by Addison Cole
She took tiny steps to the side, turning them as one, until Blue was standing on the low slope of the hill and they were eye to eye.
“I want you to kiss me.” She pressed a hand flat on his chest, keeping his efforts at bay. “But only if you can promise me we won’t go further, because I don’t trust myself, and I need to know I can trust you.”
His heart squeezed. Trust was everything to him. “You’re very brave.”
“How on earth does that make me brave?”
“And so cute with your brows all pinched together. It takes courage to admit that to a guy. What if I wasn’t someone you could trust? You could be taken advantage of so easily.”
She tightened her grip on his shirt, her eyes sharp and assessing. “But you are someone I can trust. I’ve known you for a year. I know the man you are, Blue, and I trust you. That’s the whole point.”
“And what about you, Lizzie? Are you someone I can trust?”
Warmth filled her eyes. “Are you asking if I’m going to take advantage of you?”
He’d like nothing better than that, but he kept that thought to himself. “No, I mean in general. If we were dating, could I trust you?”
Her brows knitted a little tighter, and something he couldn’t read flickered in her eyes. “I’d like to think so.”
He touched her hand, which was still pressed to his chest, and she opened her fingers, lacing theirs together.
“You can always trust me, Lizzie. I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”
She went up on her toes, and when their lips were a breath apart, she said in a tremulous whisper, “Then kiss me, Blue. Please, kiss me.”
Every muscle in Blue’s body flexed as he reined in the urgency mounting inside him and pressed his lips to hers with heartrending tenderness. His mouth moved over hers, devouring its softness while trying not to ravage her with the intensity thrumming through his veins. Her hand slipped from his, settling around his waist, and as he gathered her in closer and deepened the kiss, he felt her soft, pliant curves melting against him. He moaned at the sheer pleasure of their bodies coming together. He’d waited so long to kiss her, to feel her against him. And this kiss was so much more than a second kiss.
He felt her opening up to him, giving herself over to him. She had to feel the effect she had on his body, to understand how difficult it was to be this close, knowing it wouldn’t go further, to taste his desire in every stroke of his tongue. She had to realize that it took every ounce of his self-control to keep his hands from roaming over her luscious curves. He was lost in his own reveries of Lizzie giving herself up to their kiss, but true to his word—he’d always remain true to his word to Lizzie—he forced himself to draw back, pressing soft kisses to her lips, before finally pulling away completely.
His heart thundered at the sight of her half-lidded eyes, her body free of tension, completely unguarded and relaxed. He needed more, if only another kiss, another taste, to be closer to the woman he’d dreamed of becoming one with for months on end. He brought a hand to the nape of her neck and pulled her closer again.
“Lizzie,” he whispered against her lips, needing to know she wanted this, too. Her eyes blinked open. “Do you want me to ask every time I kiss you, or do you trust me enough to let me?”
Her dimples appeared as she said, “I trust you.”
“Thank you,” he murmured before recapturing her mouth, more demanding this time. He felt her entire body sink into him, and he welcomed the heat of her as their tongues found their rhythm once again. Her mouth was even sweeter, hotter this time, like she was just as lost in him as he was in her. But he’d made a promise.
“I will never get enough of kissing you,” he said as they parted again.
“Yeah.” Her breathy whisper brought images of her saying it while lying beneath him.
It took every bit of his self-control not to take her up by the dunes and love her until neither one of them could think.
She circled her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his chest, and Blue knew in that moment, with the stars shining brightly above them and the sounds of the sea in the distance, that they were meant to be together.
When she drew back with a seductive look in her eyes, it took all his willpower not to kiss her again. Instead, he brushed her hair from her shoulder, needing even that small connection, and asked, “Are you ready for our outing?”
“Um…” She smiled up at him. “How about if we call it a date?”
“A date. Really? You want to go on a date with me?” He reached for her hand as they walked down the hill toward the lot.
She pushed him playfully. “You want to go on a date with me.”
He pulled her against him again and kissed her. “You’re darn right I do.”
They dropped Lizzie’s car off at her place. Before driving away from her house, Blue reached around her and lifted her across the bench seat of his truck, casually draping one arm over her shoulder as she sat, slack-jawed, gazing up at him.
“You moved me.”
“Aw, babe, you move me, too. Better put your seat belt on so we don’t get a ticket,” he said with a smile.
Lizzie put on her seat belt. “Do you do this to all your dates?”
She had no idea how special she was. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and admitted, “Actually, I’ve never done that before.”
“You literally scooped me up and moved me.” She narrowed her eyes. “It felt very practiced.”
“Seriously, I’ve never done that before. I’m not sure why I did it, but it felt right.” He started the truck, so thankful she was out with him again. “Just like this does.” He slanted his mouth over hers, immediately swept up in her taste, her scent, the sexy little sigh of surrender she made as he deepened the kiss.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Kissing you is a purely sensual experience.”
“Well, enjoy it, because that’s all you’re getting. Sensual kisses, nothing more. I made a promise to someone I respect, and I don’t intend to break it.”
She giggled, and it was the sweetest sound on earth.
