Read The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) for Free Online Page A

the most comforting sound in the world.
    “You’re not out of the woods yet though,” he added. “Now, be honest. Were you jealous just a minute ago?”
    Sommer felt her face flush. “What? No, I wasn’t—”
    “ I said be honest, Sommer.”
    Her eyes fell to the sand. “A little.”
    It was the first time Austin noticed that his pulse was racing. “Tell me why.”
    S he inhaled a large gulp of salty air and expelled it loudly from her lungs. “I might have been lying about my hatred towards you back then. I might have hated you to hide how I truly felt.”
    “Which was?”
    She took another deep breath. “I liked you.”
    Austin took a step forward. “Now, who’s lying?”
    “Oh, I did,” she came back. “I mean, writing Sommer Hayes-Riley all over my diary liked you.”
    “I wouldn’t let you hyphenate,” he teased.
    She laughed again and he pulled her closer to him.
    “I wanted to ask you to prom,” he admitted.
    “I died a little inside when you walked in with Tammie Carter,” she confessed.
    They paused.
    “I used to dream that we’d get married and have an amber-eyed little girl,” he continued.
    “In Spanish class, when we were learning about weddings in Spain, I daydreamed about us having one.”
    Austin tugged her again until her body was inches from his , and then one of his hands went to the side of her face. As he thought about her comparing herself to Jessica, it made him wonder if she knew just how beautiful she was.
    “When your Mom threw the Christmas party at the café our senior year, I tried all night to get you underneath the mistletoe. I really didn’t know what I would have done if I’d actually gotten you under there, though. All I knew was that I just really, really wanted to kiss you.”
    Sommer boldly stepped towards him. “Really?”
    “ Really,” he answered, his voice thick.
    “Do you still feel that way?” She prayed that the hopefulness in her voice didn’t sound too much like desperation.
    To answer her question, Austin bent towards her and Sommer held her breath until she felt the soft graze of his lips against hers. His tongue played gently against her mouth, coaxing it to open, and when her lips parted for him, he dipped his tongue inside and ladled the sweet nectar from her mouth.
    Finally , he was kissing Sommer Hayes.
    His other hand went to the side of her face, and he deepened the kiss. Her sweet scent mixed intoxicatingly with the salty, ocean air. As it filled his nostrils, it only increased his thirst. He tasted and drank from the caverns of her mouth until he was sure that she had nothing left to give, but even then he couldn’t stop. Whatever he’d been previously trying to deny now surged forth from his body and all of his composure dissipated when he heard the breathy moan slip from the back of her throat. In one motion, he picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
    “Austin, I—”
    “Yeah, me too,” he answered, placing quick kisses against her lips, neck, and jaw.
    “Where?”
    “Anywhere, baby.”
    “But your place, my place, we can’t—”
    “I can get us a suite. Anything you want. Just tell me what you want.”
    Sommer felt as though she was going to explode. “Okay. Okay…”
    Austin paused when he picked up on the uncertainty in her voice. When he looked at her, it was clearly written all over her face.
    “Sommer, are you sure?”
    She glanced away for a brief second before looking back at him, which told him that anything she said afterwards was going to be a lie.
    “I’m sure.”
    He placed her back on her feet and cradled her face in his palm. “Something’s wrong.”
    “Nothing’s wrong,” she came back. “I want to do this.”
    He pressed a soft kiss against her lips and resisted the urge to succumb to the overpowering hunger that was building up inside of him again. When he searched her eyes, he found that the uncertainty had been replaced by fear , and then he recalled what she’d said