KATEY LAUGHED as she ran out of the water. She and Boyd had been playing in it like children, though there’d been nothing childlike about the many kisses they’d exchanged with waves lapping over them. But this was her first time in the ocean, or in any big body of water for that matter, aside from last night when Boyd had led her to the island, which she still didn’t remember.
Boyd had been amazed when she’d told him, “It’s a good thing I wasn’t completely awake when I fell off the ship, or I probably would have panicked, since I can’t swim.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“I never had occasion to learn, since we lived inland.”
Of course he would find her inability to swim unusual, with his growing up in a harbor town. She’d already known that his family and their shipping company were based in Bridgeport on the coast, but she heard much more about his home port while they had shared that beached fish for lunch.
She even told him, “I almost visited your town one summer with my father. A shipment he had ordered for his store from Bridgeport was late, and he was going there to find out why. He offered to take me along and we were going to leave the next morning, but then in rolled the wagon with his shipment, so we didn’t have to go. I was quite disappointed.”
It was incredible that they’d grown up so close to each other, yet really, worlds apart. Her father had only ever ordered supplies that once from Bridgeport. Danbury, much closer, was where he got most of the stock for his store. But what if they had met much sooner? Would they have become friends? Would they have even noticed each other? Probably not. He was at least ten years older than she was, in his early thirties. While their ages made no difference now, it would have when she was still a child and he was already a man.
But she really did surprise him about not being able to swim and he’d asked her, “You’re not afraid to be in the water?”
They were already standing in it waist high when that subject came up, and she hadn’t even thought about any danger when she’d run in with him, hand in hand. “With you near, of course not. We already know that you swim just fine for both of us.”
She’d been teasing. It simply hadn’t occurred to her to be afraid of the ocean. But he’d glanced toward the shore at the mention of his heroics. That struck her as odd, but only for a second. And then he’d tried to teach her to swim. What a failure that had been! She was too busy having fun to pay attention to a swimming lesson, and he soon gave up the attempt.
She lay down in the sand now to let the sun dry her. He dropped to his knees next to her and shook the water off himself like a dog. She shrieked as the water from his hair rained down on her.
“You did that on purpose!”
“You noticed?” He grinned unrepentantly.
She grinned, too. He was such a different man! Relaxed, playful, teasing, full of smiles, boyish ones, sexy ones. She liked this Boyd. Maybe a little too much.
“Where’s your nightgown?” he asked, looking beyond her to their little camp. “As much as I love the fact that you are unselfconsciously flaunting your beautiful body before me, I don’t want to see you get sunburned.”
She chuckled. “Flaunted? Is that what I’ve done? I didn’t exactly have anything appropriate to wear for that swim, now did I?”
“I know, not even drawers, which was a pleasant surprise, finding you don’t wear any under your nightgown.”
“To sleep? Please,” she said drily. “I’d sleep naked if I didn’t have a maid who barged in most mornings to wake me.”
“A nice thing about marriage is that maids stop doing that.”
Katey stiffened. He wasn’t going to ruin this idyllic tryst by getting serious on her again, was he?
“Tyrus can legally wed anyone at sea.”
He was. “How nice for him, but unless Grace wants to take her flirtation with our new driver beyond that, which I’m almost certain she doesn’t, Tyrus’s extra services won’t be needed.”
He just stared at her. She squirmed a little. Why couldn’t he just enjoy this time with her and let it go at that?
She tried to tease him back to his previous playfulness. “Oh, you meant me?” She said it lightly, but he wasn’t going to be teased away from this subject.
“Katey—”
“Don’t start. Please. This has been fun. We might even do it again sometime without the dramatics of falling off a ship first. But nothing has changed. I’ve already told you why I’m not ready for marriage yet.”
“You can’t stick to this map you’ve laid out for your life. Not after today, which was a very big detour.”
“It was nothing of the sort. And if you’re talking about my virginity—” She snorted. “Do I really look like a society miss who would swoon over its loss?”
“You look like the most aggravating woman in the world, is what you look like!”
“Why thank you. I do try!”
She shot to her feet and went in search of her robe. Arguing with him when she didn’t have any clothes on just felt wrong. They shouldn’t even be arguing. Why did he have to be so stubborn?
She expected him to follow her to drive his point home. He didn’t, and when she glanced back to see him sitting exactly where she’d left him, she had a feeling she knew why. Even that infuriated her right now, since she suspected it had a lot to do with his persistence.
She was too agitated to fasten any more than half her buttons before she marched back to accuse him, “Hiding the evidence that even when you’re furious with me, you still want me? Ha! You’re worse than a tomcat. Admit it, you’re just perpetually on the prowl!”
He stood up to show her just how accurate her guess was. She blushed to her roots. But that wasn’t the only effect his desire had on her.
“Do you really think this has anything to do with anyone other than you?”
Hearing that just clinched it. She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his hips. Her aim was precise and she groaned with pleasure. She was exactly where she wanted to be.
“Now I dare you to argue with me further,” she said before she kissed him.
She merely had to hold on after that. He did all the rest. But she’d never done anything so aggressive in her life. It was his fault, inflaming her like that. Is that what he experienced so often, urges so powerful he could barely control them? He obviously had more strength of will than she did.