Page 28 of Honey Bee Library (Sweet Tea and a Southern Gentleman #7)

He paused. When he didn’t speak right away, I glanced over to see that he was trying to piece things together in his mind.

“Was that why you suddenly got so cold with me?” Then he laughed as he pushed his hand through his hair, making some of it stick straight up.

“Yeah, you got distant the morning we all ate breakfast at the kitchen table.” He shook his finger in my direction. “That was the morning you met Maddie.”

I sputtered and shook my head. “I didn’t get distant,” I lied.

He was grinning at me now. “Were you jealous?” There was a teasing tone to his voice that I did not appreciate. He narrowed his eyes and smugly nodded. “You were jealous.”

With no arsenal at my disposal, I did the only thing I could think of to stop this interrogation that was quickly leading to the truth I didn’t want him to discover. I reached out and splashed him with some water.

His jaw fell open as water droplets rolled down his face.

The shock only lasted for a moment when, suddenly, he brought his hands out of the water, and I realized I was done for.

I squealed and attempted to dodge the shot of water he sent my direction, but I wasn’t fast enough and took his retaliation right in the face.

I sputtered and wiped the water away before I turned to face him.

Not wanting him to get away with what he’d done, I sent another stream of water his direction.

He slid toward me, evading the water as he wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me toward him.

His other hand wrapped around my waist as he stared at me.

“Truce?” he asked, his voice dropping an octave.

The butterflies in my stomach took flight from the nearness of his body and the heat in his gaze. “Truce,” I whispered.

I thought he was going to let me go. Instead, he tightened his grip on my waist as he straightened and pulled me even closer to his body.

His gaze slipped down to my lips. “I like that you were jealous,” he whispered as he returned his gaze to mine.

I didn’t have the strength to fight this man anymore, and the last thing I wanted was for him to let me go. “You do?”

He nodded before he reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear and then slid his fingertips down my neck before he leaned so close that his lips were millimeters from my ear. “If roles were reversed, I would have been jealous.”

The warmth of his breath and the sexy way he spoke sent shivers rippling across my skin. Out of instinct, I moved even closer to him.

“Really?” I breathed, scared that if I spoke louder, I would wake up from this dream to the reality of loneliness that I’d left back in Harmony.

He pulled back and met my gaze. “Really.”

In that moment, the only thing I could think about was needing his lips on mine. It had been so long since I’d kissed a man—so long since I’d found a man I wanted to kiss—that I decided to just act. We were here, together, in this moment, and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by.

Throwing caution to the wind, I rose up onto my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. They were soft and warm and…perfect. Until I realized that he hadn’t reacted.

He was just standing there, letting me press my lips to his.

Fear gripped me as I pulled back. I’d made a mistake. I may have wanted this kiss, but Cole hadn’t. I didn’t know what to say or think. All I knew was I needed to leave. Now.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I started walking through the water to get to the side so I could climb out.

This was not how I saw this interaction going, and there was no way I was going to stick around to hear what he had to say.

The last thing I needed was an apology. For him to tell me, “ You’re a nice girl, I just don’t think of you that way . ”

Harold had already crushed me. A rejection from Cole would demolish any sort of self-esteem I had left.

“Willow.” Cole’s voice was low.

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” I said as I waved away his words.

“Willow,” he said again. Suddenly, his hand caught mine, and I was being yanked to him. He wrapped his arm protectively around my waist as he pulled me to his chest. He let my hand go and slid his fingers from my neck to grip my hair so he could tip my face up to meet his.

His lips captured mine possessively, taking my breath away.

It took a moment for me to compute what had happened. To realize that he was not rejecting me, but instead claiming my lips as his. A moment was all it took for my hands to find his chest and then slide up to his shoulders and into his hair as I started to move my lips over his.

Everything we needed to say was said in that kiss. Our lips. Our tongues. Our bodies. They fell in sync with each other. Everything we’d been holding inside. All the desire we’d been fighting suddenly broke free, and we finally allowed ourselves to feel.

A soft moan escaped my lips, which caused Cole to grip me tighter before he pulled back ever so slightly.

“Dear God, woman,” he growled. “That sound.” His breath warmed my skin before he captured my lips once more.

His tongue teased my lips, and I parted them to let him in.

In the past, kissing Harold had been for him.

Everything we did had been for him. But with Cole, he knew what he was doing.

He knew what a woman wanted and was not selfish in giving it.

There was so much I needed to feel when it came to this man, and I was done denying myself.

I broke our kiss, and he glanced down at me with a confused expression.

I held his gaze as I pressed against his chest. I was going to take charge.

A half smile emerged on his lips as he complied to my demand by collapsing on the seat behind him.

But he kept his hands gripped firmly on my waist as he helped lift me slightly so I could straddle him.

Once my knees were firmly planted on either side of him, I lowered myself down onto his lap.

We were at eye level now. I felt shy under the intensity of his gaze.

It was like I was the only person he could see.

The only person that mattered. I lifted my hands up to wrap around his neck, my thumb brushing soft strokes across his jaw line.

He tipped his face up toward me, and I captured his lips once more.

Cole’s hands moved from my waist down my hips to my upper thighs, where he pulled me to his chest, his fingertips digging divots into my skin. I responded by rising up slightly on my knees so I could press my body fully against his.

Never in my life had kissing someone felt so…

right. With Harold, it was a chore. A wifely duty that I did because it was expected of me.

But with Cole, I wanted this. I wanted…everything.

He’d taught me what it was to be cared for by a man.

Protecting me. Providing for me. Desiring me.

Everything my marriage had been missing.

Cole had changed me.

Fear crept into my chest as realization dawned on me. What was I doing? Why was I kissing a man who had every intention of leaving Harmony? Cole’s life wasn’t in Harmony, it was here in Miami, making out with some girl in his hot tub.

I came with baggage. I came with a child.

Cole ran a freaking night club. That was the life of a bachelor, not a stepfather.

If I didn’t stop this, I was going to jump off a cliff and fall for Cole.

Except the result of that leap wasn’t our happily ever after as a little family running a diner in a small island town.

No, the result of that leap was me watching Cole walk away and then picking up the shattered pieces of mine and Jasper’s hearts.

I’d done that once, and I swore to myself that I would never do that to my son again. I was going to be the mother Jasper needed me to be. I was going to be strong.

I pulled back from the kiss and climbed off Cole’s lap before he could protest. “We should stop.” I backed up until I bumped into the bench behind me, putting sufficient distance between Cole and me.

The last thing I wanted to do was meet his gaze, but I knew if I didn’t, he was never going to believe my words. So I painstakingly brought my gaze up to meet his. Cole looked confused as he studied me and then slowly stood up.

He looked to the left, pushing his hand through his hair like he was trying to focus on the present. “Is that what you want?” he asked, bringing his gaze back to me.

I wanted to yell, “No!” I wanted to explain that I wanted so much more. But I couldn’t. Cole had no one to think about, while I had Jasper. My son was the most important thing to me, and there was no way I was going to let his heart shatter once again.

“I think it’s for the best,” I said in my most confident voice.

Cole studied me for a moment before he nodded. “Okay.”

I didn’t look back after I turned around and climbed out of the hot tub. I kept my gaze forward as I grabbed my towel and hurried into the house. I didn’t stop until I had slipped into the bedroom and closed the door softly behind me.

I tiptoed past Jasper, who was passed out on the bed, and over to the bathroom. Once I was safely in the shower with the hot water beating down on my back, I let my feelings bubble over. I let out a sob as I covered my face, and the tears began to flow.

Deep down, I knew walking away was the right thing. It was the safe thing.

I just wish it didn’t hurt so bad.