“When Cole’s kisses lingered on her belly button, she crossed her legs.“Are you okay?” He appeared instantly at her eye level, worried.“I’m fine. I just, I never let a guy…um, well, they never wanted to. It’s not what I do.” Kyle’s eyes looked everywhere but his.“Is it because you don’t think you’d like it, or you don’t think you deserve it?”She bit her lip and looked away again. He saw her answer.“You do deserve it,” he said fiercely. “Can I give it to you?”

“He grinned like a proud male and moved closer. “It was good.”“Are you asking or telling?”“I know it was good.”She’d just experienced the longest orgasm in modern history. Who was she to be critical? “It was amazing.”He cupped her face and kissed her. “We could do it again.”“I don’t think that’s possible.”Instead of answering, he bent down and drew her nipple into his mouth. Then he reached between her legs and lightly touched her. Instantly jolts shot through her. She found herself wanting to pull him close and beg to be taken.He drew back. “What do you think?”She looked into his amused eyes. “That maybe I might have a little more time to make up for.”“I figured.”“Did you bring more condoms?”“Yes.”“Thank God.”

“leaning in he kissed her gently, first on the cheek then on her lips. When he met her eyes, she saw the young man shed loved last summer and the young man she still loved now."I never stopped loving you, Ronnie. and I never stopped thinking about you. even if summers do come and end" she smiled knowing he was telling the truth. "I love you too, Will Blakelee" she wispered, leaning in to kiss him again. ”

“I’m wondering what it would be like to be kissed by you.”“Let’s not go there,” he said. “I don’t want to mess up our friendship.”“It wouldn’t,” she said, grinning suddenly. “I’d like to know how it feels. I mean, as an experiment.”“Put the wrong chemicals together, and they explode.”She frowned. “Are you saying you don’t think I’d like it? Or that I would?”“It doesn’t matter, because I’m not going to kiss you.”She looked up at him shyly, from beneath lowered lashes, and gave him a cajoling smile. “Just one teeny, weeny little kiss?”He laughed at her antics. Inside his stomach, about a million butterflies had taken flight. “Don’t play games with me, Summer.” He said it with a smile, but it was a warning.One she ignored.She crooked her finger and wiggled it, gesturing him toward her. “Come here, and give me a little kiss.”She was doing something sultry with her eyes, something she’d never done before. She’d turned on some kind of feminine heat, because he was burning up just looking at her. “Stop this,” he said in a guttural voice.She canted her hip and put her hand on it, drawing his attention in that direction, then slid her tongue along the seam of her lips to wet them. “I’m ready, bad boy. What are you waiting for?”His heart was beating a hundred miles a minute. He was hot and hard and ready. And if he touched her, he was going to ruin everything.“I’m not going to kiss you, Summer.”He saw the disappointment flash in her eyes. Saw the determination replace it. “All right. I’ll kiss you.”He could have stopped her. He was the one with the powerful arms and the broad chest and the long, strong legs.But he wanted that kiss. “Fine,” he said. “Don’t expect fireworks. I’m only doing this because we’re friends.” And if she believed that, he had some desert brushland he could sell her.Suddenly, she seemed uncertain, and he felt a pang of loss. Silly to feel it so deeply, when kissing Summer had been the last thing he’d allowed himself to dream about. Although, to be honest, he hadn’t always been able to control his dreams. She’d been there, all right. Hot and wet and willing. He made himself smile at her. “Don’t worry, kid. It was a bad idea. To be honest, I value our friendship too much—”She threw herself into his arms, clutching him around the neck, so he had to catch her or get bowled over. “Whoa, there,” he said, laughing and hugging her with her feet dangling in the air. “It doesn’t matter that you’ve changed your mind about wanting that kiss. I’m just glad to be your friend.”She leaned back in his embrace, searching his eyes, looking for something. Before he could do or say anything to stop her, she pressed her lips softly against his.His whole body went rigid.“Billy,” she murmured against his lips. “Please. Kiss me back.”“Summer, I don’t—”She pressed her lips against his again, damp and pliant and inviting. He softened his mouth against hers, felt the plumpness of her upper lip, felt the open, inviting seam, and let his tongue slide along the length of it.“Oh.” She broke the kiss and stared at him with dazed eyes. Eyes that sought reason where there was none.He wanted to rage at her for ruining everything. They could never be friends now. Not now that he’d tasted her, not now that she’d felt his want and his need. He lowered his head to take her mouth, to take what he’d always wanted.”

“You don’t love me,” she said slowly. “You’ve looked at me the same way from the instant we met.”His grip tightened on her waist. He leaned into her on a hiss. “Don’t tell me I don’t love you. Don’t you dare tell me that, Margaret. I have loved you since the moment you read my brother’s book to me. I love that you are the one woman I can trust with my weakness, that you know all the dark parts of me and do not turn away. I love the fierceness with which you protect the ones you love, even when they don’t deserve it. I love every last inch of you, and I want you for my own.” His words were hot, fiercely possessive, and yet he leaned his forehead against hers gently. “Although God knows, I don’t deserve you.”

“Sorry,” he said. “Let me drop the belt-"“No.” She held on when he would have pulled away. “Don’t. I like it.” Again, he lifted her face, and he smiled. “The tool belt turns you on.” “No.” She closed her eyes and thunked her forehead to his chest. “Little bit.”