by Jill Shalvis
other word for it, her bones just melted clean away. And then he proceeded to kiss the living daylights out of her, a hot, wet, deep kiss that was good. So very good.
As it went on his fingers squeezed her hips, pulling her in closer. And then closer still, so that she could feel every inch of him. And, oh goodness, he had some really great inches.
She was lost, swirling in the sensations that would surely drown her if she let them. With a moan she leaned in, feeling his heart pounding at rocket speed now. Gratifying.
Tanner shifted and kissed his way over her jaw to the shell of her ear, his lips closing around the lobe, sucking it into his mouth before his teeth scraped over it.
A rush seared through her belly and she gasped. She opened her eyes and found Tanner watching her with a look she couldn’t quite place. “What was that?” she whispered, staring at his mouth.
“A test.” His voice was husky, doing nothing to ease the need inside her.
“Did we pass?” she asked.
“No. We failed. Spectacularly,” he said. And then he kissed her again—a hot, intense tangle of tongues and teeth that had her letting out that soft, needy sound again.
And again.
And again.
In fact, he didn’t stop until she was completely and utterly one-hundred-percent upside down and inside out. She might have even been transported to infinity and beyond.
When he finally lifted his head, she had to take a second before she could open her eyes.
Or maybe it was an hour.
Or a lifetime.
But when she finally dragged her lids up and stared at him, he smiled an especially bad-boy smile. “We’re going to do that again,” he said.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Okay.”
He nipped lightly at her wet lower lip, flashed a grin, and then…
Left.
Chapter 11
Tanner was halfway out of the building when Callie’s front door whipped open. He turned to find her standing there, hands on hips.
Hair wild.
Sweatshirt slipping off one shoulder.
Nipples hard.
Lips plumped from their kiss.
“What the hell was that?” those lips asked.
His mind was still befuddled, enough that he shook his head. “What?”
“You kiss me and then just walk out of here like the hounds of hell are at your heels?”
Okay, so there’d been a little bit of that. But he’d gotten his hands on her, and her tongue in his mouth, and only one word had crossed his brain and locked into place.
Mine.
That’s it, just that one syllable, going round and round in his head the entire time he was kissing her.
Mine.
There’d been a few other things, of course. The blood roaring through his veins like a locomotive on a downhill track, heading south to pool behind his zipper. Which meant that him thinking at all was somewhat of a miracle.
She was waiting for an answer and he didn’t have one.
“Was there something in the coffee or doughnuts that made you feel ill?” she inquired politely.
“No.”
“So it’s me?”
“No.” Yes. Jesus. He was unsettled as hell that he’d shared far more than he’d expected to. She was far too easy to be with.
He didn’t understand why.
Or like it.
“I have a meeting,” he reminded her.
“Right. At the principal’s office. But if you didn’t have a meeting…”
“But I do.”
“Humor me,” she said. “If you didn’t have to leave right now, what would have happened in there?” She jabbed a finger over her shoulder at her apartment as if there could be any question about what she meant. She then crossed her arms, waiting not so patiently on his answer, and he realized she wasn’t pushing him out of anger or even annoyance. She was unnerved.
“Anything you wanted,” he said quietly. “As much as you would have let me.”
She stared at him. Then she let out a low laugh and dropped her hands to her sides. She stared at her feet for a long beat and it hit him.
Anything she wanted would have been everything.
At his soft laugh, her head jerked up and her eyes narrowed. “Are you laughing at me?”
“At us.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Listen, I’m going to back off, okay? Nothing’s going to happen unless you want it to.”
A grimace crossed her face.
“You want it to,” he said, liking that way too much.
She blew out a breath. “I’m not sure a nice guy would point that out.”
“I’m not all that nice,” he said.
She sighed again. “This is bad, Tanner.”
Yes. Yes, it was bad. Very, very bad. It wasn’t only a volatile situation but a dangerous one as well. More dangerous than being a SEAL. More dangerous than any rig job. Because this wasn’t a threat to his body, which had time and time again proven itself able to withstand much more than he’d thought possible.
