So lost in thoughts of her sexy body, he didn’t see the splash coming. Water went up his nose. He choked and coughed before wiping the smirk off her face with his own splash.
They paddled water at each other like two kids until a very loud, very deep, “Ahem,” caught their attention.
Tango, ex-NFL linebacker and owner of the inn loomed above them, thick arms crossed over his chest. “Pool hours are over you two.” He walked away, towels on the ground where he’d stood.
Bryce looked at Honor at the same time she looked at him and they burst into laughter. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so free and easy with a woman. Like nothing else mattered at the moment.
She swam to the side. He followed, reality hitting him as the one big flaw in this escapade set in.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said, coming up beside her.
“We do?” The lilt of her cheerful voice hinted at other shenanigans and he wanted to know what other mischief she’d gotten into.
He took the note from Sophie out of his pocket and placed it on the ground.
“Oh, crapity, crap, crap,” Honor muttered. Her lids briefly closed, her shoulders dropped. “It’s my fault. Hopefully Sophie doesn’t mind writing another one and I’ll get it to you tomorrow.”
“Partners in crime, Honor. Tell Sophie I’m just as much to blame.”
Soft, surprised eyes met his, like no one had shared blame with her before. And her quiet nod of thanks knocked the wind right out of him.
Whatever he thought he saw there, though, he was wrong. They weren’t on the same team. And never would be. He’d been abandoned and blindsided by the opposite sex and reminded himself to choose his words more carefully. Because from now on he planned to be the love-them-and-leave-them type, not the other way around
Chapter Five
Honor wiped away a tear slipping out of the corner of her eye. The vows Sophie and Zane said to each other spoke of amazing love and devotion, and the way Zane looked at his bride made Honor feel like she’d intruded on an intimate moment. She wanted to look away. She couldn’t look away. Her heart rejoiced and yearned at the same time.
They couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening on the beach. Hurricane lamps cast a warm glow, light blue surfboards that said Now and Forever held up the canopy the bridal party stood under. With the ocean as inspiration, the wedding coordinator had drawn from its colors and used sea glass as the decorative foundation to make everything in and around Zane and Sophie’s house look like an underwater paradise. Different sized blue and green glass balls from fisherman’s nets were strung around the site, and when they caught the flicker from the hurricane lamps, it was magical.
The pastor told a joke about a minister, a surfer, and a beautiful redhead walking into a bar and everyone chuckled. Pastor Michael was about as laid back as they came. He’d even surfed with Zane this morning. Right now, he smiled that warm, you-can-tell-me-all-your-problems smile and declared Zane and Sophie husband and wife.
Amid loud applause from the fifty or so guests, Zane gave Sophie a sweeping kiss before taking her hand and leading her down the sand toward their house.
Honor quickly swiped at another rebellious tear, stepped forward, and took Bryce’s arm to follow the procession. Of course she’d been paired with the too-handsome groomsman.
And the man her best friend had said she could see herself marrying. Their romance may have been private and a whirlwind, but Payton always came home from weekends with Bryce with stars in her eyes and her heart full of devotion. Bryce had been committed to Pay. Had he thought about forever with her, too? Honor’s breath caught. Payton had been taken in the blink of an eye instead of getting the chance to say, “I do.” Honor ached to throw fairness the middle finger, but wrapped her hand tighter around her bouquet instead.
“Nice ceremony,” Bryce said. “You look really pretty.”
She didn’t want him to say nice things to her. After the playful time they’d had in the pool last night, and his kind parting words, her defenses were crumbling. She did love her floor length sea green sheath dress, though, so said, “Thank you. You look very handsome.” In navy dress slacks and a white button down with the top button open and the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, he got her vote for sexiest groomsman on the planet.
She bit down on her lip. Not for the first time today he stared at her mouth.
Since they’d taken pictures earlier, they were swept right into the house for champagne and appetizers. Honor had never seen Sophie look so vibrant, so happy. Lively conversation and laughter filled the beach house. Soft music played from a sound system.
Honor put down her half-filled glass of bubbly and snuck into the kitchen. “Hey, Elena.”
“Honor. Hi. You look gorgeous. Do not come too close. If anything gets on that dress I’ll never forgive myself.” Elena was one of the best private chefs on the west coast. On either coast, actually.
“That shrimp prosciutto appetizer was to die for. And you know I can’t get enough of your mini duck tacos.” She gave a little wave to the two women helping Elena prepare the evening’s dinner.
“Okay, come a little closer. We’ve loaded one last tray and you can snag one.”
“I totally came in here to snag.” And escape. Everywhere she looked she made eye contact with Bryce. It seemed impossible not to notice him.
When she wasn’t caught in Bryce’s gaze, Drew kept her attention with sweet words and interesting thoughts, but there was no zing of attraction. No uncontrollable awareness that made her crave to be touched and check one night stand off the list. Same with Aiden, who’d whispered in her ear that he’d love to see her later tonight.
She picked up a taco, took a big bite, and moaned as it made its way down to her stomach. “I want to marry this taco.”
“Lucky taco.”
