Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Do you remember that Fourth of July by the river?”
Kerris nodded, lowering her eyes to their clasped hands but not speaking.
“I was fighting so hard against wanting you.” Walsh swallowed, taking a sip of his white wine before continuing. “Cam touched your hair and your face and I wanted to strangle him. You were his, but you felt like mine. Even then, you felt like mine.”
“We laughed by the river.” She smiled a little. “I still have the rock I found that day with you. The one you asked me about.”
“I know we can’t undo the past. The pain and the misunderstandings. How we hurt Cam.” Walsh watched the moonlight caressing the river before looking back at Kerris, seeing the regret and hope warring in her eyes. “But there was one thing we didn’t get to share together that day, and I thought maybe tonight we could.”
“What was that?”
“Fireworks.”
And right on time, based on Walsh’s calculations, the sky flared and popped, light and fire exploding over the river. The fireworks display wasn’t the show, though. The expression on Kerris’s face made him her captive audience of one. She sped over to grip the rail. She covered her mouth to catch the laugh that sprang free, and Walsh could see she wasn’t fully processing that he had actually arranged a fireworks display just for her. He watched it dawn on her, the laughter melting away and something very close to awe settling on her face.
He approached her at the rail. Their eyes locked and held, that same electric current passing between them that had fried his brain the first night he’d met her. That had branded his soul with her and only her ever since. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a delicate chain. He turned her to face the fireworks while he laid the necklace against her heart and hooked the clasp behind her neck. She fingered the orchid charm suspended from the chain, an orchid made of Swarovski crystals, faceted and spectral against the creamy gold of her skin. The first time he had seen her, she’d worn an orchid in her hair. He would never see the flower again without thinking of her.
He didn’t give her the chance to turn around, but clasped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. She looked up, tilting her head to see him standing behind her.
“It’s beautiful.” She stroked the orchid charm with one hand and pointed to the sky, still electrified with color, light, and sound. “It’s all so beautiful. You’ll spoil me.”
Walsh moved his hands to her hips, turning her around to face him.
“Exactly my plan.” He dusted kisses down the fragile line of her jaw and neck, inhaling the addictive scent that was only partly vanilla and mostly Kerris.
“Why, Walsh?” she whispered, her voice wavering and her eyes rimmed with tears. “Why me?”
“My heart didn’t give me a choice. I saw you and was gone almost from the beginning.” He was so close he could smell nothing but her, could see nothing but her, felt the warm curve of her waist beneath his hands. “You are the best decision my heart ever made.”
Walsh didn’t bend, but waited for her to come to him, and she did. On her toes again, she tunneled her fingers into his hair and gave him that beautiful lush mouth he’d possessed in his dreams more times than he could count. This wasn’t a dream, though. And it wasn’t frantic or rushed. She browsed his mouth, running her tongue along his teeth and licking into corners and crevices like they had all the time in the world. And maybe now they did.
“You trust me, right?” He whispered against her lips between kisses.
She nodded, squeaking when he lifted her and set her on the rail.
“I got you,” he said, gripping her waist and pushing her thighs open so he could stand between them. “You in this dress, baby? Driving me crazy. I keep seeing these beautiful legs wrapped around my waist.”
Kerris nodded, setting her elbows on his shoulders and caressing the back of his neck, bringing him back in for a kiss. Sucking his lips. Licking into his mouth. Nibbling at the corners. She never broke the kiss, but hooked her ankles behind his back, her slim legs tightening around his waist when he lifted her and stepped away from the rail. When he slid his hands to cup her butt and carried her down the shallow stairs to the one bedroom on the houseboat.
She flowed like water down his body when she loosened her legs and settled back on the floor. Walsh’s fingers shook a little over the hidden zipper at the back of the short dress, the hiss of its teeth revealing her to him like a secret. This moment, the promise of this revelation, had tortured him ever since he’d seen the dress in the store. For their first date, he’d wanted her wrapped from head to toe in everything he had chosen. Taking possession of what was his in the only ways he could until her divorce was final.