No, this time the danger was to his heart and soul.
And he didn’t think either of them could take the hit.
“I’m not doing this,” she said, gesturing to him and then herself. “Not happening. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, you know?”
“Yes,” he said softly. “I know.”
But apparently she wasn’t sure because she kept talking. “I mean, I know what happens when you fall in love. You get stupid. Love’s not enough.”
“Callie, you’re preaching to the choir here.”
She still wasn’t done. “Did you know that forty percent of the women who shop and plan their wedding on my website don’t even have a groom? Forty percent, Tanner!”
“Jesus. Really?”
“Yes,” she said, “and don’t get me started on the other sixty percent.” She shoved her fingers through her already crazy hair and shook her head. “Focus, Sharpe.”
He smiled. “You talk to yourself a lot.”
“Yes. Be scared. Be very, very scared. In fact, if you could be scared off, that would solve everything.”
“Consider it done,” he said.
“Good!” With that, she stormed back into her apartment and slammed the door.
The door next to hers opened and Olivia poked her head out. Above hers appeared Cole’s.
Both grinning, of course.
“So are you really scared off?” Cole asked.
“Yep,” he said. “I’m gone.”
Cole laughed softly. “Liar.”
Yep.
“I hear there’s a girl,” Tanner’s mom said at her dinner table.
Both Troy and Tanner went still, eyes like deer in the headlights.
Tanner’s mom smiled. “I hear everything.”
Tanner turned his head and looked at his son.
Troy immediately lifted his hands in innocence and shook his head. “Hey, don’t look at me. I got dumped when you and Mom made me move here. It’s not me who has a girl.”
All eyes locked on Tanner speculatively.
He kept his face even. It was his weekly dinner with his mom. She looked forward to grilling him all week and now that he had Troy to accompany him, she had two targets. Troy had tried to put up his usual sullen front, but Tanner’s mom was hard to be sullen to. Plus it appeared the kid was starting to get into having his paternal grandma dote on him.
Or maybe it was the desserts.
Either way, Tanner hadn’t had to drag the teen here tonight. Troy had actually remembered first and had to remind Tanner to get going so that they’d be on time.
“There is no girl,” he told them both.
Beatriz studied her son. “I play bingo. I hear things.”
“You can’t believe everything you hear, Mom.”
“I hear it from Lucille. The Oracle of Lucky Harbor.”
Tanner laughed. “Ninety-nine percent of what she puts out there is B.S.”
&n
bsp; “Which means it’s one percent spot on,” she said calmly. “You’re seeing her granddaughter Callie, a sweet, smart girl who nearly married the dentist. He’s a good dentist but he’s an idiot of a man. You’ll do right by her.” She looked smug. “How’s that for one percent spot on?”
Troy grinned, enjoying this. “Is there dessert?”
“But of course,” Beatriz said. “Soon as your father tells his mama about the woman.”
“Hurry, Dad,” Troy said. “Tell her.”
Tanner went brows up on the “Dad.” At least on the outside. On the inside his heart did an almost painful squeeze as pleasure flooded him so fast he got dizzy. When Troy had first come to Lucky Harbor, he’d refused to call him Dad, instead using Tanner’s given name. Which had annoyed the hell out of him, but he’d hidden that because as he knew more than anyone, teenagers could see a weakness from a mile away. But he knew damn well that Troy knew how badly Tanner had wanted to be called Dad. “Now?” he asked the kid wryly. “Really?”
“Dessert,” Troy explained.
Naturally. Forget the Hallmark moment, it was about dessert.
Beatriz was smiling at Tanner, her eyes sharp as tacks.
She didn’t miss a trick.
“Yes, it’s Callie,” Troy said. “They’ve had breakfasts together at the bakery. And one at her place.”
Tanner stared at him.
“What? It’s online. Don’t blame me,” Troy said. “Dessert?”
“You,” Beatriz said to him. “Yes, you can have dessert, warm from the oven.”