Chapter Six
BLUE PARKED IN front of the Paintery, a restaurant that doubled as an art house, occasionally hosting comedians and musicians in addition to offering painting lessons while customers dined. The building was painted graffiti style, with colorful flowers paired with dark, haunting images of animals and greenery that looked like it belonged in a tropical rainforest, making the building feel alive.
“I never would have pegged you for a Paintery guy. What a fun surprise,” Lizzie said. “I’ve never been here.”
“Neither have I, but I figured that since this wasn’t supposed to be a date, we’d better go someplace that felt platonic.” Blue held the door open, and as she passed through, his hand found hers again.
Sometime between Blue telling her she could trust him and their last kiss, Lizzie had gone from needing to keep distance between them to wanting to be closer and wanting to enjoy the evening as a real date. Being with Blue, kissing him, opening up to him, had reminded her what it was like to feel, to allow herself to get close to someone. They’d crossed the platonic line into sensual and scintillating territory, and Lizzie felt herself wanting to explore all of it, which scared her and excited her at once.
She’d kept such thick walls around herself for the past few years that even accepting this evening as a date was a huge deal. And, as her mind skipped off track and reminded her that her webcast began in half an hour, she reminded herself that letting down those walls was also a huge risk.
They followed the hostess past a number of round tables with easels set up on them to a booth in the back, also sporting two easels and paints facing either side of the booth.
Blue turned an assessing gaze to the table. “Well, this isn’t right, is it?” He moved the easels so they were beside each other, then shifted the paints and paintbrushes to one side of the table and scooted the whole thing away from the edge, making room for
them to eat and paint sitting side by side.
“Much better.” He motioned to the bench. “After you.”
“That doesn’t look very platonic to me,” she teased.
“You gave me the okay to call this a date, so I’m taking full advantage of wooing you until you take it back.” He slid into the seat beside her and leaned in close. “And by the time tonight is over, you won’t ever want to take it back.”
“You’re pretty confident.” As well he should be. Blue wasn’t just more handsome than any man alive, but he was also a gentleman and probably the world’s best kisser.
He stretched an arm over her shoulder, opened a menu, and moved it in front of her so they could both look it over. She loved that, too.
They ordered drinks and decided to share an entrée—another bonus point for Blue. Lizzie loved sharing meals. Everything tasted better when it belonged to someone else. A few minutes later the waiter brought their drinks and took their dinner order.
Blue held up his glass in a toast. “To our first date.”
They clinked glasses, and Lizzie sipped her drink, taking a moment to admire the incredibly sexy, confident man beside her. She’d worked so hard to fight her attraction to him that she’d succeeded in seeing him as Blue Ryder, friend. She’d put him securely in that category with a continuous mantra of all the reasons why they couldn’t be more, a list that started with their friendship and ended with the Naked Baker. Now, as she looked at him, all she could think about was how many kisses she’d missed over the past year, how many chances to hold his hand, to see that smile when it was meant just for her—and to get to know him even better.
“So, how does this work?” she asked, eyeing the paints.
“It’s a pretty hard concept. We pick up the brushes”—he handed her a paintbrush—“and then we paint.”
“It’s good to see that being on a date didn’t dampen your ability to be a smart-alec.” She smiled with the tease. “I’m a truly sucky painter.”
“I somehow doubt you’re a truly sucky anything.” He leaned in and kissed her, and she closed her eyes, willing him to kiss her longer.
She’d known it would be like this, that it would feel right, and good, and incredibly natural to fall under Blue’s spell. Just another reason she’d fought going out with him for so long. She’d known she’d never have a chance of resisting him once that door was opened. His lips lingered on hers, drawing out the kiss, so that by the time he pulled away, she was breathless for more.
He ran his fingertips through her hair and touched his forehead to hers. “I really like kissing you.”
Afraid if she tried to respond she’d say something like, Then don’t stop, she opted for silence instead.
“Do you want to join the others or do our own thing?”
Her mind was still spinning from their kiss. He must have sensed it in her silence, because he went on to explain. “When I called to make reservations, they said we could paint what the instructor is painting.” He pointed at a tall guy who was walking from table to table, looking over the paintings and commenting on each one. “Or we can go totally rogue and do our own thing.”
“That’s what I want to do,” she said, feeling silly for being so awestruck. “Our own thing.”
“A woman after my own heart.” He held her gaze, and when his phone vibrated with a call, it reminded her that she needed to check her webcast.
“Why don’t you take that call while I run to the ladies’ room, and then we can paint.”
Blue slid from the booth and reached for her hand, pulling her against him. “Is it cheesy to tell you that I’ll miss you while you’re gone?” He cracked a smile, but she was too lost in the feel of his arms around her and the press of his muscles against her chest to care if it was cheesy.
“I kind of like cheesy.”
His lips met hers in another sensual, sizzling kiss, and then he held her hand until she’d taken too many steps to keep holding it, and that fraction of a second, with his eyes on her, his fingertips grazing the tips of hers, felt like a scene from a movie, and it made Lizzie even dizzier.
