Looking ahead again before taking the couple of steps separating me from the railing, I sigh happily. “Thank you for the ride. I still feel guilty for the day off just a week after I started, but the ride was awesome.”

“Happy you enjoyed it.”

Oh, that I did. I enjoyed it. More than I should have. Because yes, the ride itself was a terrific experience, but I won’t even try to deny that I enjoyed being so close to him just as much. Seth is a fit man with hard muscles all over his body. I’m worried that just thinking of getting a peek at the abs I got a feel of will have me blushing like an eighteen-year-old virgin. It doesn’t help that every time I think about his body, I’m brought back to the memory of his kiss all over again.

“Why the blush, doll?”

Seth’s question has me freezing briefly.

Oh God.

My worries were warranted, quite obviously. I’m not going to bullshit him saying that I’m not blushing, because one, he’s standing beside me, which means that he sees my face just fine, and second, my cheeks now feel even more on fire. I don’t have to see them to know they’re red.

“Would you believe me if I told you that I’m just a little hot?” I answer his question with my own, joking nervously.

Not saying anything at first, Seth places his glass of water onto the flat railing before moving to stand behind me. Muscular, tattooed and tanned, his arms cage me in. But I don’t feel threatened by his move. All I feel is safety, and a whole lot of tingles on my skin even though he’s not even touching me.

“That depends on what kind of hot we’re talking about here. Are you feeling hot because of the mild sunrays, or because of whatever it is you were thinking about just now? I’d personally prefer the latter,” he says before asking me point blank, “What were you thinking about, doll?”

Wondering how words can even form in my mouth right now, I confess in a low voice. “Something I have no business thinking.”

“Can I be the judge of that?”

His breath flowing over the skin of my neck turns my brain into mush—I guess that’s what I get for wearing my hair up in a ponytail—but his question doesn’t sound rhetorical. So, before I chicken out, I answer his first question.

“I was thinking that you have a very fit body. Very hard abs. You know, I felt them during the ride,” I explain briefly, forcing myself to shut up because I know that my nervous self will have me stammering eventually.

His voice sounds one octave lower when he asks me, “And did you like them?”

The least I can say is that this man has no issue going straight to the point with his questions. I’m not a prude, but still, I’m out of my comfort zone right now.

“Seth…”

When I don’t say anything more than his name, he speaks again with a voice that’s even deeper, without a doubt because of the lust that’s growing thick between us.

“That’s not an answer, doll.” The teasing in his voice is as clear as the lust. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

What I’m feeling is pretty simple, but God, how can I voice something like that? I can’t bluntly tell him that I’m craving for him to kiss me with the same fierceness he kissed me with two days ago. Even more than that, I’m dying for his hands to let go of the railing and find a new place on me. We’re standing so close to each other, yet he feels so far away for what my body is crying out for. Even when he takes a step forward, bringing his front to meet my back, bringing his hard crotch to meet my ass, he still feels too far away.

I can’t believe what I’m doing. Well, technically, I’m not doing anything except standing here, but still.

“Tell me.” Seth whispers the command in my ear before his tongue comes out to flick over my earlobe.

“Touch me,” I blurt out, and for the next few seconds, I’m left speechless, shocked at my own words. But they’re out there, so I might as well get the confession out all the way. “I feel like I need you to touch me,” I say, basically saying the same thing, though I’m thankful that it comes out less like a desperate plea this time. “But it’d be a mistake,” I add without so much as a fleeting second of pause.

I mean that, but the furious need that has invaded every part of my body doesn’t recede even slightly.