She flicked Angus a glance and found him looking at her.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted.
Removing his sunglasses, he let out a soft chuckle. “Me too.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “What if I don’t live up to your expectations? Will you break off our engagement?”
She laughed, and nudged his shoulder with hers. “Break off our engagement? Before you introduce me to Henri Stefanovic?” She shook her head. “Never.”
“In that case…” he lowered his head to hers, his breath a delicate tickle on her lips as he feathered his fingertips along her jaw. “You willneverget to meet Henri. Are you okay with a vegan life from this point onward?”
She laughed again, a heartbeat before he kissed her. As before, the moment his lips touched hers, every fiber in her body sizzled and thrummed with an elemental need. His kisses, his touch, awoke her in ways no other touch or kiss had. A low moan vibrated at the back of her throat, and she tangled her hand in his hair, parting her lips and seeking out his tongue.
He gave it to her. And she gave herself fully to the moment.
All that existed was this kiss. She knew, on a distant level, they were zipping across the water on a boat and all the skipper needed to do was turn his head to see them, but it didn’t matter. It should. The thought of being judged, being watched would normally make her chest squeeze tight and her head swim and her stomach knot.
But it didn’t.
It didn’t matter at all.
She kissed Angus, right there in the boat, for the world to see. She moaned, uncaring who could hear her, when he deepened the kiss, his hand gently cupping her jaw before sliding down to brush over her breast.
She arched her spine, pressing closer to him, aching for him to not just brush her breast, but to cup it, squeeze it.
He pulled away, breath ragged, and stared into her eyes.
“How far away is your home?” she asked.
“Too fucking far away,” he answered.
Her core throbbed at the husky hunger in his voice.
8
He had no fucking car.
Of course, he hadn’t thought of that on the water taxi when he’d suggested they skip the zoo and head to his place instead. All he’d been thinking about is how much he wanted to lay Elisa out on his bed, slowly peel her clothes from her body and taste every inch of her skin he exposed.
Now, all but a minute away from docking at the jetty, it dawned on him he had no way of driving to his place.
His home was a twenty-minute drive away—ingoodtraffic.
Uber it?
The water taxi docked. Elisa’s fingers—threaded through his—squeezed a little firmer. He gave her a look. She smiled up at him, and every molecule in his body burned. He needed to be alone with her. He didn’t want to be sitting in some stranger’s car making small chat. He wanted it to be only him and her. He wanted to chat with her. No one else. He wanted to hear her voice, her laugh. He wanted to kiss her at every red light. At every stop sign. He couldn’t do that in a stranger’s car. Not when he didn’t have any control—
“Done,” the skipper declared, killing the boat’s engine. “You actually getting off this time, or are we heading back to the zoo?”
Elisa’s fingers closed around his tighter. Her eyes met his.
“We getting off?” he asked, keeping his voice low, calm. “The boat?”
A small smile curled her lips. “Yes.”
The husky quality tohervoice made his dick pulse.