Page 15 of Nights at Seaside
He couldn’t say any of those things. Not tonight. Not on their first date.
Maybe not ever.
“Now I think we should go to a club, listen to music, and see if you’re as good at dancing as you are at listening. And kissing. You’re definitely good at kissing.”
Chapter Five
TWO HOURS LATER Sky’s and Sawyer’s bodies were pressed tightly together on the crowded dance floor of a dimly lit nightclub, surrounded by a mass of people bumping and grinding to a band Sky had never heard of. The melody didn’t matter. They’d been dancing since they’d arrived, and their bodies moved to a rhythm she was sure only they could hear. A private beat, fast and slow, hot and sensual. His hands splayed across her back, moving over her hips, then up her arms. Undemanding and possessive at the same time, as if she’d been his forever.
Sky didn’t consider herself uptight or laden with inhibitions, but she had some level of self-control—and she’d left it behind when their bodies began their slow seduction, and her mind turned lustful and dark. It had been a long time since she’d gotten lost in someone, and that’s exactly what was happening. She couldn’t resist letting herself feel for the man who loved his father enough to fight for him, the man who listened and comforted her. The man who could have taken advantage of her openness, if he’d been a different type of person. The man whose soul seemed to be as deeply rooted in who he was as hers was.
Her hands traveled over the hard ridges of his chest, as their hips brushed. She closed her eyes, and when his mouth descended on hers in a needful, wanting kiss, her emotions whirred.
His lips slid to the corner of her mouth, then across her cheek, and he said something in a growl, but the music was too loud to make it out. She pressed in closer, craving the sound of his voice. She wanted so much more of him. Sex was all around them. Men gyrated against women, openmouthed kissing in a sea of sexually charged bodies, all of which heightened her arousal. When Sawyer turned her in his arms and raked his teeth over the shell of her ear, she tilted her head to the side, giving him better access. He sealed his mouth over her neck.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she was chastising herself about this being their first date, knowing she should slow down. But Sky was all about the universe pulling her in the right direction. And right here, right now, she let herself enjoy where it was taking her. Every touch, every stroke of Sawyer’s tongue, made her cravemore. She turned to him and claimed his mouth in another unrelenting kiss. He returned her efforts hungrily, until his oxygen became hers and the line between them blurred.
Sky didn’t know how much time had passed before they finally left the bar, but it felt like a lifetime. A long, sensual lifetime that made her acutely aware of her sexuality and the aroused state her body had fallen into.
His arm was heavy on her shoulder, his jaw scratchy against her cheek, and she loved it all. His strength, his protectiveness. The sound of his gravelly voice.
They headed toward the shop with their bodies pressed together, their mouths connecting every few steps. Forgetting herself—forgetting that they were on the crowded sidewalk with people walking by. She didn’t care, and probably no one else did either. At night Provincetown was a plethora of sex and greed, and tonight she was lost in the thick of it. Lost in the world of Sawyer Bass.
As they rounded the dark alley beside the shop, their lips parted long enough for her to say, “I had you pegged so wrong.” She was breathing hard, wishing she hadn’t spoken so he’d plunder her mouth again.
“When I came in for the tattoo and could hardly keep from staring at you?” He leaned in to her and pressed her back against the cold brick wall as their mouths came together again.
“At the bar,” she said. “When I heard you play the guitar. I thought you were totally into yourself.”
“I was lost in thoughts of you. I saw you reading and couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“You don’t need to butter me up. You’re already getting kissed good night,” she teased.
“If I wanted to butter you up I’d use a better line, like,where have you been all my life, or—”
“Cheesy!” She bumped him with her shoulder as they stumbled toward the stairs as if they were tipsy, when all they’d consumed was each other.
They ascended the narrow steps to her apartment. His hand rested at the base of her spine, searing heat right through her shirt to her skin. On the landing, Sky’s pulse quickened with the need for a fast decision. She was having more fun, and felt more alive, than she had in a very long time.Sexy fun.If she asked him to come inside, she knew they’d likely end up in bed together, which sounded very, very good to her at the moment. But she wasn’t the type of girl who slept with a man on the first date, and she was truly hoping for a second date with Sawyer—and a third and fourth.
“I had a really great time,” she finally said.
He held her hips, and the surety of his grip stirred thoughts of what it would be like to be intimate with him.
“Want to come inside?” The invitation came too fast for her to stop it.
“I want to,” he said, eyes dark as night, “but I think I’d better say good night here.”
Worried that if she said anything at all,Then stop thinking, would come out, she nodded instead.
He pulled her against him and,wow, did he feel good. Driven by the combination of lust and something deeper that had seeded itself sometime between the ice cream and his confession about his family, she went up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
His tongue swept over hers in a slow, intoxicating kiss. A lovers’ kiss that spoke of far more history than they’d shared—and like everything else about Sawyer, it drew her in.
One hand slid beneath her hair and cupped her head, and the other crushed her to him. Sky was whirling with desire, and her hands were on a mission, traveling up his sides, over the muscles of his back, then down into the back pockets of his jeans. She pressed on him there, bringing them impossibly closer. The depth of her desires surprised her, and her eyes came open with the realization of just how strong the urge was. How far she was willing to go.
Their lips parted and he kissed her forehead, then pressed his hands to her cheeks and said, “I could kiss you all night long.”
“Okay—” slipped out before she thought to stop it. She wasn’t ready for more, despite how much she wanted it. Was she? Oh…did she ever want him. He smiled and pressed his lips to hers again, lighter this time, and when he drew away, her mouth still tingled from their impassioned kisses.
