Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
He murmured, “I can’t do any more.” It hurt to admit it, but he had to be honest with her.
She pulled away, beaming. “You did great. There’s no need to go in any farther. This was a big step.”
He took a step back then, a giant one, away from the water. Then he looked down at himself. “I feel kind of stupid now, wearing a wetsuit to put my toes in the water.”
She took the same step back until they were level again, and then she leaned in. Their gazes locked, and with the most tender touch he’d ever experienced, she gently pressed her lips to his.
He felt the quiver in Mila’s body as she kissed him. In that moment, a phrase went through his head. She’s everything.
He didn’t even know where that came from. But in that moment, she was everything. She was a water goddess, and he was a man of the stars and planets. He felt almost as though Earth and sky were merging. He deepened the kiss and felt her lick into him. He was rock hard in a second and felt a need for her that was almost painful. She made a sound in her throat, a low hum. He pulled her closer and she clung tighter.
The kiss could have lasted seconds or hours. He wouldn’t have been able to say. And then slowly, she pulled away, her lips pink and swollen.
Chapter Seventeen
For a moment, Mila let herself stare into Hersch’s warm gray eyes. They were filled with lust, as she knew her own must be. She sighed. “I never thought I’d kiss a man with a moustache.”
He grinned down at her. “If I shave it off, can we do it again?”
“I need to kiss you again to make up my mind.”
Hersch placed his big, strong hands in the curves above her hipbones and pulled her back into him. He kissed her so deeply, so passionately, it was like she’d never been kissed before. His moustache was soft and nicer than she could have imagined. So this is what it really feels like, she thought, and yielded to his embrace.
This kiss was even better than the first, slower and more searching, as though he was ready to find ways to bring her pleasure.
At last, they pulled apart, and she said, “You just made my head spin.”
Instead of smiling as she’d hoped, he looked deadly serious. “Mila Davenport, my head has been spinning since the minute I met you.” Then he did smile. “So what’s the verdict on the moustache?”
“Keep it,” she said.
And then suddenly, it hit her. It was as if she’d been in a foggy haze where she’d forgotten she shouldn’t kiss him. And now, all she wanted to do was get out of there and process what had just happened. Except here they were, in wetsuits that they’d have to get out of… and get half naked in the process. She shook her head. How had she gotten herself into this predicament?
Hersch must have been able to sense the change in her and didn’t want to push things, because he said, “Let’s get these wet things off.” He looked down at the wetsuit.
She nodded, and they walked back to their clothes silently, both lost in thought.
She turned her back to him to get dressed, and he did the same. But once he was fully clothed again, she could tell he wanted to talk. “Mila—”
But she shook her head, her damp hair swinging across her face. She couldn’t let him say whatever it was he was about to say, not without her having some time to think first.
“I’m proud of what you accomplished today, Hersch. It’s incredible. Really.” She stopped there, deliberately not mentioning the last ten minutes of the hottest kiss of her life. “I’m so sorry, but I need to be somewhere else in a few minutes.”
She was meeting Erin and Tessa to go dress shopping, and she still had to pack up the van. She wasn’t sorry to have to leave. She had a lot to think about.
He nodded. “Thank you for being there with me on my first steps to getting back my own fearlessness.” He paused. “And I want you to know, those were the two best kisses of my life.”
He turned then to let her go, and it was as if her whole world flipped upside down. He had done what she wanted, but now she couldn’t help but stare at the back of his sexy silhouette as he walked away. It took everything she had not to call him back.
But she resisted.
In times of crisis, she had three ways of working things out in her head. One, talk to her mom. Two, talk to Erin. And three, go surfing. She didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Instead, she felt achingly alone, there on the beach, in the afterburn of those kisses. She knew that what had just happened went far beyond a kiss. And it was blowing up her world in a way that rattled her to the core.