It wasn’t a sweet kiss; it was hard, needy, and damned sexy. With his solid body and soft lips pressed against hers, she kissed him back just as urgently. Standing on her tiptoes, she circled her arms around his neck. While his tongue did a primitive dance with hers, his hands wandered all over her body, squeezing, caressing, and driving her even crazier with need.
After she pulled away slightly for some much-needed air, she nipped at his bottom lip. It used to drive him wild.
Josh groaned, pulled her closer, and then dove back in for more.
Very bad-girl thoughts of dragging him inside to the couch and having her way with him were interrupted by the sound of a rifle cocking.
Freezing mid-kiss, they both slowly turned their heads toward the sound.
Grandma narrowed her eyes. “You have to the count of ten to get off my property, boy! One!”
Josh stared deeply into Meg’s eyes as he gave her one last long, slow squeeze against his muscle-bound body. “Guess I better go.”
“Yeah. Run!”
Grandma was on five by the time he took off at a sprint toward the hotel via the beach.
When he was safely away, she turned and met her grandmother’s steely stare. “What? We bet a kiss on the dart game last night. I lost.”
“You’d best remember how you moped around for months the last time that boy broke your heart before you end up in his bed again, young lady. And in my day, a kiss for a bet didn’t include all that monkey business with his hands.”
Grandma saw the getting felt up part?
Lord, just shoot me now.
After a fitful night’s sleep thinking of Josh and that kiss, Meg checked her phone for the tenth time as she walked the beach to the hotel. She’d hoped to hear back about her loan from the bank in Denver. No word yet.
She needed to get Josh’s room ready for later that evening, but first she wanted to set up her reservation software on the computer in Casey’s office. She needed to bill Mr. Randall, her first client, and put that cash to good use on her house.
As much as she would have loved to avoid her grandmother after the kissing episode, Grams and Haley had already made plans to bake cookies. So instead of a quick drop-off and a promise to return in an hour, she had to endure another lecture on the dangers of Josh and his monkey-business hands.
She’d been tempted to remind her grandmother she was twenty-eight years old, not sixteen, but it wouldn’t have done any good, so she’d just nodded until Grams ran out of steam.
Her sister, talking on the phone with a client while tapping on her computer’s keyboard, lifted her chin in greeting when Meg walked into the office. Casey’s usual smile was missing. Either something was wrong with the client she was speaking with, or Meg was in trouble with Casey too.
She’d find out soon enough, so she set out to put Casey’s old computer back together.
Casey hung up and started right in. “What’s up with you and Granger, Meg? He checked out this morning and said to tell you he’s cooking dinner tonight for you guys as a part of his rent.”
Josh was going to cook for them? Awesome! “Nothing’s up. He’s going to be staying, alone, at the house, and in lieu of rent, he’s going to help with the renovations. He’s muscle. That’s all.”
“So Grandma was exaggerating when she said, and I quote, ‘It was like watching a porno movie when I showed up at her door yesterday’?”
Meg laughed. It might have been if Grandma had shown up five minutes later. “Grandma watches porn these days?”
Casey wasn’t amused. She crossed her arms and waited for an answer like she’d done when Meg was ten.
“Is this my mother asking or my sister? Because bitching about men and talking about sex was supposed to come with a glass of wine. And it’s way too early in the day for that.”
“Dammit, Meg. I’m worried about you. Why can’t you just talk to me?” Casey closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
Casey always did that whenever Meg disappointed her. Something that had happened more than she cared to admit.
Feeling guilty, she circled behind Casey’s chair and wound her arms around her sister’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. You’ll always worry about me, and I appreciate it more than you know, Casey.” Meg gave her a noisy kiss on the cheek, earning a reluctant grin from her sister.
Meg went back to messing with the computer on the floor. Probably time to go all in on the sister thing. “I haven’t slept with anyone since I got pregnant with Haley. I’ve been on a few dates but wasn’t attracted enough to go to the next level. So when Josh kissed me it got a little more heated than I’d planned, that’s all.”