Page 18 of Beach Cottage Kisses
But, good.
“So it’s got to be just a reaction to the wedding finery,” he said, his analytical mind coming up with motive for the recalcitrant, unwelcome reactions that seemed to suddenly be intent on plaguing them.
Were they really doing this? Walking on their beach, talking about his hard-on for her?
And the nipples he’d noticed tightened against her dress the other night.
She could have been cold.
He didn’t think so.
Her response to his kiss certainly had not been.
It seemed as though he felt her nod as a physical brush against his chest as she said, “Wewerein completely different roles, with Sage and Gray pretty much nonexistent, as consumed as they’d been by the marriage, the rituals, all their guests…”
“And Leigh going upstairs with her babysitter…” Like a drowning man, he grabbed hold.
“And the three of them gone for so long… It’s just residual. We know it’s there. Acknowledge it. Have made the very mutual decision that it’s not a right move for us—”
Feeling his body leap to attention with that, he jumped in, cutting her off. “As long as we do nothing, time, and Sage and Gray’s return, will take care of the rest. You watch, a year from now, we’ll be laughing over the whole thing.”
He’d give his fortune to be able to laugh about it right then.
Instead, his only hope, at the moment, was an ice-cold shower. An hour-long one, minimum.
“Okay, good, we have a plan.” Iris’s words gave him a start. It was as though she’d just read his mind. Was agreeing to the cold shower.
Which had him immediately, mentally under the spray together.
“I’m sure I can keep my hands off you,” she said, a slightly teasing note in her tone. One that was almost swallowed up by the near choking sound that came with it. “Can you keep yours off me?”
She’d issued a challenge.
Something she’d done many times over their years of hashing out life together. Challenging him to succeed at whatever goal he’d set out for himself in the moment.
From getting his deck stained to handling his first full weekend alone with his niece the time Sage and Iris had gone to Palm Springs for a girls’ weekend of shopping and no responsibility.
She’d issued a challenge that left no room for failure.
Issued to a man who viewed failure as the kiss of death.
Which meant…she’d left him only one option.
Absolutely no kissing at all for him.
And he was good with that.
Mostly.
“I can if you can,” he replied.
Because if she came on to him, all bets were off. He couldn’t guarantee his ability to reject her.
Which told him he wouldn’t.
And then they’d lose everything.
Chapter Five
