“They…” Frowning, I push through. “They want you to lose weight?”
She snorts. “Like thirty pounds.”
My jaw locks.
Hattie is pure beauty. Inside and out. She vibrates with life. Her body glows. Her skin a creamy wonder, her feminine curves lush and hypnotizing.
Looking at her is like satisfying a vitamin deficiency I didn’t know I had.
Why?
Why would anyone want to change her? Why would anyone want there to be less of her?
That feels like blasphemy.
Like slapping the hand of God.
How dare they?
“You don’t need to change a thing.” I shake my head again. “In fact, please don’t.”
Beside me, Hattie goes very still. She stares at me, and other than the tiniest frown on her lovely forehead, I can’t tell what she’s thinking.
“What’s wrong?”
She presses her lips together in thought. Then she gives a decisive nod. “I’m not very good at it, but I’d like to kiss you.”
My chest cracks open like an egg, and the sunny yolk of joy pours out.
“Hell, yeah.”
Slowly, Hattie leans over the arm of her Adirondack and brings her face inches from mine. Then she stills, so close she sweetens the air I breathe. Her eyes map my face, and my smile couldn’t stretch any further by the time her gaze reaches my mouth.
Such unhurried focus—so near and so concentrated—is surprisingly erotic.
I swell in my jeans.
No one.
No one has ever looked at me like this.
It’s like being seen for the first time.
I swallow thickly.
Her eyes return to mine, and the soft, timeless smile in them is just for me. Breath crashes from me. Because I can’t help but sense that she looks all the way into me.
And likes what she sees.
I swear, locking eyes with an angel couldn’t beat this.
It’s the best kiss of my life, and we haven’t even touched.
She leans closer, and though I’m tempted to close the distance, I want the kiss—this first kiss—to be on her terms.
At least at the beginning.
When her lips land on mine, she kisses once. Twice. Chaste little greetings. Like a timid swimmer testing the water with a toe.