Page 41 of Save a Wish

I slid my arms to her hips and she didn’t resist when I pulled her in closer for a hug. She fit up against me as if she were made to be right there, her arms coming around my back and her head resting on my shoulder.

I searched my mind for something else to say, but when we backed up out of the embrace, only one thing came to mind to do.

I lowered my head and brushed my lips against Sadie’s right there in that cornfield.

She slid her hands up my chest, hooking them on my shoulders, while one of my hands came up to cup her cheek and the other snaked around her waist to bring her closer again. I’d meant for the kiss to be simple, comforting, over in a second’s time.

But now that our lips were connected, instinct took over, and we deepened the contact instead.

Sadie tasted like lemongrass and spearmint and I vaguely recalled her saying something about experimenting with making her own lip balm when we’d been viewing the herb garden at Hartley’s Nest. Her lips were supple and soft, yet demanding, and when a small moan escaped from her into the kiss, my reaction was to trace the seam of her lips with my tongue.

She opened for me and before I knew what was happening, we were engaged in what could only be labeled An Epic Kiss. Our tongues stroked, explored, learned the shape of each other for long, savoring moments. If other maze visitors walked around us, I wasn’t aware of them.

I was only tuned in to all things Sadie. And I loved all those things.

We lingered here, locked in a kiss that tethered us to each other, that branded us, that promised so much more.

Then a clanging bell made Sadie jump away from me, her lips puffy and red and her cheeks blissfully pink.

“What was that?” she asked, but I couldn’t tell if she meant the sound or the kiss.

“The sound was a bell on a platform ahead,” I said. And the kiss? Well, I didn’t have the words for that. “The kids get a kick out of ringing it.”

“I see.” She licked her lips then peeked at me. “I thought perhaps that was a warning bell.”

“A warning bell?”

“Yes.” She touched her lips. “Warning that you and I were about to start a fire in this dry cornfield.”

It brought me infinite satisfaction to know she’d been as affected as I had by that kiss. Was I finally finding the connection I’d been searching for in my dating attempts? Cyber Mates definitely hadn’t had anyone like Sadie on it. I never would have found her through online dating. Someone who was genuine and real and didn’t lie in her profile.

Though I couldn’t imagine what Sadie would have to lie about. She was gorgeous, kind, smart, and eager to help people. No need to invent a persona. She was exactly what I’d been searching for in a potential partner.

And I’d found her lying in a field.

“Fields seem to be our thing.” I led her through a concrete tunnel to the platform with the clanging bell.

“What do you mean?” she asked as she climbed a set of wooden steps with me.

We cleared the stairs and I tugged her to a lookout area where an amazing view of autumn-painted mountains stretched out in every direction.

Standing behind her so she was sandwiched between me and the railing of the platform, I said, “I found you lying in a field. We just had our first kiss in a field.” I pressed a kiss to the rim of her ear then whispered, “I wonder what else we could do in a field.”

She angled her ass out a bit to rub against my front and I had to bite my lips to keep from groaning aloud. I didn’t want to make a scene, especially because little kids were also on the platform, tousling with each other over who could ring the bell. Finally, a man came over who I assumed was their dad.

“You both can ring it,” he said, scooping a kid up in each arm and toting them over to the bell. What followed was a cacophony of bell ringing that made Sadie giggle, especially when I put my hands over her ears to shield them from the clamor.

“I’m so sorry,” the dad said to Sadie and me. “You’re trying to have a romantic moment and we’re completely destroying it.”

“Not at all,” Sadie said. “Their enthusiasm is adorable.”

“Yeah, not so much at night when they still have this level of energy,” he said. “They never get tired. Never. It’s always chaos with twins.” He snagged one of them around the waist, picking him up as he pursued the second one, a little girl, who proved harder to catch.

Sadie stepped into the girl’s path at the right moment to stop her safely. “Show me how to ring the bell.”

The girl’s eyes glittered with excitement. “Okay! It’s so easy!” She bounded over to the bell, which looked as if someone had put the Liberty Bell in a clothes dryer and shrunk it. The girl picked up a mallet. “You hold this thing like this.” She choked up on it as if it was a baseball bat. “Then you smash the bell.” The girl let loose and Sadie clapped.

“Wonderful demonstration,” Sadie said. “May I try?”