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“What?” Sid stomped through the sand beside him. “You can’t just leave.”

“I have to.” If he didn’t get away from her now, they’d both regret it. “Get back to your run. I’ll leave you alone.”

She moved in front of him, her turn to jog backwards. “But what if I don’t want you to leave me alone?”

“Trust me. You do.”

He tried to pick up the pace to get around her but she cut him off. “No, really, I don’t.”

Stopping, Lucas rubbed a hand across his forehead. This little visit home was temporary. Every instinct in his body told him Sid was not the temporary kind of girl. Regardless of what might be hidden, or not so hidden, under her clothes, her reactions gave her away.

Sid Navarro was not the casual type. And he was in no condition to do anything but casual. Especially when not casual meant being tied to Anchor Island.

“We can’t,” he said. Not his most eloquent argument but thinking wasn’t easy with her standing there looking like the winner of a wet T-shirt contest. The blood kept draining from his brain.

“We can’t what? Kiss?” she asked. “I think we should try.”

Wait. Was this the same woman who’d sooner spit on him than kiss him?

“Since when?” he asked, curious to know what had caused this sudden change.

“Well …” she sputtered, waving her hands and pointing to the spot where they’d fallen. “You started this. You should finish what you started.”

He wasn’t the only one coming up with shitty arguments.

“You don’t even like me,” he accused. And if she did she had a funny way of showing it.

“Ha!” she squeaked. “I never said that.”

Lucas charged down the beach again. “The way you act, you don’t have to say it.”

“Then make me like you,” she said, stopping him in his tracks.

Oh, so that was it. He knew what she was doing. Another one of her damn challenges. A challenge is what had gotten him into this godforsaken situation to begin with. He wasn’t going to fall for it this time.

“You don’t think I could do it?” he asked, calling her bluff.

Sid crossed her arms, which thrust her breasts toward her chin. Lucas’s mouth went dry.

“I have my doubts.” She tapped a toe. “You’re not exactly my type. Too prissy. Too pretty. Too … what’s the word? Metrosexual?”

“Metro what? Did you just call me prissy?” Lucas bridged the distance between them in two strides. “I’ll show you prissy.”

Sid never saw the kiss coming. With little effort, Lucas swept her off her feet and slammed his mouth against hers. Stunned by the sudden contact, her brain took several seconds to realize what was happening. But once it did, instinct took over.

Her legs wound around his waist as Sid latched onto broad shoulders, determined to give as good as she was getting. Which was really freaking good. Lucas tasted of mint and heat. His lips were hot and wet and threatened to turn her brain to mush. The power humming beneath her fingertips was more arousing than any joy ride she’d ever taken.

Talk about horsepower.

Even their kiss was a competition. Sid didn’t give two shits whether she won or lost, so long as Lucas kept his lips on hers. The muscles in his shoulders bunched and flexed every time he pulled her closer. Higher. Tighter.

Sid shoved her hands into his damp hair, tightening her legs around Lucas’s narrow hips. Solid abs pressed against her core, drawing a sound from her throat Sid had never made before. Her breasts ached, pressed against his broad chest.

As much as she loved the feeling of soaring off the ground, she wished he’d put her down somewhere so their hands could be free to explore. But then he thrust his tongue deeper and any thought of logistics disappeared.

If she’d known calling Lucas prissy would garner this kind of reaction, she would have done it years ago. Just when she thought her body couldn’t get any hotter, Lucas slid his hands down to her ass and she bucked like a speedboat bouncing over a rolling wave.

As if desperate to hold on, her hands fisted in his hair as she scattered tiny bites along his bottom lip. The reality of kissing Lucas was better than all her fantasies combined. He tasted better. Smelled better. And good God did he feel better. Without thinking, Sid said the words running through her mind.

“I want you so bad,” came out on a harsh breath.

His response was as unexpected as the kiss had been. With a growl, Lucas dropped her to her feet and backed away as if she were a live wire. And she felt like one, too.

Lucas bent, dropping his hands to his knees. He didn’t look happy and he didn’t speak. Sid waited half a minute but couldn’t take the silence.

“Are you all right?”

“Other than Mother Nature trying to kick my ass and you trying to fry my brain, I’m doing great.”

Her trying to do what?

“That shouldn’t have happened,” he said, panting. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Sid fought between breaking his nose and breaking into a run. But she wasn’t sixteen this time. And there was no reason they shouldn’t be doing what they were just doing.

“Why shouldn’t we be doing this? What the hell is your problem?”

“I crossed a line. It won’t happen again.”

Sid’s hands balled into fists. “What line? Stop acting like we did something wrong, damn it. That was the best kiss I’ve ever had, and you’re ruining it.”

“I’m trying not to ruin you!” he yelled, standing tall again. Tall and hot with his hair a mess from where she’d been grabbing it seconds before.

She couldn’t go back now. Couldn’t finally get a taste of him and then have it taken away. “I’m not some storybook virgin here. In case you didn’t notice, I wasn’t exactly fighting you off.”

“You should have been.” Since when did guys argue with women not to have sex with them? And no matter what he claimed, that’s where they were headed with that kiss. Maybe what the other guys had said was true. Maybe she really did suck at this.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked, clutching the sides of her running shorts.

Lucas ran a hand through his hair and began to pace. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one making a mess of this.” Stopping, he gripped the top of her arms until she met his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Dark curls swirled around her face. “I was bad at it, wasn’t I?” Shoving off his hands, she kicked the sand. “Goddamn it, I knew it.”

“You knew what?”

“That I can’t do this. I can’t even kiss a guy right.”

“You can’t … What are you talking about?” But before he finished the question, Sid ran down the beach toward her truck. She needed to get away.

“Sid!” he called, chasing behind her. “Where are you going?” She reached her truck and was halfway in the cab before he caught up. His left arm blocked her from closing the door. “You did nothing wrong back there.”

“Let me go.” She pulled the door but he held it open.

“Not until you listen to me.” He trapped her on the seat, her knees pressed against his chest. “There was nothing wrong with how you kissed me. That’s the problem.”

“How is that a problem?” She wrapped her hand around the wheel and bit her lip to keep it from quivering. “You’re not making any sense.”

Lucas ran a hand over his face. “Sid, another few seconds and we both would have been back on the beach getting sand in places neither of us would enjoy. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed how we got it there.”

“So I’m such a good kisser you were ready to have sex, but that’s a bad thing.” This never happened in her fantasies. He was supposed to be ripping her clothes off, not ordering her to keep them on. “What am I missing here?”