I nodded. The way I felt right now I’d tell him anything.

A serious expression fell across his face. ‘I was wondering if you’ll be my date for the island ball?’

I sucked in a breath, my stomach somersaulting. ‘Date, as in just going together because we’re friends and organisers, or date as in …’

‘Date,’ Dan finished the sentence for me. If this one word wasn’t potent enough, he added, ‘I’m not going to lie, my preference is definitely for the latter, but I’ll go with whatever makes you comfortable.’

Whether it was courage from the whisky, or the fact Dan had pretty much just admitted he liked me in the same way I liked him, something spurred me on to lean right in close.

‘Maybe I’m sick of being comfortable,’ I whispered.

Time stood still as Dan’s fingers slid up into my hair as he drew my mouth to his. One minute we were talking, the next we were kissing like our lives depended on it, and seconds later we were tearing at each other’s clothes.

Our heavy jackets were yanked open and tossed aside, our lips parting only long enough for us to tug each other’s jumpers over our heads. Dan’s hand slid around my back, snapping open my bra and I heard a guttural groan from somewhere deep inside his throat as my breasts spilled out. The cool evening air barely had a chance to touch them before he rolled me onto my back, straddled me and covered each one with a large warm hand. The heat shot from my nipples right down to my core as he moved his already rock-hard groin against my pelvis. Need swelled within me. Dan had barely touched me and already I couldn’t stand the barrier of our jeans.

Two words—pleasure and torment—came to mind as he teased his thumbs over my nipples. My skin came alive from head to toe, tingling and burning as his hungry gaze swept over my bare chest, then moved lower, his hands following its path. I sucked in a breath when his fingers dipped inside the waistband of my jeans and then groaned when, moments later, he teasingly pulled them out again.

But my disappointment didn’t last long.

Dan lowered his face, so our lips were almost but not quite touching. ‘I want to explore every inch of you,’ he whispered, before unbuckling my jeans and slowly peeling them down my legs. Once they were off, he took my left foot in his hand and ran his thumb under the arch, before replacing it with his mouth and kissing all the way up to my inner thigh.