Page 53 of Against The Tide

“What if I’m not good enough?” I murmur as he releases my hand and my face, arms wrapping tightly around me until I’m tucked in his chest. “You might not want me.”

Cupping my face with both hands, he leans over me. “You don’t ever say or think that. You are more than enough. You are more than any man could hope to deserve.”

All the breath leaves my lungs, and my knees buckle at the fierce honesty in his eyes, leaving me certain that Rhett Reynolds is a fire that will consume me beyond control.

Like the core of the earth, he’s a molten magnet. Impossible to draw away from. Impossible to restrain. A force beyond anything I’ve ever known.

“You’re all I can think about,” he speaks into my hair, lips fluttering over my temple as I rest my head on his chest. “More than anything I’ve ever fathomed. God, Avery, I want you. I want all of you. Everything.”

His words fill me with possibilities…desires that I have no recollection of feeling before.

“You are and always will be pure fucking sunshine to me.”

The heat emanating from his body seeps into mine, our closeness setting my nerves alight. My heart pounds harder. My core throbs.

His hands meander down my bare back, to my sides, curling around my hips as he steps forward, feet planted on either side of mine.

I hold on to his shoulders as he presses his lips to my forehead, tipping my head back with the controlled force of his kiss.

“You are so much more than you’ll ever know.” Rhett breathes out around a smile.

The surety of his statement never wavers even in its gentleness.

“You are everything,” he whispers across my hot skin. “Avery…”

Rhett glances between my stare and my parted lips. Hands locking tighter around my hips, holding me flush to him. He’s warm like the sun and the longer he reins in his kiss, his need solidifies between us.

My hand twists in his T-shirt. The subtle breeze enveloping me with his scent, so that I am completely surrounded by everything that makes Rhett Reynolds the only man I could ever trust again.

Everything about him feels like home.

My entire being trembles at the realization. A soul-deep yearning comes to life inside me. Need unlike any the I’ve ever felt. For him. For all the promises glowing in his bright blue stare.

For him. This man.

“Kiss me.”

“What if I don’t ever stop?” He ghosts his lips over mine.

“Don’t stop…please.” I’m begging him, breathless and raggedly. “Please, Doc.”

My mouth dries as he runs the tip of his nose along my cheekbone, inhaling deep as his lips press to mine softly before he pulls away and a hand cups my jaw. He presses my head to his shoulder while his thumb rakes over my bottom lip.

The thundering of his heart is loud and fast. The sun is beaming, the early morning breeze wrapping around us, binding us tighter together.

And I cannot breathe.

I can barely hold myself up.

And then his mouth crashes onto mine. His hand coaxes me onto the tips of my toes by my jaw. The other rounding to the curve of my ass, keeping my body completely tethered to his.

Groaning, he nips at my cupid’s bow before licking the sting it leaves behind. His fingers sink deeper into my flesh, a welcome frisson of pain that sets my entire being alight. Every nerve and pore cry out for more as his tongue pushes into my mouth.

I freeze at my first taste of him. And I know there will never be anything like it ever again.

There’s nothing tentative or soft about his kiss. He pushes and pulls, gives and takes. A yin and yang of overwhelming sensation.

Sweet, commanding, and devastating. It shatters all I ever thought I wanted. All the dreams I ever held dear and clung to with all the hope in my being.