Page 74 of Home Team Advantage
Matt drove down into town, then crossed the river into Birch Falls. Bypassing the town proper, he proceeded up the mountain to a lake.
Yes, he’d taken a page out of Kieran’s playbook.
The first time Matt had been here, he’d been fourteen years old. Kieran had “rescued” him and his mother from Mrs. Campbell’s annual matchmaker barbecue and brought them here, to a sixty-foot custom-built houseboat kept at a private dock owned by the Connellys, the Birch Falls branch of the clan.
And like he and Faith had been then, Anna was dutifully impressed. Especially when she discovered the baskets of five-star cuisine, personally prepared by the head chef at the Celtic Goddess—who just happened to be Matt’s aunt Lexi—and the dozens of battery-operated lanterns placed around the open sky deck, waiting for them.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she breathed.
“Not even a little. Make yourself comfortable,” he said, pointing to the deck chairs. “It’s a big lake. It’s going to take a bit to get to where we’re going.”
“Where are you going to be?” she asked.
“Driving the boat.”
She worried her bottom lip, then asked, “Can I be with you instead?”
If his heart didn’t already belong to this woman, it would have in that moment.
Matt maneuvered the craft expertly, just like Kieran had taught him, to a secluded area on the uninhabited side of the lake, where he lowered the anchor. Matt’s plans were to eat a candlelit dinner in the windowed cabin, then have wine on the deck and look at the stars. Romantic. Respectful. No pressure.
Those plans went to hell when Anna came up behind him, put her arms around his waist, and laid her head against his back. Her touch, the feel of her body pressed against his, were like IEDs to his self-control.
Then, her hands slipped under the hem of his shirt and touched his bare flesh. Over his abs. Up to his pecs. Her fingers teased the piercings in his nipples, sending fiery-hot bolts of lust right down his cock.
“What are you doing, Anna?”
“If you have to ask, I must be doing it wrong.”
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she was doing. In fact, she was doing everything incredibly right.
“If you keep touching me like that, I’m not going to be able to remain a gentleman.”
“I’m okay with that.”
His heart kicked into high gear, along with other parts that wanted to go along for the ride.
He turned in her arms. She looked up at him, her obsidian eyes reflecting the stars beneath heavy lids. Her lips were slightly parted. Against his chest, he felt her hardened peaks through the thin layers of cotton that separated them.
He wanted her. So badly. His mind was a whirlwind of want and need, coming up with dozens of ways to get her naked, to pleasure her, to connect to her in the way only true croies could. But before his lust carried him too far away from rational thought, he should probably tell her that?—
She reached between them and ran her palm along the length of him, effectively sending a cease and desist to that rational nonsense.
“Anna,” he breathed.
He watched in rapt fascination as she unfastened his jeans, reached into his boxer briefs, and bare-handed him.
“Fuck!” He closed his eyes and dropped his head back.
She felt so good. He wanted to drown in her touch and stay there forever.
Then, he felt her tongue. His head whipped back so fast, and there she was, on her knees before him, like his hottest erotic fantasy.
But he couldn’t allow her to do this. He was already so close to the edge just from being around her, and his first time with his croie was not going to begin like this.
He cupped her under the arms and lifted her up in a swift, smooth movement.
“What—” she began to protest.
