Page 64 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

IRELAND

“ I t won’t matter,” Adair mumbled to himself with another pull of the bathroom doorknob. “He could still unlock it from the inside.”

“Do you already regret telling him he could have your bed tonight?” I asked, propping my head on my fist.

“No,” he said, sighing as he turned to me. “I just can’t forget the kicked puppy look he had when I told him he’d be in it by himself.”

“Hmm. Well, it’s not too late to change your mind.”

Adair’s eyes raked down my body as if he could see it through the covers.

“It’s my birthday, not Cole’s. I sat beside him at dinner and gave him the last hushpuppy.

And I let him win the last round of Go Fish so he would finally let it go.

” He pushed his hair off his hair and smirked.

“I’ll just give him a snuggle for his birthday next month. ”

I laughed. “So thoughtful.”

When Adair and Cole returned from their workout, sweating and panting as they goofed around, I’d been so relieved to see Adair’s carefree smile that I’ d almost thrown my arms around both of them, but I’d held myself back, grabbing my phone and taking a quick photo of them instead.

I was pretty sure Cole had set it as his phone’s wallpaper.

Their good mood continued as I chauffeured them back to Camellia Lane on the Live Oak golf cart I’d arranged as part of Adair’s birthday present. After they showered at the house, I gave Cole my longboard, and he smiled knowingly before hurrying out the front door with it tucked under his arm.

Then it’d been hours of just me and Adair existing outside these gates and learning each other like two regular people would.

Before our first stop, I gave him the forearm crutch I’d gotten from the fabled mobility-aid black market, and he gave me his best pointy smile, thanking me for it by holding my hand all the way to the end of the pier and then kissing me silly.

When we’d ventured into the community, it took no time for me to see that Adair was the same out in the world as he was here at Live Oak.

Oblivious to the attention he got from others but heart-achingly conscious of me.

He used his bulk to shield me, to get us through a crowd of tourists, all the while keeping my hand in his.

No matter how many eyes lingered on him, he never noticed unless they were mine.

Smiling easily, laughing often.

No matter where Adair Jacks was, he was good.

The bed creaked under the weight of Adair’s knee, and I focused back on him, real and right here .

He reached behind himself and gripped the back of his neck, stilling with a faint frown.

I studied him, about to ask him what was wrong, but then there was a swish of fabric against skin, and he pulled his T-shirt clean off.

My mouth dried out as I took in his bare chest.

Oh.

His hands twitched but stayed by his sides, his thumb nervously rubbing the skin between his middle and ring finger as I unabashedly looked my fill. I knew his instinct was to cover himself, but he seemed to want me to see that he wouldn’t, and damn if that didn’t make me want him even more.

Which should’ve been impossible.

His skin pebbled as I traced him from his waistband of his boxers to his throat. I found the top of the covers without looking away from him and pushed them off my body. He swallowed roughly as he looked, my body simultaneously relaxing and coming alive under his gaze.

Then he started to crawl toward me, and my body buzzed with anticipation.

When he was hovering above me, arms on either side of me and biceps flexing, I sighed in pleasure, mind racing with ideas. With deep wants I hadn’t known about until this moment.

“What is it?” he asked quietly, tilting his head to the side as he studied me.

Heart-achingly conscious.

I pushed his hair away from his glasses and held it there. “Just a little fantasizing.”

He leaned into my touch. “Oh?”

I hummed. “It’s your birthday, so why don’t you tell me yours?”

“Easy,” he breathed, blanketing me with his body and kissing me sweetly. “Whatever just made you look like this—” He brushed his hand over my cheek. “—is now mine too. ”

He pushed his hand under my baggy T-shirt, and I gasped as his wide palm stopped just under my breast, fingers fanning over my ribs.

“You’re sure?” I asked, squirming under his touch. “What if it’s super weird?”

He chuckled. “Then I guess we’ll be getting weird.”

That sound did things to me, and I writhed on the bed, the anticipation mounting.

“I want you,” I said, my words slow and measured, “and I’m tired, Adair.

” He tried to pull away, but I grasped his wrist, keeping his hand on me.

“What I mean is… you might have to do most of the work.” I held his gaze, letting him see how I felt about him, then I gave him the words.

