“Touching you does everything to me,” I explain. “Trust me.”
A lock of wild hair brushes her collar bone when she hangs her head to study me. “How can I trust you when I can’t even trust myself? I’d tell you to pinch me, but I feel so good right now I don’t care if it’s real or not.”
Biting my lip, I grin up at her before kissing under her belly button once more—my cock dripping with envy. “When you touch me, it will be game over.” This is the chemistry I’ve been seeking without realizing it. Why I offered to help her with projects for a month before telling her how I felt. When lightning strikes it’s hard to believe it’s real, that things like this exist in the real world. Especially for horrible men like me. Men who don’t deserve this kind of out of body experience with women like Caroline May, a hidden diamond in this tiny, perfect town. This is where my life has been hiding all of this time. I’ve endured so much to get to this point.Don’t fuck it up, my mind whispers.
The surreal floating sensation extends to her awareness, too. “I won’t pinch you but,” I say, dragging my lips across her stomach to end under her ribcage, and bite the tender skin hard enough to make it red. Caroline squeals in delight, taking my head into her hands in tight fists. There’s three freckles on her lower stomach that I connect with my pointer finger. One strays desperately close to her panties and I snap the elastic. The slapping sound against her skin sends a shock to my dick.
I stand, keeping my hands on her skin because I know she wants more. Things I can’t give her yet, but I want to please her, fuck do I want to please her, make her happy in any way I can. When I’m upright she pulls me by the collar in for another kiss. Mouth to mouth, chest to chest. I swallow, and a taste of her slides down my throat hitting my system like a drug. Is this chick even real?
I don’t need intuition, practice, or even skill. I only need her.
I am so fucked.
Chapter Ten
Caroline
His dimples haven’t disappeared since he kissed me. The sight of them makes me deliriously happy—my stomach tipping with excitement, my hands shaking with anticipation. When I first arrived here, I was unsure how I’d feel being inside this house that now belongs to him. The news traveled around town quicker than lice in a kindergarten classroom. Everyone has an opinion on the matter, and they’re mostly not favorable. I’d be lying if I said their reactions didn’t cloud my own opinion. It’s an uphill battle, the pack mentality is seeded so deep it’s a fight I wish I didn’t have to wage. It means I’m like them. But, the second he kissed me, any sort of hesitation I had about him or this huge whopper of a purchase vanished into the salt filled air. He’s shown me, unmasked, how much he wants me. His touch sends fire through my veins, the heat of his gaze ricochets to parts of my body in ways I didn’t know existed. I want Tahoe in every single way a woman can possibly want a man. His kindness bleeds into his masculinity in a way that makes his whole package something close to perfection.
We’re sitting at a broken table in the dining room of the Bed and Breakfast. He’s cobbled a fix to steady the wooden legs. The orange of the sunset is slanting in the large curtain-less window casting a dim glow on everything it touches. The place came with a lot of furniture and it’s a little creepy. The Homer’s locked up and fled town after the attacks. They never returned. Several members of their family were killed or harmed on that fateful day, and I don’t think Mr. Homer recovered from the loss. There are family photos still hanging next to the old olive green fridge, left behind in an attempt to make a quick exit.
After I swallow a bite of the Reuben sandwich my mama packed for me, I say, “Maybe you should rebuild instead of renovating.” The image of the kids’ smiling faces that would be around my age, force the statement even if it’s not true.
Tahoe notices where I’m looking. “It has good bones. Even if it’s haunted,” he says, grinning wide when he catches my attention. “You can’t tell me it doesn’t.”
I can’t. Most of the community believes this place should have been a town landmark, or a city building, hence the uproar caused by an outsider buying it. I bite my cheek, sip my water bottle, and turn a discerning eye to kitchen. “It needs a lot of work.”
“What would you do in here?” he asks, extending his arm to the space around him. The tone of his voice sounds like he’s asking a question of a different caliber, one that makes my whole body feel hot and wiry, my mouth bone dry. I’d do anything he wanted in here, that’s what I’d do in here.
Renovations, I remind myself. “I’d probably gut the kitchen entirely. Everything needs to be updated. You know that already though. I like the floors. They’re original,” I reply, standing, my gaze focused on the light hard wood, instead of on the man that is making feel completely insane. Pacing toward the window I catch sight of an airplane in the distance. “What if I want to skydive?” The question bubbles out before I have time to tamp it back, make it something more hesitant and unsure. “Could you take me?” I pivot to face him.
His face darkens as his eyes rake my body. “I can’t take you, but I can go up with you. You’d have to go tandem with a jump master. I don’t have that qual.”
I laugh. “You say it like it’s a crime. I was just wondering. Taking an interest in the new ventures of my airport, that’s all.”
“I wish I could take you,” he replies, snaking an arm out to pull me close. “I’ll work on getting that qualification now that we’ll be jumping on a regular basis, okay? Then I can take you.”
His arms are enormous, swallowing every inch of skin they touch.
“You don’t trust Aiden?” I ask. Tahoe’s arms stiffen, his whole body rigid with tension. It’s confusing. “You’d jump tandem with him, right? Aren’t you guys sort of like, the best in the world at what you do? Skydiving included?”
He softens a little. “I don’t trustyouwith anyone except me.”
“Why?” That womanly tact begins crawling out, hoping for praise and compliments. It’s an uncontrollable urge because of him. “You think he might crash land?” I tease.
He shivers. An honest to God shiver. “No,” he growls. “He would never.”
“What are we talking about here? I was joking.”
Tahoe grits his teeth as his hands clamp tighter on my waist. “I trust in his ability to do his job. I don’t trust him with a woman. Especially not with you,” he says.
Jealousy. It feels so good. The ultimate in compliments, really. “I’ll wait for you to get the qualification then. So, if we crash land it can be all your fault. Not your friends.” Twining my hands around his neck, I see his stress ease at my touch.
He pushes me back so he can look me square on, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Please, Caroline. Now it’s a challenge. I’m going to have to scare the life out of you to prove a point. It’s going to be one step before crash landing.”
“That’s rude.” Releasing him, I fold my arms across my chest.
He quirks one brow. “You question my skill. That’s rude.”
