Free Northern Proposals by Julia P. Lynde Page A

at her, slowly backing away closer to the boat.
    "If you can catch me, you can kiss me," I said playfully, then immediately dived under the water and began swimming back to the boat.
    I didn't bother looking back but headed straight for the boat. I didn't know if she was behind me or wondering where I was. I did her trick and came up underneath the boat, being careful not to hit my head. My heart was racing as I imagined what she would do with me, what we might do together.
    Then I felt her hands on my legs, and she rose up next to me, immediately wrapping her smooth, athletic legs around me. I slipped under the water, and she pulled me up. I was sputtering from the sudden dunking.
    "Sorry," she said.
    I smiled and grabbed the boat for extra flotation. "It's okay," I said, my heart thumping. "You caught me," I told her. I sounded breathless, and I found myself staring at her.
    "What are you doing?" she asked. Her green eyes gleamed at me. Drops of water glistened in her eyelashes and ran down her cheeks.
    "Flirting," I breathed.
    She pulled herself closer, wrapping herself more completely around me. My heart was pounding as I stared into her compelling eyes. Her legs and arms enveloped me completely. I'd never been held like this before, especially not by a woman, and I decided I liked it. A lot.
    She studied my face, watching my reactions. Surely she had to know my heart was bursting. I wanted her to kiss me. I licked my lips.
    "I don't know how I'll feel on Monday," I told her , my voice cracking. "Right now, it's just a kiss."
    She pulled closer and I closed my eyes. Her lips brushed mine tentatively and withdrew.
    I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was studying me, perhaps wondering how I was about to react.
    "I don't understand," I told her.
    She looked away, but she hadn't stopped holding me, and my heart was still pounding, but I felt myself growing upset and feeling rejected.
    "I thought-" I said. I interrupted myself. "Never mind. I should have kept my mouth shut about the cabin. Now you're all freaked out."
    She looked back at me. "You raised the stakes awfully high."
    "If you were only risking a broken heart, would that have been a real kiss?"
    "Yes."
    "Either kiss me properly, Jessica or unwrap yourself."
    I closed my eyes again and waited. Either she would kiss me or she had damned well better unwrap herself from me.
    She started to loosen, and my heart began to break, but she was only adjusting her grip, and soon I felt her legs curl further around me, her body pressed more tightly to mine, and then her lips were on mine.
    I wrapped my free arm around her, pulling her against me, my heart thumping madly in my chest. When she flicked her tongue against my lips, I parted for her, and I felt her tongue slide between my open lips.
    I moaned into the kiss. So did she.
    I couldn't think. I couldn't think about anything. All I could do was feel. I felt her lips and tasted her tongue. I felt her limbs wrapped around me. I felt the skin of her back, slick with the water. Her breath was sweet, clean and intoxicating. I felt my heart pounding.
    I felt very confused.
    She moaned again, pulling me even tighter into the vee of her thighs, and I responded, the sound of my heart drowning out the quiet lapping of the waves against the boat.
    Eventually, disappointingly, she pulled away. I opened my eyes and looked at her. She looked very happy but a little nervous at the same time. She started to unwrap herself, but I said, "Please, keep holding me. I like this."
    She smiled and tightened her hold. "I've never kissed anyone under a boat before," she said.
    "Have you held someone like this before me?"
    "A few times, and been held a few times. But never someone I wanted as much as I want you."
    I hugged her tightly. She laid her head on my shoulder. "I want more kisses later. For now, we need to swim, and I need to think. I don't want you to let go, but you probably should."
    She looked a little disappointed as she let me