He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “We’re a thing, Addy. Even if you say we’re not, you can’t escape us any more than I can. When you leave here, you’re going to think of me. Of us. As often as you breathe.”
A lump rose in her throat with the truth. He sat back on his heels and placed his palms on his thighs. His riveting gaze willed her to break through her fears and meet him halfway. Did he know how scared she was? How much she hated being scared? Could he see it? Feel it? She’d gone forever refusing to acknowledge fear, but Jake brought it to the forefront, like other emotions she’d long ago buried, and he refused to let her hide behind them.
“You make me feel, too,” she admitted. “And that terrifies me.”
JAKE LET OUT a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. She was scared. Well, join the fucking club.
“Don’t look so relieved,” she said sharply. “It’s not like I’m going to give in to your cavemanlike demands just because I admitted that what I’m feeling scares me.”
He laughed because she was so…Addy.
She scowled. “I reveal something like that to you and you laugh at me? I think I liked this better when we were trying to ignore the desire to rip each other’s clothes off.”
He pulled her toward him. When she resisted, he tugged harder, purposely tumbling backward and bringing her down on top of him. He wrapped her in his arms and rolled her onto her back, trapping her beneath him.
Her scowl twitched as she stifled a smile. “You’re so…”
He felt that cocky grin she teased him about spreading across his face. “Hot? Hard? Relentless? I’ll take all three, thank you very much.”
“Frustrating.” Laughter broke through her steely resolve.
He pressed his hips against her sweet, soft body. “I can ease that tension for you.”
She laughed again.
“I love your laugh, sexy girl.”
“You don’t love anything, except maybe sex.”
“I do love sex, and sex with you is beyond incredible, but your laugh? I hear it when you’re not even around.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t use silly lines on me. I’d much rather you say what you meant. You’re glad I’m past my rant so you can get down and dirty with me.”
“I’m glad you’re past your rant, yes. And I do want to get down and dirty with you.” He reached beneath her and grabbed her ass. “And I love your ass.” Her smile widened and he kissed her neck, earning a giggle that made him want to hear more of it. “I cannot wait to feel your plump, sexy lips around my cock again.” He slicked his tongue over her mouth and she leaned up, but he drew away.
She grabbed his shirt and yanked him back down. “If I were a guy, I’d call you a cock tease.”
“Would you?” He pushed his hand beneath her dress, loving that they could still play this game even though everything had changed, and stopped at the feel of lace on his fingertips. “I do love you in lace.”
He kissed her softly, but she grabbed his head, deepening the kiss. He fought to ignore the seductive grinding of her hips. He’d messed up once today when he’d wanted to treat her right, even if she’d seemed to enjoy it as much as he had, and he wasn’t about to mess up again. He needed her to know she was more than a good fuck. Hell, the word fuck felt wrong as it rumbled around in his mind.
Dominating was what he did best. Easing off? Not so much. But he forced himself to do just that. Telling himself he’d make it up to her later, he removed his hand from her thigh and pushed up on his palms. Her eyes brimmed with desire, tempting him to the edge of reason. Struggling to do the right thing, he said, “But I’m not taking you here, and I don’t use lines. I fucking love your laugh. Deal with it.” He pushed up to a sitting position, the air between them sparking so hot he was sure the dune grass would ignite.
“Fine,” she snapped. The underlying breathiness of her response told him it was sexual frustration driving it, not anger. “You like my laugh.”
He rose to his feet, bringing her up beside him, and he noticed glittery ink on her wrist. “Bride Tribe?” He remembered the pen she was holding and withdrew it from his pocket. She cocked her head to the side, watching him curiously as he uncapped it and turned her wrist over, scrawling Taken over the other words.
“Possessive much?”
“Only as much as you’ll allow.” He shoved the pen in his pocket, watching her brush sand from her legs. He turned her by the shoulders so she was facing away from him, and moved her hand. “I’ve got you. Get used to it. Pretend it’s your idea if that helps.” He brushed the sand from the backs of her legs, and when he brushed it from her ass, she wiggled her butt.
