“No?” he asked, finding that kernel of knowledge fascinating. And also a little hot. “What would have happened?”
“Well, for starters, I’d be appropriately grief stricken at your funeral.”
He burst out laughing.
Smiling, she slipped her arms around his neck. “But realistically? I’m happy to have you,” she said. “For the duration.”
It was the second time she’d made the distinction. Definitely time to put that to bed. “How about for as long as it works instead?”
She just looked at him for a long beat, and then without saying a word, set her head on his shoulder and sighed, cuddling in like everything was okay in her world.
And it sure as hell was in his. He opened his mouth to say so, but one of the Wounded Warriors cut in. And after that, Gray cut in. And then the music slowed again and he claimed her back with a scowl that made Gray smirk.
Flipping his brother off, Jacob tugged Sophie out onto the sandy beach for privacy. There he pulled her into his arms, where they swayed to the music drifting over them in tune to the water slapping the shore.
Pressed up against her warm, giving body, he couldn’t think of another place in the entire world he’d rather be, and when she sighed in sheer pleasure, he hoped that meant she felt the same.
She smiled against his throat. “Pretty nice day,” she said.
“Better than nice,” he murmured, and stroked a finger along her jaw, lifting her face to his. Her eyes were deep, dark, and full of things, things she felt for him, he realized, his heart taking a good, hard knock against his ribs. “What you did for me today, getting Chris here—”
“That was all Hud and Aidan,” she said.
“No,” he said with a slow shake of his head. “It started with you, and I can’t even find the words to tell you what it means to me that you did that. I didn’t realize a part of me was broken. Not until I saw Chris looking whole and…okay.”
Her eyes shimmered with emotion. “You found the words just fine,” she whispered, and gave him a soft smile, holding his gaze until it was…too much, and he dropped it to look at her mouth instead.
Her lips curved slowly, and he kissed her. And then again, still moving her to the beat, his body shifting against her in a way that had her letting out a soft moan, which he caught with his mouth.
“Let’s go home,” he said against those lips.
“The party—”
“Is going to be fine without us.”
She lifted her head and stared at him, and he did the best he could to look like something she couldn’t live without. When she smiled and took his hand, he felt like he’d just won an amazing prize.
Chapter 28
Jacob brought Sophie to his cabin, a place that felt more like home to him than any other place ever had. And if he played his cards right and also got very, very lucky, it might someday be the place she felt that way about as well.
He left the lights off. He opened the windows so that they could hear the music from the beach but kept the shutters closed enough that no one could see in. Then he slowly pulled Sophie in to him. They spent long moments swaying to the beat before he nudged her face to his and kissed her.
When they broke apart for air, he stared into her eyes and felt his heart roll over in his chest and expose its underbelly. “You’re so beautiful,” he said.
“Don’t.” She shook her head. “You don’t have to do that, Jacob. I’m here. I’m a sure thing tonight.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” he said. “I’ll cancel the string quartet and five dozen roses about to be delivered, and I’ll stop wondering if you’re going to be scared off by the ten cases of condoms I just bought.”
She laughed, her fingers smoothing their way up his chest, around his shoulders, and into his hair, making him want to purr. “Ten cases, huh?” she teased. “Cocky much?”
“Okay, maybe just one case. And it’s called ‘hopeful.’”
She laughed again. “Did you think I wouldn’t be?” she asked softly, nipping at his lower lip. “A sure thing?”
Truthfully? He had no idea what she was thinking, or even what he was thinking—other than he’d trained himself not to count on anything as a sure thing.
She stared at him for a beat and then proved she was a mind reader. “You claimed me out there on the dance floor tonight,” she said with a small smile. “All cocky as hell. I mean, you might as well have peed in a circle around me. Do you want to know why that didn’t make me mad?”
Since she was still running her fingers through his hair and he was quickly turning into a puddle of goo, he shook his head.