stepping toward me with a sly edge to his grin.
“You better have something better in mind than making me invisible,” I said, already fighting to stay stern and keep my longing in check.
“Hmm,” he hummed, taking my face in his hands and closing the space between us. “I might have a few ideas.”
A breath later and his lips were finally on mine, and all the tension and frustration of the last few hours burned away like fog in the sun. My hands slid up around his neck as his moved down my back, gripping me around the waist as our mouths began to move more fervently against one another. I sighed as the familiar scent of him filled my head, tightening my stomach with every breath, tingling every hair on my body. With a moan he began to come toward me, forcing me back, back, back, until I was pinned between him and the wall. He braced his right arm against the cool stone while his left wound around my middle, arching my back and pulling me against him.
“I missed you,” he breathed as his lips left mine to work down my neck, causing my head to loll and legs to shiver.
“You know,” I smiled, slowly dragging my leg up his and savoring the groan it triggered, “if you really want to make it up to me…” I left my sentence hanging, though I pulled him harder against me to drive home my point.
I felt his lips smile against my throat, but instead of taking my somewhat blatant offer, he raised his head and kissed me once more on the lips before standing and pulling me into his arms for a far less scandalous hug.
“I don’t think today is the day for that,” he said, resting his forehead against mine. “Ryland is expecting us for dinner, after all.”
“Wait,” I said, leaning back and looking up at him, still catching my breath, “we’re stopping, just like that? Seriously?”
I don’t know why I was surprised; Alex was the king of getting me all hot and bothered then finding any excuse on the planet to stop before things could reach the next level. I’d even gone as far as to start taking a… ahem …certain daily prescription, just to make sure I was ready when the time finally did come, but thanks to Alex’s never ending quest to find the perfect situation for us, thus far my efforts had been for nothing.
“You have to finish packing,” he sighed, threading his hands together behind the small of my back, “and I have to start.”
“Yeah, I know, but it doesn’t have to be this second. Maybe tonight we could–” but he silenced me with a light kiss.
“We are leaving first thing in the morning. You need to sleep.”
With a frustrated huff, I stepped around him and walked back over to my bed. “Now we need to get sleep?” I grumbled, stuffing the rest of my clothes into my suitcase. “Your excuses are getting lamer, you know.”
“Becca,” he said, gently grabbing my arm and turning me around, “I’m not making excuses.”
“I know,” I sighed. “You just want everything to be perfect.” I took his face between my hands, “And I appreciate it – really I do. But if you are waiting for perfection we are never going to get there, because there is no such thing.”
“Really?” he asked, a mischievous light sparking in his eye. “Because I thought that a luxury room in a five-star castle sounded pretty close.”
My eyes popped open. “No way… you mean…”
“But,” he shrugged, “if you don’t think that – “ but it was my turn to kiss him silent.
“You’re serious about this?” I asked, my excitement bubbling dangerously high.
“I am.”
“Because I’m going to hold you to it.”
“Be my guest.”
“No excuses?”
“No excuses, no rain checks, no stalling,” he laughed. “Though,” he added, “I do have to insist on one stipulation.”
“Which is?” I refolded my arms, already skeptical.
“That one of us has a room nowhere near Jocelyn’s.”
“Oh. OK, yeah, that’s a good one,” I admitted. Nothing puts the damper on romance
Taylor Cole and Justin Whitfield