Page 68 of Have To Be Mine

She stopped chewing. “Dash.”

“I stopped thinking about it and I just did it.” I held her gaze. “Maybe I need to practice that more.”

I stood up from the chair and kissed her. Just a quick peck before I pulled her to her feet, giving her every opportunity to tell me to sit back down. She didn’t. We weren’t at the pool with an audience. This was just the two of us. She tilted her chin up and that was the green light I needed.

I kissed her again, deeper this time, tasting the hot sauce on her lips and tongue and reveling in it.

Her hands came up to my chest. She grabbed hold of my shirt instead of pushing me away. I slid one hand into her hair, careful of her burned skin, keeping my hands above the worst of the damage. She made a soft sound against my mouth and I felt it everywhere. I’d been sporting a semi since I rubbed her down with aloe and now the rest of my blood was pumping south. I ached with need.

I walked her back to the bed without breaking the kiss. Her hands wrapped around my neck. I picked her up and gently laid her down before joining her.

She made a sound of surprise and wrapped her legs around me. My mouth devoured hers as I held myself up by my arms to keep from crushing her. My mouth slid over to suck on her ear and then her neck. The second my lips touched her heated skin, I remembered.

She hissed.

I froze. “Shit. Sorry.”

“It’s fine⁠—”

I shifted my weight, trying to find a position that didn’t involve touching any sunburned areas. She lifted her head and kissed me but I felt her stiffen under me. She kept trying not to flinch and failed. I kept trying to find an angle that wouldn’t cause her pain, but it wasn’t going to work. The gods were against me. I finally dropped my forehead to hers.

“This is a logistical nightmare,” I said. “I said I like a challenge, but I’m not sure how to keep from making this painful.”

She started laughing. “I’m sorry,” she groaned. “This is definitely not ideal.”

I rolled off her and stretched out on the bed beside her, making sure I didn’t touch her. My cock pulsed. I was going to have the worst case of blue balls I’d ever experienced. The little guy didn’t appreciate getting so close and left hanging twice.

“We could try—” she said and gestured to my lower body.

“It’s all good,” I said. “It’s no fun for me unless we’re both enjoying it.”

She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at me. My cock jerked and now I was the one flinching in pain.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, eyes widening.

I chuckled. “You have no idea.”

She laughed again, which did not help. “I can maybe⁠—”

“No. I want all of you and I’m not going to do that with you in pain. I can wait.”

She gingerly lay back down. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Lying here with you is nice too. And I’m not the kind of guy who would turn down steak just because it doesn’t have a side of lobster.”

We lay there in companionable silence for a while.

“Tell me about the first event you ever ran,” she said.

I turned my head. “What?”

“Logistics. The first one you handled. Tell me about it.”

I thought about it. “I was twenty-two. The guy that normally did it had emergency surgery and couldn’t do it. I stepped in. It was a disaster for the first forty-eight hours.”

“And then?”

“And then I figured it out.” I stared at the ceiling. “I stayed up for about thirty hours straight and I figured it out.”