The Wrong Mr. Right (The Queen's Cove Series #2)(56)

He frowned but didn’t say anything. His gaze swung to the fire.

The video of Wyatt surfing flashed into my head, and that weird kick he did.

“Question for you.”

He met my gaze and nodded. “Go for it.”

“Pacific Rim, last year.” I tugged at my bottom lip with my teeth, not sure how to say it. “I was watching some footage.” My knee bounced up and down. “For social media clips. Um.” An uncomfortable laugh huffed out of my chest. “You fell off your board.”

Wyatt watched me with an unreadable expression. His hand tightened on his mug.

I tilted my head with a wince. “It wasn’t a big wave but you fell. And you kicked.” I glanced up at him to see him studying me. “You kicked your leg back and fell off your board.”

He cleared his throat and stared into the fire before he closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath. “Yep. I kicked.”

“Did you—” My words broke off and his gaze snapped up to me.

“Say it.”

I shook my head. What if I were wrong?

His eyes were bright. “Say it, bookworm.”

“Did you do it on purpose?”

His eyes were sad and he pressed his mouth into a thin line before he nodded. “Yep.”

“Why?” I breathed.

He raked his hair back and blew a breath out. “I don’t know, bookworm. I’ve been asking myself that question for a year. I panicked out there. It was right there.” His throat worked. “I was going to place well in the competition, and then I saw it all—surfing for a living, traveling all over the world, rubbing elbows with the best surfers.” He met my gaze. “I’d be surfing with people I looked up to since I was a kid.” His hand tightened on his mug again and he shook his head. “It was so sweet that I couldn’t even look at it. I had been working towards it for so long that the idea of finally having it, it was…” He shifted. “I panicked.”

A log cracked in the fire and sparks flew.

“How are you feeling about it in a few weeks?”

I had asked him the question before but he knew what I meant this time. How are you really feeling, I was asking.

“Scared out of my fucking mind.” He huffed a laugh and shook his head at me. “The idea of doing it again scares me and the idea of doing well scares me. What the fuck is up with that? I don’t know why I’m acting like this.”

My heart ached for him. In my mind, Wyatt held a shield in front of him with the words everything is temporary engraved on it.

“Bookworm,” he said, and his gaze rested on me with such sad longing that it broke my fucking heart. “Hanging out with you on the water, it’s been the best summer of my life.”

He shot me a sad smile and my heart tumbled down a flight of stairs.

“Me too,” I whispered.

I shivered and pulled my jacket around myself more. It was cooler up here in the mountains.

“Cold?”

I slipped my hands up into my sleeves. “A little.”

“Come here.”

My stomach rolled forward. He murmured it but the authority in it, the command, made me shiver. I stood and walked to him, and he pulled me into his lap. My pulse raced as his arms came around me. He warmed me as I sunk into him, pressed against his thighs and chest. His arms locked around me and I leaned my head back against him. His scent teased my nose, fresh and masculine.

“Better?” His hand brushed my arm.

I nodded with a small, shy smile.

“I have an extra jacket and toque in the car for you if you want it.”

“I’m okay like this.”

“Good. I like you like this, too.”

His mouth was so close to mine. Inches away. I had the urge to trace it, run my finger along the lines and soft skin of his mouth. The hair on the back of my neck prickled with awareness, and goosebumps rose down my skin under my jacket. The image of him shirtless that afternoon, chopping wood, flashed into my head and my pulse thrummed between my legs. A throb. Like I was empty and needed something to clench on.

I shivered. I needed him. I wanted to clench on him.

He shifted beneath me and my eyes widened when his hard length pressed into me. A muscle in his jaw ticked.

“Bookworm, you’re making it real hard to be a gentleman when you look up at me like that.” His chest rose and fell with a deep breath but his gaze dropped to my mouth.

“So don’t be.” The idea that he wanted me back made the heaviness between my legs intensify. The air between us crackled.

His jaw ticked again and his hands tightened on me, one on my thigh and one on my waist. The hand on my waist slid lower to my hip. Sparks zinged up my spine.

“Bookworm.” He groaned it like he was in pain. “I’m supposed to be helping you.”

I wanted his mouth on mine again. I wanted his mouth all over me, and from the way he was looking at me like he wanted to devour me, he wanted the same thing.

I didn’t want to be shy Hannah anymore. I didn’t want to miss out on life anymore.

I shifted on his lap to get a better view of his face. I slipped my hand higher on his chest until my fingers brushed his warm, bare skin above the collar.

His eyelids fell closed. He exhaled through his nose and his fingers dug into my hip.