“Besides, if I get cold, you’ll warm me up, right?”
He hadn’t realized she was watching him. He gulped back the knot her words caused to form in his throat and willed the one forming in his pants to go away.
“Riley?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you afraid to join me?”
Terrified. Because getting close to her might mean losing control and seducing her right out of her panties. What would his neighbors think? Although, honestly, he wasn’t sure how many were even home at this time of year. A lot of the houses along this stretch were owned by wealthy snowbirds looking for an escape.
“Scared you’ll get wet?” she teased, digging her fingers into the sand beside her.
&nbs
p; “Nope.” To prove his point, he sat down next to her on the sand. “But I should warn you that I’m very turned on and perhaps you should get up and run while you can because what I really want to do would get me arrested.”
Arrested? Trinity blinked, wondering if she’d misheard him over the waves. “Do what?”
“You heard me. Just what I said. You’re beautiful and totally do it for me. I look at you and I want you. I have wanted you from the first moment I set eyes on you propped up against that hotel ballroom wall. Tonight, here on the beach, I want you so badly I may explode from it. I feel weak. If I did with you what I want to do with you, I’d be arrested.”
He wanted her. Really wanted her. A heady sensation, but the other thing he’d said played in her mind.
“I make you weak?” She didn’t want to make him or any man weak. Especially not when he made her feel strong, stronger than she recalled ever feeling.
He picked up her hand, pressed it to where his heart beat. “Does that feel as if you make me weak?”
His heart pounded beneath her fingertips. She shook her head.
“My resolve is what’s weak. You make me feel alive,” he clarified. “As if everything I do is bigger, brighter, more than anything I’ve ever done.”
That she understood because it’s how he made her feel. It amazed her that he could possibly feel the same. How could he when that seemed so unlikely? “I do?”
He nodded.
“I want you, Trinity, but I didn’t mean to tell you like this.”
She glanced around at the beach. Although there were other houses along the stretch of beach, they were essentially alone. The moon shone bright above them. The sea crashed foamy white waves that played a perfect love song. He’d just cooked her a delicious dinner and he’d lit candles. She couldn’t imagine anything more romantic, more seductive.
“What’s wrong with this? With this very moment?”
“Earlier I thought…” he shook his head. “It’s too soon.”
He was probably right. Less than two weeks was too soon. Still, they’d been together every night and if you put that on regular dating terms of weekend dates, they’d been seeing each other for months. Or was she just reaching?
Probably.
Because her hand had moved from his chest to his face. The grit of sand still lingered on her fingers but his skin was smooth, perfect.
“It’s not too soon,” she whispered, knowing it was true, especially when she heard his intake of breath above the crash of the waves. “But I should warn you that if we did, you’d be disappointed.”
“Never.”
She laughed ironically at his faith. If only. “I wish that was true, but I’m not very good at…well, you know.”
“Sex?”
Staring at where her hand caressed his jaw, she nodded. “I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t want me any more once we do.”