Southern Playboy (North Carolina Highlands 4)

Amelia takes a turn, and because she’s a track-and-field gazelle, she nails it, soaring through the air in this elegant arc that has me shamelessly checking out her legs. The muscles there, how they flex against her skin—

“That’s a tie,” I say.

Amelia rounds the sprinkler to cuff my shoulder, and I am very much aware of how close she is. Another step forward, and her tits would brush against my chest. Imagining how good that would feel—imagining how I’d yank her against me and roll my hips into the cradle of hers—I see double.

“Hardly,” she says. “But we can do two out of three.”

“So you can show off your moves?”

She wags her brows. “Exactly.”

Liam and I do our leap, and Amelia follows. Only this time, she launches off a slippery patch of grass and stumbles, throwing out her arms in an attempt to catch herself.

Before I know what’s happening, I’m dropping Liam’s hand and pouncing forward. My heart makes a hollow sound inside my chest as my brain goes from perv to parent in the blink of an eye.

I imagine Amelia getting hurt. Bloody nose? Broken wrist?

Not on my watch.

Grunting, I grab her, looping an arm around her middle. The momentum of her leap sends her body crashing into mine, our skin meeting with a muted slap.

Skin on skin on skin.

My blood jumps, and I die for the second time today. Only this death is way fucking better.

Her bent arms are caught between us. She tries to regain her footing, but she just ends up slipping again, so I firm my grip, my arm wrapped so tightly around her waist my fingertips graze her belly.

“Amelia,” I say. It’s an admonishment, or at least I mean it to be.

“I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

She looks up at me. Our mouths are half an inch apart. “I’m sure.”

I hold her for a beat too long.

She lets me.

She lets my fingers flex against her bare skin as I flatten my palm against her side. I can feel the quick, hard pound, pound, pound of her pulse here. A flare of awareness ignites in my center.

She feels the connection between us too. She’s not trying to hide her curiosity, and the fragility this exposes—the vulnerability—makes my heart hurt.

But the way her eyes flick to my mouth? That makes my dick hurt in the most pleasurable, most maddening way possible.

“This keeps happening,” she breathes. “You catching me.”

Yeah, but this time, I’m not blackout drunk.

This time, you’re really trusting me, and it’s driving me wild.

I search her eyes and beg. I beg her to ask me to kiss her. Beg her to tell me to back the fuck off.

Please.

“And you told Beau you’d be the one catching me,” I say.

Her lips curve into a smile, and she catches the tip of her tongue between her teeth. “We’re only on day three. You’ve got plenty of time to fall.”

I got a feeling that’s already happening, honey.

“Dada jump with Lili,” Liam says, tapping on my calf and breaking the spell. For half a second, I panic, not wanting to let her go but knowing it needs to happen now before I do something I can’t take back.

I’m her employer. She needs this job. The money, the recommendation. The time.

And I need her, desperately. For Liam.

For. Liam.

I’m putting all that in jeopardy by acting like a lunatic with nothing to lose.

It still kills me to loosen my arm, allowing her to step back. Allowing her to step away feels all kinds of wrong but is, at the end of the day, totally the right call.

It’s wrong, and it’s weird, but I let my fingertips trail over her side as she moves. Our gazes lock one last time, and the naked desire I see in hers—the fear too—it makes me feel—

A lot of things. Ashamed. Angry.

I don’t wanna dig too deep into that shit, so I don’t.

Instead, I ask Amelia to jump with Liam for me, and I jog inside under the guise of ordering us some dinner from The Barn Door.

I order the food—a whole barbecue chicken for Amelia and me, grilled cheese and steamed broccoli for Liam—and jump in the shower. Only then do I take my dick in my hand and let the floodgates open.

I think of her, and I come.

I lean my forehead against the wall. The tiles are cool, a welcome antidote to the burn that fills me.

Aw, hell. No use beating around the bush. I’m in trouble.

Chapter Nineteen

Amelia

My hands shake as I rinse the dishes after dinner.

I tell myself it’s because I’m tired. Today was fun, but it was also exhausting. I took Liam to the park this morning, then swung by my favorite local hardware store to grab a sprinkler before heading home to do the whole lunchtime rigamarole. While the little guy napped, I folded his laundry, set up a sensory table exercise, and gathered the courage to send Nuria a “checking in” text. It was off to the races after that when Liam woke up, and Rhett came home an hour early, culminating in what shall henceforth be known as The Great Sprinkler Foreplay Incident.