by Louise, Tia
His brow lowers, and that smile turns lusty. “If you don’t stop looking at me that way, I’m going to have to fuck you before I can do this.”
“I don’t know what this is, but I have no objection to the fucking part.”
A sexy laugh, low and rumbling comes from his chest. He walks back to where I wait in the bed, and I force my eyes off his swinging cock to his pretty, dimpled grin.
When he gets to the bedside, he stops, dropping to one knee. I sit a little higher, frowning as I try to understand. Reaching out, he takes my left hand, and my brow relaxes, my eyes get wider, and mist clouds my vision.
“Tabitha Green, I knew the first night I saw you standing in your transparent bra and panties beside the pool at the Plucky Duck I had to have you.”
“Oh my God.” I blink and a hot tear hits my cheek.
“I waited a year until I had my shit together to ask you out… Only, I guess I didn’t completely have my shit together.”
Shaking my head, I sniff. “You had it together. I was just too afraid to believe it.”
“You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. You make me laugh. You bring out the best in me—and the beast.”
“I love the beast.”
“I would never change a thing about you. Except one thing.”
My brow furrows. “What?” I’m ready to change anything about me to make him mine. Or to make me his. Or both.
“Your last name. Will you marry me?”
A little black box is in his hand, but I bypass it diving forward to put my arms around his neck. His body vibrates with laughter, but I only hold him, kissing his skin as tears flood my eyes. Strong arms hold me tight, and a deep sense of belonging warms my veins. It’s something I lost when I was a very little girl, but now, with this sexy, hot, good man, it’s given to me again.
My eyes are closed, and I’m holding him, letting happiness fill me when he gives me a little shake. “Hey, Tabby.”
Lifting my head, I sniff, meeting his bright whiskey eyes. “Yeah?”
“Is that a yes?”
A laugh bursts from my lungs, and I nod. “Of course it’s a yes. It’s a yes yes yes yes yes!”
My favorite dimple appears, and he looks down. “Do you want to see the ring?”
“Oh, right.” I relax my arms around his shoulders and lean back.
He opens the box, and it’s a gorgeous, oval-cut diamond set in a white-gold, infinity-twist setting with little baguettes along the center swoop. It’s just like my tattoo, only with a diamond where the word Believe would be.
“Oh my goodness.” My hand covers my mouth as a fresh flood of tears heats my eyes. “How did you get this?”
“Had it custom made when I was in Charleston. I described it to the jeweler, and he found a setting in that style. Do you like it? It has a wedding band to match.”
It’s on the third finger of my left hand as he’s still saying the words. “I’ll never take it off.” I’m still looking at it as I slide my arm around his neck again. “It’s so beautiful.”
His arms go around my waist, and he’s smiling as he kisses the side of my neck, sliding us further into the bed.
Finally tearing my eyes off the delicate piece of jewelry changing my life, I find his mouth, kissing him gently at first.
His lips pull mine, and he lifts my chin, looking deep into my eyes. “I’ll love you forever Tabitha Green Tucker.”
I cup his face in my hand, stealing a glance at the sparkling ring lighting up my hand. My eyes return to his, and I’m smiling so big, my cheeks hurt.
“I’ll love you forever, Chad Tucker.”
With that his mouth is over mine again. He rolls me onto my back, and my thighs part instinctively for him. I’m caught up in the movement of our lips, the slide of his tongue against mine, the fast and slow, lips on cheeks and jaws and lips again…
I’m lost in his kisses.
The air is electric…
Because when we kiss, I’m not a bad girl. I’m his girl, and it’s the only thing I ever want to be.
* * *
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When We Touch
By Tia Louise
A USA Today bestseller.
Jackson Cane is red-hot cinnamon, salt water, and sin…
He’s the kind of trouble I don’t need.
He’s the kind of trouble that waltzes into my dreams
Every. Single. Night.
Emberly Warren is spicy-sweet seduction.
My biggest temptation.
My biggest regret.
I thought she’d always be waiting for me.
I was wrong.
Now I’m back in Oceanside searching for peace, hoping to escape what my life has become.
She isn’t supposed to be here,
Dark hair blowing in the ocean breeze,
Luscious curves barely hidden by thin cotton.
Memories so hot they burn my mind…
I didn’t come back for her.
But when we touch, I know I’ll do whatever it takes to make her mine…
Prologue
Ember
Where it begins…
Jackson Cane tastes like red-hot cinnamon, salt water, and sin.
When he concentrates, his long fingers twist in the back of his dark hair, right at the base of his neck, and he tugs.
Tugs…
Tugs…
I like to weave my fingers between his and pull.
Then ocean-blue eyes blink up to mine, sending electricity humming in my veins. He smiles. I smile, and it isn’t long before our lips touch. I straddle his lap as I open my mouth, and his delicious tongue finds mine, heating every part of my body.
Our kisses are languid and deep, chasing and tasting.
