Page 63

Adelia was awake half the night, longing for sleep after their long day, but unable to stop her whirling thoughts. By the time the sun came up, she’d thought about every detail since the moment she met Oliver and all the reasons he said they couldn’t be together.
Her mind got stuck for a while on their almost kiss last night. If not for that dog, she would know what it felt like to have his lips on hers, to be in his arms, to be the focus of his desire. Her stomach had somersaulted so many times thinking about it, that she had to sit up and take a drink of water to calm herself.
She opened her door to head downstairs and was startled to find Oliver standing there as if he was about to knock.
“Oh! Good morning, Olly.”
“Good morning. I wasn’t sure if you were awake yet or not, but I have some good news I wanted to share with you.”
“What news?” she asked as she turned back to the room and took a seat on the bed.
Oliver sat down beside her. “Carmen received a call from a young woman who works at a local photo lab. She saw the article about you being blackmailed and said a couple weeks ago, a sketchy-looking guy came in to have some black-and-white prints made. She thought the woman in the pictures looked like you, but she dismissed it until she read the article. They picked the guy up this morning, and he confessed.”
“Are you serious?”
“Very serious. We caught him.”
She threw herself at him. “Oh my gosh. What a relief.”
He laughed as he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m really happy for you.”
She pulled back, trying to keep some distance between them. “So, what you’re saying is I didn’t ruin the investigation after all.”
He smirked.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You might even say it helped the situation.”
“Okay, okay.”
She laughed. “Does this mean I can stay at the lake house again?”
“If you want to. Sure.”
“And I guess that means I won’t need a babysitter anymore.”
His eyes locked with hers.
“So, you won’t be paid to take care of me.”
He slowly shook his head from side to side.
That was it! She couldn’t take this anymore. She took Oliver’s face in her hands, leaned forward, and pressed her lips against his.
He gripped her arms as if fighting it at first, but then his hands slid up her arms, over her shoulders, and into her hair as he angled his head and pressed into the kiss, tugging her as close as he could get her. She was drowning in the pure ecstasy of the moment. It was better than she imagined it would be with him.
His kisses intensified then slowed, and he pressed one firm kiss to her lips before pulling back to look at her. His eyes traveled over her face and back to her lips, and he leaned in again, pressing soft kisses to one cheek and then the other, before turning all his attention on her lips again. She thought he was slowing things down, but the way he kissed her this time kicked everything up a notch.
“Olly,” she whispered between kisses.
He groaned into her mouth and hauled her closer until she was in his lap like she had been that night on the beach. Only this time, they were doing exactly what she had wanted to then. Losing themselves in each other.
When they’d made out for longer than she’d ever made out with a guy before, he finally ended with a few soft, tender presses of his lips to hers and leaned his forehead against hers.
“Why did I ever fight this?” he asked as his fingers caressed the soft skin of her neck.
She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head to give him all the access he wanted.
His lips replaced his fingers then, and her eyes drifted closed at the heat of his open mouth against her neck. “Not only do you smell good,” he muttered, “but you taste heavenly.”