“We are.” He reached for her, drew her against him the way she’d been secretly longing for throughout their interview. “Slow and exclusive.”
But as thrilled as she was to hear Dylan say that he wanted only her, she had to try to make sense of something that didn’t make any sense. “How are you not with someone already?” She gestured to the phone. “Clearly, there are women lining up around the block for some time with you. And with the way you look, the way you kiss—” She made herself stop before she rambled on any longer about how amazing a catch he was. “I just don’t understand it.”
“I have all the same questions about you, Grace. The way you look. The way you kiss. The way I can’t stop smiling whenever you’re near. How are you still single?”
Was he nuts? The reason was obvious. “I’m a single mother of a ten-month-old.” Not to mention the fact that she hadn’t let anyone close enough to even try getting through the wall she’d put up around her heart after it had been smashed by her ex and his family.
“A great ten-month-old.”
Dylan’s affection for her son was yet another thing that set him a world apart from other men. “That’s another thing I can’t figure out.”
“What’s that?”
“How you are so willing to open up your life to a woman with baggage.”
“Anyone who would actually call Mason baggage, anyone who can’t see that he’s the greatest gift in the world, doesn’t deserve you.” He brushed back a lock of her hair, making her shiver despite the heat. “Did you get what you needed for today’s interview?”
With the way he was looking at her, she could only just manage to say, “Yes. We’ve covered a lot of ground today.”
“Not enough.” He took each of her hands in his and lifted them to his lips for a kiss before he started moving them both into the back area of the boathouse. “Not nearly enough.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Is there—” My God, had anyone ever looked at her like this? Like he wanted to devour her in one big gulp and was only barely restraining himself from doing just that? “Is there something else you wanted to tell me?” But he didn’t answer, simply continued their path behind the nearly finished sloop. Her heart was racing as she followed him. “Something you need to show—”
When he backed her up against the wall, then lifted her hands and arms above her head so that her back arched slightly and her breasts pressed into the hard wall of his chest, she swallowed the last word.
“This.” He nipped at her lower lip, hard enough that it sent a blast of heat—and need—searing through her, head to toe. “I need to show you this.” He nipped at her again, her chin this time, sending even more bright bolts of desire through her. “I need to show you how much I want you.” He found her earlobe next with his teeth, and a low moan slipped from her lips. “How I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you since Saturday night.” He breathed her in once. Then once again. “Your scent…it drives me crazy.” He scraped his stubble across her neck. “Your skin…it’s so soft, so kissable.”
That was when he finally brought his mouth back to hers and licked across the seam of her lips, making her half-gasp, half-moan at how good it felt.
“Again,” he urged her as he lifted his mouth from hers only far enough to speak. “I need to hear it again.”
The truth was that she was just as desperate for him, had barely been holding desire at bay long enough to get through her interview. Unable to take any more teasing, she took the next kiss he gave her deeper. So deep, so fast, that she was surprised a spark didn’t actually light between them to set his boathouse on fire.
She knew better than to do this, to let him reach for the hem of the sundress she was wearing and pull it up over her head in the middle of the day, at his place of business, where someone could walk in at any moment. But once again, her need for him was bigger than her fears. So big that she found herself relishing this chance for a few wicked moments, for one more break from the straight and narrow line she’d been walking for the past year and a half.
The truth was that knowing someone might walk into his boathouse, might come looking for him and find them wrapped all around each other, only made it more exciting. And as she embraced the wildness of the moment, she realized it didn’t just feel okay to stop being so careful all the time—it felt like exactly what she needed.
Especially when he ran his big hands over her curves and told her how perfect, how pretty she was, that he couldn’t get enough of her, that she was all he could think about. Every word, every touch, made her lose her breath a little more as he rained kisses on her skin between each sweet murmur. His lips feathered across her cheek, her neck, her collarbone, and then the swell of her breasts before he clicked open the latch on her bra and cupped her breasts together so that he could lave both needy peaks at once.
One kiss, one taste had quickly spiraled into a desperate need for more. So much more. Which meant that when he slowly lowered himself to his knees before her, his hands gripping her hips hard as he held her right where he wanted her against the wall, his lips running a devastating path over her ribs and stomach, she didn’t stop him. Couldn’t, frankly, have imagined a world in which the word stop could possibly have come out of her mouth. Especially when he leaned in and pressed his lips to the vee between her legs, lace and all.