inspire that spark in her spirit.
“Maybe, huh?” I asked right before I lunged and picked her up, pulling her against me.
She shrieked and began laughing as I tickled her lightly on her ribs. Then, still holding her in my arms, I moved my hands from her waist to her ass and lifted her higher up my body. She automatically wrapped her legs and arms around me.
Our faces were a breath apart, and I brushed my lips lightly across hers. I felt a tremor run through her body at the brief contact that made my dick swell in my pants. I wasn’t sure if Rachel could see the walkway down to the beach from the kitchen, but I didn’t want her or Don to have a bad impression of me, so even though it killed me, I slowly set Cat back on her feet just in case we had an audience.
Cat’s breathing was ragged, but not in the way it had been when we’d arrived. Instead of shallow and desperate, her breaths were heavy and filled with need. Her deep coffee colored eyes were glazed over with lust, framed by incredibly long dark lashes that fluttered up at me.
“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, I can’t be held responsible for my actions,” I spoke in a raspy tone. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.
A small expression of confusion flashed across Cat’s face as her brow furrowed creating a small wrinkle above her nose that I was starting to think might just be the cutest damn thing in the entire world. I could tell that she was doing a Google search in her mind to try and figure out what I was talking about. It must have come up with zero results because she asked in the most adorable bewilderment, “Like what?”
“Like you want to do all the things you read about in your book with me.” My voice was low and practically sounded like I was growling.
Cat’s lips parted as she sucked in a shocked breath. I lowered my head, not being able to resist the temptation that was Cat Nichols’ perfect full lips.
“Hey!” A loud yell startled me, and in one motion I moved Cat behind me so that I was shielding her from the intrusive voice.
At the top of the wooden walkway that led from the steps to the house, I saw Don, standing, his arms crossed over his chest. My body relaxed when my mind registered what my optical nerves were telling them. There was no threat. Except for being busted messing around.
“Hey, Don.” Cat’s voice sounded a little high-pitched and her movements were jerky as she navigated around me and quickly started down the walkway. “We were just coming in to clean up.”
I fell in line behind Cat and forced myself to keep my eyes above her waist. If I didn’t, there was no way I could keep myself from going from half-chub status to full-blown raging hard-on. Cat Nichols’ ass could make a grown man weep—it was that fucking perfect. It was calling to me like a siren in one of those fairy tales, and I knew that, if I looked, I would most definitely turn hard as stone.
As we passed by Don, he stepped to the side and raised one bushy eyebrow. “Is that what you were doing? It looked more like you were playing horizontal Twister to me.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t been prepared for Don to have jokes.
Cat didn’t acknowledge Don’s statement other than picking up the pace. She double-timed it up to the back door. I wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed or mad or what. I walked faster to keep up with her but glanced back at Don to make sure he knew that I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or not take him seriously. When I did, he was grinning bigger than the Cheshire cat, appearing to be enjoying giving us the business.
Good. The last thing I wanted to do was come here and come across as an asshole.
The moment we stepped into the mudroom, I started to ask Cat if she was all right, but I didn’t get the chance when she burst out laughing like it had been bubbling up inside of her and was now erupting in a volcanic explosion. Well, that solved the mystery of her sudden