“Sam.” She dropped her eyes. “You’re embarrassing me.”
He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes, lured like metal to magnet past the invisible line he’d drawn to keep himself in check. His hand moved to the base of her spine. In his mind she was already his, but in his heart he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“I don’t want to embarrass you.”
Her lips parted on a sigh, and he fought the urge to cross that damn line and finally kiss her, taste her, brand her. He’d spent the last three days thinking of her, and now here she was, in his arms, and he couldn’t even kiss her.
“Tell me something about yourself, Faith. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“I have a younger brother and sister. Mack lives in Oak Falls, Virginia, where we’re from. And my sister, Charley, is studying marine biology in Harborside, Massachusetts.” She moved more fluidly, more relaxed.
“Ah, you’re the oldest. That’s why you’re so careful and focused.”
“Because I’m the oldest? Then where does a naughty beast like you fall in the massive Braden clan?” A hint of playfulness sparkled in her eyes.
“I’m the troublemaking second child. Can’t you tell?” He ran his hand up the length of her back and felt her shudder against him. “Maybe you should tame the beast in me.”
“Wouldn’t that be a shame?” She held his gaze. “All those girls left without a naughty beast to play with?”
“You are a sexy little thing, aren’t you?” Heat flamed inside him. “Would that be such a shame? Leaving them beastless?” His hand slid back down her back to the curve just above her ass.
Her breath came faster, her hips rocked forward, and her words came out low and seductive. “You tell me. What do you want?”
“You.” In my bed, on my lap, on my boat. He wanted to be with her, share space, hold her, talk to her—and make love to her. The first of those were new emotions, the type he’d been wrestling with since the wedding, and they got stronger with every word they spoke.
“Why?”
He met her curious gaze. “Because you’re smart and careful, and you keep yourself in a safe little bubble so you don’t get hurt.” He placed his hand over her heart, feeling it beating frantically against his palm. “But you want to be touched and loved and cherished. And I like when you come out of that safe world of yours and tiptoe on the Sammy side.”
She smiled and trapped her lower lip between her teeth.
“Because I’ve resisted you for all this time,” he said, holding her gaze. “And I don’t want to do that anymore.”
She leaned back a little. “I’m not jumping into bed with you.”
“That’s not what I want.” He smiled. “Not tonight, anyway.”
“Sam!” She halfheartedly pulled away, but he held her in place, needing her to hear the truth. “So all of this is just a means to an end?”
“Not the end you think, Faith. Not just sex.”
“Right.” She shifted her eyes away.
He silently cursed himself for screwing this up, but how could he hide his attraction to her when it was the last thing he wanted to do?
“I’m trying to be honest. How can you expect any man to look at you and not want to touch you, to kiss you? You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met, the way you’re careful one minute and confident and challenging the next. And you drive me insane in the most exquisite way, running hot one second and then scared in the blink of an eye. But mostly it’s the way your eyes devour me but your words slay me.”
“Sam,” she whispered. Her hands slid down his chest to his waist, hot and seductive as they swayed almost imperceptibly to the music, their bodies touching at every possible point.
“Your eyes are so full of want and worry. I want to ease your worries and savor your wants.”
She swallowed hard. Knowing he was affecting her as wickedly as she was affecting him spurred him on.
“I thought we could have dinner and get to know each other without doing anything more tonight, but I honestly can’t stop thinking about kissing you. It’s not that I’m trying to get you in my bed tonight, or tomorrow, or next week. But…”
Her heart pounded wildly against his chest. Her fingers dug into his waist, sending bolts of lust to his core. She blinked up at him, her eyes dark as the night sky, sending pinpricks of awareness down his spine. He couldn’t hold back a second longer. He had to know if she was right there with him.
“What do you feel, Faith?” His voice was rough with restrained desire. “Right now, what do you want? Does any part of you not want to be here? Do you want to talk? Or do you want to stop worrying, stop craving, and finally get a taste of us? One. Single. Kiss.”
