Page 55 of Kiss the Bride

“Not guilty, and no, I’m not going to tell you.”

“What will it take for you to tell me!” She leans over, her fingers edging towards my sides. “You know I love a challenge, and my fingers always win.”

“Don’t do it!” I warn as she gets closer, smiling as I add a soft, “You don’t want to do this.”

She knows when I’m only challenging her to keep going, her eyes sparkling as she pins me in place with her knees, climbing onto my chest, and holding her twitching fingers just above where she knows where to strike.

“Tell me, tell me. Hunter, tell me the story.” She croons in a sing-song voice. “Tell me or I’ll tickle you until you pee.”

“You wouldn’t.” I know she would and will. I also know I can have her flipped and pinned in a nanosecond.

“I have before, do you think I can’t remember how?”

My erection remembers everything about her, growing just below her ass. One false move and Olivia will have more than an untold story to joke about. It could be our next step, or my next mistake. I can’t.

“You asked for it!” In one careful yet spontaneous movement, I pick her up and reverse our positions, grab her wrists in one hand and while she’s flaying around, kicking dry sand flying, I select a perfectly sized strawberry from the hamper and plunge it into her mouth.

The silence is deafening, and her eyes open as if I’ve plunged something other than fruit inside her.

Fuck.

Yes, please.

Quickly, I get off and pull her to a seated position, “Don’t choke on me now.”

Olivia removes the strawberry to give me a cheeky smile that still knows the way to my heart, “Really? Usually, you’d tell me to swallow.”

“Liv!” I warn.

“Oh, come on. It was a little bit funny. Didn’t I ask you to laugh at all my jokes—even the pathetic ones.”

“You were joking? I thought it was a statement of fact.” I deadpan until breaking under her gaze. “Gotcha.”

“Oh, you!” Olivia clenches the strawberry within her teeth, challenging me with her eyes to take half from her.

“Not gonna happen.”

With a deft flick of her tongue, the strawberry disappears, and I stifle the urge to adjust my growing bulge. “I don’t like to share.” My words are steady, but the double meaning is clear.

“Hunter,” she sighs. “You’ve never had to share. Not with me. Whatever you want, it’s always been yours.”

“Not recently.” This is good, we can pretend to talk about the strawberries and no one’s feelings will get hurt.

“I thought he was the only fruit on offer.” Liv catches on fast.

“I know.”

“You gave me the fruit. You told me to eat all the bloody fruit in the world, just not yours.” It takes a second to decipher her code—oh, that again.

“I never told you to eat anything,” I growl, knowing the vision of Liv going down on any other man’sfruitis likely to put me in hospital or jail.

“Huh?” Her confusion seems genuine.

“How about we agree that I don’t like hearing about you eating other men’sfruit.“ When she looks back to the water, I know I’ve gone too far. I have no reason to be jealous, and she has nothing to feel guilty for. “Liv, it’s fine. I know you enjoyed your,strawberries. I’m just sorry the lastpunnetwas off.”

“Are you? Or is part of you wanting to be my nextpunnet?”

“Not your punnet, baby,” I soothe, pausing until she looks at me. If I say this, there’s no going back. People will judge me, our friends may hate me for pushing Liv too early. But it’s always been Liv. Even when she promised to marry another man, it’s always been Liv. “I wanna be yourwhole orchard.”

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