“But even though I was scared,” she continued, “I knew I would regret it forever if I didn't go for what I wanted.”

He wasn't ready for the way her words settled themselves way down deep in his gut and was glad when she didn't let them linger.

“I have Lily to thank for so much of my success. I can't even calculate how many hours she sat there on the floor and clapped and cheered while my dolls gave imaginary fashion shows. And she was such a sensation in my final show for school, and then my first show on my own.”

“I love Lily too,” he said, “but I'm not asking about her. I'm asking about you.”

“Well, here's something you should know about me.” She moved out of his arms and reached for a stick and the bag of marshmallows. “I have a major sweet tooth.”

He shouldn't be feeling disappointed at her clear switch away from his probing. He should be thanking her for keeping them in safe territory.

Fuck. Who was he kidding? They hadn't been anywhere near safe territory since the moment he rang her doorbell and kissed her.

She handed him a long stick and a couple of marshmallows and side by side they held them over the flames. A minute later they were assembling their s'mores. The sound she made when the sugar and chocolate hit her tongue was almost enough to make him jealous.

“That good, huh?”

She opened her eyes back up and smiled at him. “Only one thing is better.”

She pressed her lips against his and he tasted the lingering sweetness on her tongue.

“What about you?” she whispered against his lips.

What was it about kissing her that made him lose hold of his brain, he wondered as he repeated, “Me?”

“Do you like it?”

“I love kissing you.”

She pressed her lips back to his, harder this time. When she pulled away, she said, “Good. But I was talking about your dessert.”

He looked at the s'more in his hand as if it was the first time he'd seen it.

“Take a bite,” she insisted.

Food had never been all that important to him before, simply something he took care of to keep his energy up. And it had certainly never been sensual.

Until now.

Her eyes never left his mouth as he bit into the gooey treat. He felt crumbs on his lips but he didn't have time to brush them away, because Janica's tongue made it there first.

He barely managed to swallow as she sat back, waiting expectantly for his answer.

“So?”

“It's good. But I still like the taste of your kisses better.”

Her smile was as bright as the bonfire. “You know, with lines like that you could have given your brother a run for his money.”

Knowing she and Travis had always had a fairly bumpy relationship, he said, “He's a good guy. Better than most people know.”

She looked uncharacteristically serious. “I see the way he treats Lily. I know how good he is. But that doesn't change his past.”

Something about her statement, something about the words, But that doesn't change his past, sent a warning bell clanging through his head. He ignored it, though, because he was far more concerned with wanting to see another smile on her face than any more warning signs. Lord knew, there'd been a bucket full of them thrown at him since their first kiss. And he'd ignored them all.

“You may find this hard to believe,” he told her, “but when we were kids, I was the daredevil.”

She cocked her head, looked at him. “I'm not that surprised, actually. You do have a sort of latent wild look about you,” she teased.

“If you're not careful I'm going to shove the rest of that s'more into your mouth just to keep you quiet.”

“I can think of something else you could shove into my mouth to keep me quiet,” she offered wickedly.

“Don't tempt me,” he growled, pulling her back against his chest. And, of course, he wanted to feel her taking his cock into her mouth. Who wouldn't?

The thing was, right now he wanted to talk to her even more.

You're asking for trouble, a voice in the back of his head that had joined the warning bell cautioned him, but then she was saying, “Tell me more about all the trouble you got Travis in.”

“I learned to swim before he did, which he hated because he always liked to think of himself as the older brother. Those sixty seconds before I came out are really important to him, you know.”

“Figures,” she said.

Laughing, he said, “Anyway, one afternoon when he was being a real piece of work, we were out by the pool and I dared him to jump into the deep end.”

“The idiot jumped, didn't he?”

Luke laughed too, remembering. “Of course he did. But in the end, it all worked out just fine for him.”

“Why? Because you saved him?”

“Yeah, I saved him. But it was our busty young babysitter who made his day. I swear he sat there with his head between her breasts the rest of the afternoon.”

“How old were you?”

“Six. Seven, maybe.”

Janica giggled. “Come on. He was just a kid. He couldn't have already been such a dog. Now you're just talking smack about him because you know I like to hear it.” And then she said, “But I'll admit, it was pretty weird when he started dating my sister. I guess I always thought that she'd end up with you.”

“No chance,” he said. “Lily and I were only friends.”

“But you spent so much time together. How could nothing have happened? Something had to have happened at some point.”

Fuck. This was awkward.

“We kissed once,” he admitted.

“Aha! I knew it.”

“We had zero chemistry, Janica.”

“How could someone have zero chemistry with you?”

He had to kiss her. “I'm flattered.”

“Flattery has nothing to do with it, Luke.” She ran the pad of her thumb across his lips. “You're the best kisser I've ever known.”

He leaned in to capture her sugary lips and it was the sweetest kiss they'd ever shared.

“I love you,” she whispered against his lips.

The three words ricocheted through him just as they always did. And each time something inside of him shifted a little bit more.

Allowing himself one more sensuous sweep of his tongue against hers, he pulled back. “Janica, I—”

Her eyes were dilated, her cheeks so flushed with arousal that he could see the heightened color on her face even in the dim firelight.

“Shut up and kiss me some more, Luke.”

Every time she gave him an out.