Rafe watched Brooke practically bolt away from the three of them and frowned. She’d been her usual friendly self with his siblings, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel that something wasn’t quite right.

Standing up, he told them, "I’ll take the couch so that you can have the room I’ve been bunking in, Adam. You guys hang by the fire while I go grab my stuff and remake the bed for you so Brooke doesn’t have to do that, too."

He needed to find Brooke and make sure everything was still okay.

Chapter Twelve

Brooke truly was thrilled to see Mia and Adam again. Still, a little voice in her head that she wasn’t proud of kept asking, Did their reunion have to be tonight?

Normally she would have loved nothing better than to sit out by a lakeside bonfire catching up with old friends while making s’mores with a glass of bubbly in hand. But she could still feel Rafe’s kisses tingling on her lips, the heat of his hard muscles searing her skin through her clothes...and the heated promise in his eyes of more pleasure than she’d ever known before.

Keeping busy was the only way she was going to make it through the evening and the following day. She stepped into the walk-in closet that held the extra sheets. She had just pulled a folded stack off the shelf when she heard footsteps, and was just about to poke her head out of the closet to see if someone needed something, when Rafe walked in and closed the door behind him.

Her heart immediately started pounding like crazy, so loudly that it took her a few seconds to register the click of the lock on the door.

"Rafe? Is everything okay?"

"That’s what I came inside to ask you." He took the sheets out of her arms and put them back on the shelf. "I keep thinking about what you said to me before my brother and sister showed up."

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at him. Somehow she managed to get out the words, "Which part?"

He took her hands and drew her against him. "You told me you ached." He buried his face in her hair, and she let herself slide her arms around him again, exactly where she wished she’d been for the past hour. "I can’t stand the thought of you feeling that way all night long."

His mouth came down over hers before she could think a straight thought, and then all she could think of was his taste, the feel of his muscles beneath her fingertips, the way his kiss melted her insides until she was clinging to him just to stay upright.

"Let me take the ache away, Brooke."

Everything inside of her was spinning so fast that she couldn’t think coherently. She wanted what he was offering her so badly that she could barely force herself to remind him, "But your brother and sister are outside."

He brushed a lock of hair away from her face, his fingertips burning a trail of fire across her cheek. "I know I can’t make love to you while they’re here, but there are other things I can do, things that will make you feel a hell of a lot better. They know we’re getting the guest rooms set up for them. We have a little time before they expect us to come back outside."

"I want to, so badly, but I don’t know if I can—" The rest of her words fell away as she felt her cheeks flush even more than they already had.

"Tell me, sweetheart," Rafe urged.

She swallowed hard as she whispered, "I don’t know if I can be quiet enough for them not to hear."

Rafe’s eyes dilated even further as he slid the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. "I’ll make sure no one hears."

Her body flooded with a rush of liquid heat at his promise, one she didn’t know how he could possibly keep. Of course, when he cupped her face in his hands and looked at her with a question in his eyes, she couldn’t do anything but nod.

He reached for the hem of her long-sleeved T-shirt, and as he quickly pulled it up and over her head, he told her, "The next time we do this, I promise I’ll go so slow that you’ll be begging me."

Didn’t he know she was already about to start begging, just from the way he’d stopped to gaze at her in her bra?

"Every time I see you, I think I’m going to be prepared for how beautiful you are." He slipped her bra straps off her shoulders. "But I never am. Not even close."

Her breath was already coming in sharp pants of need when he reached around to undo the clasp at her spine. Just like that, her br**sts were bare before him, her ni**les peaking beneath the heat of his hungry gaze.

"Brooke."

Her name had barely left his lips before he was cupping her br**sts in his large hands and bending down to take one sensitive peak into his mouth. She clutched at his head, her hands threading into his dark hair as he licked her nipple, then closed his teeth lightly over it. His right hand played with her left breast, stroking, caressing, teasing. And then his hand was taking over where his mouth had been, and his mouth was moving to cover her other breast.

"God, you’re sweet," he murmured as he lifted his head. "I need to taste more of you. Now. I need you now."

Just his mouth and hands on her br**sts had been the most sensual experience of her life. But with Rafe’s hands moving to the snap and zipper of her jeans before he dropped to his knees in front of her, as he had her step out of them, she thought she just might combust from nothing more than the heat of his dark gaze on her.

His thumbs slipped into the sides of her panties, and even though he’d apologized for needing to move fast tonight, the slow drag of lace against her skin nearly drove her mad. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until the tiny patch of fabric hit the floor. On a whoosh of air from her lungs, she started breathing again, but when Rafe leaned forward and she felt his warm breath between her thighs, she couldn’t get in enough oxygen.