She walked in a daze to the ladies’ room, coming back to the present the moment the door clicked shut behind her. She pulled out her cell phone and tried to find a signal. Nearly all of the lower Cape had spotty Internet and cell service. She held the phone over her head. Still no signal. Darn it. She stepped from the ladies’ room and into the hall, holding her phone high above her head, glad the hallway turned a corner so Blue couldn’t see her. Her phone finally picked up a signal. She navigated to her Naked Baker site and clicked play on the newest show.
She paced the narrow hall, holding the phone over her head and praying no one came in from the dining room. Her heart hammered in her chest as she stared up at the video loading as slowly as molasses dripping from a jar, and suddenly her sexy voice filled the air.
Shootshootshoot. She pressed the volume button to mute as Blue came around the corner.
“Hey there. Everything okay?” He eyed her phone as she clicked off the video and shoved it into her back pocket.
“Yeah.” Thinkthinkthink! “Maddy called, but I lost the signal.” She hated lying at all, but lying to Blue felt like the biggest, most painful lie she’d ever told. Even worse than when she’d snuck out of her parents’ house to meet a boy in high school, and that was pretty darn bad.
“Do you want to call her back? We can step outside to get a signal.”
He was so thoughtful and considerate, and she was still keeping her secret. She couldn’t do this to him, not when everything he did was with her best interests at heart. It wasn’t fair to either of them. She’d make it through this date, and then she’d end it. She couldn’t play with his trust, and she couldn’t reveal the Naked Baker to a guy like Blue, either.
I hope you appreciate all that I do for you, Maddy.
She forced a smile, knowing Maddy appreciated everything she was ever given. Her younger sister wasn’t selfish like many teens. She was considerate to a fault, which was one of the reasons Lizzie was willing to put herself out there to give her a leg up in life. It wasn’t Maddy’s fault their parents couldn’t afford college for her, and Lizzie knew how school loans would strap her sister down after college. Thank goodness for Cooking with Coeds, and in turn, for the Naked Baker.
“No, it’s okay,” she answered as they walked back to the table. “Did I take that long?”
“Not that long. The waiter brought our dinner.”
She had taken a long time. At least she’d seen and heard the very start of the webcast, which meant it was probably playing properly.
They shared their meal and drank wine while they talked. It was nice being alone with Blue, just as she’d known it would be.
“I knew you and Maddy were close, but I never realized she called you about dates and stuff. That’s nice,” he said.
“It is nice. We talk about everything. But you seem just as close with your siblings.” He was so easy to talk to. He listened so intently to her while watching her with those piercing eyes of his, she was unable to resist falling right back into their intimacy. She speared a piece of steak with her fork and fed it to him.
“Mm. I like this arrangement.” He swallowed the steak and said, “We talk about everything, too. There are lots of us, though, so we tend to be close in pairs, and those pairings vary based on what’s going on in our lives.” He fed her a tomato from the salad and followed the fork with a quick kiss that made it taste a million times better.
“Pairs?”
“Yeah. Like when Jake visits, we’ll be close for a few weeks afterward. Then he’ll get busy with his own thing, and then Gage or Duke will have something to talk about, or an issue to work through. It sort of goes in cycles. Big family dynamics, you know.”
“And what about Trish? Where does she fit in?” Lizzie knew his sister was an actress and that she was close with her family, but she hadn’t met her, and she wondered what it was like growing up
with so many brothers.
“Where doesn’t she fit in?” Blue laughed as they finished eating, then set the plates aside so they could paint. “She weasels her way into everyone’s business, like any sister would, I guess. Nosing around for details on our personal lives.”
Lizzie picked up a paintbrush and started to paint. “And do you guys do the same to her?”
“I don’t want to know the details of her personal life. I just want to know she’s safe and happy. When she was in high school, I’m sure we scared off a lot of her dates, but once she went away to college, she pretty much set us straight.” Blue dabbed his brush in blue paint and held it in front of the picture of flowers in a vase that Lizzie was painting. “May I?”
“Sure.”
He smoothed out the edges of the vase, then added shading that made the vase look like it was three-dimensional.
“Trish set us all straight except Duke. Duke is relentless when it comes to being protective. He watches over all of us like it’s his job. I think it’s an eldest thing.”
“I think I’d agree with that. I was pretty protective of Maddy when she was younger.” And even now, wasn’t she being protective by taking care of Maddy’s tuition so her sister wouldn’t have to? She tucked that thought away, not wanting to think about the webcast or the fact that she’d seen only thirty seconds of it and that there could still be technical issues.
She turned her attention back to the easel, painting flower petals falling from the flowers in the vase. Blue painted a window behind the vase that looked so real she could practically feel the sky beyond.
“Where did you learn to paint like that?”
“Just something I picked up in school. Who knew that architecture skills carried over to art?”
They painted together, teasing each other and laughing, while talking about families and friends and life on the Cape. Lizzie set her paintbrush down to watch Blue paint. His dark brows knitted together and his jaw clenched. He was usually so relaxed that seeing him so intent on the painting was almost like seeing a whole different person. She imagined it was what he must be like when he worked without anyone else around.
