She was pretty certain she’d never wanted to be kissed more than she did right now. Only she’d been submerged in floodwater a half hour ago and probably still very much looked the part.

Even so, she suspected her hormones weren’t the only ones racing because he cleared his throat abruptly and looked back into the woods.

“There’s another one,” he said a moment later, nodding toward the deer who was chewing on a long, thin twig. “Curled up on the ground a few feet to her right. Based on the size, I’m betting it’s last year’s fawn.”

Olivia craned to see but couldn’t. She unbuckled and leaned over the center console for a better look. “Oh, there. What a cutie. I bet they’re tired of all this rain.”

She was still leaning over the console when he looked her way again. She swallowed, realizing that mere inches separated them. Inches that would be so easy to claim as her own. The skin of her face tingled as if there were an electric field between them.

She could hear her grandpa’s voice asserting that no one liked a woman who was too forward, but she took a leap that surprised her, brushing her lips over Gabe’s. Maybe he met her partway. Maybe it was all her. It was hard to tell because she closed her eyes just before they connected. It was a gentle kiss, subtle and with enough hesitation to fit the circumstances. Gabe’s thumb traced her jawline, creating a thin trail of pleasure along it.

She pulled away enough to meet his gaze. She’d just kissed someone in his truck mere hours after meeting him.

Gabe’s lips stayed parted slightly, and his eyes searched her face. This time, there was no doubt about it. He moved toward her, deepening the kiss and awakening a heat that swept through her veins on a superhighway she hadn’t realized was a part of her. His hand slipped from her jaw to the back of her head. His tongue brushed against hers with a subtle, unimposing force that Olivia let herself savor.

This. So much this. She’d dreamed of kisses like this back when she was a kid who believed in princes and happily-ever-afters. Dreamed of wanting and receiving and giving all blended into one.

With an ease that seemed impossible considering the bulky center console and the protruding steering wheel, Olivia made her way onto his lap. Maybe it was so easy because his hands quickly locked around her hips to guide her.

This is crazy. This is so crazy. You don’t even know this guy. But Olivia wasn’t listening to caution. She brushed her lips along the side of his neck, letting them trail over the smooth skin underneath a shadow of stubble, pausing over his Adam’s apple.

This wasn’t her. She didn’t do this.