COLTON WAITED FOR Tessa to protest, but she didn’t say a word. Maybe she hadn’t heard him. Maybe she hadn’t processed the full meaning of his declaration. Or maybe—just maybe—she liked the idea of spending more time together. For now, she seemed utterly fascinated with his face, raking her hands through his hair. And so she could see him clearly, she tilted his chin into the light. She traced his eyebrows with her thumbs, then spread her palms lightly over his cheeks, ensnaring him with her sensual touch.
“You live up to your promises, don’t you?”
He grinned. “I try,” he said, without a trace of false humility. He’d put a great deal of thought into tonight’s seduction and her appreciation gleamed in her mysterious eyes, curved her bold mouth, emboldened her adventurous caress.
“Try? No, you succeed,” she clarified, arching one thin eyebrow. “Wasn’t easy for me to remain so still and docile. Not my nature, you know?”
He chuckled, dropping his chin so he could inhale her amazing scent. Tart and sweet and intoxicating. “I suspected. That’s why I picked this particular scene, then did a few rewrites.”
She licked her lips, still swollen from his kisses. “You didn’t have to be so imaginative. I was a sure thing.”
He nuzzled her neck, growing harder with each little coo that spilled from her lips. “You talk a good game, Tessa, but a sure thing you’re not.”
With a hearty laugh, she pushed him to the side, rolling them over off the blanket and onto the sand, so powdery and fine, the velvet-smooth texture cradled his bare back when Tessa straddled him. She grabbed his hands and pinned him to the ground, as much as a woman her size could.
“As I recall,” she said, swiping a challenge of a kiss across his mouth, “in the original scene, Alina wakes up satisfied, but a bit angry. Here she’s been pining for her mysterious lover night after night for months. Experiencing pleasures she’s never known. When her man finally shows up, she even gives her life for him. Then the bastard sends her over the edge into orgasmic delight while she’s half-asleep. She hardly remembers all the good parts.”
“She’ll get her revenge,” he reminded her.
“I could do the same,” she challenged.
He nestled his backside into the sand, not so surprised when his sex stirred again, still nestled amid her damp, intimate curls. Not enough time had elapsed for him to initiate a repeat performance just yet. Still, the fact that she reignited his desire so quickly proved his suspicions about Tessa sinfully correct.
“You could try,” he challenged.
She moistened her lips with her tongue, smoothing the wetness across her soft skin with what he was sure was deliberate slowness.
“I just might,” she answered. “Sooner than you think.”
Shifting quickly, Tessa slipped away, twirling on the beach, nude and beautiful, her skin pearlized by the moon and then warmed by the fire. He was tempted to grab her and tug her back, but he had to tread lightly. He had her just where he wanted her—focused on the two of them and the amazing experience they’d just shared. Only minutes had slipped by, but Colton couldn’t help but note that she hadn’t mentioned his original proposition about making love in order to get his answer about marketing the book. Nor had she broached the sore topic of him leaving the minute she requested his departure—a last-minute condition she’d attached.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t leaving—deal or no deal. Not that he intended to piss her off. Instead, he planned to make the notion of him leaving impossible for her to bear. He didn’t much care if she threw a first-class hissy fit or called out her dogs.
The thought of the hellhounds he so often heard snarling over the phone caused a shiver to race up his spine. Rottweilers were not his favorite breed. So far as he was concerned, the vicious hounds were best suited to bikers and security companies. He glanced around. Only after concentrating did he hear muffled yaps from somewhere beyond the brush. He caught the glimmer of a light from a window high off the ground. If he hadn’t looked, he might not have seen the house at all, a good fifty yards away and tucked behind an impressive collection of tall coconut palms and a thick wall of fat, leafy sea grapes.
He was curious about what her home looked like inside, but for obvious reasons, had no strong desire to leave the beach.
Tessa retrieved her sarong, shook out the sand and wrapped the material around her. Splotches of moisture marred the dress, but Colton couldn’t complain about the view. Nude or dressed, Tessa stole his breath. He wanted her. Again and again and again.
