Page 41 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

ADAIR

M y hand engulfed Ireland’s, and I was in full-blown tachycardia. Moderate on the way to severe.

Had to be.

In one swift motion, she climbed over the middle console and dropped softly onto my lap.

I’d been fully prepared to play it off as an offer for a sad little side hug, but instead, I got her.

In my lap .

Lavender washed over me as her warmth settled against me, and I was dizzy with it.

Literally dizzy.

“Adair.” It was barely a whisper. “Open your eyes.”

They were closed?

Flexing my hands, I gasped at what I discovered. My left hand was draped across her lap, still holding her hand. My right was braced on her hip, finding a spot there without my permission as her lower back settled against my forearm.

Soft fingertips brushed my cheek, and my eyes flew open .

She was there.

Right there.

With her back facing the door and her toned legs arranged across the middle console, crossed at the ankle in the driver’s seat, Ireland’s blue eyes were inches from me.

“Is this okay?” she asked quietly.

Some mixture of a laugh and a ragged exhale escaped me. “Yes.”

A slight furrow creased her forehead as she looked down at my chest and pressed her hand over my heart.

“Palpitations,” I explained. “Brief dizziness, but that’s gone. For now.” I inhaled deeply, my body shuddering at her nearness. “Alert and….” My shaky words trailed off and my gaze trailed over her body again. “Oriented.”

She said nothing, and my God, how I wished I could do the same, but the rambling just kept on.

“Somewhere around 150, if I had to guess.”

Her gaze flicked back to mine. “What is?”

“My heart rate.”

She pressed her hand against my scrubs again, a frown of concentration on her face as she listened intently for several thumping beats.

“You do that,” I whispered. “You do that to me.”

Her brow furrowed again, her lips parting. “Why?”

I almost laughed. Almost. But I just shook my head, smiling softly. “A lot of reasons, Indigo Girl.”

I didn’t think she was ready to hear the full answer. And I didn’t even know where to start.

Because I look for you in every room.

Because your care is quiet and constant.

Because you are what home is supposed to feel like.

She studied me intently, a riot of emotions in her eyes before she trailed her hand down my shirt to my stomach .

I gasped, pushing back against the seat on reflex, holding my breath.

Ireland caught all of it.

“Why do you hide yourself?” she asked, putting her hand back over my heart.

I licked my lips before parting them to answer, but nothing came out.

“Adair…,” she said, smirking. “I’ve seen you naked.”

My head thudded against the headrest, and I squeezed my eyes shut as my entire body flushed hot.

Did these windows roll down? I had the sudden urge to fling my glasses out of one of them. Or myself.

“I’ve been actively deluding myself into thinking you only saw… some,” I whispered. “Like, my calf, or a shoulder. It’s the only way I’ve been able to look you in the eye.”

She shifted slightly on my lap, and I had to bite my lip to hold back a groan.

Lordy, this was getting out of?—

Oh fuck.

My throat.

Her lips were on my throat.

Ireland was kissing my throat.

My eyes flew open, and right there in the sun visor’s mirror were my wide eyes and Ireland’s partial profile, hiding what I felt on my skin.

Her lips moving against me in soft, tentative caresses.

My head tipped automatically to the side as her lips trailed a path up my neck to my jaw. She wiggled her hand out of mine and then slid both her hands up my chest to my shoulders. Then she braced herself on them as she pulled back and met my gaze.

“Ireland…,” I rasped, grasping her jaw with my hand. My gaze bounced between her eyes, searching for the answers I was desperate for. “Is this happening? ”

I felt her slight nod, and that’s all I needed to surge forward and taste her lips.

Our mouths touched for only a few seconds before we both gasped softly.

Ireland’s fingernails dug into my shoulders as some sleeping monster woke inside me, taking the lead.

Tipping her head back with my hand on her jaw, I positioned our mouths at the perfect angle and pressed my lips to hers again.

So soft. So warm.

She seemed content to let me guide our motions, so that’s what I did, tasting her bottom lip, brushing my mouth over the corner of hers.

“Adair,” she moaned softly, squirming in my lap.

“Oh, God. ” I was hard. So, so hard, and there was no way she didn’t feel it.

Resting my forehead against hers, mindful to not hit her with my glasses, we took several breaths together.

It did nothing to calm me down.

She traced my biceps with her hands, and goosebumps erupted on my skin from neck to toe.

Pulling back, I catalogued every inch of her I could see. Every part I wanted to kiss.

I needed direction.

Flicking my gaze back to hers, I asked raggedly, “Lips or neck?”

She grasped me at the nape, pulling softly at the ends of my hair, and I whined.

Straight up whined.

Then her lips were on me, taking charge for only a few seconds before she paused, a silent pass of the reins. I took them, pulling her close and slipping my tongue into her mouth, really tasting her.

My God, was she sweet.

Her tongue met mine with enthusiasm until we were both completely breathless, her strong fingers continuing to pull my hair.

I wasn’t sure how I was ever going to get out of this car.

But then a sudden low, rolling vibration shook it, and we broke apart.

Panting, we stared at each other, wide-eyed and dazed.

A flash of light illuminated Ireland’s flushed face and disheveled hair, followed by another rumble a few seconds later.

Not one atom in my body wanted to do it, but I looked away from her to investigate.

But… the car’s windows were fogged over.

Of all the things, that made my blush return with a vengeance.

“The storm,” Ireland said.

“Yeah,” I replied dumbly.

“We should go.”

I hummed, squeezing her hip. “You might have to be first.”

Neither of us moved.

Several flashes of lightning and its accompanying rolling thunder came and went, and still, we didn’t move.

Until Ireland’s phone buzzed in the cup holder.

Her sigh was heavy. “Dinner with Dad.”

I nodded, my blissed-out mind suddenly racing with thoughts. Ideas.

Possibilities.

“Find me when you’re done,” I said, squeezing her hip, furiously praying it wouldn’t be the last time. “To ride home.”

The fingers that had been playing with my hair stilled. With aching slowness, she turned her head back toward me .

I tried to smile, but it was barely a twitch of my lips.

She watched it.

I watched her.

And then, with a brief nod, she reached over and pulled the passenger door handle.

Keeping my hands on her hips, I helped her out of the car, but I made no move to follow.

No way my legs were sea ready, not to mention the extreme lack of breathing room in my scrubs pants that would definitely get me fired.

The door shut softly, and I held back a noise of distress at her sudden departure.

I took off my glasses, scrubbed a hand down my face, and rested back against the seat, my muscles going lax.

I didn’t even bother trying to untangle what’d just happened. Not yet.

Then the door clicked open again, and my head whipped toward it just in time to see Ireland’s blurry form as she pressed close to me, stamping a kiss to my lips.

Before I could even react, she retreated, and the door closed again.

My lips, still parted from her sudden kiss, turned up in a slow smile.

Lordy.