We sizzle like fireworks on a hot summer night.
Eventually, with a heavy sigh, I pull away, but hours later my mouth is still burning. I taste him everywhere I go.
Lying in my bed in the dark room, my heart aches, heavy and painful in my chest. Every breath is a burden. I blink slowly at the ceiling and slide my tongue against the backs of my teeth thinking about hot cinnamon, tangy salt, caramel and sugar, sunshine, and the best summer of my life.
The instant I hear it, I’m on my feet, tiptoeing to my open window. The low growl of an engine tells me he’s there in the darkness, out on the street in the shadows just past the streetlight.
The late summer humidity hangs heavy in the air. Cicadas scree from the limbs of the mighty oak tree beside the house. Their damp wings make them too heavy to fly, and the sadness in my chest is replaced with breathless anticipation.
I’m panting. I’ve never felt this way for anyone, and I’m desperate to hold onto it. Somehow I know I’ll never feel this way for anyone ever again.
Quiet as a mouse I scamper to my door and listen. The only sound is the hum of Momma’s oscillating fan pushing the warm air around her room. I can’t hear her breathing. I can’t hear anything… except the noise of Jackson’s engine on the street below, waiting.
Red-hot cinnamon.
Salt water.
Sin.
Pressure tingles around the edges of my skull, and a bead of sweat tickles down the side of my neck, dropping past my shoulder, slipping between my breasts.
I’m at the window slowly lifting the glass, and I don
’t care if she hears me. I dive through the space, out onto the cedar shake roof in my bare feet. I’ll get a splinter if I’m not careful…
So many reasons to be careful…
I ignore them all.
I’m going to him like a siren’s call in the ocean, like the mermaid story in reverse. I’m the hypnotized sailor. He’s the promise of so many wicked pleasures.
Reaching for the tree limb, I swing my body across the narrow gap two stories high, gliding down the trunk as the skirt of my dress rises to my hips. My bike sits where I left it at the side of the house, and I carefully pull it away, holding it as I tiptoe down the gravel driveway to the street.
I can’t take a chance on anyone seeing us together and telling my mother. Instead, I dash across the street between the thick beams of his headlights. He flickers them to let me know he sees me, and I plunge into the dark woods, pedaling fast.
Tires crunch on gravel, and I shoot down the pine needle path leading away from this place, through the tall, skinny trees, all the way out to the barren jetty of sand stretching under the moonlit sky filled with stars, surrounded by the clear blue waters of the ocean.
It’s our place.
The place where we’re the only two people on Earth.
In the summertime, the visitors to our sleepy little town use it to spend the day sunbathing and playing on the wide stretch of undeveloped sand. Now, on the edge of fall, with all the children back in school and Jackson leaving for college tomorrow, we have it to ourselves.
His engine roars on the road above, and I stand in the pedals to push harder, fueled by the burning desire twisting in my lower pelvis. I want to be with him now. I don’t want to waste a moment.
I go even faster as the trail slopes downhill. A narrow wooden bridge thump… thump… thumps with the pressure of my tires distressing the aging slats.
The instant the trees part, I toss my bike aside and run out of the darkness onto the glowing white sand. The sizzle of waves crashing on the shore fills the night, and the black ripples are tipped with silver light.
Jackson stands in his canvas shorts, his hands in his pockets, and a thin white tee rippling across his back in the slight breeze.
I’m breathing hard when I finally reach him, and he turns. White teeth in a full-moon night, deep dimples in both cheeks, he smiles down at me, and I feel so small. A lock of too-long dark hair falls over his blue eyes, and my breath catches. He’s so beautiful.
I swallow the knot in my throat as I gaze at him. What star crossed what planet in what solar system and said I could have him, even if it’s only for a little while?
“You made good time tonight.” His voice vibrates the warm air between us.
I force a laugh, moving to him until my hands are around his waist. My forehead rests on his chest, and I inhale deeply. He’s leather and soap and a deeper, spicier scent that’s pure Jackson Cane.
He feels so good in my arms.
His mouth presses against my head, and I lift my chin, reaching for his face. He leans down and claims my mouth, warm lips pushing mine open. I kiss him eagerly, curling my tongue with his, threading my fingers into the soft, dark hair falling around his cheeks, tugging.
An aching moan rises in my chest as he lifts me off my feet. Chasing his kisses, my mouth burns with cinnamon, my core tingles with need. He carries me to our place, a little shelter near the water’s edge where an enormous log is slowly turning to driftwood. We lower to the sand, me on my back, him on his knees looking down at me.
My dark hair is all around us, my skirt is up around my waist. My panties are far away on my bedroom floor. A soft hiss comes from his lips, and he slides a finger down my center. My eyes flutter shut.
“Jackson…” I whisper. I love you I love you I love you…
He leans down to taste me, his tongue lightly tracing the line between my thighs, and my back arches off the soft sand. My body takes flight on the motion of his mouth, kissing me so deeply, tracing a pattern over my most sensitive parts.
