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The breeze picked up, shaking the trees around them. For the first time in a while, Veronica felt totally at peace.
“You take it for granted a little when you grow up here,” she said. “It’s not like there are parts of the valley that are ugly. It’s all beautiful. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss it when I went to the city.”
“Why did you move?” he asked, sounding totally dumbfounded.
She shrugged. She wasn’t sure why she’d done it, why it had been so important to her for so long. Maybe that was one of the things she needed to unpack in her life. Why going far away had seemed like the solution to everything. “It’s complicated. And it was a mistake. I can’t imagine ever going back.”
He was quiet and she looked up to find him watching her. He looked more serious than he ever had.
She shrugged again. “Maybe I just spent too many years living in paradise.” She lifted her chin toward the view. As a teenager, she’d spent a lot of time outdoors, but she’d always thought of it as her only option for escape. She hadn’t realized how much she’d loved it until she didn’t have it anymore.
He still watched her, as if he was trying to puzzle something out, but she didn’t want to reveal more. In the end he only nodded and bumped his shoulder gently against hers. “So...tell me what it means to be ‘pretty much’ a virgin.”
Veronica gasped in horror. “I’m not telling you that!”
“Come on. I’ve been wondering about it. The things you told me that first night.”
“When I was drunk!” she yelped.
“Yes, when you were drunk. And being honest. I mean, I was obviously intrigued, but after that kiss... I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered, her face going as hot as fire as she let her head drop. But her face wasn’t the only part of her heating up. That kiss had been so, so good. And if he was interested in what she’d said, then he was...interested. Hadn’t she just been thinking that she’d do almost anything to get her hands on him?
She felt him lean closer. “I only want to know what you want,” he whispered, his voice so close to her ear it made her shiver. “What you’re looking for.”
Just his voice was enough to make her warm, but then...then his lips touched the side of her neck. She inhaled so sharply that it sounded like a gasp. His warm mouth touched her again, and the brush of his beard sent goose bumps scattering along her skin and down to her hardening nipples.
“I don’t want to tell you about that,” she whispered, but she was arching her head away from him now, giving him more room to work. No one had ever kissed her this way. Softly. Slowly. As if he was exploring instead of persuading.
“Okay.” The word whispered over the skin behind her ear. She felt his fingers slide along the base of her skull, then trail down the nape of her neck. “Just tell me one thing, then. Anything.”
His tongue was shockingly hot when it touched her neck. Just a little flick that made her gasp again.
“I...” she tried, then groaned when his mouth opened against her and sucked gently. “I...I know a lot of things,” she managed to say. “All of it, really.”
“Mmm.” The sound vibrated against her.
“And I’ve done things.”
“What things?” he whispered.
Oh, God, she couldn’t say any of this out loud. It was too much. She didn’t want to tell; she just wanted to do. With him.
He drew back a little, and she followed him, her body leaning closer, chasing after his mouth.
“Come ’ere,” he murmured. She wasn’t sure what he meant until his arm slipped under her knees and he lifted her up and onto his lap.
She grabbed on to him in shock, feeling as if she’d slide right off his knees, but his legs were strong, and his arms stayed around her to hold her steady.
She wasn’t sure that sitting on his lap was quite...appropriate. But when his mouth settled into the crook of her neck and he tasted her again, any thought she’d had for returning to her own side of the boulder vanished. She didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted to be right here on his hard thighs, with his hands spreading over her back and his mouth creating magic on her neck.
“Oh,” she sighed, settling more comfortably into his chest.
“You’ve obviously kissed before,” he said. “You’re very good at it.”
He kissed his way up to her jaw, and when she turned toward him, his mouth caught hers.
Was she good at it? She had no idea, but he made her feel hungry and languid and right. But she got to kiss him back for only a brief moment before his mouth left hers. “Have you come before?” he asked, his voice a little rougher than it had been.