She picked up his swimsuit and held it toward him, but he made no move to retrieve it. “Am I being dismissed?”
With a deep-throated chuckle, she tossed the suit beside him on the blanket. “No.”
“Good. I’m glad you didn’t let me have my way with you and then throw me out.”
She dropped to her knees beside him, tucking her feet beneath her. “I’m not a heartless bitch, Colton, no matter how much I like to act like one.”
He pulled up onto his elbows. “It’s a strong armor, that persona.”
“Sometimes,” she admitted. “But it can also be a prison, just like anything else.” She fiddled with the material of her dress, layering the gauzy material primly over her bare thighs. She turned and watched the water, spilling gently onto the sand. “You were pretty incredible.”
Again the topic drifted back to the lovemaking. Colton tried to bite back a surge of pride, but then decided, why? He had to play to his strengths if he wanted a woman like Tessa. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
She glanced at him sideways, her green eyes glimmering with something close to skepticism—but not quite. More like wary expectation. “Oh, really?”
“Absolutely. I’m a man of many talents, many interests.”
“And let’s not forget the unstoppable ego.”
“How could we?”
The duet of his chuckle with her unbridled laugh sounded like music to Colton’s ears. He could be himself around Tessa, or he could be someone else entirely, like Reides, their hero. Why or how Tessa had swept across the distance Colton had learned to establish between him and the women in his life, he didn’t know. And at this point, he didn’t care. He only hoped that the connection they’d fostered over the phone and through the writing of the book could stand the test of being together 24/7. He wished they had more time to move slowly—an evening together here, a morning there. But the tried-and-true path to romance wouldn’t work this time. For either of them. Besides, he had only a week before he needed to return to Chicago. Whether or not Tessa would take a leap of faith along with him, he had no clue.
Tessa sauntered beyond the reach of the torchlight, her hips swaying as softly as the breeze, drawing his gaze. She shook out her hair as she walked, and Colton noticed that the strands were not only longer, but lighter, spilling across her back like hot caramel sauce. He didn’t think she could have grown any more beautiful.
He’d been wrong.
She reentered the light soon after with a small Styrofoam cooler.
“Thirsty?” she asked.
“I could use something wet,” he answered.
She settled the foam box in the sand, then pulled a bottle of wine from the cooler. The glass dripped from the melting ice that surrounded it. “Are you attempting a double entendre, because I’ve heard better. From you, actually.”
He laughed. “Yeah, that was lame. Obviously, I need a glass of whatever you’re offering.”
“I thought about serving Mexican beer, for old time’s sake. But your visit demands something infinitely more special.”
She turned the wine bottle toward him. From a woman like Tessa, he expected a rare vintage, maybe something from before they were born. Instead, he got a cartoon drawing of limes hanging on a dark green branch and the words Key West printed in a font as bold and brazen as the island community itself.
“Key Lime wine?” he asked, surprised.
“Very fresh and fruity. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
“I’ll take you at your word. First, I’m going for a short swim. Care to join me?”
She shook her head, but reached across the blanket to where she’d left a folded towel. He accepted the offering and by the time he’d returned to their oasis on the beach, washed clean and revitalized, she had two glasses poured and settled on the top of the cooler and was slicing a knife through a thick-skinned mango. She sat with her knees parted, carving the tropical delicacy over the gap between her thighs so that the juices trickled onto the sand. He had the insatiable desire to lie just beneath her and lap at the sweet, dripping liquid with his tongue.
He toweled off quickly and wound the cloth around him as if he’d just walked out of the shower.
“Hungry?”
He squatted beside her, then sat. “Around you, I’m always hungry.”
She handed him a sliver of mango, still cradled in the reddish green rind. “You’re just full of innuendoes tonight, aren’t you?”
“Or I’m just full of it.”
She chuckled, then laid the knife and half-cut fruit on the makeshift table. “You? Never. You don’t say anything you don’t mean, remember?”
