Well, I’d never been one to not go after something I wanted. “Then let’s not say good night yet,” I murmured, before closing the distance between us. I slid my fingers into that hair I’d been itching to touch all night and pulled him toward me.
As soon as my lips touched his, I was gone. The sweet, fruity taste of him, the expensive cologne scent of him, and the delicious, surprising height on him.
He let out a groan, low and deep in the back of his throat, and then he was kissing me back. There was nothing tentative about it. One hand went for the nape of my neck while the other slid down my back to grab my ass. He let out another groan, this one closer to a growl.
The sound of it—the almost painful pleasure threaded through it—did something to me. I couldn’t get enough of him. I kissed him harder, deeper, pulling his lower lip into my mouth. He ground against me, his cock rigid against my stomach.
I went for his jaw, trailing my lips down his neck. He let his head fall back, letting out a whispered “Yes.” I grinned at the catch in his breath, at the furious pace of his pulse under my tongue.
“What’s your name, sexy?” I asked with a growl, nipping at his collarbone with my teeth.
“James,” he said with an irresistible gasping sound. “You?”
“Sawyer,” I said, leaning back in to taste him again. I wanted more, more skin to taste, more body to explore, more of his shuddering reactions. But just as I started tugging his shirt from his waistband, he stiffened and sucked in a breath.
“Wait.”
I froze. I’d had his earlobe between my teeth, and reluctantly I let it go and shifted backward until I could see his face. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted and swollen from our kisses. His eyes were wide and a little… surprised. Had he just now realized he was kissing a stranger in a bar? And was it possible that was a new experience for him? It couldn’t be. This man was clearly from a big city. Chances were, he’d had plenty of action more wild and crazy than some stolen kisses after hours.
He blinked, seemingly trying to collect his thoughts. “Sawyer.” He frowned, then swallowed. “That’s not a name you hear often.”
I still had my hands at his waistband, enough of his shirt untucked that I could feel the heat of his skin under the tips of my fingertips. “I guess. I mean, I’m the only one in town.”
I pressed my palm flat against his abdomen, and he shuddered, his eyes squeezing closed. “I…” He raked his teeth across his bottom lip, still plump from where I’d sucked on it. I wanted to run my tongue across it, to taste him again.
When he opened his eyes, I could see the same hunger reflected in them that I felt. I moved toward him, but he stepped back, holding up a hand. “I can’t. I-I mean, I shouldn’t.”
“Shouldn’t?” I asked him.
He shook his head slightly, still panting. “No. Not… not tonight.”
I remembered him mentioning something about a commitment in the morning. Maybe he knew that if he took me to bed with him, he wouldn’t be getting any sleep and he didn’t want to risk it. I couldn’t resist pressing the palms of my hands against his chest. The muscles underneath turned rigid at my touch. “What about tomorrow night, then?”
His eyes searched mine, the stress from before returning. “I’d like that.” He sounded more serious, more earnest than I’d expected.
“It’s a date, then,” I said, my mind already whirring with possibilities.
He nodded slowly. “If you’re still interested,” he added, glancing down at the floor.
I laughed. Was he insane? He’d be lucky if I didn’t jump his bones the moment I set eyes on him tomorrow. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I’ve got plans for you.”
A smile touched the corner of his mouth. “I’d like that.”
And before I could grab him and beg him to stay, he was gone.
I woke up the next morning with James on my mind. Which didn’t surprise me given I’d gone to bed with him dominating my thoughts as well. As I walked to the Sea Sprite’s lobby from where I’d been living in my grandparents’ old house on the back corner of the property, I couldn’t stop smiling, my grin turning stupid and my stomach fluttering when memories of his kiss the night before surfaced.
I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the day. I wasn’t a patient man, and waiting until this evening to see James was going to be torture. I would just have to spend the time imagining all of the delicious things I planned to do with him once I had him naked and in bed.
I strolled across the inn’s parking lot, noting that all three of my uncles were already there, along with a rental car I didn’t recognize. Must be the lawyer’s car, I thought sourly. I felt my good mood falter. He was here bearing an offer from his client to purchase the Sea Sprite, a proposition I was adamantly against but that my uncles seemed a little more receptive to. I refused to let this asshole ruin what was promising to be an amazing day, and so I pushed all thoughts of the lawyer out of my head and instead thought about James and the sounds he’d made when I’d kissed him.
By the time I pulled open the doors to the inn’s lobby, I was whistling.
Ana Lucia, who manned the front desk when I was off, glanced up from her phone. Her eyes raked over me, and her lips pursed.
“Good morning,” I told her in a cheery voice.
She lifted a sharply plucked eyebrow in return. “You seem happy.” She sounded suspicious.
“I am.” I made my way toward the coffee carafe next to the registration desk and started pouring myself a cup. Normally Ana Lucia would shoo me away and I would give her my puppy dog eyes until she relented. It was a game we played, one in which she lectured me about taking the “fancy coffee” away from the “paying guests” and I reminded her that I bought the “fancy coffee” with my own money so the “paying guests” wouldn’t revolt and fling freeze-dried Folgers dust all over the lobby the way that one lunatic had a few years ago.
This morning she was too distracted by my cheery mood to say anything about me pilfering the coffee. “Why?”
I gave her my most winning smile. “Why not?” I nodded toward the massive picture window dominating the back room of the lobby, and the view of Gannet Bay beyond. “The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the beaches are clear, and the ocean is calm. What more could a guy want?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you not telling me?”
I held up my hands all innocently. “Nothing.”
“You know you got that thing with the guys this morning,” she said. Ana Lucia always called my uncles “the guys” as if they were my group of friends rather than a collection of paternal stand-ins who always thought they knew what was best for me whether I agreed with them or not.
I nodded, pilfering a donut from the tray next to the coffee. “Yep.”
“They’re all already here,” she pointed out.
“I saw,” I told her through a mouthful of crumbs. I knew they would be waiting for me, but so be it.
She frowned at me, still thrown by my good mood. “I’d expected you to coming in all grumbly and sour like you usually do when the topic of the future of the inn comes up.”