Mouth to Mouth (Beach Kingdom 1)

Her expression slowly cleared of frustration, making way for disbelief. “You’ve been following me?”

“Only when you travel to Stony Brook,” he said, bringing their lips an inch apart, letting his thumbs graze the outside of her thighs. “I get nervous when you leave town.”

“I knew it. I felt you,” she whispered, eyelids fluttering. “Don’t you dare kiss me, Rory Prince. I’m really mad.”

There was nothing worse in the world than staying away from this girl, but having her pissed at him was a damn close second. In that moment, with the gravitational pull between them anchoring him more securely than the Earth’s…he was done keeping a protective distance. Standing in front of her, having her undivided attention, was healing unseen wounds all over his body, making him whole. He needed this. He needed her.

No more staying away. He’d been lucky to make it this long.

“That kid isn’t your boyfriend.” Rory’s breath came faster, his fingers twisting in the hem of her skirt, pure willpower stopping him from yanking her against his lap, the cock thickening behind his fly. Preparing to claim. “Is he, sunbeam?”

Olive’s eyes flashed, her breath shaky as she shook her head no. “I only met him tonight. There’s nothing there.”

Relief adhered to him like a second layer of skin. “Good girl.”

“Shut up.”

Jamie chose that moment to enter, carrying the blue tin first-aid kit. In Rory’s periphery, he saw his brother slow to a stop beside them, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the girl sitting atop the desk. How the fuck had he managed to keep his distance?

“Whoa.” Jamie laughed under his breath. “Are you going to introduce me?”

“Olive,” he managed. “This is my brother, Jamie.”

She put a hand on his chest to push him away, but he intercepted it and pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist instead, noting the way her pupils enlarged. Seemingly with an effort, she managed to turn her head in Jamie’s direction. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, smiling. “I promise I don’t need whatever is in that box.”

Jamie nodded once. “Up to you, Olive. You might want to let us take a quick look, though, since it’s bleeding—”

“Oh!” Olive slid off the desk, bringing herself flush against Rory and he was forced to turn his pained face away, a moan barely subdued in his throat. “I left my friend Leanne out there. We’re buddy system partners. I need to go get her.”

Her obvious distress jolted Rory. “I’ll go grab her.” He lightly touched the cut on Olive’s forehead and winced. “Will you let Jamie bandage this? Please?”

After a moment, she nodded.

“You’ll be here when I get back, right?”

“Yes.”

Reluctant to leave her for a second in case she disappeared, Rory kept his gaze on her as long as possible while backing out of the office. Upon reentering the bar, he saw that the summer night energy had mostly returned to normal, pitchers being hoisted, couples making out near the neon internet jukebox, cigarette smoke drifting in from outside. Andrew was swamped behind the bar, but he waved Rory off in the universal sign for fuck off, I’ll manage. It didn’t take Rory much time at all to find Leanne where she leaned on the wall near the exit, looking worried.

“You can’t just carry girls off like that,” was how she greeted him. “Who told you that was normal?”

Rory scratched the side of his chin and bit back a smile. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t aware the buddy system was in effect.”

She huffed a breath. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m going to make sure she’s okay.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “You want to come see for yourself?”

“No…” For the first time, Rory noticed the white smartphone she juggled from hand to hand. “She just texted me to ask if we can stay a while. But I’m going to get an Uber home. Already called one.”

“Olive wants to stay, does she?” There was no stopping the kick of pleasure and anticipation from filling his belly. Need to get back to her. Need to touch her. He pushed open the exit with his left hand, gesturing for Leanne to precede him. “Come on, I’ll walk you.”

“Fine.” Leanne groused. “I’ll be the thing that earns your brownie points.”

They walked side by side out of the bar and down the ramp of the boardwalk where Leanne’s Uber was waiting. Rory made a quick mental note of the license plate, waved goodnight and turned back toward the bar, already craving the scent of Olive again. But Leanne’s voice drew him up short, forcing him to look back over her shoulder.

“Why didn’t you hit that guy?”

The image of Olive shrinking away from him on the bar floor hit him hard. “I was scaring her. I never want to scare her.”

Leanne opened the rear door of the car. “Fighting is only one of the ways you could do that,” she said tonelessly. “I hope you’re paying attention.”