He lifted the fruit to his nose, took a sniff and found the scent pleasantly subtle. Honeyed and exotic, but light. He bit into the bright orange flesh, surprised by the instant tanginess, smoothed immediately by a sugary finish. He hummed his approval.
“Never had mango before?”
“Not right off the rind.”
She took a generous bite from her own wedge. “My dad and I could finish off a bushel of these in one week, sitting here, just like this.”
Colton frowned, not sure he wanted their night together to remind her of her father. He snagged his glass and, as with the fruit, stole an exploratory sniff. Very limey.
“I’m sure you weren’t drinking wine then,” he said. Or having sex with virtual strangers.
Tessa laughed, then turned the rind so she could scrape the last of the fibrous flesh off with her teeth. “When I was in the Keys with Rip, my childhood was not exactly traditional.”
Colton drew a tentative sip of wine into his mouth. The first impression was strong citrus, but the crisp bite of a decent white wine made the vintage palatable. Fun, even. Unique. An appropriate drink choice for tonight.
“Was it traditional back in New York?” he asked.
She snorted, grabbed her wine and took a hearty sip. “In comparison to my time here, yeah. I guess. If nannies and cotillions and picnics, where everyone dresses in their finest linen suits instead of halter tops and shorts, and where they serve vichyssoise and seared mahimahi instead of hot dogs and potato salad, are your idea of traditional.”
Colton took another sip of wine. He’d been raised in wealth and privilege like Tessa, but he’d at least enjoyed an occasional hamburger-fest courtesy of his Methodist church or the local Scout troop. The Grangers of Lexington indulged in both old Southern sensibilities including coming-out parties and foxhuntings, and modern entertainment like baseball games and movie night. The diversity had permitted him to become a social chameleon, able to shift from situation to situation without much discomfort. He wondered if the variation between Tessa’s divergent worlds of stiff, upstate New York society and loose-as-a-goose Key West living had done the same for her.
Just another of the many things that fascinated him about Tessa. Just another of the details he wanted to know.
“Did you see your father a lot?”
For an instant, Colton didn’t think Tessa had heard him. Her head whipped toward the house, alerting him to the fact that the dog’s barking had become louder, perhaps even more urgent. She turned toward the water and searched the horizon, then seeing nothing, shook her head and answered him.
“Not enough. But when I was here, he spent time with me every day, religiously, whether he was hung over or still entertaining some chick he’d picked up at Brew’s. Between the hours of three o’clock in the afternoon, just after he woke up,” she noted, “and sunset, when he’d shove off to go party until dawn, he was mine. He taught me how to torque a boat engine, fish for amberjack and hold my liquor. All in all, not a bad education.”
The wistful lyricism of her voice made Colton wonder how different her life would have been if Rip had maintained sole custody of his daughter instead of her uptight mother. She likely would have had the street smarts to avoid a playboy like Daniel Reese. Then again, if not for Daniel, Colton and Tessa might have spanned their entire lifetimes without meeting.
He was about to admit as much when she jumped to her feet, again scanning the dark horizon. Setting down his wine, he joined her. “What do you see?”
“Nothing. But the dogs are going nuts.”
“Maybe they don’t appreciate my presence,” he guessed, not entirely looking forward to his first introduction to her so-called pets.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
She looked up at him with big, innocent eyes. Before she even spoke a word, he gulped down his apprehension.
“Ready to meet the pups?” she asked.
He glanced back at the blanket, thought again about the treasure chest of condoms sitting on the dock. He had a lot more planned for this evening than doggie introductions. But with the distraction of continued howling, he couldn’t expect her full attention.
“Do I have a choice?”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her nose to his bare chest. After inhaling deeply, she proceeded to rub her hands up and down his back, over his ass and down his thighs. His cock immediately rose to the occasion, bulging beneath the towel he was suddenly having trouble keeping attached to his waist.
“You should be safe,” she said, pressing her cheek against his pecs.
“Oh, really? Why’s that?”
