She slid her hands over his shoulders, feeling the warmth of his skin and the urgency of his mouth on hers. She could have kissed him all day. She could have kissed him for the rest of her days. If it felt this good why didn’t people spend all their time kissing?

His kiss grew bolder, and when he slid his mouth across her jaw, down her neck to her breast she didn’t push him away. She’d never actually had sex, even though most of her friends had. She’d come close, but then her mother had died and Izzy had found it impossible to connect with anyone. She’d felt isolated and alone. But she didn’t feel alone now. Not with Aiden kissing her, and telling her how beautiful she was and how much he cared for her.

I love you, Izzy, I love you.

And she squeezed her eyes shut because she wanted to believe him so badly, and because she wanted this to last forever.

She stroked him, explored him, feeling like a sex goddess as he moaned against her lips.

And just when she thought they might do it, right here and now in a field of daisies, he pulled away and drew in a ragged breath.

“We should—” He broke off, swore under his breath and raked his hand through his hair even though all that happened was that it flopped back exactly where it had been in the first place.

She grinned. “I love that your hair does that.” Her comment relieved some of the tension and he grinned back.

“Does what?”

“Falls into your eyes.”

He dropped his gaze to her mouth and then gave a groan and sprang to his feet. “I’m going swimming.” He sprinted away and she gave a choked laugh and sat up.

“Aiden! Wait.”

“I’ll see you in the water.”

“But it’s freezing.”

“I’m counting on it.” His words drifted back to her on the wind and she smiled and followed more slowly, dodging butterflies and bees as she headed back from the meadow to the shoreline.

He was already in the water when she joined him and they fooled around, splashed each other and then lay stretched out on the dock and let the droplets of water evaporate under the hot sun.

They laughed and talked, and at one point the thought crept into her head I wonder if this is how Flora makes my dad feel, and then she decided she didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to think that Flora might be a permanent fixture in their lives. For today she just wanted to think about herself and Aiden.

15

Flora