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“Later, Ken. ” As he spoke, Kelly felt his hand settle in the small of her back, his fingers rubbing in tiny circles over the loose cotton shirt she wore.
“Stop that,” she hissed, turning on him as Ken and Ricky left the building, the glass door whishing shut behind them.
She pushed his hand away, propped her hands on her hips, and glared up at his smiling face as he crossed his arms over his chest and smiled wickedly back at her.
“You’re just going to make me pout if you start refusing my pitiful advances, Kelly,” he sighed. “And here I stayed awake all night last night with a numb arm just so you could sleep comfortable. ”
Dawg’s snicker was clearly heard.
“Dumb and dumber,” she muttered, though she couldn’t keep the smile from her face as he reached out to run the backs of his fingers over the side of her neck. Shivers raced through her at the small caress. And it wasn’t fear. She could feel the pleasure suffusing her body, dampening the flesh between her thighs.
It was disconcerting. She had spent months with the fear that she would never be able to enjoy Rowdy’s touch again. That the desires he had filled her with, the needs and fantasies, would be swamped with the fear. The knowledge that they were coming back, perhaps stronger than ever was at once nerve-racking and comforting.
“It’s almost closing time. I thought we’d help you close up. Then we take all that Chinese food I have out in the cycle’s saddlebag and have dinner before we head out on the lake. ” He pushed her hair back from her shoulder as he spoke, his fingers lingering on the shell of her ear for long seconds after he finished.
From the corner of her eye she saw Dawg locking the lake-side doors and hanging up the Closed sign.
“Ray will skin you alive. ” She shook her head, though she couldn’t still the smile on her lips. “Summer hours are longer now, Rowdy. I still have an hour. ”
“I asked Dad first. ” He moved back, his expression intent, sexy. “Better yet, Dawg can finish up for you. Come on, Kelly, sneak away with me. ”
Sneak away with him? How many times had she dreamed of hearing him say those words? She would have snuck out with him, anytime, any place.
“Go on, Kelly. ” Dawg lent his approval to the idea. “I’ll close up shop here and help Ray and your mom outside before I leave. ”
As Rowdy’s first cousin, and the oldest by several months, Dawg had usually led the pranks the Nauti Boys had gotten into. The three men had been hell on wheels through their high school years.
She breathed in deeply, her hands sliding from her hips to her jeans pockets as she glanced up at Rowdy again.
“You know you want to,” he whispered with a wink. “Come on, I even spent the day airing out the boat and getting her ready. ”
The Nauti Buoy was his pride and joy, not to mention his weekend home. He and his friends spent their summers on the water, normally in the houseboats they had acquired over the years. Their title, the Nauti Boys, had come as much from the names of their boats as from their sexual practices.
“Okay. ” She gripped her courage with both hands and gave him a short nod. “I haven’t had Chinese in a while. ”
She hadn’t eaten out much period, preferring to stay in the house when she was home rather than forcing herself to pretend a security she didn’t feel. It terrified her, not knowing who her attacker was. If he was a friend or a stranger, someone she trusted or would have trusted.
“Good,” he said, his voice warm, approving as she moved past him, tugging at the hem of her oversized shirt before one of his big hands caught one of hers.
Warmth surrounded her fingers, fed into her bloodstream, and sent heat surging through her system. Adrenaline spiked the wave of warmth, fed it into her tightening nipples, her swollen clit.
“We’ll catch you on the lake later, Dawg. ”
“I’ll give you a call before I head out. ” Dawg nodded as they moved past him, his eyes narrowed, the brilliant green glittering behind the spiked lashes surrounding them. They held the same teasing warmth and sensual promise that Natches’s had earlier.
“Come on. ”
She followed Rowdy as he moved through the main marina office, waving to her mother as he opened the door and escorted her through it. She wondered if she looked as confused as she felt.
Stilling her emotions and her equilibrium after waking up with him that morning had been hard enough. She had been nervous, her fingers shaking, her stomach clenching each time she thought of waking up beside him, feeling him surrounding her, his erection pressing into her rear. That had been the most disconcerting part. She should have been frightened. The psychologist had told her she would likely be frightened the first time she tried intimate relations after the near-rape. That the intimacy of allowing a man to touch her, to hold her, might be difficult to get through.
It hadn’t been. He had made her more aroused than frightened. And in ways, that was more frightening than the fear of his touch. Everyone had told her for months that being touched would be difficult for her, but being touched by Rowdy had been a dream come true.
“You think too much sometimes,” Rowdy announced as he collected the bags of Chinese food from the steel saddlebags mounted to the side of the motorcycle.
“I can walk and chew gum at the same time too. ” She rolled her eyes at him, feeling his hand at the small of her back again.
In the past twenty-four hours he had touched her more than he had in the last ten years. Of course he hadn’t been home for the better part of those ten years, but it wasn’t as though the opportunity hadn’t been there.
