Page 19 of The Catch

Cliché, she tried to tell herself, as she stood there, tasting mint and alcohol on his tongue, letting him hold her like she was something precious to him. She would have rolled her eyes at herself if they weren’t squeezed shut in reverence to the moment.

Finally, he pulled away with a sweet smile that dropped straight into that empty cavern behind her rib cage and began unpacking its bags. He set her back down on the sandy bottom, and clasped his hands behind the small of her back, holding her up. Thankfully, or she might have just floated away after that kiss, never to be heard from again.

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Josh said, still grinning.

“Right.”

Another flash exploded from behind the clouds. “Let’s sit,” she said, desperate for some solid ground to cling to. She led him to the spot where they had carelessly tossed their things and put her t-shirt back on over her wet bathing suit while he laid out the blanket she’d packed.

Josh sat down first, setting his bent knees wide enough for her to settle between his legs, and she took the spot without letting herself think too much about it. His chest came flush with her back, and a low rumbling, almost imperceptible behind the splash of the water meeting the sand, coincided with another flash. “There’s the thunder,” he said.

She giggled, feeling some of her nerves calm at the sound of his accent. To a girl accustomed to the syrupy Southern drawl, it sounded clipped and rough. She found it highly amusing and unbelievably adorable.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, his words unmistakably framed by a grin.

“Nothing. I just like the way you talk.” She tried to imitate the inflection but failed.

Josh’s chest shook with a laugh. “You like making fun of my accent, huh,Catia?” He playfully poked her in the side then wrapped his arms tighter around her waist. “Home and away are sort of the same for me,” he confessed.

“You couldn’t deny that if you tried. Where’d that accent come from?”

“Cape Cod. I moved down to Ferry Island to live with my grandfather when I was twelve. He was a Navy man; spent a lot of time in foreign countries, so he never developed much of a drawl to influence me with. Guess that’s how come it stuck.”

“That’s a big move. Especially for a kid.”

Instead of elaborating, he only shrugged.

She tipped her head back onto his shoulder and studied the planes of his face. His cheeks were sucked in, and his eyes were less expressive than usual. Like he’d turned them off.

“Hmm. Well, now I’m going to ask you about this,” Cat said, changing the subject. She reached up and brushed her thumb against a thin white line that ran from his nose to his upper lip. She’d noticed it during their slow dance, the way it tugged at one side of his smile, giving him the illusion of a constant mischievous smirk. Now, with the white moonlight making it glow against his dark stubble, she was even more curious.

“Got hit with a baseball when I was twelve,” he said. “Chipped my tooth. Took a few stitches.” Josh reached up to touch it himself. Something flashed over his expression as he traced the line, but then his eyes dropped to her own mouth.

Cat shifted in his arms, enough for him to dip his chin and capture her lips again.

Like the first time, there was a sweetness to it. Something soft and full of raw affection. It was part of what made him feel so safe. Safe enough for her to do what she did next. She’d come down here for a reason and now was as good a time as any.

She pulled up to her knees, breaking the lock of his arms around her, and spun around so they were face to face. Josh looked at her curiously, but she ignored it, taking his face between her hands. Forgetting all of the permissions and pauses of before, she nudged his lips apart and kissed him deeply, like she’d done it a hundred times before.

He welcomed her tongue back with the fervor he’d been holding back before, gripping her hips and lifting them so their legs could trade positions, and she could sink down closer, straddling his lap. The warmth of his chest spread through her body as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let her fingers back into his hair as they kissed.

Josh was being gentle, so gentle she started to worry that maybe he wasn’t planning on taking this where she was. Eventually, though, his hands moved to the swell of her ass, and his grip began to flirt over the polite line he’d drawn. He strummed the edge of her suit with his thumbs, and when they finally dipped beneath the fabric, Cat sucked in a sharp breath.

This was what she’d planned all along when she’d suggested they not go back to the group, but even so, the feel of him between her legs, hard and ready for wherever she decided this was going, threatened her fearlessness.

Josh pulled away, his eyes flickering over hers, his lips bee-stung. He looked like he was holding back a speeding freight train with his willpower alone. “You okay?”

Why was he asking? Was she shaking? She felt like she might be shaking.Be normal, Cat.Act like you know what you’re doing.

“Yes. I’m good.”

She glanced around the sand, taking in their relative seclusion from the handful of people left on the beach, then summoned the type of vampish expression confident women make in movies. Slowly, seductively (she hoped), she lifted the hem of her t-shirt, pulling it over her head.

“So pretty,” Josh breathed. Before she’d even tossed her shirt aside, his mouth found her bare stomach, teeth and tongue latching onto the supple flesh there, and a shudder swept from her head to her toes.

Josh seemed satisfied that they were on the same page now, and his touch became greedier. Working his way back up her body, he landed beneath her ear, alternating between drawing her soft flesh between his teeth and pressing his lips along the rigid line of her jaw. The opposing sensations, rough then tender, had her imagining all of the ways she could possibly have him.

Maybe once won’t be enough.The thought materialized before she could stop it, and she squeezed his biceps, keeping her mind on the physical gratification—his hard body pressed against hers, his warm, wet tongue on her neck.

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