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Caught up in the moment, I didn't notice how close we'd drifted until Meg gazed up at me, haloed in the dimming golden light, close enough that I could count each faint freckle dusting her cheeks. Energy between us shifted into something more hushed and heavy.
Neither of us dared move.
Though I knew the impulse was reckless, I couldn’t stop myself. I tucked Meg’s camera behind my back and dragged her closer, crashing my mouth down over hers. With her willowy curves pressed against me, a stark, primal heat shot through my veins at every point of contact between her soft body met my hard one.
There was a split-second pause, mutual shock, before she melted like butter, her response as fierce and unguarded as mine. My tongue invaded her mouth, the taste of Meg––my Meg––mixed with sea salt intoxicating. Bombs could have dropped and I wouldn’t have noticed. It was like the years between us fell away and the world fell with them.
The thunderous crash of a wave splashing our feet jolted me back to reality. Meg broke away and we stared at each other, chests heaving, eyes wide. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth and I searched her face, need and uncertainty warring within me. Her lips were deliciously swollen, her eyes hooded and dazed with lust and something else.
A sharp pang of longing pierced me.
But the sight of her flushed cheeks and this primal need to claim her as mine also sent a spike of panic through me. I stepped back and whipped her camera off my shoulder. Taking a deep breath, I shoved it extra carefully into her hands, wrestling with myself for control.
She grasped it in reflex.
Her gaze began to clear, and my gut wrenched, the panic taking deeper hold.
Axel was wrong.
It had been so long since I’d let anyone in and for good reason. This shoot woke up feelings better left undisturbed.
I backed up another step. “I think we got some good test shots. I'll be in touch about the formalwear photos." My voice came out gruffer than intended and I winced inside.
Hurt flashed across Meg's face. "Ryker, wait, we should––“
“Meg, I’m sorry. I have to go. I'll have Jeremy send you my availability for the next shoot.”
Before she could respond, I turned and stalked off down the beach, my pulse galloping in my ears. Leaning down, I snapped up my tee shirt lying in the sand as I went, fighting the urge to look back, to go back. I couldn't slip back into old patterns like this and lose my head.
Not again. Not with Meg.
It was too risky.
Yet even as my mind whirled with rationalizations, my mouth still burned with the delicious imprint of hers and my board shorts felt extra snug. Memories kept assaulting me, and part of me knew I was only kidding myself.
Walking away now was only delaying the inevitable.
Wewere inevitable. I felt it in my bones.
Hell, we always were.
CHAPTER5
Meg
The memoryof Ryker's searing kiss lingered no matter how hard I tried to shake it. After he'd fled the beach so abruptly three days ago, he'd maintained a cool distance ever since. I’d only received communications from his assistant Jeremy.
I told myself it was for the best as I busied myself cleaning camera lenses in my studio––no need to complicate our professional dynamic with messy emotions.
Yet the radio silence nagged at me.
As I placed a cleaned lens back in its proper spot, the sight of my rumpled beach towel was enough to vividly conjure the feeling of Ryker's strong arms around me, his hard body pressed against me… I couldn't stop replaying that charged moment. I huffed out a breath, annoyed.
In spite of myself, I craved more.
Ugh. Stop it, Meg!
Uneasiness roiled in my belly at how readily I'd let my walls down after a little attention from an attractive man. Not just any man either, but Ryker. The one man I swore I wouldn’t get entangled with again.
