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This time, I interrupt herwithoutwords.
In a move too swift for her to see coming, I cup her face in my hands and fuse my mouth to hers. There is not even a millisecond of resistance from her. Instead, it’s more like we instantly elevate this faux fight with words into a different battle with mouths.
It’s urgent and passionate, full of fire and fight. She tastes like wine and salt and summer days. Her lips are soft and pliant, but there is no surrender in this kiss. It’s all the challenge I’ve come to crave, wrapped up in the most delicious package.
Sadie lets me lead for a moment before she places her hands on my hips, turning me and pretty much shoving me into a chair. She topples into my lap right after, landing heavily and with a sharp exhalation of breath.
“I don’t actually think you’re the worst,” she says against my mouth, barely breaking the kiss to speak.
“No?” I slide my hands from her cheeks to her jaw, then around to her hair.
“You might actually be the best,” she murmurs, nipping at my bottom lip. “But don’t get a big head about it.”
“I won’t,” I promise. “Hearing you compliment me only makes me want to live up to your words.”
This must be the right thing to say, because Sadie groans and kisses me with renewed vigor, angling her head to kiss me deeper, pressing her chest more firmly to mine.
While one of my hands plays with her hair like I did the other day, I let my other trail down her spine. She shivers under my touch and moves closer still, the warmth of her body like a fiery furnace against me.
Her waist is tiny, especially next to the curve of her hips, and I flatten my palm against her lower back. She kisses me softly, teasingly, pulling back before coming back in hungrily. Sadie kisses the way she does everything—unabashed and fierce.
It’s so very Sadie, which makes it all the better.
“I should have asked permission before kissing you,” I tell her, trailing open-mouthed kisses across her jaw and down her neck.
“Consent is sexy,” she says. “But you had mine earlier. I never took it back.”
“Are you sure? Because I seem to remember you telling me I’m the worst,” I say, blowing lightly on a spot I just kissed on her neck. Sadie shivers in my arms.
“And then I said you’re the best.” She turns my head so she can kiss a spot just below my jaw. Now I’m the one shivering. “Don’t make me take it back.”
“Never,” I promise.
Time stretches slow and warm as our kisses move from passionate to teasing and lazily indulgent, then back again. I am a firm believer in the idea that not enough people give kissing its due these days, too much in a hurry to move past it to something else. But I’m happy camped right here. I could hold her like this—kiss her like this—all night. It’s only when I catch Sadie yawning that I hoist her into my arms and say, “Time for bed, Sadie girl.”
When I walk past my bed, still cradling her to my chest, Sadie makes a grumble of protest. But I don’t stop until we’re right in front of her door. I slowly lower her to the ground, smiling as her confused eyes meet mine. I’m sure she’s thinking about the night she spent in my bed.
Believe me, I’m thinking about it too.
With gentle fingers, I trace the slope of her nose and then the bow of her top lip. Then I follow the same path with my mouth.
“Despite what you might think about me based on my reputation—much of which was incorrectly inferred—I would very much like to take things slowly.” I pause. “With you.”
“How slowly?” Sadie asks, biting her lip.
Not slowly atallwhen she’s looking at me like that. But I force myself to stay firmly planted where I am, drawing my hands up her arms until they rest lightly on her shoulders.
“Slow enough that I won’t scare you away.” I lift my hands and push them into my pockets, because if I don’t, I’ll keep touching her, and then I’ll never be able to walk away. “This isn’t about the chase for me, Sadie. I want you for real.” It isn’t the whole conversation I had planned. But it’s a start.
I give her one more lingering kiss right next to her mouth and then, using every bit of discipline I possess, I walk across the hall to my own room. Alone.
THIRTEEN
Sadie
Fun fact:There are a lot of places to hide on a yacht.
The walk-in pantry just off the galley is fairly large and smells like garlic. The chances of someone walking in on you are slim. But not zero—as I learned when Tao opened the door and screamed like a teen girl in a horror movie when he saw me. At least by that time, Ben had left the galley, so it was safe to come out.
