Chapter Five
Summer
I wakeup slowly and nuzzle against something warm and solid. It feels so good I never want to get up.
Then, I suddenly realize what it is and sit up with a bolt.
A soft chuckle below me lets me know Dane’s awake and that he felt me nuzzling into his chest in my half-asleep state.
I look down at him.
The lazy grin on his face tells me he liked it too.
My cheeks flame. The man has me so off balance I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.
“How long have you been awake?” I ask him accusingly.
“Long enough,” his grin gets even deeper. His dark hair is mussed, and his chest is bare. He looks sexy as hell, and that pisses me off all things considered.
“Don’t you have to go to work or something?” I ask him grumpily.
He laughs outright at that. “I don’t work on the weekends, and you’re not getting rid of me that easily, sunshine.”
I push my hair back out of my face, and he captures my hand as I’m lowering it.
“What do you want to do today?” he asks, looking up at me.
I raise an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “I get to choose?”
“Of course,” he answers. “You’re not a prisoner here.”
I glance out at the sun shining over the Atlantic. “I want to go out on the beach,” I say without hesitation.
He sits up, “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“We?” I ask dubiously.
“Yes, I’m going with you,” he tells me frankly. “You got a problem with that?” he says it lightly, but I get the feeling it bothers him that I might.
And I don’t want to hurt his feelings, so I quickly say, “No, it’s fine.”
But why the hell do I care about his feelings? He’s the monster who would kick all of us out and destroy our home.
“You know you can’t wear a suit on the beach all day, though, right?” I tell him. So far I haven’t seen him wear anything but suits outside, even that day on the beach.
He chuckles, “So you remember what I was wearing the day we first saw each other.” His voice is somehow triumphant like he’s won some sort of contest by me revealing that I remember what he was wearing.
I lift my chin. “Of course, I do. Anyone would remember someone who was fully clothed from head to toe on the beach during the hottest part of the day. You looked insanely hot.”
His lips quirk up into a teasing grin as he stands. My eyes can’t help following down the hard muscles of his chest to the obvious bulge in his boxer briefs. “So you think I’m insanely hot?” his voice is filled with amusement.
“What?” I pull my eyes back up to his face to see with mortification that he’d caught me looking at him there. My cheeks flush, and I sputter, “That’s—that’s not what I said. That’s not what I meant,” I amend.
He laughs and then reaches out to grab my hands and pull me gently from the bed, his eyes raking over me in the white nightie that shows off way too much to his hungry gaze. “I’m just messing with you, Summer. I know what you meant. But just for the record, I think you’re insanely hot too.”
My heart pitter-patters in my chest at the smoldering look in his eyes.
If he kissed me now, I know I wouldn’t stop him. Hell, I haven’t stopped him any other time he’s kissed me. I don’t know if I’d have the strength to stop him if he tried to do more.