Breaking Even (Sterling Shore 5)

She kisses me harder, making talking an impossibility. When she moans into my mouth, I drop to the

first thing that won’t collapse—the sofa. I sit with her still wrapped around me, keeping her straddling me.

“Yes,” she says while pulling her lips away from mine. “Because I’ve missed you, too. It wouldn’t be fair if I had been the only one missing you. I’d have to do something to get even.”

She just keeps proving to be more perfect for me.

“I want to do this.” The words come through easily, surprising me. I really expected that to be so much harder to say.

She tilts her head as an amused smile plays on her lips, and she leans back to pull at the strings of her bikini top. Swallowing becomes incredibly difficult when the strings fall, and gravity pulls the small garment down. Though I have no idea where it falls to.

“I would hope so. You’ve already got me here.”

My eyes stubbornly stay on her chest for another second. Or ten. But I finally find her eyes again, and ignore her devilish smile.

“I mean I want to do this—us. For real this time. No holding back.”

Her smile falls, and for a very long five seconds, I worry that I’ve messed up and waited too long. But then her smile that is only reserved for me breaks across her face, and she undoes the side of her see-through wrap thing.

Now breathing is becoming as hard as swallowing.

“Why?” she asks, bending down and pressing her chest against me.

I really regret the decision to put my shirt back on. I want to feel her against my skin.

When her lips find my neck, I realize her game. And she’s really, really, really good at this game.

“I think you know why,” I answer in a strained tone as she shifts in my lap, pressing herself even closer.

My hands slide up and down the bare skin of her back, and I tease the top of her bikini bottoms, ready to have her naked. It doesn’t matter where we do this anymore. I just have to have her.

“I don’t know why,” she says, taking a breath that worries me. She looks serious now. So this isn’t actually a game.

“Because you make me miserable.”

Her eyebrows lift up, and I laugh at her confusion. I love that adorable little wrinkle her forehead gets when she’s completely baffled. That little wrinkle gets a lot of exercise around me.

“I’ve never felt so irresistible,” she mutters dryly, and I can’t help but laugh while picking her up.

I lay her down on the floor, push her back, and cover her almost bare body with mine. When her breaths become more labored, I restrain a smirk.

“You are irresistible. My anger was gone, as I said. Somehow you got rid of it, but I didn’t notice until you were gone what you had put in its place. While you were gone, there was nothing but misery.”

She smiles bashfully as a tear rolls down her cheek. “Then I’m glad I make you miserable.”

I grin and kiss her, but she starts tugging my shirt over my head, forcing me to break the kiss. When she unties the strings of her bikini bottoms, a feral sound escapes my mouth, forcing her little smirk to appear.

“There’s another reason I want to do this,” I say in a reverent breath as she slowly tugs the bottoms away.

My eyes go down, taking in her small body beneath me now that she’s completely bare.

“Oh?” she muses, her delicate, deft fingers going to work on the strings of my swimming shorts.

I take a minute to truly admire her. She looks like mischief wrapped up in an innocent package that is ready to deceive the naïve. She’s perfect.

“I also want to do it because I’m a little bit in love with you,” I murmur, taking a deep breath as I find the courage to meet her blue eyes again.

She gives nothing away with the expression she’s wearing right now. I really don’t like that expression. Finally, a few more tears fall from her eyes and she pulls me to her while kicking my shorts the rest of the way down.