LITMIR.BIZ

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hands going to her waist as much to comfort as to hold her in place so he could inspect her face.

      As soon as he touched her, tiny explosions of need shot through him. Ignoring them, he tried to read her expression and figure out why she was pretending to be happy when she looked so deeply miserable.

      Lucky for him his body was good at multitasking.

      “What’s going on?” he asked, his words low.

      He looked at the small crowd gathered behind her. Before he could ask why everyone was wearing a cheesy grin and staring like he’d just won a Nobel Prize, Sage moved even closer.

      Plastered that sweet—oh, God, she felt so sweet—body against his in a way guaranteed to command his full attention.

      Then, before he could push her away or even demand an explanation for the crazy public behavior, she planted that full, usually babbling mouth on his.

      And Aiden forgot everything.

      His demand for information.

      His reasonable argument.

      Her tongue slid, hot and tempting, over the seam of his lips.

      And he straight-up forgot his own name.

      * * *

      YUM.

      Aiden Masters wasn’t just hot to look at, Sage realized as she sank into the hard expanse of his chest.

      He was hot to kiss, too. And tasty.

      Her mouth moved over his with as much curiosity as delight.

      How much had he learned in the last ten years?

      And how much of that learning would he be willing to show her? Despite the way his body had stiffened—and not in a way that a girl hoped for—she still wanted to find out.

      Mmmm. She let the sensations sweep over her, breathing in Aiden’s scent, crisp and heady over the smell of chlorine and fresh-mown lawn. Her fingers slid, just a little desperate, over the round hardness of his biceps, and she shivered a little wondering what else he had that might be just as hard.

      This was Aiden. They were friends, which meant there were boundaries that should be respected. That she shouldn’t be thinking this kind of thing about him, or doing this kind of thing to him, didn’t matter. This was for show, and sometimes putting on a show meant getting into the role. Besides, her body was desperate for a distraction, her mind more than willing to shut down its freaked-out thoughts while she reveled in a little sensual delight.

      Before she could revel too much, or find out what other hard things he had to offer, Aiden pulled away. She almost pouted at the loss of his mouth. The cool sweep of air made her shiver as he put distance between their bodies.

      Before she could protest, or do anything else that would most likely embarrass them both, Aiden tilted his head behind her. As if freed from a spell, the murmurs and laughter of her guests hit her with a reminder of why she’d blurred that boundary.

      “We should talk,” she said in a low, husky whisper, hoping anyone who heard would take it as sexy talk.

      “Ya think?” His words were pure sarcasm, but the indulgent amusement in Aiden’s hazel eyes warmed her like a friendly hug. He might be irritated, and with good reason, but he’d go along.

      She had to get him alone to explain, though.

      Which wouldn’t be easy, she admitted as they were suddenly surrounded by people.

      Nerves, something she’d rarely felt until this last week, gripped tight. Sage took a deep breath, trying to envision soothing energy pouring over her. But between the expression on Aiden’s face and the bodies crowding around, all she got was more nerves.

      Didn’t it figure that the one day she’d been unable to handle the company of her own thoughts any longer, Aiden showed up. This meeting—and explanation—would have been so much easier without an audience.

      “Hey, I’m gonna steal Aidan away for a while,” she said, turning to face the crowd with her fingers tightly wound around his. To everyone else it probably looked like they were holding hands. But Sage, and probably Aiden, knew it was to keep him from stealing himself away.

      “Lovebirds.”

      “So cute.”

      “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

      Sage rolled her eyes, gripping Aiden tighter when she felt him start to pull away.

      “You guys don’t mind, do you?” she asked, her tone making it clear that it didn’t matter if they did or not. “Go ahead and enjoy the pool. We’ll join you later. Maybe.”

      With that, and to a roar of laughter and suggestive words, she tucked her arm into Aiden’s and pulled—or yanked, rather—him around the house toward the lanai.

      “Wonder who’ll teach who the most? The soldier boy or the party girl?”

      She tugged harder on Aiden’s arm when his footsteps slowed, not sure if he were more likely to take offense at being called a soldier instead of a sailor, or the implication that she was a slut.

      Probably the slut thing. Aiden had beat a kid up in the fifth grade for calling her stupid. Then there was the time in high school when some guy had thought there was a direct correlation between Sage studying art and her need to see guys naked.

      “C’mon,” she murmured. “Just ignore them.”

      “You gonna fill me in on the reason for the dumbass remarks?”

      “Mine? Or theirs? Because I can only truly explain my own actions,” she said, keeping her tone light and teasing as she continued to pull him around the house.

      “Sage.”

      She heaved a huge sigh as they rounded the corner and got out of view of the guests, and, she noted with a quick glance, her father’s study window.

      “Look, I’m sorry,” she said earnestly, lifting her free hand toward the heavens as if to say it wasn’t really all her fault. “I really didn’t expect you home. Dad said he visited you months ago and you were talking about surfing. So I figured you’d be basking in the sun somewhere, or you know, chasing babes on a beach.”

      “So you knew I’d be on leave this month?”

      “Of course,” she said with a shrug, not sure why he sounded so surprised. She always kept track of his schedule. That’s how she knew he was safe. “But I didn’t think you’d be coming home. If I did, I’d have warned you.”

      The Spanish tiles, warmed by the sun, were smooth beneath her feet as they crossed onto the lanai. As soon as his boots hit the stone, Aiden pulled his arm from hers and, his frown ferocious, shifted his hands to his hips and gave her the evil eye.

      “Warned me? Instead of some drunk slapping me on the back and congratulating me on my score? Or the lady at the grocery store whose name I don’t know hugging me and weeping over my upcoming blessing?” He gave a low growl when Sage’s lips twitched, so she tried harder to keep the smile from escaping. “Then I get here and instead of a simple explanation, you throw your almost-naked body on me and start a public make-out session?”

      “Did you like it?” she asked, as much out of curiosity to feed that tiny seed of hot desire still burning in her belly as to buy some time.

      “Why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on,” he shot back. The stubborn set of his chin and irritation in his gaze told her he’d reached the end of his patience.

      Chewing on her bottom lip, she took a deep breath through her teeth. How was she supposed to tell him? Did she ease in with the engagement news, or explain about her father’s health first? He wasn’t going to take either well.

      Before she could decide, she heard the back door open and shut.

      Her heart sank toward her bare

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