Page 44 of Sweet Love at Bayside
Framing her face with his hands, he brushed his lips over hers, and her entire being flooded with awareness. He didn’t kiss her, didn’t say a word, just stood so close her body tingled with anticipation. He touched her cheek so tenderly, she didn’t want to move, or breathe, for fear of missing a second of it. As the minutes passed, her senses spun. She smelled his raw, manly scent, felt his chest brushing against hers, his hips rocking in a slow sensual motion bringing rise to a desperate pulse inside her. One hand moved to her back, his fingers pressing into her. His lips swept over her cheek, then along her lips again, and up beside her ear. He didn’t speak, but she heard his thoughts, felt his desire. They stayed like that until darkness fell around them. And just when the tension had her strung so tight she was sure she’d snap, he lowered his mouth to hers, unleashing an explosion of sensations.
Lust surged through her veins like an awakened river. She grabbed at his back, his arms, his head, needing to be closer. His tongue plundered her mouth just as it had in the widow’s walk. Her body electrified with the memory, and a needy noise escaped into his mouth. His hand cruised up the back of her tank top, crushing her to him. She loved how big he was, how strong. He was shirtless, and she wanted to feel his skin on her, over her, around her. They stumbled and kissed to the blanket, stripping their clothes off as they went, and destroying his sandy message.
“I brought dinner, but I’m starved fordessert.”
“Greedy.”
They both stilled as she ogled him, salivating for a taste of the man who was breaking through all her barriers, setting her free from the confines of her own mind. She didn’t have to look at his face to know he was aware of her every breath, probably waiting for her to pull back on the reins, but tonight, for him, she was cutting herself loose.
AFTER THEY CAME down from the clouds, they lay beneath a blanket, their naked bodies entangled like twisted vines. They kissed and talked and held each other in comfortable silence for long stretches of time, listening to the distant sound of the bay and the dune grass rustling in the breeze.
Rick pressed a kiss to Desiree’s forehead. “Are you cold? Hungry?”
“I’m not moving from my new favorite spot,” she said sweetly. “You’re like a personal heater, and I don’t care if I starve.”
He laughed, but he felt the same way. “Good. Me either. Tell me something about you that I don’t know. What’s it like to be surrounded by little people all day?”
She smiled, the way she had each time she’d talked about teaching. “It can be the most wonderful, fulfilling job in the world, or the most trying. Usually, it’s a little of both. Preschoolers are curious and eager to learn, which makes each of their discoveries really exciting. Probably one of my favorite things is when they think they can’t do something and then prove themselves wrong. Nothing beats the pride in their eyes.”
As her love of her work poured out, he realized how much enthusiasm he’d lost for his own.
“No two days are the same, and no two children are the same,” she said. “What works for one might send another into tears. It’s a balancing act.”
“Did you always want to be a teacher?”
She snuggled closer, and her voice went soft. “I always knew I wanted to work with children and be a positive influence in their lives. When I was in high school, my father suggested I volunteer at a summer program for three- and four-year-olds to see if I liked it, and that was it. I knew what I wanted.” She gazed into his eyes, her fingers moving slowly over his skin. “It’s funny how sometimes you justknowsomething is too right to be wrong.”
“Like us.”
“Like us,” she whispered. “That’s something else we have in common. You always knew you wanted to be a builder, like your father. Did you ever entertain the idea of being something else?”
“Not once. When I set my mind on something, I’m not easily deterred.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell. It’s not like you were persistent when we first met.”
“And you were sweet and sexy and curious, butcarefulnot to let me know how badly you wanted to get in my pants.”
She gasped. “I didnotwant to get in your pants!”
“Until tonight,” he teased.
She flushed, and he touched his forehead to hers. “Desiree, you are the sweetest, most passionate creature on this earth, and I hope you blush like that until we’re old and gray.”
“We’re…?” she said breathlessly.
“Slip of the tongue.”
He came down over her and laced their hands together, holding them beside her head. “We’re too right to be wrong.”
He took her in a series of slow, intoxicating kisses. In seconds, he was drunk onher, lost in the way she moved sensually beneath him, breathing harder, then hardly breathing at all. He kissed her jaw, ran his tongue along the shell of her ear, and his emotions came pouring out in one heated whisper after another.
“I can’t wait to make love to you.” He brushed his lips over hers.
“Yes,” came out in a rush of hot air.
As their bodies came together, he held Desiree close, never wanting to let her go, and spoke heatedly into her ear. “Feel that, sweetheart?”
“Mm,” she said with the softness of a sated lover. “Amazing.”
