âThis has got nothing to do with wisdom.â
Liam released her only to bury his hands in her hair. âIâve been wanting to do this all night. It ought to be made illegal for you to hide your hair. Itâs so soft.â
Something swelled in her chest at the sound of awe in his deep voice.
Her hair slid through his fingers as he released it. His hands settled on her jaw, bracketing her face. The gesture struck her as tenderâ¦cherishing even. His head lowered over her and he spoke a fraction of an inch next to her lips.
âTell me that you feel it, too.â
Natalie couldnât squeeze a word out of her throat, so she just nodded once.
And then he was kissing her, and everything faded away.
Nothing existed but Liamâs hungry mouth and her own erupting need.
The beauty of a beach bathed in the glow of a midnight moon went a long way toward soothing Liam Kavanaughâs doubts about returning to his hometown after all these years. True, Harbor Town was hardly Chicago, and yes, the only danger he might face as chief of police of this lazy territory was falling asleep on the job during a monotonous workday.
But Chicago had nothing to compare to this view.
He walked on, his bare feet sinking into the cool, soft sand, letting himself be calmed by the sound of the waves breaking on the shoreline. Harbor Town had been the location of his childhood summer vacations. It would be where he would spend his next vacation, as wellâa monthlong stretch of ease and relaxation before he started his new job.
Followed by a lifetime of ease? Iâll probably become so relaxed Iâll be practically comatose.
He stepped into the shadow of a tall sand dune, scowling at his thought. So what if serving as Harbor Countyâs police chief was opposite on the crime-fighting spectrum from being an organized crime detective in the big city? Heâd had his fill of life in the fast lane.
Hadnât he?
Every time he pictured himself as the local top cop it was as if he imagined a cutout, a facade, a caricature. Liam just wasnât sure he could âdoâ an Andy Griffith, small-town-sheriff type with any degree of believability.
He would do it, though. He had promised his mother and his older brother, Marc, that heâd quit the Chicago police department when he finished his latest undercover assignment, and heâd held true to his word. Marc always said the Kavanaughs had a tendency to try to undo their fatherâs sin through hard work and community service, and Liam didnât necessarily disagree. Yet doubts about his new life lingered.
He cleared the shadow of a tall sand dune and came to a complete halt.
For a few surreal seconds, he wondered if he still lay in his bed in the cottage, sleeping. He shifted his feet, feeling his toes burrow through the soft sand.
No, he was awake.
But the woman before him was something from a dream.
She twirled and spun on the beach, an angel forged from moonlight. She seemed transported by her dance, at the mercy of the movementâ¦compelled by some invisible force. Her body was supple, graceful and perfectly proportioned. Liam could easily make out the outline of it, scantily dressed as she was on the hot summer night. As his eyes adjusted to the dim glow of the moon, he made out a pair of shorts and a bikini top, but otherwise her limbs and torso were bare. Her hair was straight and longer than he saw most women wear it anymore. The ends of the tresses swished against her naked waist.
Her skin flickered in shadow and silver light as she moved in her dance of solitary magic. She arched her back, her long hair touching the tops of her buttocks, her arms gliding through the air, her breasts thrust forward, as though she was seducing the moon itself.
A tingling sensation buzzed beneath his skin. He couldnât pull his eyes off the vision of ethereal beauty. Her arms stilled and she held the pose for a moment, while his breath burned in his lungs. Then her curving back straightened and Liam realized her dance was complete.
Suddenly, she was a mortal woman standing on the beach. An incredibly beautiful one.
Walking toward her, he called out. Her long, dark hair flew about her shoulders when she spun in alarm. Her face was cast in shadow, but Liam didnât need to see her expression to realize heâd frightened her with his presence. Harbor Town might be one of the safest places on earth, but no woman wanted to be accosted unexpectedly by a strange male past midnight in such a desolate location.