Honor stilled. That voice. That one-of-a-kind masculine scent. Bryce stood right behind her. She put the rest of the taco in her mouth, chewed without sound effects and turned. “Have you tried one?” She snagged one more before Elena’s assistant picked up the tray. “Here.” Her fingers grazed his lips as she held the taco to his mouth and he took a bite.
Big mistake.
He watched her watch him, the connection making her hot. She pushed the rest of the taco in and pulled her arm back. He caught her wrist and brought her hand back up toward his mouth. Eating had never been so sexy before. Well, except for the other day when he’d eaten the fritter and she’d wanted to lick him. The way his throat moved, holy three alarm fire. She wished she had another taco to give him.
The sips of champagne, romantic atmosphere, and stolen glances were obviously working against their restraint because neither of them seemed overly concerned with the electricity crackling between them. The intense feelings that had overcome her the night they’d met and that she couldn’t extinguish no matter how often she told herself it was wrong, were back in full force.
He chewed and swallowed and then with a very slow, deliberate motion, he licked her index finger, then her middle finger. Any coherent thoughts she had spiraled into the abyss. She had no idea the tips of her fingers could send a rush of pleasure between her thighs. When his lips wrapped around her thumb her legs shook and she moaned an entirely different kind of murmur than the one a few moments ago.
“I see the attraction,” he said, his voice husky.
“It’s hard to deny.”
“It’s hard all right.”
Honor snapped her eyes shut and pulled her hand back. “This is not okay,” she said, hoping to extinguish the flirtatious flames raising her body temperature. She brushed by him in a rush to get out of the kitchen and put some much needed distance between them.
He grabbed her hand and tugged her through the sliding glass door that led outside. “We need to talk,” he said.
“No, we don’t.” Her bare feet happily met the sand, though, the cold, soft grains between her toes cooling everything warm inside her.
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He shot her a heated look that erased the whole cooling thing. “Fine by me. We’ll talk after.”
“After what exactly?” Because being alone with the guy she couldn’t get out of her head on a beach under the stars meant one thing. Kissing. Touching.
Or so her renegade body hoped.
“That’s up to you.” He plowed through the sand like it didn’t take any extra effort.
“Me? You’re the one dragging me out here like he’s about to go off.” She would not admit she felt the same way.
“You’re right.” He came to an abrupt stop, wrapped his arm around her waist, and brought her flush against him. “I can’t think straight when I’m near you.”
Neither could she. Pressed against his solid chest, his muscled thighs, and the hardness in between, the only thing on her mind was getting skin to skin. The sounds of the wedding party were somewhere behind them, the ocean lapped leisurely at the shoreline. In their secluded spot in the sand, nothing seemed to exist but the two of them.
“I have that affect on people,” she said.
“Yeah? And what do you do about it?”
All she had to do was lift up on her tiptoes and her lips could touch his, but there was only one move to make if she had any hope of salvaging her resistance to him. “Let me show you.”
She squeezed a hand between their bodies and pushed him in the chest to knock him off balance. Caught unaware, he wavered before shifting with a step back, eyebrows arched in surprise. She put all her weight on her left leg, smiled, then used her right foot to sweep Bryce’s foot out from under him at the same time she lifted and pulled him by the shirt. A split second later, he had no choice but to go down when she let go of his shirt.
Only he grabbed her by the arms and in a surprise move, brought her down too, cushioning her fall with his.
“Hey! Let go of me.”
He rolled her right over, covered her body with his. “Judo Foot Sweep. Nice.”
Honor blew a strand of hair away from her mouth. He had her pinned in the sand, and she didn’t like it. Mostly. She wiggled in hopes of jostling him off, but he barely moved. “My dress is getting ruined.”
“Is that really what you’re worried about?” He settled on his elbows, his warm breath tickled the side of her neck.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think so.”
Crap on a cracker. Did he have to feel so good and look so good and know how to read her? “I thought we established you have a thinking problem.”
He laughed. The rumble through his chest reverberated through hers. She smiled despite the effort to keep her lips pressed together in a straight line.
“I need to kiss you, Honor. One kiss the way I want to kiss you, and then we can be done.”
She closed her eyes thinking maybe when she opened them he’d be gone and she’d discover she’d hit her head on her way to the kitchen and dreamed the last ten minutes.
Nope. Not a dream.
“Tell me what you want.” He shifted his hips, leaving no doubt as to how much he desired her.
But it wasn’t just that. It was the way he looked at her, with hunger yes, but also something more. His gaze took her away from everything but the two of them.
She didn’t deserve attention from a guy like Bryce, but right here, right now, she’d be a fool not to take what he offered. Just this once.
“I want you to kiss me.” More than she’d ever wanted anything. She prayed the painful admission didn’t hurt her quiet talks with Payton.
His smile, a little mischievous around the edges, had her melting into the sand. Then his lips brushed hers, and the stars collided. She cupped his face in her hands and shut her eyes.
Kissing had always ranked high on her list of favorite things to do, but Bryce took it to a whole new level. Forget about his mouth on her fingertips, this linked to all her happy zones and more.
He’d literally swept her off her feet and his kiss quickened the beat of her heart. His lips were soft and warm and hungry. His kiss moved through her like warm honey, filling all the places inside her that had been cold for so long.
