Page 34 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

In all the relationships I’d been in, I didn’t think one man had ever told me my approval was important to them. Of course the first man that did was thousands of miles beyond my wildest reach, and an unbelievably bad idea. The latter reason was becoming less and less convincing by the minute.

“You’re forgiven,” I repeated.

“Good,” he said. “Now I won’t think about it before I kiss you again.”

I paused in the sand, but Frankie continued on as if he’d just said the most normal thing in the world. Like my heart hadn’t stuttered and my feet hadn’t stumbled over one another before I built up the courage to follow.

“You coming, slowpoke?” He asked over his shoulder.

There was something so simultaneously comforting and terrifying about the ocean at night. The way I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me but still knew exactly what lay ahead. The milky light of the moon was the only thing keeping us from being completely shrouded in darkness, and while I could still make out Frankie beside me, there wasn’t another soul around to bear witness to us.

“I’ve never gone swimming in the ocean at night,” I said, taking a few steps into the water.

“There are sharks in there.” Frankie bristled next to me, apparently hoping I wasn't about to do what it looked like I was about to do.

“They’re all sleeping.” I laughed.

“No—nope, I don’t think they are.”

Throwing every caution to wind, I gave him a teasing wink and pulled the hem of my cover-up over my head, unveiling my bathing suit. The cool breeze sent a wake of goosebumps over my skin.

“What are you doing?”

Ignoring him, I tiptoed into the surf until the foam tickled my knees, and then sunk in even further, submerging the entire bottom half of my torso.

Frankie stood with his hands on his hips at the shore, worry wrinkling the gap in his brows that I could see all the way from Alaska. “C’mon, O,” he complained. “Stop playing around.”

“Join me, Francesco. The water’s fine.”

“I won’t be doing that.” He swiped his hat off his head and scratched nervously at his scalp. “I’ll actually be standing here with the Hollywood Beach EMS on speed dial while you get your ass cheek ripped off by a great white.”

I snorted, his unease enticing me to take it a leap further with the incentives. Giving the shoreline another quick onceover I hooked my thumbs into my bikini bottoms and shuffled the stringy material down my legs, bunching them into a ball then chucking them to land at his feet. “Better give them something good, then.”

Frankie registered what was soaking on the ground in front of him in slow-motion. His eyes rounded and his pacing stopped. “Oh, you little cocktease,” he groaned.

If there was anything more beautiful than the soon-gone look on Frankie Casado’s face right then I’d yet to see it. Suddenly all I could think about was that sweet, heated kiss under the mistletoe and what I wouldn’t give to taste it again.

“Me?” I pouted.

“You,” he confirmed, unironically at the same time that I pulled the flimsy tie at the back of my neck loose and let my whole top fall.

Frankie’s first instinct was to shoot a protective glance at the beach behind us to shield me from prying eyes.Such a gentleman.When he knew we were alone his eyes fluttered closed and I glanced down to appreciate the effect I had on him in his tightening swim trunks.

He turned his face to the stars and mumbled something incoherent to me over the crashing waves.

“Still waiting,” I taunted, dipping down into the water.

Less than thrilled, Frankie tossed his hat and pulled his collar over his head, then tread warily into the dark water to join me with his head on a swivel as he reached my depth.

We circled one another timidly in the shallow, cool water. Frankie’s gaze kept dipping down to my bare chest, where the tight tips of my nipples were becoming exposed every so often with the change in tide.

“Is this the type of show and tell where you pass it around the class, Ms. Brody?”

“It’s more like the kind I leave on the table, if you want to come see for yourself.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, getting another searing look at my chest and then using his size to his advantage—catching my wrist in his hand in one calculated reach.

He pulled my body to his, arms winding around my lower back until my toes left the sand beneath the water and my entire upper half was pressed tight against his chest. His skin was warm, fever touched, and I could feel just how hard he was tucked into his waistband against my stomach.

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