He stepped to the side and opened the door with a flourish. “After you.”

I stepped onto the deck, and my hair went wild, flying varying directions in the strong breeze that whipped at me from the ocean. I fisted the strands in one hand and the hem of my dress in the other as Jackson came through the door behind me and shut it. We stood on a circular deck just below the top of the lighthouse, where a light rotated in a steady rhythm at least ten feet above our heads.

His wide grin had me questioning his sanity. “You look just like you did when I first saw you.”

“Oh,” I said softly. He remembered the beach that well?

“Here.” He came close enough that I felt the heat of his skin as his arms reached around me, replacing my hands with his. “Now you can grab a hair tie if you want.”

“What makes you think I have a hair tie?” I arched a brow, refusing to give in to how damned handsome the man looked in the moonlight.

“Don’t all women keep a hair tie in their purse?” He nodded toward mine, which I’d slung diagonally over my shoulder.

“I’m not sure there’s anything that all women do,” I retorted, knowing full well that I had a tie in my bag. But common sense prevailed, and I surrendered my hair and hem to him, then reached for my handbag. My cheek brushed his bare forearm when I turned my head, and I muttered an apology as I quickly found the tie and restrained my hair in a quick bun.

Jackson won another point when he didn’t mention that I had, indeed, had a tie as he’d assumed. Instead, he took hold of my shoulders and turned me slowly so I faced the ocean. “Worth the hike?”

My breath caught, and I moved forward to lean against the cool, metal railing, hoping it was enough to keep my skirt from flying up over my underwear. These were definitely a step up from my Hello Kitties, and I wasn’t exactly ready to show them off.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, unsure if the wind made it too hard for Jackson to hear. The full moon played off the waves in the distance, streaking a path of white across the water that led straight to the beach, illuminating the coastline in a blend of light and shadows, softening the dramatic landscape.

“Hmmm?” Jackson questioned as he came up behind me, his head over my shoulder.

“I said it’s beautiful.” My mind drew a blank as I struggled to think about anything besides how close he was. How there were merely inches—if that—between us, torturous yet necessary. Those inches were all that kept the flutters in my stomach from turning into something far more potent and dangerous.

“Yeah. It sure is.”