Page 14

Cohen’s kiss was gentler and more tender than she would have ever thought possible. He cupped her face in his hands and tilted her head back to have all access to her mouth. The second his mouth brushed hers, Alana clung to the front of his shirt, pressing herself into him with a moan.

He continued to delve his tongue into her mouth until his hands left her face to travel down to her shoulders, to her hips, and then to the small of her back. He gripped her tightly in his embrace, and there was no mistaking the hardening length digging into her hip.

The sheriff didn’t stop taking deep pulls from her mouth while he walked them backward. Alana was caught between the wall and the man kissing her like he was starving for her, and if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

If Cohen wanted to keep on kissing her forever, she wouldn’t be opposed to that because the man knew how to kiss. Alana felt it down to her toes. Hell, it might have gone all the way to her soul because the ground shook under her.

“Holy fuck,” Cohen gasped, ripping away from her, taking all of the heat with him. “The ground is actually shaking.”

Alana steadied herself on Cohen’s shoulders, but he was right. The ground, the floor, even the walls were trembling with the force of ... “Is this anearthquake?” she asked, tightening her hold on Cohen in fear and panic.

He gave a tight nod. “Yeah. The power is sure to go out in the next few ...” The sheriff was then interrupted by the lights going off.

The store’s emergency lights, powered by a generator, kicked on. The hazy and watery yellow light played with Cohen’s features. He didn’t let her go but pushed her long red hair over her shoulder. His fingers brushed against the column of her neck.

“It figures that the first time I kiss you, there is an earthquake.”

“First time?” she giggled. “Not only time?” Alana wanted to be unaffected by his touch and his kiss, but there was no evidence of that in her tone. To her own ears, she sounded very much like a smitten woman.

“I have to go. I’ll take you to Lila and Mason’s, but I don’t think that I will be able to help plan a wedding. For sure, there will be a billion calls coming into the station.”

“I can make my way over to Lila’s all by myself. Go be a hero for Half Moon Key, Cohen. It’s what’s expected of you.”

“It is,” he agreed, but instead of leaving her, he tugged her along until they were in the main room of the store. “Grab your purse and whatever you might need for tonight, okay? I don’t want you moving around while we figure out what the hell that was.”

She pursed her lips at him. “You don’t get to boss me around just because we kissed once.”

“No?” His voice was tight and rough.

Alana didn’t expect it, but Cohen cupped her face again, his mouth crushing against hers in a desperate kiss. This time, there was nothing soft and sweet and exploratory about it. It was pure seduction and stole the breath right from her lungs.

“Now we’ve kissed twice, and that means I get to decide where you’re gonna hunker down in safety.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he kissed her quiet again.

“And that makes three.”

When Cohen pulled her toward the door this time, she didn’t argue. She went willingly.

* * *

The short walkfrom Wixx to Lila’s place usually took only about five minutes, but the whole of Half Moon Key was basked in a deep and profound darkness. The moon hid behind the clouds, leaving very little light. There were only solar-powered street lamps as a source of light, but that wasn’t saying much. The streets were slowly filling with confused residents who wanted to understand what the hell had just happened.

Earthquakes didn’t happen in Half Moon Key. Weird storms? Yes. Bad and spotty electricity and Wi-Fi? You got it. But no matter how deep Cohen went into his memories, he couldn’t recall any of the elders talking about an earthquake in Half Moon Key. The town just wasn’t ready for that kind of disaster, but as the town sheriff, it was his business to make sure everyone was safe.

Folks kept on stopping their progress across town, but with every person who asked what the town would do, Cohen assured them that they would be told as much as possible as soon as Cohen got to the station.

“This is a whole lot of scary. I kinda thought ...” Alana stopped short and shook her head. “Never mind.”

“You kind of thought that the earthquake only happened in your store?”

“I didn’t say that,” she replied, but there was no real fight in her words. It told him everything he needed to know: for a few moments, Alana thought that their kisses had made the ground beneath them shake.

At least she was as affected by their lapse of sanity as he was.

“You need to stay with Mason and Lila until we get the all-clear.”

“What all-clear?” she asked him. “Do you have a lot of experience with natural disasters? Do you know how to deal with this? I would venture that no, you don’t. You should gather the council.”