Page 52 of Hired Husband

My brain offered absolutely nothing useful. I didn’t know what had come over me. That hadn’t changed between the tent and here. “I don’t really know either.”

“So we’re both just idiots acting on impulses tonight?”

“I think so.”

“Good to know.” She brushed a little more sand off my shirt, her eyes searching mine like she was still waiting for something more, but I didn’t have anything. “Are you sure you’re okay? You rolled pretty far.”

I glanced up at the dune behind us before looking back at her, mentally cataloguing my body for injury, but aside from the slight sting, there was nothing. “I’m okay.”

“Can you stand?”

“I hope so.” It took a moment for me to get my bearings, but once I did, I pushed to my feet without any sharp or sudden pains shooting through me.

Jasmine watched me carefully, seeming relieved when I didn’t collapse again. I chuckled. “I’m fine. I promise. Are you, though? For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Jasmine. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Surprise flickered across her delicate features. “Is that what you think?”

I shrugged. “Right now? Yeah, that’s what I think. I think that I wasn’t thinking and I did something I shouldn’t have done.”

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Isaac.” She reached for my hand, sliding her fingers between my much sandier ones as a small smile appeared on her lips. “Do you want to know the truth?”

“Please.”

“I liked kissing you,” she said softly, using her grip on my hand to tug me a little closer. “I still don’t know why I ran, but it wasn’t because I didn’t like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I took a step closer to her, smirking as I caught her cheek in my free hand. “Do you want to test that theory?”

She held my gaze and nodded, meeting me halfway this time when I leaned over to kiss her. As our lips met, she curled both arms around my neck and even rose onto her toes when I drew her closer. She let out a soft moan and I swallowed it hungrily, my heart going nuts behind my ribs and the rest of my body about to stage a riot to join in.

Jasmine didn’t pull away again. Her urgency matched mine as every trace of softness or hesitation vanished from the kiss. Our mouths crashed together again and again. My blood heated to problematic levels before I finally slowed down.

“Are you still okay?” I murmured against her lips once we separated, both of us breathing a little harder than we had been before. “You’re not going to run again, are you?”

“No, but I think maybe we should go check out that tea and dancing Habib mentioned instead of going back to the tent right about now.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, letting go of her and taking a big step back. “Yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea.”

For a second, we just stood there staring at each other, the very air between us feeling like it was crackling with electricity. Neither of us moved or looked away, and I had a feeling that if one of us didn’t do something to diffuse this tension very soon, it wasn’t going to matter whether or not we went back to the tent.

Making a snap decision, I turned my back to her and gestured for her to hop on. “Let me give you a ride back to camp. I promise not to fall again.”

“You want to carry me all the way back?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe because you just rolled down a dune.”

“We’ve already established that I’m fine. Just get on before I try to get a ride from you.”

“Try to get a ride from…” She trailed off. Then I heard a quiet oh before her fingers curled around my shoulders. “Yeah. Okay. Giddy-up or whatever.”

I laughed. “You’d make a terrible cowboy.”

I lifted her against me, carrying her back to camp and heading straight toward the fire instead of even glancing at our tent. I couldn’t remember ever wanting anyone as badly as I wanted her right now, but since we were trying to avoid that, I didn’t even tempt fate by walking that way around to the firepit.