His first thought was finally.
But his second thought was this is so wrong.
Nudging that second thought aside, Jake Summerford put all of his focus into the responsive girl in his arms and dove in for another taste. For years he had denied that there was any attraction between himself and Mallory Westbrook.
She’d always been cute, always been sweet. But because of their age difference he’d never allowed himself to think of her as any more than a kid.
Well…she certainly wasn’t a kid anymore and he was fairly sure he was allowed to think a lot of different things about her.
Like how soft her skin was.
How full and wet her lips were.
How her family trusted him and treated him like one of their own.
Yeah, this was so wrong.
And still he couldn’t find the strength to care – not as Mallory pressed even closer and made the neediest little sound. He found his own arms banding tighter around her as he tried to think of the best place to move them for a little more privacy. Not too far away there was a party in full-swing for Ezekiel’s ninetieth birthday. There was a houseful of people, music was playing and really, it was where he and Mallory should be right now. How the hell had they gotten out here?
Oh, right. Mallory had given him a shy-yet-flirty smile and asked if he could help her move a painting from the boathouse, and like an idiot, he’d said yes.
And now look where they were.
Then a thought hit him – the boathouse! They hadn’t even made it all the way down to the pier before she had shocked him with this kiss. If he could maneuver them the rest of the way across the yard, they’d be completely out of view once they were inside the boathouse!
Carefully, slowly, Jake began to walk them further down the lawn toward the pier without breaking the kiss. The urge to swing Mallory up into his arms was strong, but right now he couldn’t think straight.
What the hell was happening to him?
He wasn’t a kid, for crying out loud! He was a man! A man who’d kissed more than his share of women. Women who…
And that’s when it hit him.
The enormity of what was happening here finally broke through and as much as he wanted to keep on kissing Mallory, he couldn’t.
Jake broke the kiss and took a step back. His breath was ragged and once his eyes focused on her and he saw how sexy she looked in the moonlight, he almost dove back in to start all over again.
“Why did you stop?” she asked breathlessly.
He swallowed hard as he tried to remember exactly why he stopped. In the moment, he knew it was the right thing to do. But now? Not so much.
How could he possibly explain to her how this wasn’t right when all he wanted to do was pull her back into his arms?