“However you want me is how I want you.”

His hazel eyes darkened, the deep green overtaking the brown, but when he didn’t say anything or move, I fanned my arms out to my sides, showing him my surrender.

His brow furrowed, and I saw the calculation in his gaze.

He was quickly seeing the why , like he always seemed able to. A few heartbeats later, his hand flexed on my skin, and his gaze softened into such deep affection that I almost looked away.

“You don’t want to be in charge,” he said softly. “You need a break, Indigo Girl? A break from making the decisions?” He smoothed his hand down my leg and drew it out from under the covers, hitching it around his waist. “That’s your fantasy.”

My breaths stuttered as he tucked my hair away from my face.

This man.

“Yes,” I said, emotion clogging my throat. “That’s what I want.”

He laughed, the sound tinged with something like disbelief, before he lightly sank his hardness against me and leaned down to my ear to whisper, “Then I’ve got you.”

Dropping my leg, he kneeled between my legs and pushed the covers behind him, all the way to the end of the bed.

My hand twitched toward him as the learned need to take over surged within me, but Adair clocked it and grasped my hand before I could move.

“Keep lying here for me,” he murmured. Interlacing our fingers, he lifted our joined hands above my head.

Then he kissed my forehead and reached for his phone on the bedside table.

“Mahler?” I asked, as music started from his phone, but the word turned into a gasp as he cupped me over my panties and smiled at me, his hair falling over his brow.

The second I met his eyes, he pressed his hand harder against me as if to say, “Good . ” Then he slid his hand up my center, grasped the hem of my shirt, alternating which side he shimmied until the fabric was bunched under my chin.

His eyes wandered down my body, flaring when they made it to my chest. His hand that was still interlaced with mine flexed above my head as he leaned down to brush a kiss over my lips. His erection nudged me as he deepened our kiss, sliding his tongue against mine as he thoroughly tasted me.

“So good,” he whispered against my lips. “So damn good.”

After one more lingering kiss, he pulled back and kept his gaze on me as he planted kisses on each of my breasts, then licked a stripe across my chest, nipple to nipple.

He cupped my center again, applying more pressure, and I arched and moaned as he took command of my body.

His tongue continued to lave at my nipples, licking and sucking in alternate motions.

Once my breasts were thoroughly wet, he looked up at me and blew air across them.

My mouth fell open in a silent moan as sparks shot all the way down to my toes.

I shuddered as his warm mouth enveloped me again, and he groaned in pleasure against my skin, then pulled back and planted a biting kiss on my jaw.

Pushing off me with his arm that was still braced above my head, he panted as his gaze traced down my body. Biting his lip, he seemed to come to a decision.

“You planned my whole birthday,” he said, shifting so that he was lying beside me.

“Made it one of the best I’ve ever had, planning all those stops in town.

” He stacked his pillows against the headboard and partially propped himself up.

“Took me to that wheelchair ramp onto the beach and put your arm around me so I could get to the shore.” He slid his right arm under my armpit and gathered me to him, his bicep flexing as he banded his arm around my chest. “Didn’t make fun of my ghost foot when it finally saw some sunlight,” he whispered into my ear.

My laughter was cut off as he grasped the inside of my left knee and hoisted my leg backward over his. There was pressure at my clit, and I lifted my head to look down, gasping when I saw the material of my underwear, stretched obscenely and half exposing me.

“You did so good, Indigo,” he said as he pulled my leg back even more, shifting my underwear against my throbbing clit.

My eyes fluttered shut, my hips undulating as I lost myself to him and his praise.

“The best,” he said as his hands slid all over me, exploring.

My senses danced with all the new input, my mind only understanding one sensation at a time. Sparks where he toyed with my nipple. The rough seam of my shirt rubbing against the other. Roiling heat where his erection pulsed somewhere between my legs.

Then his hand sliding from my thigh to the inside of my panties.

A full-body shiver overtook me, triggering his own as he slid his fingers easily against me. I thought he would’ve stripped me bare first thing, but now that I was watching his hand move inside my panties, with only peeks of his long, deft fingers working against me, I was glad he hadn’t.

This was somehow even hotter.