Page 123 of One Wild Wish

Then his large hand engulfed mine.

The volunteers had begun drifting off the site, heading for a quick burger or bagged lunch. Owen’s fingers threading between mine promised more.

He tugged me forward, but I yanked him back. “Hardhat.”

Sentences were no longer an option.

His eyes darkened to eight-five percent and a low growl rumbled from his chest, like he was pissed off. I felt the same. Angry to delay this for another millisecond.

We pried our hands apart for the time it took for us to leave our hardhats in the onsite tent and dump our tool belts in his truck. Then my small hand was enveloped by his again as we walked purposefully to our park. His strides were long. My short legs did small hop-steps to keep up. His grip tightened, nearly cutting off my circulation, and I unleashed a nervous-excited-when-did-this-become-my-life cackle.

Things were going to get fun fast.

Owen dragged me over the curb, the sprawling grass doing some sort of swaying tantric dance, the leaves above singing a chorus of “Let’s Get it On.” The pavement behind us swallowed the world. When we skirted our picnic table, he swung me around until my back hit our white ash tree.

He stared down at me, his eyes now at ninety-five percent. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

“Your hotness is at a nuclear level.”

“Your eyes remind me of the beach.”

“Yours are sinful chocolate.”

“If you only knew how badly I want you.”

Man, oh, man. “If you only knew how many times I came with your face burning the backs of my eyelids.”

His hips jutted forward. Full lips parted, he cupped my cheeks and used his powerful quadriceps to press my thighs to the rough bark. Whatever sexy dance the grass was doing tickled along my fingers until I was running them up and down his sides. I was verging on delirious. “Do I get to kiss you now, sinful chocolate boy?”

He rolled his hips, and his erection ground against my belly. “Doll, you’re about to get devoured.”

10

Eleven letters describing the amount of heat removed to keep a space cool.

Or when your nuts ice over because you lie to the woman you’re falling for.

C O O L I N G L O A D

Owen

My jeans pinched around my cock, not an inch of space between Ainsley’s sensual body and mine, but I needed more. Needed her honeyed hair unfurled over my sheets, her clothes strewn across my floor. Her skin shifting against mine. That perfection would have to wait.

Heart hammering in my throat, I wrapped my hands around the soft give of her waist and captured her lips in a crushing kiss. When I’d imagined kissing Ainsley in the past, it was slow and deep with little bites and licks snuck in. But her revelation of my sexuality and my growing need the past hour had shaken me to the point of explosion.

And I nearly did that. Almost came in my jeans. Tongues sliding hungrily, we kissed and moaned and groped while trying to shrink the nonexistent space between us. Her lips were full and soft, her body lush and yielding. I was all hard lines and painfully aroused. My balls had never been so tight, heat rushing my cock in fierce waves. My chest was the worst, a swirl of emotion cresting through me.

Ainsley wanted me. She’d been as frustrated as I had the past weeks, feeling our connection but not believing it was real. Dammit, it was real. It was wet mouths and breathy groans as our teeth bumped. Her fingers dug into my straining back muscles, her calf sliding around mine as if it could draw us closer. My knuckles chafed against the jagged bark.

A shriek from the playground had me jumping back, the outside world invading. Breathing hard, we watched a couple kids chase each other and giggle in an endless game of tag.

Ainsley unmolded herself from the tree and stood in front of me. She slipped her hands under the bottom of my T-shirt, letting her fingers trace my abs and the tops of my hipbones. “Where were we?”

I hissed out a strangled breath, each light brush of her fingers driving me insane. “You were throwing yourself at me.”

She snickered, a sexy rasp sizzling with want. “Consider me your personal blanket.”

Wrapping myself up in this woman sounded damn good. Her fingers continued stroking my stomach—up, down, side to side. My cock strained against my jeans, every muscle from my cheeks to my calves tensing. A blast of fire shot up my thighs. I clenched my jaw harder and flexed my quads, nearly spraining a muscle. It was time to slow things down. Savor the beauty before me. Not let things get out of hand.