“We had a big creek out back of our house when we were kids. And my dad hung a thick rope with a knot at the end for us to swing on.”
Us. Paige and Whitney. As children.
“We used to swing out over the creek as far as we could. Then we’d let go, flying into the water. It was like we were working together. I’d push Whitney and she’d push me, and we’d see how far we could get.”
“Who got the farthest?”
“I usually did. But it was like we both won because we were a team.”
In the halcyon days when there’d been no competition between them. “It sounds like fun.”
“It was,” she agreed. Then she stopped, tipping her head back to look at him. “But it was also the last really good summer for us. We always forget the good stuff when things go bad, don’t we?”
“Yes.” Just as he’d forgotten—or buried—his mother’s joy. “But I’m so glad we’ve remembered.”
He turned her in his arms and raised her hand to his face, placing her cold fingers on his hot skin. “Your hands are freezing. I better get you out of here.”
“I’m not cold with your arms around me.”
He hadn’t kissed her since they’d left the hotel this morning. And as much as he’d wanted to make love to her again, he hadn’t touched her. This day, this trip, the whale watching, the picnic on the beach, even the memories, were all about her happiness. And his need to give her something as exquisite as all she’d given him.
She couldn’t know, couldn’t possibly fathom what she’d done for him. Even today, drawing out the joy from his past. Replacing the dark with light.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Whether he moved or she did, their mouths touched. Her kiss was perfect for its very purity. Their breaths mingled, and her hands warmed against his chest. He licked the seam of her lips, and she opened for him, tasting of chocolate and champagne and beautiful woman. She gave him the sweetness of her soul in that kiss. And he gave her the depths of his.
The sea surged beyond them, crashing on the shore, and the wind surrounded them, blowing the silk of her hair across his cheeks. His blood was high, screaming for him to pull her down to the sand with him, to show her all the fury of his desire. Yet his heart wanted nothing more than her taste on his lips, her arms around him.
And in that kiss, he gave her everything he was, everything he couldn’t say, everything he wanted her to have.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It was dark as Evan walked Paige up to the front door of her condo. Susan’s words echoed in his mind as she turned her key in the lock and set her bag and purse just inside the door. You had your eyes set on the wrong sister from the very beginning.
He looked at Paige beside him. Sweet Paige. Hot, sexy, wild Paige.
Loving Paige.
She tipped her chin up to smile at him. “Thank you for a lovely weekend. And for that wonderful trip down the coast.”
That wonderful trip? It had been so much more. Standing out there on the beach with her in his arms, her lips open beneath his, he had never felt such passion. And yet ending with only that kiss had been its own perfection in that beautiful moment.
He’d spent nearly every second of the past two days with her, yet he wasn’t even close to being ready to let her go.
“You’re welcome.” It sounded so freaking inadequate for all the emotions churning inside him.
When she smiled again, his hands flexed with the need to haul her into his arms and kiss her senseless.
To love her senseless.
Susan was right, he had chosen the wrong sister. He recalled all those nights in Paige’s dorm room or sneaking into the university library, talking until he was hoarse, delving into her mind, relishing the way she did the same to him, the brilliant way she helped him shape his plans.
Then he’d seen Whitney. And he’d grabbed on to her because she made it easy for him. With Whitney, he didn’t have to really look inside himself and decide whether or not he was worthy of a truly good woman. He’d always felt good enough for Whitney, because deep in his heart, no matter what he told himself and everyone else, he’d known she wanted him for the money he’d make, for the things he would eventually be able to buy her.
Whereas Paige had never wanted those things. All Paige had ever wanted was to love a man with a true heart. A good man. A worthy man.
And he’d never felt worthy of Paige.
He still didn’t. Especially when he couldn’t erase his marriage to Whitney. When Paige would never be able to forget that he’d slept in Whitney’s bed, tried to have children with her sister. That Whitney was the sister he’d chosen back then, even if he chose her for all the wrong reasons. He worried that his past and the terrible choice he’d made would forever stand between them like a living, breathing human being.
And yet…
He couldn’t turn away from Paige. Couldn’t shut down this need, this attraction, this connection. Maybe it was the revelation of what he’d been running from all those years ago. Her beautiful, caring nature. Her pure love. His own feelings of unworthiness.
But even as he lowered his mouth to hers for a good-bye kiss, his gut cried out that it couldn’t be good-bye. He needed her, wanted her. Last night and this morning would never be enough. He wanted more beautiful days on the beach with her. More long conversations in his library. More nights in her bed. More of her.
In an instant, the good-bye kiss stopped being sweet or nice…or good-bye. He held her face in his hands and plundered her gorgeous lips. She opened with hunger, taking him with the same desperation he felt, a moan purring in her throat.