Page 58 of In Step

He snorted a laugh and wrapped his arms around me. “How long do you have?”

I tipped my head back to see him better. “All the time in the world.”

And so he told me about his day, including the call with his brother, and I told him about my day on the boat. We talked and laughed and made out.

For two hours.

On the floor.

And then in the bed.

And then in the shower, crammed like sardines as Abe washed my hair and kissed my tears, listening as I rambled on about losing my mother and Cora’s unexpected words, blubbering like a crazy person.

And then we went back to the bed and kept talking, wrapped around each other, the cover tented over our heads to keep out the chill, like teenagers on a sleepover. We talked until midnight, until the wind dropped enough for the distant scuff of the tide on the sand to make itself heard above the morepork’s cry.

We talked until we couldn’t talk anymore. Until my eyes fluttered closed and Abe turned me in his arms, his knees tucked behind mine, one arm around my waist, the other under my head. His breath a rhythmic wash of heat across my shoulder. His heart a soft thump at my back.

This is dangerous.The thought skittered through my head, chased into the night by a yawn.He should leave.We shouldn’t be doing this.

Shouldn’t.I was so fucking sick ofshouldn’t.

Abe hummed contentedly against my back, lost in some dream he’d escaped to, and any protest died before it even made my lips. I folded my arm over top of his across my chest and nestled down with the warm weight of his body lush against my skin.

I could get used to this. The thought came from nowhere. But more concerning—Iwantedto get used to this. A man in my bed.Abein my bed. A man I wanted. A man who wantedme.

A life.

Oh yeah. I was gonna need a whole new notebook for those firsts.

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

Abe

Kane’s alarmwent off at the arse crack of dawn and I had just enough time to kiss him soundly, quickly grope his morning wood, and groan at the frustration of having to leave it untapped, before legging it back to my own bedroom so I wasn’t missed. I barely made it between the sheets before Leroy knocked on my door to offer me a coffee, something he’d done ever since he’d found out I was generally awake at the same time they got up.

“Jeez, it’s freezing in here.” He glanced at the extra blankets still folded on the chair. “Didn’t you get cold last night?”

I shrugged. “I like it fresh.” Not exactly true, but it did the trick.

Leroy fetched me a coffee and informed me Fox had received a call the night before, wanting him for another stint as an official observer on a fishing boat, making sure all the catch regulations were being adhered to. This one was for five days. It was a couple of weeks away, but we agreed to fit in some extra dance lessons to get ahead.

When he was gone, I wrapped my hands around the steaming mug and sighed. Between extra lessons and time with Kane, we were both in for more late nights. After way too little sleep, I already felt like crap warmed up andIwasn’t the one headed out for a full day’s work.

Prue and Mack arrived to take their usual positions on the bed, and while I sipped on my coffee, I searched and then emailed some flight options through to Conrad. Then I snuggled down and listened to the morning banter between Leroy and Fox that always brought a smile to my face.

When Fox called Mack and they all headed out the back door, I peeked through the window to watch them leave, earning a wink and a surprisingly shy smile from a tired and pale-faced Kane as he ran down the stairs to join them in the SUV.

The small acknowledgement made me ridiculously happy, and as I watched the taillights disappear down the driveway, I marvelled at how quickly I’d fallen under the younger man’s spell. Kane turned my crank in unexpected ways. Sure, that gorgeous beach-bum vibe was so very, very different from most of the men I’d been with, but it was much more than how he looked.

We’d talked for far longer than we’d doneanythingelse, and the conversation was just as good as the sex. I didn’t give a fuck about our age difference, and neither, apparently, did he. It hadn’t even been mentioned, except in teasing. And in many ways, my life experience paled next to his.

Yes, he was complicated, but out of the public eye and in my arms, all that quiet insecurity just fell away, and he’d proven to be fun and sassy, generous and sexy, and wonderfully responsive in bed. Everything about him was intoxicating and I was hooked like a fish on a line. And fuck, if I wasn’t starting to sound like a bloody romance novel.

Any worry that sleeping with him might’ve been a bad decision had vanished overnight, but in its place was a much deeper worry. I liked Kane. I liked him a lot. And the fact he’d given me more than a glimpse behind those ten-foot-thick walls of his told me a great deal about his feelings. Which meant I needed to be cautious.Weneeded to be cautious, for both our sakes.

I didn’t want to be just another disappointment in Kane’s life, just another guy who took what he offered and left. And for my part, Kane was going to be a hard man to walk away from. And I was going to have to.

I needed to be careful with both my heart and his.

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