Page 32 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

Oh boy, she hadn’t planned on this, but her body was thrilled it was happening.

Her arms went around his neck, his tongue slid between her lips, her tongue started swirling around with his and all thoughts flew out of her mind.

Not even enough to take notes.

She didn’t know how much time went by before Warren leaned back and she was blinking her eyes.

His laughter pulled her out of the trance.

“That shut you up fast,” he said. “Good to know something works.”

She shook her head like a cartoon character that had just gotten brained by a pan.

“Shut me up and knocked me dumb for a minute. Why did you do that?”

“Because you started it and maybe it’s all I’ve been thinking about for weeks.”

She took a deep breath in and let it out, then another, shook her arms, and sat back on the couch.

Warren sat next to her again.

“I might have had some of those same thoughts. I tend to be impulsive,” she said.

“Some of those rules you needed to talk to me about?” he asked.

“We can get to them when the food comes,” she said. “You said you wanted to get to know me. Ask some questions. I’ll let you do it and just answer. I know I can overwhelm people and I’ll sit here and just think about that kiss for now.”

A slow charming sexy smile came across his face.

He had a nice trim beard, but she’d seen him clean-shaven. She was guessing he kept that now to not be noticed while he was here.

“Did you always want to be a writer?” he asked.

She got asked that a lot and was a little disappointed that he asked that right away.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure it will not surprise you that I could have done anything I wanted to in life and had a lot of opportunities for careers and where I could land.”

“No,” he said. “You could work here, the family resort. Does your family own part of this?”

“No,” she said. “Guess you need a tiny history lesson. My Great-great-great-grandfather James built this resort. His grandfather, Malcolm, and his grandmother Elizabeth built this island. Or started to. More like their five kids really got things going. This piece of land was used to taunt Malcolm—who was a captain of a ship—to see if he was a good enough captain to find the land in three days. If he did, he got to marry Elizabeth to help secure the shipping empire on her side of the family.”

“Sounds old-fashioned and drastic.”

“Arranged marriages weren’t unheard of back then. Anyway, it turned out being a love union for them in the end. Malcolm only had three days to find the island and got lost at sea in a storm. On the third day, he found land but did not know his future wife was waiting for him.”

“Talk about luck,” he said.

“Or fate,” she said. “That is part of the lore and legend of the island. Might as well let you know now if you don’t.”

Because hot damn, some might think what she had going on with Warren could fall under that category.

She’d store that away for another day.

“I’ve heard about that,” he said. “It’s hard not to when I live close enough by.”

“Then we won’t go down that path. The condensed version is, Malcolm and Elizabeth had five children. Edward, James, twins Catherine and Patrice, and then William. I’m from Edward’s side, but he confused everyone about having a son and naming him James too.ThatJames loved many women and built this resort, which was a hotel back then, as a way to hide all his affairs while making money at the same time. Guess he had two loves.”

“Sneaky and smart,” he said.