Take Me Away (Southern Bride 6)

A crooked smile appeared on his face, and he leaned down ever so slowly and brushed his lips against mine. “Good morning, Mrs. Byers.”

I wanted to purr like a kitten every time he called me that. Instead, I returned his smile with one I hoped had an equal effect on him. “Good morning, Mr. Byers.”

His blue eyes turned dark, and he leaned down once more to kiss me. This time he bit on my lower lip and sucked it into his mouth before running his tongue over it. I grabbed onto the railing to hold myself up as my knees shook and my insides pulsed with need.

He let my lip go and then ran his thumb over my bottom lip, his eyes watching the action with deep interest. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

I raised a single brow, and he laughed.

“Are you hungry for food, my beautiful wife?”

“I suppose I could eat something, considering you’ve had me in that bed for the last twelve hours doing naughty things to my body.”

He winked. “You seemed to enjoy it.”

“Oh, I did. Very much so.”

“Good, I’ll give you a repeat performance later.”

He took my hand in his and led us back into the private bungalow we had rented for our honeymoon.

“St. Lucia is beautiful,” I said as I made my way to the sitting area where two trays of food were waiting for us. They were overflowing with fruit, eggs, muffins, and at least three different types of breads and jams.

“It is very beautiful,” Nolan said, motioning for me to sit first.

“This is enough food to feed a small army.”

He settled himself across from me and immediately tore into his food. I couldn’t help but smile. Someone had certainly worked up an appetite last night.

“What we don’t eat we can put in the small fridge,” he said between bites.

I smothered berry jam over a piece of wheat bread and sat back, my feet tucked up under me. “What are we going to do on the first official day of our honeymoon?”

Nolan glanced up at me and smiled. “Well, I thought I would introduce you to a few hobbies I’ve developed over the last few years.”

“Really? That sounds like fun.”

He gave me a lopsided grin that made my insides feel like they had combusted.

“What’s that smile for?” I asked, taking a bite of my toast.

“The first thing we’re going to do is kitesurfing.”

I frowned. “Kitesurfing?”

He grinned. “Yeah.”

“Um, okay.”

“After that there’s a tour that takes us to this amazing waterfall. Then we’ll come back here, have dinner, and maybe enjoy a nice walk on the beach.”

“I like the sound of that.”

He grinned, clearly pleased that his plans for today were going to work. “Tomorrow I’ve got us booked on an ATV tour.”

I reached over and grabbed some grapes. “That sounds like fun.”

He nodded and took a bite of his eggs before washing it down with orange juice. “Then, ziplining.”

I laughed as I shook my head. “Hell no.”

Nolan lifted his eyes and gave me a deep frown. “What do you mean?”

“I am not going ziplining.”

He tilted his head as if I’d just said the craziest thing in the world. “But it’s through the rainforest, Linz. It’s going to be beautiful.”

“I have no doubt it would be beautiful, but have you forgotten? I’m afraid of heights.”

Nolan laughed.

“You think that’s funny?”

He shrugged. “I mean, you’re strapped in. I’ve done it a dozen or more times. Over canyons.”

“You also flew fighter jets and made them stall out on purpose. You don’t get to be the judge of stuff like this.”

He laughed once more. “Please? For me, will you at least try it once?”

I exhaled and chewed on my lip. It did sound rather fun. “Okay, I’ll do the ziplining, but if I don’t like it, you won’t pressure me to do it again.”

“Of course not. Why would you even think I would?”

“Let’s see, that time at Six Flags when you made me go on that one ride that dropped straight down. Then you kept bugging me to do it again after I told you I peed my pants.”

His brows pulled in for a moment, and then he lost it laughing. “That’s right! I forgot all about that.”

“Ha,” I said as I shot him a dirty look. “Good thing my memory came back.”

He shook his head and popped a blueberry into his mouth. “I’m going to guess the sunrise balloon ride is out then.”

I nearly choked on my scrambled eggs. “Yes, that is a hard pass. A very, very hard pass.”

“Kayaking?”

“Rapids or smooth water?”

He rolled his eyes. “Kayaking is out.”

I fought to keep a smile off my face. “I will hike, boat, swim.” I pointed at him. “And that doesn’t mean scuba dive.”

“Damn,” he mumbled.

“Tours, spas, fishing, biking.”

“Parasailing?” he asked in a hopeful voice.

My mouth fell open in shock.

He let out a small grunt. “I’ll take that as a no.”