“Starved. We forgot about breakfast.”
A sparkle lit up his eyes. “No, we didn’t. You were my breakfast.”
Heat infused my face in remembrance of our early morning lovemaking session.
Pearce leaned closer to me. “I love saying things that make you blush.”
I opened my mouth to respond but was met with his lips as he quickly kissed me. I turned in his arms and kissed him back. His moan encouraged me, so I entwined my fingers in his hair.
He pulled back and asked, “Are you trying to distract me because you’re doing a damn fine job of it?”
I laughed and said, “You deserve it after that remark.”
“Come on, let’s eat. I can’t have you starving on me.”
We went below and he pulled out all sorts of food from the bags. Cheeses, crusty breads, some she-crab soup, fruit, and benne seed wafers.
He heated up the soup in the microwave and served everything else.
“Wine, San Pellegrino, regular water?”
“Wine and Pellegrino, please.”
He poured our drinks, put everything on a tray, and carried it up top for us to enjoy the view and the lovely day.
As we ate, we talked. I asked about his family, and he told me he had two brothers and a sister. He was the oldest and his sister was the youngest. That’s who he was with the night I saw him in Camellia’s. She was spoiled rotten by the brothers, but he thought we’d get along great. He adored his family; it was easy to see how happy he was talking about them.
I told him about mine and how they dumped me after Peter’s death. Didn’t even want to know anything about what happened. They just knew I was driving, we’d been fighting, and that was enough for them. That was why I left Virginia.
He wanted to know how I ended up in Charleston. I told him it was because of Terri. “We were college roommates at the University of Virginia. She was from here and always claimed she would move back to Charleston after she graduated. She did. After Peter died, she was the only one who stuck by me. She persuaded me to move here.” I looked at him and smiled. “You know, it took me a while, but now I know it was the best decision I ever made.”
He tucked a piece of flyaway hair behind my ear and kissed me there. Then he whispered, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
We ate some more but he noticed I hadn’t touched my soup.
He dipped his spoon in his and held it out and said, “Open up.”
I did as he ordered, and he slipped the spoon in my mouth. I instantly thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
“Oh gosh. This is unbelievable.”
His brows shot up. “You’ve never had she crab soup?”
“No! I didn’t know what it was but was too embarrassed to ask.”
He slipped another spoonful into my mouth.
“Oh my God. This is orgasmic.”
He threw back his head and chuckled, then pounded the table with his fist. I thought he was going to break it.
“Give me that bowl and spoon.” I grabbed it from him and wolfed down the rest of the soup.
He stared at me wearing a stupid grin. “Babe, I love to see a woman who’s not afraid to eat.”
“Well then, you’ll be thrilled with me because as I’ve just demonstrated, I have absolutely no table manners and I’m unashamedly proud of my appetite when I taste something this good.”
“Kiss me,” he suddenly demanded.