She stood knee-deep in the water beside me now. She’d taken off her cap an hour ago and now the sun lit up her dark hair. Her cheeks were pink from heat and exertion.
“Am I getting better?” she asked, flicking her line out with a graceful little snap.
“You’re not bad,” I admitted.
“High praise,” she muttered with a grin.
She glanced at me from under her lashes, eyes playful, but there was something else in them too. Something hungry. She wanted me. That knowledge became a living thing under my skin. A wildfire I knew would burn out of control if I let it.
“Come on,” I said, taking the rod from her hands before I could do something stupid like kiss her again. “Let’s see if we can get you a fish today.”
She was getting good. Really good. Her casts were smooth and confident now, her line landing exactly where she aimed it. She read the water like she’d been born to it, spotting the subtle currents and eddies where trout liked to hide.
And I watched her. God help me, I couldn’t stop watching her.
The way she bit her lower lip when she concentrated. The way her eyes lit up when she felt a fish hit her line. The way she moved through the water with growing confidence, no longer the clumsy city girl who’d hooked me that first day.
She was beautiful. Not just pretty—beautiful in a way that made my chest ache. Beautiful in a way that made me want to be the kind of man who deserved her. Beautiful in a way that made me forget how to breathe.
“There,” she said, pointing to a spot where the current created a small pool behind a fallen log. “That looks promising.”
“Good eye.” I moved behind her to adjust her stance, and the familiar jolt of heat shot through me when our bodies aligned. “Cast just upstream of the log. Let the fly drift down naturally.”
Her backcast brushed my chest and again her scent rose. It made me want to bury my face in her neck and breathe her in. Hell, it made me want to know if she smelled as sweet all over.
“Like this?” she asked, glancing back at me.
“Perfect.” The word came out strained, and she noticed. Of course she noticed. Ellie noticed everything.
“Nate?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we going to talk about yesterday?”
I should have said no. Should have kept things professional. Should have done a dozen things that weren’t stepping closer and letting my hands settle on her waist.
“What about it?”
“The part where you kissed me. And then spent the rest of the day looking like you wanted to take it back.”
Direct. Honest. No games, no manipulation. It was exactly what I’d learned not to trust, and exactly what made me want to trust her more than I’d ever trusted anyone.
“Maybe I do want to take it back.”
She turned in my arms, the rod forgotten. “Do you?”
The smart answer was yes. The safe answer was yes. The answer that would protect both of us was yes.
“No,” I said instead.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is you don’t know me, Ellie. Not really.” I forced myself to step back, out of the water and put some space between us. “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”
“So tell me.”
“It’s not that simple.”