Her eyes widened with surprise and quickly narrowed again, filling with untamed desire. Without a word she went up on her toes, and he claimed her, crushing her sweet body to his. The kiss was hungry and messy, demanding and urgent, as their tongues crashed together in an effort to taste more, take more. She tasted of night and lust and unnamed things that made his heart swell. Her luscious curves pressed against him, making him hard and hungry for more. His hands slid down her spine, earning a wanton moan from deep within her. He fought for control, but his hands itched to feel her hot skin, to hear that sexy moan as he came down over her naked body and buried himself deep inside.
Her hands moved up his chest, pressing against his pecs, while her hips wreaked havoc against his hard length. He slid one hand beneath the back of her shirt, needing the connection with nothing in between. A sinful sound escaped her, pulling a groan from deep within him. How was he supposed to resist her? How could he protect her from him when she consumed his every thought, drove his every move?
**
SHOCKED AT HER own eager response to the force of pleasure one kiss from Sam was bringing to every inch of her body, Faith tried to pull back. But her brain didn’t get the message, and she went up higher on her toes, trying to get closer, to take the kiss deeper. His hands were big and hot, branding her through her clothes and making her swell and ache between her legs. More, she wanted more. She clung to his neck, fighting the urge to climb him like a mountain and devour him limb from limb. But his parents were right downstairs, and if her legs wrapped around his waist she’d never want to let him go.
Oh no, no, no. She needed to slow down. She couldn’t go there with him. He’d fried her brain cells. Again. This was becoming a habit, first his glances, then his words, then his touch, and now this…this delicious, incredible, perfect kiss. She didn’t want to be his plaything for a night and know he’d be right back on the trail of some other woman a day or two later.
But his glorious, talented mouth was too delicious to resist. His tongue moved roughly over hers, and as if he knew exactly what she needed, he eased his efforts. Kissing her softer, slower, and bringing a whole new meaning to the word torture. His tongue moved sensually over hers, his hands pressed against her bare back, holding her possessively but not controlling her. Pleasure radiated out from every point in her body—her knees, her hips, her breasts—with the tantalizing tenderness of the kiss. He took control without force or domination, and without severing their connection, making the kiss that much sweeter.
His hands slid beneath her hair, and then his big, strong hands framed her face as he drew back, placing a series of shivery kisses on her cheeks, her chin, and finally, on her mouth once again.
“That, was…” he whispered against her lips, before pressing his mouth to hers again. “Open your eyes, Faith. Look at me. Be with me.”
His intimate request brought her eyes open, and the way he was looking at her, like he’d been waiting his whole life to kiss her, to hold her this close, was dizzying. She sank back down to her heels. Her legs felt like wet noodles, but her body felt like it was on speed. Wanting, craving, aching for another kiss.
He touched his forehead to hers, and a satisfied smile curved his lips. “Do you want to leave?”
“No.”
A flash of heat sprang into his eyes, and just as quickly they warmed with an emotion less urgent, less sinful, but just as powerful, and he touched his mouth to hers again.
“Thank God.” His voice was thick with desire.
She wanted this—his kiss, his touch—but she’d almost lost control with him, and she needed him to know her limits. “But I can’t do more.”
“No more,” he repeated.
She shook her head, and he wrapped her in his arms and held her tight, his cheek resting against the top of her head, and she thought she could be happy staying right there in his arms forever.
Her stomach growled and she groaned.
“Guess I can’t pretend that was because you’re hungry for me,” he teased.
That would hardly be pretending.
After another sweet kiss, they sat down to eat. Her heart was still going a little crazy. Sam lifted the lids from their dinners, unveiling a delicious meal of salmon, steamed vegetables, and baked potatoes.
They talked and ate, and Faith remembered to ask him if he’d made the donation to the group.
His fork stopped midair. “Yes. You wouldn’t take a donation directly, and I want to help.”