“We just met yesterday,” she reminded herself as much as him.
His gaze held hers. “I haven’t forgotten.”
Her heart slammed against her ribcage so hard that surely he felt the impact of each beat. “It’s too soon.”
His thumb stroked across her jawline. “I know.”
But even as the words left his mouth she leaned over and brushed her lips against his.
Oh, heaven. His lips were soft.
And electric.
It was barely more than a peck before she pulled back, searched his eyes, making sure the pounding inside her body wasn’t deafening him.
It was deafening her.
Had he felt the same pleasure at the touch?
His held fell away from her face and he started to say something, but rather than let him she pressed her mouth against his again. This time she deepened the kiss and kept her eyes locked with his in the faint glow of the colored lights.
Those lights must be why a brilliant kaleidoscope flashed through her mind.
His lips were warm, undemanding, and yet nothing had ever demanded so much from her.
The kiss drew out every nerve ending, reached every cell, refused to let any part of her be passive. Everything about him necessitated action.
He wasn’t touching her anywhere except her lips, yet every part of her felt him. His eyes darkened to depths she wanted to topple into and drown within.
She knew she could push him away, could stand up and walk away, could tell him to stop at any point she wanted this to end, and he’d let her. She had entire control and the knowledge, the surety emboldened her to not do any of those things.
Instead, she got lost in the inky blueness that stared back, in the perfect pressure of his mouth against hers, tasting, caressing, tempting.
Jack wanted to kiss her.
He was kissing her.
She kissed him, not regretting that she’d leaned over and started this, but embracing this newly found freedom just as she’d embraced her body’s initial reaction to him.
Jack made her come to life, awakening new and exciting parts of her she hadn’t known existed.
Her heart raced, thundering like a stampeding herd. Her lungs struggled to get oxygen to her brain. She gave in to the escalating excitement at her core and kissed Jack with hunger.
With certainty.
Never had she felt so starved for what his lips gave.
Never had she felt the heat mounting inside her and pushing upward and outward.
Time faded. She had no idea how long they kissed, just that every breath she took was his, every sensation inside her started and ended with Jack.
Sweet, heavenly, laidback Jack who didn’t mind giving her control of their kiss.
A group of teens came running onto the sand near them. Taylor pulled back.
Breathless, she stared at Jack in awe.
He grinned.