Page 33 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

Chapter Eighteen

ALTA

“Is this a haunted maze?” Harper asked as we neared the entrance of the large stacks of hay on the beach far away from the main party. But the words I heard on repeat sounded a lot like, when I first saw you…

The comment had landed like a blow right on my chest. I hadn’t believed he said that. How could I when my first memory of him was his judging eyes deducing me to the same thing everyone else did?

Liar. What about that first look? My traitorous brain tried to remind me.

I often thought about that tiny moment before Gus’s eyes changed. What it meant, what he was thinking and why it felt like he saw me—like, really saw me? In one second I had been ready to give it all to him, and in one more it had all come crumbling down with his words.

I guess that’s why he’d always bothered me so much, because while everyone else’s assumptions hurt, Harper’s killed. And now all of a sudden he was telling me otherwise. Telling me that he thought I was strong, that I was beautiful. Smart. Capable. Worthy.

No wasn’t the time to decipher that, though.

“Yeah, isn’t it cool?” I asked. I had led him here, feeling high off of our stint on the dance floor. Burning with all I wanted from him after he’d uttered those words. He’d wanted me to kiss him, but what I wanted–God, what I wanted…

I wanted his arms around me like they’d been when we were dancing, his hands plastering along my body possessively.

I wanted that sweet, sultry tone he used when he was showing me how to dance.

I wanted the laughter we shared with my head thrown back on his shoulder, his broad chest rumbling against my back.

God, I wanted so much, but I wouldn’t— couldn’t tell him that the release he thought I wanted to use him for, I got just from being near him. Especially not when at that very moment when he wanted me to kiss him, I also wanted me to kiss him.

So I kissed him. I kissed him with everything in me and the more I kissed him the more I realized that there was a fire in me tonight. It had started burning a while ago, maybe when he first asked me to kiss him, maybe even before. Maybe it was always there, I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I wanted Harper. And this time, I wasn’t going to be the one to stand in the way of me getting him.

We flipped, going from me leading the way to Harper picking safe places in the sand for me to walk. We were near a rockier part of the beach and though they were platforms, these shoes were not meant for coastal activities .

Looking up as we arrived, he ran his eyes over the fixture, nodding. “This whole night has been pretty damn wicked.”

“Right!” I perked up, excited. “And did you see people walking around with your tattoos?”

He smiled softly, his eyes skating from one end of my face to the other. “Yeah, I saw that.”

I paused, cautioned by the way he was looking at me. It made me want to wipe my face or fix my hair, afraid that something was out of place. “What?”

Slowly, he shook his head. “Nothing, just… That’s not why I asked about the maze.”

“Oh,” I let my eyes fall. “Right.”

“No, no, no,” he said, and suddenly his face was in my face, his nose nuzzling into mine as his lips dragged along the swell of my own.

Against my side, he buried his fingers into the cushion of my hip.

“I promise to worship your every idea later. Because you were amazing today. But after a kiss like that just now, I would really like to worship something else.”

“You think I was amazing?” I asked, still hung up about my night.

His chuckle was so deep it moved me. “Can you focus?”

I giggled too. “How about this? You worship me now and later.”

“Oh,” he murmured. “You give a girl one compliment and she starts making demands.”

“Is that okay?—”

Lips, soft and warm, cut me off and I slowly began to walk us into the maze. The attraction was closed for the night but it wouldn’t be picked up until the morning.

“Don’t ask if what you want is okay. It’s always okay with me,” he said

“Okay.”

He smiled and pressed himself against me again, his body chasing my every step. “That was the most traffic the shop has ever gotten in a single day. All because of you.”

A glow of satisfaction washed over me at his praise. Another warm slide of his mouth glided against mine, too.

Pulling back he continued, “Either I’m the biggest idiot alive for not seeing it before, or I’m a lucky son of a bitch for having you around to talk me into it.”

We got deeper into the maze, passing props here and there. He kissed me fast and rough this time causing me to whimper.

“I’m damn lucky anyway, for getting to have you like this.”

“Okay,” I said. Grabbing his wrist, I dragged him into the little part of the maze I’d found earlier. When the contractors were showing me the setup, they also showed me the secret doors the workers used to hide so they could jump out and scare people.