“Having a hard time?” she teased.
“Christ.” He smacked her ass.
“Hey!” She spun around with a fierce and seductive look in her eyes, and he dragged her across the rocks again. “Where are you taking me?”
“Right here if you’re not careful.” He draped an arm over her shoulder, tugging her against his side so hard she squeaked, and her hand flew to his stomach. Her fingers slid off and he put them back, flattening them against his abs. “This is what you do when you’re a thing.”
“I never said we were a th—”
He silenced her with a hard kiss. She leaned against him, her hands circling his neck, yielding to his demand. He didn’t know what the hell was in her Pandora’s box, but he was pretty sure it had nothing on the typhoon of emotions she’d released in him.
He pushed abruptly from the kiss.
“What?” She smiled as innocently as a tigress licking its chops, and he led her down the beach. “Where are we going?”
“For a walk before I decide that treating you like a lady blows and bend you over one of these boulders.”
Chapter Ten
A LONG WHILE after Addy and Jake set out for their cool-down walk along the shore, her hormones had calmed, and she was enjoying listening to stories about his childhood. He’d told her about trips to the beach with his family, how his father had taught him and his siblings about preparedness and how to live off the land. That was another thing she really admired about Jake and his family. It was no secret that Jake and his siblings had inherited family money. She wondered how they’d all turned out so down-to-earth. The more they talked, the clearer the answers became. Their parents had pushed them to better themselves and pursue their dreams and given them the knowledge and tools to survive on more than money and circumstance. He’d endured broken bones, failed projects, and had to fight his way through figuring out his problems.
“My father used to tell us, if we wanted something bad enough, we wouldn’t stop until we had it. If we didn’t, then…” He shrugged.
“That explains a lot.”
“Whatever, Addy. Yes, I wanted you. Yes, I pursued you. You can be sarcastic, but at least I own my feelings.”
That stung, and her thoughts stumbled, but he was right. “I’m sorry. Please tell me more. I like to hear about you and your brothers.”
“What was your childhood like?”
“Totally boring compared to yours. Private schools, traveling with private tutors when my father had to attend fashion shows. Pretty dresses, fancy dinners, and absolutely no pushing from my parents about anything other than primping and etiquette.” She leaned her head against his arm as they walked. “Tell me more, please. It’s nice to get a feel for how you became the person you are.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I don’t know. Who did you explore the world with when you were younger?”
“Anyone who would go,” he said with a smile. “Cash and I spent one whole summer honing our tracking skills. We stayed out in the woods from dawn to dusk. I was only seven or eight, but we considered ourselves mountain men. We had skills to perfect and animals to track.”
He lowered his voice an octave as he said the last two sentences, and Addy laughed. “Do you want to bang your chest now?”
He pulled her tighter against him. “Ha-ha. And yeah, maybe I do. So what?”
“So, it’s cute.” It was cute, but she understood the need to prove himself. She’d spent many hours poring over his pictures on social media, and besides getting a good sense of who Jake was, she’d realized how little she’d pushed herself outside of her comfort zone. That had been the impetus for her upcoming camping trip.
“Yeah? Well, don’t say that in front of my brothers. I’ll never live down being cute.”
“Making a mental note—say ‘cute’ often around Jake’s brothers.”
He grabbed her ribs and she shrieked and bolted ahead. In seconds she was in his arms, being twirled like one of those ridiculous couples on a Hallmark card. Only she didn’t feel ridiculous at all. She felt happy, though still unsure about how to navigate this new territory. When he set her on her feet, she smiled up at him.
“Still scared?” he asked.
“Shitless.” She grabbed the waist of his shorts and stepped forward, surprised she admitted that so readily to him. But something had changed during their walk. He wasn’t pushing her to talk about why she was scared or trying to fix it for her. As minuscule as that might sound, to Addy they were the most important things he could have done. And in doing so, Jake had unknowingly torn a fissure in the protective armor she kept around herself. It felt good not to be trying to seduce him or fight his seduction. It felt right, and nice, to allow herself to enjoy him without secondary motives or worries about what it all meant.