He turned to go and made it halfway to the kitchen doors before he heard Miller shout, “Wait!” He turned back around to see the older gentleman rushing toward him with a small bread basket he covered with a cloth napkin.
“I know she said she doesn’t want dessert, but a man knows his little girl. Even if she thinks she doesn’t want it now, she will later,” he said, handing Kyle the basket. “Save you some trouble from having to sneak back in here.” He whispered this last part so only Kyle could hear, adding a wink at the end.
Kyle simply nodded his thanks and turned to go.
Drea swung in the hammock that was a few steps from her back porch on Big House Beach. It had always been her favorite place to come and read while listening to the waves. There had always been something kind of romantic about it in her mind, even though she was the only one who ever used it.
She heard Kyle round the house as he approached the side of her porch and slipped off his shoes. She looked over to watch him and saw him place a bread basket next to his shoes before he strode the couple of steps toward her. Without saying a word, he grabbed the side of the hammock, making her slow swing come to a halt as he climbed in. The movement of his body joining her was enough to set the netting back in motion as he snuggled her into him. Pulling her close so she was lying with half of her front side on his, he wrapped his arms fully around her and kissed the top of her head. They lay there for a moment just like that, swinging back and forth, before he finally broke the silence.
“You okay, sweetness?” he asked. She nodded, without looking up at him. “You can tell me if you’re not. I got you either way.”
“No, I am. I’m just really tired and Uncle Vaughn being in that mood just pushed some buttons.”
“Tired, huh? Someone keep you up all night?” He tickled her lightly, making her squirm.
“Yeah, just some boy,” she said, emphasizing the phrase her uncle used earlier. She couldn’t believe that her uncle had had such a strong reaction to the two of them going sailing. She told herself that it was the wedding making him act this way—after all, he’d always seemed to like Kyle. All of her uncles liked him. He’d engrained himself not only in her heart, but in her family as well. “Maybe if we told them that you’re my...whatever, he’d stop flipping out.”
“Your whatever? By ‘whatever,’ do you mean boyfriend?” he asked.
“Um, yes?”
“You questioning that because you don’t know where we stand or because you don’t like the term boyfriend?”
“I guess that depends on you. Do you like the term boyfriend?”
“I told you this morning, sweetness,” he answered, kissing the top of her head again. “You’re mine, and I’m yours. If you want labels, great. If not, then we’ll just have to figure out how we’re referring to ourselves.”
“Okay then, boyfriend,” she said, smiling. She flipped herself over so she was fully on top of him now, her breasts pushing against his hard chest. “I don’t want to talk about my crazy family anymore.”
“Then what do you want, beautiful?”
She blushed slightly at him calling her that. She loved all the little things he’d started calling her since they kissed for the first time the other night. They made her feel so special, all warm and fuzzy inside.
“I want to just lie here with you, kissing and snuggling and listening to the ocean until I forget I have a crazy family.”
She wiggled her hips slightly against his, eliciting a dark, intense look in his eyes. His hands slid down her back, over her ass and thighs, finding the hem of her sundress. As he moved them back up her thighs, this time underneath her skirt, he leaned in, touching his lips to hers. When his hands found her bare ass cheeks, courtesy of the tiny thong she was wearing, he groaned into the kiss, slipping his tongue past her lips. He kissed her long and hard. With his mouth and hands on her like this she felt like she was flying and would do whatever it took to make sure it didn’t stop. Still kneading her ass, he pulled back slightly and looked deep into her eyes.
“As you wish, sweetness.”
Chapter Seventeen
Drea woke up to the sounds of someone rummaging through her kitchen. Not just someone. Kyle, she thought. They’d spent the rest of the evening wrapped up in each other in the hammock, cuddling and kissing, with little bouts of talking in between kisses. If she had ever imagined the perfect evening, that would have been right up there. Just the two of them, curled up together on the beach, doing nothing. Part of her had wondered briefly if one of her uncles or Simone would try to come find her after they all finished eating, and how exactly she would explain being caught mid-kiss, but he had done exactly what she had asked of him, and kissed her until she lost track of all thoughts.
She must have nodded off at some point while they were out there, since she didn’t remember making it to bed last night. Her heart swelled with the idea that Kyle had carried her to bed and tucked her in. She wondered if he had slept here last night and made another early morning exit, only to come back and rummage through her kitchen. She swung her legs out of bed, realizing that she only assumed it was Kyle in her kitchen and should probably make sure. For all she knew, Vaughn had let himself in and had decided to rearrange her whole cottage.
Padding slowly into the kitchen, she smiled when she found Kyle standing at the counter pouring coffee into two mugs. She looked over to find a duffle bag sitting by her front door, packed and ready to go.
“I?
??m very glad it’s you I’m finding in my kitchen this morning,” she said, walking up to him.
“Just who did you think would be in your kitchen at this hour?” he asked, turning to embrace her. He leaned down and kissed her good morning. She moaned softly in response.
“For all I knew it was one of my uncles.”
“I really hope you’re not greeting your uncles in just your thong like that,” he said, laughing.
She pulled away from him slightly and looked down. She was indeed in just the tiny scrap of lace she’d worn under her sundress last night. She giggled and looked back up at him with a wicked little smile on her face.