The first time he did this to me, I didn’t understand. I’d been embarrassed by how fast my body responded, the way I shook, how wet it was between my legs when the shudders subsided.
Then I was afraid of how I tasted. I was afraid it was dirty and wrong like my momma would say. Sin…
Then he kissed me, and my mouth filled with a delicate, clean ocean flavor, like the air after a storm. It was our first time, and when he pushed inside me, my mind came apart. My soul shifted, and I was forever changed.
I was forever his.
The flutters begin in the arches of my feet, and he kisses his way up my stomach.
“Jackson… Jackson…” I can’t stop chanting his name as I thread my fingers in his soft hair.
At last his mouth covers mine. At last we’re one.
“Ember…” His mouth breaks away with a groan, and I lean up to run my tongue along the ridges of his neck. Salt water…
I lick his Adam’s apple up to his square jaw.
Rough stubble scratches my tongue.
My legs are around his waist and we’re working together, chasing that glorious release. He stretches me and fills me, massages me so deeply, I feel it the moment I start to break apart.
“Oh!” My fingers tighten on his back as every muscle in my body clenches…
Tighter…
Tighter…
Then Yes!
Glitter gun showers of pleasure flooding my insides.
“Yes,” he groans, and I feel him finish deep inside of me.
Our bodies unite, but at the same time we’re flying apart as waves of ecstasy fill our veins. It’s magical like the ocean, silvery water tipped in moonlight.
We kiss softly now, rich and gentle, over and over. His tongue touches my upper lip, and he pulls the bottom one between his teeth. Red-hot cinnamon…
We’re breathing hard, and he slides a hand under my ass, turning us without ever losing contact, so I’m sitting in a straddle across his lap.
My dress is around my waist, and moonlight touches the tips of my breasts. We hold each other, skin against skin.
A hot tear spills down my cheek.
I’m not full-on crying. I’ll save the ugly tears for tomorrow when he’s gone. Instead, I find his blue eyes.
Dark brows quirk together, and he kisses my nose. “You’re crying?”
My voice cracks with a whisper. “Aren’t you sad?”
“I’m only going to college, Em. I’m not going to war.”
“But we won’t see each other for months.”
I don’t say what’s truly scaring me. I don’t voice the fear that I, a mere high schooler, couldn’t possibly hold onto him.
He’s traveling far away to where the girls are more mature, more experienced, more sophisticated.
“You’re right,” he nods. “It’s going to suck. Especially when I want to kiss you.”
He pulls me flush against his chest and groans deeply. Strong arms circle my shoulders, and I cling to him.
“But it’s not something to cry about,” he argues. “You’re my girl, Em. That’s never going to change.”
My eyes squeeze shut, and I inhale his scent, doing my best to hold it in my memory, trying to absorb every part of him.
There’s no way in hell I could even begin to argue. I am his, and he’s… my everything. Jackson Cane is every first I’ve ever had. My first real kiss, my first real boyfriend, the first time I had sex… made love…
“Hey.” He pulls back, blue eyes full of concern. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
Blinking quickly, I try to find my bearings. “What?” I don’t know why he looks so worried.
“You are my girl, right?”
My chin jerks forward, and I have to cover my mouth. “You have to ask?”
Warm hands cup my cheeks, and he trails his thumbs lightly along my cheekbones. “So beautiful,” he murmurs. “My Ember Rose.”
His eyes move around my face, along my hair, down the s
ide of my jaw like a caress.
“I’ll never forget this.” I’m ashamed at how desperate my voice sounds. “I mean… I just…” I’m such a baby.
He blinks a few times, and a smile curls his lips. With a nod, he pulls me against his chest, strong arms surrounding me. We stay that way a long time, listening to the crashing of the surf, the beat of our hearts. The seagulls cry, and the moon climbs higher. It’s all so perfect, but it’s all at an end.
Finally, with a sigh, he lifts me, helping me stand. We hold hands as he takes me into the gentle waves to clean up. I slowly restore my dress.
I feel so stupid. College girls don’t need to be cared for like babies. They don’t whine and cry about being left behind. They blow kisses and wink over their sunglasses. They sway their hips and turn the tables on saying goodbye.
My best friend Tabby is already one of those girls, and she’s my age.
I’ll never be one of those girls.
“Don’t cry, Ember Rose,” he says in a low whisper. “I never want to see you cry.”
I hold him a while longer, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. His hands slide up and down my back in a soothing motion.
After a while, they slide down my forearms to lace with my fingers. He steps back and leads me the way we came, stopping at the edge of the woods where I left my bike.
“Get on home before your momma wakes up.”
That sexy smile curls his lips. He shoves his hair behind his ears, and I step forward again, clutching the front of his shirt before I press my lips one last time to his.
