Cold Feet in Hot Sand Read Online Free PDF Page A

at her lips. “We really suck at reading each other, don’t we?”
     
    Nick laughed. “That, or we’re both just really good at keeping our cards close to the vest.”
     
    “Something like that.” She put a hand on his arm. “Just so you know, for future reference, if you need to talk about something like this — before you call off a wedding or something — I’m always here for you.”
     
    “Thank you,” he whispered. Deanna smiled, then leaned toward him and hugged him. As he held onto her, he added, “And the same goes for you. You know that, right?”
     
    “Thank you.” She held him a little tighter. “I’m sorry things fell apart with Kristina. I was really hoping you’d be happy.”
     
    “Me too.” Still holding onto her, he closed his eyes and sighed into her hair. “Thank you, Deanna. For listening.”
     
    “You’re welcome.”
     
    As she let him go and pulled back, he started to take a breath to say… something. The second they made eye contact, though, he forgot whatever it was that had been on the tip of his tongue. He forgot all about that breath he’d been taking.
     
    He’d never looked at her like this. As far as he knew, she’d never looked at him this way either, but she was now, and so was he.
     
    Oh my God, Deanna. I never realized how beautiful you are.
     
    Now he understood what people meant when they talked about time standing still. The whole world came to a halt just then, earth and time holding completely still while an inkling he’d never noticed grew to an epiphany he couldn’t ignore. Blood pounded in his ears as he realized his entire perception of Deanna and the space between them — the lack of space between them — had shifted. Tilted. Warped. Suddenly? Slowly? Just now? Over time? He couldn’t put his finger on it, on when or how it happened, but he couldn’t step back and pretend it hadn’t.
     
    Before he realized what he was doing, he reached for her
     
    face. She closed her eyes and tensed when his fingers brushed her cheek, but she didn’t pull away.
     
    Deanna opened her eyes. Her gaze flicked from his eyes to his lips and back again, and when she moistened her own lips, Nick shivered.
     
    Then her eyes darted to his mouth again. She slowly lifted her chin. Just as slowly, he leaned closer, and there was no mistaking where this glacial momentum would take them if they let it.
     
    Her breath whispered across his skin.
     
    Nick swallowed. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
     
    “I know.”
     
    But she kissed him anyway.
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Three
     
     
     
    Up until this moment, she’d never given serious thought to kissing Nick, but in the seconds before it had happened, there had been no other possibility. No other alternative. Maybe she’d never thought of it before, but tonight, she’d needed it to happen, and it had. It was.
     
    It ended all too soon, after more minutes had ticked by than she could possibly count. She drew back and looked up at him. She could barely see him in what little light crept down the beach from the distant bars and hotels, but she saw him well enough.
     
    How did I ever not see this? How did I ever overlook you?
     
    Nick touched her face. “What are we doing?”
     
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t want to stop.”
     
    “Neither do I.” He was the one to kiss her this time, tilting his head and moving in to claim her mouth.
     
    Deanna couldn’t get enough of his kiss. It had been years since a man had kissed her this way, touching her face, her hair, her neck, kissing as much with his hands as with his mouth. His tongue parted her lips, and his fingers drifted into her hair as he deepened the kiss.
     
    Her gut tried to warn her this was wrong, and on some level maybe she believed it, but in the moment, she couldn’t convince herself this was wrong or why it should be. Why this was anything other than a long, long time coming.
     
    Nick slid his fingers