. The distant sound of water faded under the pounding of my own heart until the easy kisses weren’t enough to sate the churning need inside me.