He slid his tongue along the seam of her lips, licking her before he pressed further. She willingly opened to him, stroked his tongue, kissed him harder. He groaned. He tasted like champagne and everything good as he delved deeper and committed a full-on assault inside her mouth. His hand gripped her waist. They sank further into the sand.
She clutched his shoulders, smoothed her palms down his back. He pulled gruffly away, nipped at her ear. “You have no idea how much I want you,” he said.
“Tell me,” she murmured. She slipped her hands lower, covered his very fine butt, and ground her pelvis against him.
“I want to lift this dress and do you right here.”
His gravelly voice combined with the thick, hard length pressing into her stomach made her almost breathless. He kissed her jaw, her neck. His warm breath fanned over her collarbone before he lifted and fused his mouth to hers once again.
The kiss rammed every objection out of her bliss-hazed mind. With her fingers in his hair, she kissed him back. He caressed her mouth with perfect care and passion one minute and hot, out of control lashes the next. The hand at her waist moved up to her breast. He cupped it, rubbed his thumb over her nipple. She spiraled close to the edge of release, just like she had the first night they’d met, when his barely R-rated touch set her body aflame with more feeling than she’d ever thought possible.
“Bryce,” she whispered against his lips.
“Okay,” he relented, as if knew he’d pushed her to the edge and she needed him to stop. He rolled to the side and helped her sit up, wiping her back of sand.
She pressed her fingers to her well-kissed lips, wanting to feel a little longer this incredible moment in the sand.
He jammed his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten so carried away.”
All the feel-good sensations making her forget her loneliness fled. The regret in his voice pierced through her skin and bones. She wasn’t sorry. What kind of person did that make her?
They stared toward the water in silence.
“What did you want to talk about?” Honor asked, not sure talking was any better than kissing, but the quiet bothered her. She didn’t want to end things tonight on a bad note.
“Payton’s list.”
Would everything with Bryce come back to Payton? Her heart went on lockdown. “No, thanks.”
“I can’t pretend I didn’t see it.”
“Yes, you can.” She glanced at his profile. “Why does it even matter to you?” She knew the answer to that, didn’t she? Payton still mattered to him and he wanted to know more about her best friend. Make sense of a list that maybe surprised him? Payton hadn’t been the easiest person to get to know. There were days even Honor felt like she was pulling teeth to get her friend to talk.
“I thought I knew the girl I was falling for, but now I’m second guessing everything we had,” he said in a quiet voice. “Payton broke my heart and I guess a part of me is still trying to figure out why.” He wiped at some sand on his pant leg.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Honor whispered. She hadn’t agreed with Payton’s decision to cut Bryce out of her life, but the choice hadn’t belonged to her.
He cast her a quick glance. “I’ve been thinking. Helping people is my business. It’s what I do know. My clients have lists. Things they want to accomplish. And I help them achieve their goals. Helping you with Payton’s list would help me, too. It’s my chance to say good-bye.”
Honor choked back tears. Whether she liked it or not, she and Bryce had Payton in common and running away from him wouldn’t change that.
For several minutes they stared out to the inky, calm sea in quiet solidarity before Bryce broke the silence with, “There’s a place to hot air balloon not far from here.”
“Escondido. I know. That was the first thing I crossed off the list.”
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br /> “How was it?” he asked with genuine interest.
Honor sighed and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Amazing.”
“Payton wanted to experience a birds-eye view?”
“We both did. She was afraid of heights. Even the thought of standing on a ladder freaked her out. But ever since we’d watched the movie Casanova with the scene of a hot air balloon ride over Venice, and I’d told her how much I wanted to try it, she wanted to work up the courage to try it, too.”
“Good thing you don’t share her same fear.”
“We were actually really different. I think that’s why we made such good friends. We complemented each other.”
She’d never talked about Payton like this with anyone else before and it was nice. After Pay passed away a general sadness fell over the town and by quiet agreement her memory stayed mostly in people’s minds. Payton’s parents moved to San Francisco to be closer to their son and his wife and life went on in their small beach community.
Bryce angled his foot so it touched hers. “Do you have a tattoo I can try and find?”
Knowing Bryce wanted to search her body for a tattoo put all sorts of dirty thoughts in her mind that should not be there. “Not yet.”
“Not yet as in it’s too soon for me to look? Or not yet you don’t have one?”
She worked really hard not to smile. “I don’t have one.”
He raised his eyebrows in question. She jumped to her feet. “We’d better get back to the party.” He’d already gotten her to say too much. Think and feel too much.
He put a hand on her arm to slow her speed walk. “What’s the deal?”
“No deal. Just done talking about the list. And I’d like to remind you to keep quiet about it. This is only between us.” She gave him a side-glance.
“I’m not going to tell anyone, but come on. Why haven’t you gotten a tattoo yet? That’s the easiest thing on there.”
“None of your business.” Did the guy ever stop with the questions? He should’ve been a lawyer rather than an agent.
He brought her to a halt by gently gripping her arm before sliding his fingers down to grasp her hand. “Come on. We’ve come this far. Don’t hold out on me now.”
Blame it on the Kiss Page 7