He brushed her hair out of her face, and his fingertips lingered on her cheek. “I told her that she’s right. That I’m very glad to have you. That it was the luckiest day of my life when you knocked on my door.”
Izzy stared at him for a long moment. She noticed the flecks of green inside his golden-brown eyes. He was looking straight at her, in a way he never had before. It made her so happy, and so scared, all at once. She knew she should pull away, get up, break this moment between them.
But she’d been wanting this for so long. And from the look on his face, she thought he did, too. She let her hands move up his shoulders. And then, slowly, she leaned forward and kissed him.
He kissed her back, at first softly, gently. And then the kiss changed, became urgent, insistent. She could tell, from his kiss, from the way he pulled her closer, that he wanted this as much as she did.
They kissed for a long time as the sun set in front of them, until finally, Beau rested his forehead against hers.
“Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to do that?” Beau asked. “The answer is, a very, very long time.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes.
“I didn’t know that, no,” she said. “I kind of thought I was all alone in wanting to do that. I didn’t even really let myself think about it, because I thought…”
He laughed and dropped a kiss in her hair. “I’m not sure whether to be glad I hid my feelings so well from you or to be furious we wasted so much time when we could have been doing this.” He brushed his fingertip over her bottom lip. “But mostly, I’m just happy to be here with you right now.”
Izzy leaned forward and kissed him again. “I’m really happy to be here with you right now.”
They sat there for a while longer, holding each other, kissing, talking about nothing, kissing more. Finally, Beau stood up and reached for her hand.
“Those snacks aren’t going to eat themselves, you know,” he said.
She laughed and grabbed his hand as she stood up.
They held hands on the way back to the car. Izzy smiled as she put on her seat belt.
“What is it?” Beau asked.
She shook her head. “I’m just happy. That’s all.”
He put his hand on her cheek. “Me too,” he said.
Beau put on his seat belt and started the car. Izzy felt like she was tempting fate, she was so happy. She tried to temper herself, push down her smile, just in case. And then she thought to hell with that, and she smiled so big out the window that strangers smiled back at her.
When they walked in the house, Beau reached for Izzy and pulled her close.
“I just needed to be able to do this again, when we were all alone,” he said, his voice muffled against her hair.
His words, his touch, went straight to Izzy’s heart. She couldn’t believe this had actually happened, that she’d kissed Beau on the beach and he’d kissed her back, that he’d said those things to her about how long he’d wanted to kiss her, that they were back here in the house together, like this. She rested her head against his firm, broad chest and felt his arms around her, and it felt so good. But then, suddenly, it wasn’t enough, and she lifted her face and pulled him down to her, and they were kissing again, and it was immediately more than it had been on the beach. Faster, closer, more intimate. His big, warm hands moved up her back, and the way he held her, kissed her, touched her, made her feel like the whole world had just sparkled from black-and-white into color.
Finally, he pulled away. She was glad he was breathing as hard as she was.
“We have to pace ourselves, Izzy,” he said. “We only made it just inside the door.”
She pulled him back down to her and kissed him softly on the lips before she took a step back. “I prefer to think of it as making up for lost time, don’t you?”
He gave her a slow, very sexy smile. “Mmm, that’s a very good way to put it.”
She smiled at him. “But also, I’m starving.”
He laughed and moved toward the kitchen. “Me too.”
She turned to go with him, but he shook his head and steered her toward the staircase. “I’ll get the food ready, you go up and change,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t like my dress?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh no, I’m not going to get caught in that trap. Number one: Your dress is great, but this is only the second time I’ve seen you wear it, and I don’t want to be the jerk who spills one of the assorted dipping sauces we’re going to have with dinner on it. If you’re thinking, ‘Does that mean Beau has been paying that close attention to what I’ve been wearing?’ the answer is yes. Which leads us to number two: You always change before we have dinner.”
This was only the second time she’d worn this dress, and she did always change before dinner.
Beau grinned at the look on her face. “See? Also, both of those things lead to number three: I was hoping you might wear one of those little tank tops tonight that have been driving me wild for weeks.”
Well, when he put it that way.
She lifted her chin and smiled at him. “Mmm, I’ll see what I can do. Meet you in the TV room in twenty minutes?”
His smile widened. “Absolutely.”
Izzy ran up the stairs, conscious the whole time that he stayed at the bottom of the staircase and watched her. When she got to her room, she just stopped for a moment and smiled. She had no idea where this was going, she knew she shouldn’t really be doing this, because given everything she knew about Beau, she had a feeling heartbreak was on the horizon. But for once, she would ignore that feeling.
She quickly changed into leggings and one of the tank tops that she most definitely had not realized had been driving Beau wild, washed her face, pulled Beau’s hoodie on, and ran back downstairs. She knew she should hang back, not be too eager, go down in thirty minutes instead of the twenty that she’d said. She didn’t care.
Beau was already in the TV room, setting something up on the coffee table. He looked up when she walked into the room.
A slow smile spread across his face when he saw her, and his eyes roamed down her body. She felt a shiver go through her.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she said. She suddenly felt shy. “Do you need any help? With dinner.”
He shook his head as she walked toward him.
“Everything is heating up, I’m just waiting for the timer to go off. But I…” He looked down for a moment. Was he blushing now? “I didn’t ask you what you wanted to drink, but I thought, maybe…”
Izzy came closer and saw what was on the coffee table. A champagne bottle and two glasses.
He’d done this, just for her? Beau wanted to celebrate as much as she did?
Her smile got bigger. She didn’t even try to hide it.
“You thought maybe what?” she said. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook here, no matter how sweet the moment was. She wanted to know what the rest of that sentence was.
He took a breath. “I thought maybe tonight was a good occasion to bring out some of my grandfather’s champagne.”
“I think that was a great idea.” She sat down on the couch, in the same place she sat all the time. But it felt so different now.
He picked up the bottle, unwrapped the foil from around the top, and then slowly twisted off the cage around the cork. He poured the champagne into two glasses and handed one to her before he sat down next to her.
“Cheers,” he said. “To a day of making up for lost time.”
Izzy touched her glass to Beau’s and took a sip of the champagne. And then she stared at the glass for a moment.
“I think your grandfather’s wine is going to spoil me for wine for the rest of my life,” she said.
Beau laughed. “This champagne is incredible, right? Perfect for the occasion.”
They smiled at each other again. He took the glass out of her hand and put it on the table. Then he leaned forward and kissed her again.
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She felt greedy, like she wanted all of him. Like she had to hold on to every touch, commit every caress to memory, absorb every moment into her bloodstream.
He kissed her hair and laughed softly. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you since that very first day, you know,” he said.
She sat back and rolled her eyes. “You did not. You just wanted me out of your house.”
He laughed. “Well, yes, at first I did. But the thing was, when you seemed so confident, so unafraid of me, when you refused to let me intimidate you, I was intrigued.” His finger trailed from her cheek, down her jaw, to her collarbone.
She slid her fingers into his hair. “Mmm, were you really?”
He nodded as his hands moved down her body. “I was.”
She pulled him close. Just as she was about to kiss him again, his phone alarm went off.
He laughed. “Dinner.” He shook his head and stood up. “Perfect timing.”
A few minutes later, he came back into the TV room with a tray full of food.
“I don’t know how it’s become my job to bring you food all the time,” he said.