Shutting the hay covered door behind us, I leaned back against it, wishing it had a lock. It didn’t matter too much, though. Not as I watched the man in front of me look around the small room with confusion and wonder.

He hadn’t dressed up and I can’t say that surprised me.

His standard uniform of old jeans that hugged the crap out of his thighs and a simple t-shirt, usually black or gray or some other neutral color, seemed well suited enough for the night.

Today it was a long sleeve shirt that effectively covered all his tattoos except for one behind his left ear and the tiniest lick of another that peeked out the top of his shirt.

I wanted to strip him bare. I wanted to see all of him.

But I was practically naked, and we were practically in the ocean now we were so close.

I knew how cold it was or at least how cold it must be when you didn’t feel like there was fire lighting under your skin.

So I wouldn’t undress him and subject him to it.

“Harper?” I said. He looked at me as I pressed myself against the door. “Can you come here?”

He did. Appearing right before me without a second thought. Hands set themselves on my hips, and a face set itself in front of mine. “Yes?”

“Can I—” I broke off as I looked up to his eyes. “Can I touch?”

Slowly, his head tipped back, a soft groan leaving him. “You wanna touch me?”

“Mhmm,” I said, squirming a little. “Please.”

“I thought I was supposed to be the one touching you. Making you feel good,” he said.

“I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now,” I started. “But making people feel good does make me feel good.”

“Kinky, Boss. Real kinky,” he joked, and I laughed, but I was distracted because as he spoke he reached down and lifted my hand to his face. Running my hand over the stubble of his short beard and then lower so that my fingers skated across his neck.

“Lower,” I instructed, and though he gave me a heavy look, he did what I asked him to, moving our hands lower so that he guided my palms over the hard muscle of his chest and onto the ridged plains of his abs. “Under.”

He listened again, sliding my hand under his shirt, allowing me to explore the warm feeling of his smooth skin.

I wish I could feel his tattoos. Wish I could know what they were by just touching them, but I wasn’t going to waste time and ask about them now.

Not when his full lips had just parted, and he was starting to let out those short breaths and deep groans that I was finding I loved to elicit from him.

“Lower,” I whispered.

“ Alta .”

I speared him with a stern look. “Lower, Harper.”

He hesitated a moment but ultimately obeyed. Sliding my hand down his torso and over his belt. Tricky, he changed course so that the next thing my palm made contact with was his thigh. I liked how strong they were. Bigger than mine, muscular too. But that’s not what I wanted, and he knew it .

“Harper,” I warned. “Let me touch.”

He groaned. “You might want to slow down, Boss. You’re moving too fast.”

“I thought our deal was, I tell you what I want?” I responded.

He groaned again. “And that’s to touch me?”

“Yes,” I breathed exasperatedly. “Please.”

Something about the word made his body tremble and his eyes flutter closed as he resumed our movements. Running my palm to his other thigh, where I almost protested again until my palm lifted onto the ridge of something hard in his pants.

I hummed in appreciation at the way he was for me right now. I’d barely started to touch him, and somehow I managed to win a reaction like this? That coupled with the low moans he couldn’t seem to stop had me wanting to do anything to make him react.

“Under,” I whispered. And this time I moved my own hand to flip the buckle of his belt.

Sliding it open and the zipper of his pants down.

I waited for him to take the lead, because while I wanted him to know I was sure about this, I didn’t want to venture where he didn’t want either.

And I was the one touching him after all.

But as he hesitated, staring at me like he was both in pain and bliss, I raised an eyebrow. “What are you waiting for?”

“Still under?” he asked cautiously.

I pressed my lips together. Pressed my thighs together and nodded. Shakily, he started to guide my hand into his pants, over his boxers. I moved my fingers to hook into the black waistband of them instead. “These too… if that’s okay.”

His breath was ragged and labored as he nodded and rerouted me so that I was slipping my hand underneath his clothes and grabbing onto him with his help.

“Fuck, Alta,” he growled as his other hand came up to rest on the hay wall beside my head, his face coming down to my neck to burrow. “You can’t touch me like this and expect me to have any chance at lasting, baby. ”