She turned her face and kissed him in the center of his breastbone, precisely at the spot where his heart slammed against his chest. “You’re carrying my scent,” she told him, swiping a quick tongue across his nipple, which immediately and painfully clenched. “They’ll either love you from the first moment they meet you, or they’ll rip you to shreds.”
He groaned when she turned her attention to his other nipple and tortured it in kind. “How reassuring.”
Just then, a loud pop echoed across the water. A red flare streaked across the sky, sparks trailing in a sharp arc. The sound was followed by the roar of boat engines, growing louder and nearer.
He snatched up his swimsuit just as Tessa grabbed his hand and led them along the bushy trail she’d likely dashed through a thousand times. In seconds, they were climbing the steps to her second floor, onto a wraparound porch that allowed her a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of her island and the ocean that surrounded it. From the southwest, a yacht approached, motoring slightly above idle speed. Another flare shot into the sky with much hoopla and celebratory shouts, and even to the eye of a landlubber like Colton, the boat didn’t look in trouble—not when he took into the account the half-dozen drunks dancing like tribesmen on the deck.
Tessa popped open a door and disappeared inside while Colton removed his towel and replaced it with his swimming trunks. When she reemerged, she tossed him a set of binoculars. “I don’t know anyone around here,” he insisted. “Shouldn’t you use these?”
He heard the distinctive slide and lock as she loaded a shell from the magazine to the chamber of the twelve-gauge shotgun she’d told him a thousand times she could grab at a moment’s notice. Good to know she hadn’t been lying just to calm his overprotective instincts.
“Know how to handle this sucker?”
Colton chuckled. “While you were eating mangoes and learning about underage drinking, my father had me out hunting ducks.”
She traded him the gun for the binoculars. He checked the safety and buoyed the ten-pound rifle in his hands, acclimating his hands to the shape of the weapon.
“Do you always come out armed when some drunken partiers venture too close to your island?” Colton asked, hoping the answer was an unequivocal yes.
In two strides, she leaned against the railing, training her eyes through the binoculars on the invaders coming eerily close to her dock. “Usually, I let the dogs out first. Then I back them up with firepower.”
“Feel free to follow standard procedure,” Colton volunteered, suddenly liking the idea of having two snarling, killing machines covering his back.
“Oh, I will.” She tossed the binoculars onto a nearby lounge chair, grabbed his arm again and pulled him into the house, darting down the stairs to the utility area where she’d detained her dogs. “There’s no way I’d deny Artemis and Apollo a chance to meet Daniel.”
Colton stopped dead. His hand gripped the gun so tightly, his knuckles ached. “Daniel? As in Daniel Reese, your asshole of an ex-husband?”
Tessa pulled back a security bolt. Behind the door, the dogs raged, growling and barking and scratching as if possessed.
“One and the same.” She shouted a throaty order to the dogs that immediately silenced them. When she opened the door, Colton saw two of the biggest, blackest dogs he’d ever laid eyes on, their barrel chests heaving and their tongues quivering with barely checked pants.
She leaned down and patted their heads, soothing them with nonsense words. A moment later, she motioned him closer. Grabbing his hand, she rubbed his palm over their ears. “Friend,” she said to the pooches in a soft, childlike voice. To him, she whispered, “Let them sniff you.”
The entire ritual took all of fifteen seconds. Soon the dogs were wagging their tails and circling them, then dashing to and from the door to the outside, more interested in the sound drawing closer and closer than the stranger their beloved owner had just introduced.
“Am I safe now?” Colton asked. He’d once doubted her stories about the ferociousness of her dogs. One look at their square jaws and demon eyes and he was a bona fide believer.
“You’re safe,” she answered, her green irises sparkling with their own devilish fire, making Colton wonder if he truly knew this woman as completely as he thought he did. The vulnerability he’d spied in her eyes over a year ago was nowhere to be seen. And the effect was wholly arousing.
“What about Daniel?” he asked, thinking the man was screwed and Colton was one lucky son of a bitch to get to bear witness.
She popped open the door and laughed when the dogs charged out ahead of them, growling and snarling as they shot toward the dock.
“He’s in for the surprise of his life.”