Page 6 of Whispers at Seaside
His unsaid words lingered in the space between them, offering too many possible interpretations for her mind to grasp. Since that amazing day they spent together at his brother’s engagement party, each of their brief visits brought them closer together, but he’d always been off-limits, which kept him very clearly in the fantasy-only realm. Knowing he was here for three months was giving her heart palpitations.
“Mira?” He ran an assessing gaze over her face. “You okay?”
“You kind of just blew my thoughts out of my head.”
He laughed, a low, sexy laugh that vibrated between them.
“Let’s see if I can reel them back in. I’ve never been so thankful for a broken shower before in my life, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend an evening with than you.”
Thatwas supposed to reel her thoughts back in?
“There is something else I’ve had on my bucket list.” He pulled her to her feet, tucked an arm around her waist, and gathered her against him. “Dancing in the moonlight with a gorgeous woman who negates all thoughts of anything except the here and now.”
Oh boy did he feel good. His body moved with grace and strength. Every brush of his hips was pure seduction, definitely not befitting of a respectable professor dancing with a responsible single mother.For the next three months you’re not a professor. But I’ll always be a mother.
She’d dreamed of being in Matt’s arms for months, and this wassomuch better than her fantasies. She had never questioned her decision to have Hagen, and she didn’t begrudge it now, but she had important responsibilities, like keeping her job. She couldn’t afford to get as carried away as she’d like to. But as he held her against his hard body, his strong arms buffering her from the rest of the world, she closed her eyes and wondered if, just for tonight, she could allow herself to be something more than a responsible mother.
MATT’S HAND SLID down Mira’s back, splaying across the width of her waist. The melody of the guitars and the sounds of young voices played around them like their own private serenade. He hadn’t danced in years, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d told a woman he couldn’t think of anyplace he’d rather be than with her, much less meant it. But there was something about Mira—no, that wasn’t right. Just as he’d found last summer, and during all their interactions in between, there weremanythings about her that were reeling him in. As her enticingly soft body molded to his hard frame, he knew he was skirting a dangerous line. A line he desperately wanted to cross, but she hadn’t taken the bait to any of his innuendos. Maybe she wasn’t ready to cross that line with a man who might only be in town for three months.
They danced long after the song ended, with the wind at their backs and the gentle sounds of waves sweeping up the shore. Their bodies swayed sensually. Her embrace was enticinglyright. When they stopped dancing, they gazed into each other’s eyes, and a handful of silent messages passed between them. He saw her nervousness and her hunger.
His eyes moved slowly over her high cheekbones and the bow of her perfect, kissable lips. “You’re so beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned that rosy shade of pink he liked so much, and she shifted her eyes away, but not before he saw the lust brewing in them. He wanted totasteher positivity, to devour the passion feeding the hunger in her eyes, but he knew he shouldn’t push too hard. His stay here was only temporary, and she was his father’s employee.
When that reminder didn’t take away the urge to lean down and kiss her, he took his thoughts one step further, because above all else, despite this impulsive night, Matt was a careful thinker. He wasn’t a player like some of his brothers were before they’d settled down. In fact, he was just the opposite. Matt was selective about the women he was intimate with because he rarely did anything without his heart coming into play. Knowing Mira hadn’t been dating confirmed what he’d suspected. She lived her life in the same vein.
“Mira.” Her beautiful hazel eyes were full of hope and desire. He took her hand and her fingers curled around his. He couldn’t resist flattening his hand on her lower back, bringing all her lush curves tighter against him again.
She blinked up at him, her long, dark lashes sweeping over her cheeks. She nibbled her lower lip, and that simple act made her look sensual and innocent at once. The world around them disappeared in those magical seconds that preceded a first kiss. He felt their thighs brush and her chest lift against his with each anticipatory breath. They were both into this, ready, willing, and oh so able.
He nuzzled her neck, inhaling the scent of sinful promises. Desire swam in her eyes as her fingers pressed into his skin, but his mind wouldn’t stop ticking off the ramifications of a night of passion with Mira. One night of being with this incredible woman would never be enough. She deserved more than a few pieces of chocolate and landing in bed beneath him. This wasn’t even a proper date.
Gritting his teeth against what he really wanted, he forced himself to take a step back.
“How about that ghost tour?”
Chapter Three
WHEN THE GHOST tour began, Mira was sure it was all a hoax. Malena, their tour guide, a pretty redhead cloaked in a black hooded cape with red lining, gave out glow-stick bracelets toward off evil spirits. Mira and Matt shared a few laughs over the neon jewelry. As their group of eighteen ghost seekers walked down Commercial Street, Malena described ghosts of sea captains, fishermen, and residents who supposedly continued to roam the streets of Provincetown. Mira wasn’t frightened at all. At least not of ghosts. The incessant pounding of her heart caused by the tall, handsome man holding her hand, who smelled like musk and something she’d like to run her tongue all over, however, was a whole different story.
She’d wanted to kiss himsobadly on the beach, but she’d also been flat-out, heart-stopping petrified. It had beenyearssince she’d kissed a man in the way she wanted to kiss Matt. Not to mention that every time they were together her mind went directly tosex. She’d already envisioned them having sex in his car, on the beach, and embarrassingly, on the steps of Shop Therapy in the center of Provincetown.Gah!That was crazy, because like kissing, she also hadn’t had sex in too many years to count. She’d probably forgotten how to do it with anything other than her battery-operated boyfriend. Was there a wrong way to have sex? She might have to take her friend Serena up on her offer to sex her up. Serena would be thrilled. She’d only been bugging her about it for the last fewyears, and right now Mira felt about a million miles behind the dating eight ball.
They followed Malena out of town and up a steep, desolate road that looked like it led directly into the night sky as she told an eerie story about a sea captain who was beheaded on this very street in the eighteen hundreds. Their only light was the lantern Malena carried at least twenty feet ahead of them and the silly glow-stick bracelets bobbing behind her like she was the pied piper. When she finished telling the story, silence fell over the group. The higher they climbed, the creepier the night became. The air felt like breath ghosting over Mira’s skin.
Matt tucked her beneath his arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Her voice came out shaky, and he must have noticed, because he tightened his grip around her. Her skin was beginning to crawl with the idea of a headless ghost wandering around them.
When they reached the cemetery at the top of the hill, there was a collective gasp. A sea of cracked and crooked headstones was surrounded by sparse trees branching out against the night sky like skeletons swaying in the breeze. They reminded Mira of old black-and-white cartoons where trees wrapped gnarled branches around people as they passed by. A shiver ran down her spine with the thought, and she snuggled closer to Matt.
“We suggest you spread out and take pictures wherever you feel the presence of a spirit,” Malena said. “If you’re lucky, your pictures will reveal orbs that aren’t visible to the naked eye. The quieter you are, the more focused you’ll be, so take your time, and take a partner with you if you startle easily.”
“That’s our cue, sunshine.” Matt guided her away from the crowd.
“Do you believe in this stuff?” She had one arm around Matt’s waist, the other pressed against his stomach. She would have climbed him like a mountain and hung on for dear life if she weren’t afraid of exactly what that would do to her very lonely girl parts.
“Spirits? Sure. Look how magnificent human beings are. I’d hate to think all this greatness simply ends after we die.”
