Page 57 of Whispers at Seaside
“Look, Mom!” Hagen yelled, holding tightly to the ropes. “We’re going! We’re going, Matt! We did it. I’m like Huckleberry Finn!”
“You’re better than Huckleberry Finn,” Matt said, looking up at Mira again, who was walking along the water parallel to them with Joey trotting beside her. He assumed she was recording his big debut. “You’re Hagen Savage!”
Hagen’s first voyage was a great success, and lasted more than an hour and a half. The men got quite a workout, pulling the raft and towing it deeper at the command of their young captain. Afterward, they stowed the raft in Pete’s boat shed for safekeeping and cooked dinner in a cool new steel hibachi Grayson had made for Pete and Jenna. They ate dinner on the beach and roasted marshmallows, which Hagen loved. Jenna, the marshmallow princess, had Pete show Hagen how to make golden brown marshmallows. Not golden, not brown.Golden brown, which Hagen agreed were perfectly delicious.
Long after Bea had given in to the call of slumber lying on her daddy’s chest, as the moon rose high in the sky and the fire burned down to embers, Hagen fell asleep in the center of the blanket. Matt and Mira said their goodbyes, and Matt carried the sleeping boy to the car. He liked the familiar weight of him in his arms. Hagen didn’t even stir when Matt buckled him into the backseat.
Matt reached for Mira, as he’d been dying to do all night. Bringing their bodies together as his mouth came down over hers, he took her in a series of slow, intoxicating kisses. Kissing Mira was a whole-body experience. His legs grounded them as heat bound them together and she melted against him. She tasted sweet and hot, and gloriously delicious.
“I’ve been dying to kiss you like that all day,” he confessed, before taking her in a deeper, punishingly intense kiss that left no room for misinterpretation of what else he’d been dying to do to her once he got that hoodie and skimpy little bikini off of her.
“Take me home,” she whispered against his lips.
MATT KEPT A hand on Mira’s thigh as he drove home, his thumb moving in slow, sensual circles. By the time they reached her cottage, she was hot, bothered, and so in love she wasn’t sure she could contain the words.
Hagen didn’t wake when Matt carried him into the house, or as Mira changed him into his pajamas. The little guy was completely tuckered out.
They pulled the door partially closed behind them and Mira took Matt’s hand, leading him silently toward her bedroom. She closed the door and put a finger to her lips.
“You’re sure?” he asked as he tugged her close.
“Oh, yes.”
He claimed her mouth, crushing her to him and making quick work of removing her hoodie and bikini, somehow never breaking their connection as he stepped out of his bathing suit. The heat of his body coursed down the entire length of hers, and they tumbled down to the bed. He tugged the covers over them.
“In case Hagen gets up. I’ll listen for him, but I’m pretty sure my brain isn’t going to be working in about seven seconds.”
“Seven seconds is a very long time.” She wiggled beneath him, aligning their bodies. She’d watched him all day, all those enticing muscles calling out to her. She ached for him to love her, physically and emotionally.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to prance around in that skimpy bathing suit,” he said, and took her in another toe-curling kiss. “I had to think of big, fat, hairy men just to be able to focus all day.”
“I’m going to wear it every time I see you now.”
She nipped at his lip as their bodies came together. His face blanched and he pulled away.
“Condom,” he ground out. “I’m sorry. I—”
She pulled him back down to her. “I’m on the pill, so unless you’re worried you might have a disease, I know I’m clean.”
“No diseases, sunshine.”
She lifted her hips, aligning their bodies once again. “Then kiss me.”
She pulled his mouth to hers, drinking in his love, as she moved with him, until they were as close as two people could be. Their hearts hammered out the same frantic beat, and he drew away from the kiss.
“Come back,” she pleaded.
“I need to see you,” he said urgently.
Cradling her face in his hands, so much love gazed back at her it drew her heart from her lungs.
“I love you,” she confessed, at the same time he said, “I love you so much.”
She held her breath, watching a smile curve his beautiful mouth. The mouth that had just professed his love for her.
“I love you, sunshine. I love you and Hagen so much I can’t imaginenotloving you. I love when you smile, when you laugh, when you crinkle your nose. I love the way you worry about everything Hagen does, and how you feed his need for facts. I love how much you care about my father and how you cherish your family. I love your big heart and your brilliant mind and your insanely sexy body. I love how you look at me, the way you touch me.”
Overcome with emotion, her voice lodged in her throat. It was all she could do to tighten her hold on his butt, where her hands had been resting.
