Tame the Beast : Small Beach Town, Single Mom Romance

My breathing is labored as if I ran a marathon and so is his.

“Never have I ever wanted someone as much as I want you,” he says but I don’t drink because the feeling is mutual and he tilts his head to the side, the hunger in his dark eyes now more prominent.

“Never have I ever done something this crazy,” I confess, feeling too much at the moment. He watches me for a beat and then instead of drinking like he was supposed to, he pulls me back in for another kiss.

Once he’s done, I’m gasping for air. “I don’t believe for a second you haven’t done something crazy before.”

“I have.” He grins.

“Then why didn’t you drink?”

“I did,” he says, and I eye his cocktail in confusion before he adds, “I just preferred drinking you over that.”

Can someone help me find my jaw, along with my sanity somewhere here?

Damn it, he’s so smooth and he knows it so well. My cheeks are on fire, my thighs are hurting from all the clenching I’ve done and the more I spend in such close proximity to him, the fuzzier my brain grows.

He keeps watching me with unnerving intensity, like he sees more than I’m okay with. Like he knows more.

And then he brings the pads of his fingers over my lips, gliding over them slowly. “I think I was wrong before.”

“About what?” I breathe out.

“About the nickname I gave you. Sunshine is too tame for you.”

“Oh?” Never have I ever been referred to as something other than tame.

“Mm-hmm. You are a lot wilder. You are just trying to hide it from the world, aren’t you, Beastie?”

Am I?

“Beastie?”

“Yep. That’s the one.” He smiles at me and then just to spike my heart rate further, he slowly slips back behind the bar, his eyes on mine as he swipes his thumb over his lips, gathering the remnants of our kiss on it and sucking it without breaking eye contact.

“Now, what’s your real name, Beastie?” His voice is full of gravel and that sexy rasp.

I’m still panting, and my thighs can no longer keep clenching.

“You decide to ask this now?” We have been together for hours and he only brings it up now.

“I was okay with not knowing before.”

“So, what changed?”

“I need to know the name of a woman who’s changed my life with one kiss.”

I stare at him, my mouth slightly parted. How can he say that? I want to call out his lies, yet something tells me this guy isn’t capable of lying. So, I give it to him. “Zoe.”

“Zoe.” He repeats it slowly as if tasting it on his tongue, and another shiver breaks over my body. “That’s okay, you can ask.”

“Ask what?”

“My name.”

“Why would I need to ask your name?”

“How will you know what to scream later tonight when I will change your life too and make you see the stars and the galaxies above?” I narrow my eyes at him and run my tongue over my teeth.