Troy flashed Tanner a smug look that turned into a grimace when Beatriz pulled him in and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek.
Now Tanner sent Troy the smug look but after a moment took pity on his son. “Mom, he doesn’t like to be hugged and kissed.”
“No. This can’t be true,” Beatriz said, pretending to be aghast as she kissed Troy again and then again on his other cheek. “In our family, we like to kiss,” she said. “It’s the Brazilian blood.”
Troy tried to be stoic while Beatriz kept at him, but seeing as Beatriz was in a wheelchair and she had Troy bent into a pretzel, Tanner couldn’t help it. Eventually he started to laugh.
“There,” Beatriz said, satisfied, finally letting go of her grandson. “That’s much better. Why do you teenagers have to be all broody and sullen?”
“Because being a teenager sucks,” Troy said. “You have no idea.”
Tanner and Beatriz looked at each other and laughed.
Troy frowned. “You’re not supposed to laugh. That wasn’t funny. Why was that funny?”
“Baby,” Beatriz said, “you have no idea. When I was your age, I was working in the banana fields twelve hours a day. When your dad was your age, he worked two jobs to help keep a roof over our heads, and then when you came along he had to go into the military to feed all of us.”
Troy blinked. “I—I’m sorry.”
“Oh, no, baby,” she said. “It’s okay, you didn’t know. But now you do. Would you take Rio out for a walk around the block for your dear old grandma?”
Rio was Beatriz’s aging toy poodle, the one sitting in her lap like he owned it, and he resembled a balding chicken.
“Don’t move too fast now,” Beatriz said. “He’s got some troubles today. I think he ate a sock. Give him a moment to air out, you know what I’m saying?” She shoved Rio into Troy’s arms, slapped the leash against his chest, and smiled sweetly.
Rio reached up and licked Troy’s chin politely.
Troy looked down at the dog and then at Tanner.
Tanner kept his gaze on his mom, and a moment later the back door shut.
Beatriz grinned at him.
“Seriously,” Tanner said, “you should bottle that skill.”
“Which, darling?”
“How to be so evil and yet disarmingly sweet.”
She laughed. “Oh, but you can’t teach that. It comes naturally. Get the dessert, would you?”
Tonight it was fried cinnamon doughnut holes from Leah’s bakery. His mom loved them, claiming they reminded her of bolinho de chuva from her childhood.
Tanner’s dad had met her on spring break and brought her to the States. He’d stuck around long enough to see Tanner’s fifth birthday party.
Ever since then it’d been just the two of them, as Beatriz hadn’t been big on men after being dumped with a kid. She’d been an overworked, exhausted single mother working at the school cafeteria before rheumatoid arthritis had knocked her flat, forcing an early retirement.
He’d done his best to take care of her. And yeah, her body might have betrayed her, but her mind was still like a whip. She could read an eye twitch from a mile away, especially when it came to her son.
“Tell me,” she said. “Tell me about the woman.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Look at you, lying to your own mother. My phone’s been ringing off the hook. It’s all true, what Troy said.”
“You’re going to believe the word of a fifteen-year-old whose sole mission in life is to eat his weight daily?”
“He eats like you. He also thinks like you. You’ve got a smart one there,” she said fondly. “And don’t blame him. You’ve been seen at the bakery.”
Tanner sighed. “Forgot there for a moment that we live in Mayberry.”
She laughed. “Might as well be. I remember Callie as a girl. I cleaned her parents’ legal office at night for cash.”
“I didn’t know that,” Tanner said.
“No one did. I didn’t want charity, I wanted to work for what I earned. Her parents…” She shook her head. “They were good people, always made sure to give me a holiday and birthday bonus, but very self-involved. Scarcely noticed that they had a child.” She went on for a little bit about that time and what she knew and then she turned her eagle eye on Tanner. “Tell me what Callie is like now. I remember her as sweet. And smart. Very smart.”
“Still is,” Tanner said. “She’s running a site called TyingTheKnot.com, designing wedding websites and being a virtual wedding planner.”