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She left him alone in the sunlit kitchen, his fists clenched, anger surging in his gut, and his suspicions all but confirmed.
He turned abruptly and stalked to the phone, ripping it from its base, and punched in the marina’s number.
He waited through four rings impatiently, one hand propped on his hip, the other clenched around the phone with a force that should have shattered it.
“Mackay Marina. ” His father’s booming voice suddenly came over the receiver.
“Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” Rowdy kept his voice calm, controlled.
“Hey, Rowdy, not too bad. ” Ray Mackay chuckled. “How did you get to call so early? That CO of yours sleeping on the job?”
“Hell if I know,” he drawled. “I didn’t sign up for another tour, Dad. ” He had planned to, had every intention of doing so until his last birthday passed and he realized that running from some things wasn’t working. “I’m home. Showed up about seven this morning. ” Tension suddenly sizzled across the line.
“You’re home?” His dad’s voice was deliberately bland, the tone mild. But Rowdy knew his dad, sometimes too well.
“Yep. Saw Kelly too. ”
He wasn’t a fool, but even if he had been the muttered curse that came across the line would have warned him.
“We’re on our way home. ” Ray confirmed his worst fears. “We need to talk. ”
Rowdy hung up the phone, stared around the kitchen, then breathed out heavily.
Damn. He came home to court his favorite girl, to settle down, to stop fighting what he knew was a losing battle. Had he come home too late?
Kelly let the hot water from the shower flow over her, wash away her tears, though it couldn’t wash away the feeling of hands holding her down, of fetid breath on her face and hard, wet lips covering hers.
It couldn’t drown out the rage and anger, or the fear. The water turned her skin pink from the heat and stung her tender flesh, but it couldn’t ease the need that lay just below the memories of a night she feared had changed her life forever.
Rowdy was home. All six feet, four inches of hard, muscled flesh and teasing sea green eyes. He was home after more than a year away, a man full-grown, mature, and sexy as hell.
She wiped at her tears again, her breath hitching in her throat as she remembered one of the few nights she had followed him to the lake. The houseboat was Rowdy’s pride and joy, and it was his escape. And she knew where he would head, to the Point, a serene cove where he and his buddies gathered on the weekends to drink, fish, let off steam, and party out the excessive energy they always seemed to have.
“Dad’ll kill me. ” He had been just a little drunk, and way too sexy. His sea green eyes had darkened, his expression growing heavy with desire as he pressed her against a tree.
They had been hidden in the shadows from the rest of the group, sheltered. The heat of summer and lust had wrapped around them. He had been a man, and she had been too innocent, too uncertain in how to contain the need that pulsed in every cell of her body.
&n
bsp; “I won’t tell him,” she had whispered, her palms smoothing up his chest, feeling the prickle of the light growth of body hair that spread over his torso as his hands gripped her hips, pulling her against his thighs.
“He’ll know I touched you. ” His lips had quirked into a smile. “You’re like pure, raw liquor, Kelly. And you go to my head faster. ”
She had fought to breathe, to contain the explosion of satisfaction and joy that rushed through her bloodstream.
“I’m leaving again tomorrow, baby. ” At first the words hadn’t made sense. “I took another tour. Damned good thing, because sure as hell I’d end up doing this, and fuck us both up for good. ”
Agony had washed over her body even as pleasure had exploded into fragmented, flickering rays of sensation. His lips had covered hers, his tongue teasing her as he sampled her kiss then tasted the tears that fell from her eyes.
“One kiss, baby. Just this. Damn, you’re going to break my heart. ”
He had kissed her as though he were starved for her. One hand had curled in her long hair, the other had cupped her breast, his thumb rasping over her engorged nipple, their moans blending together as the summer night enfolded them.
The hard length of his cock had pressed between her thighs. Even through the heavy material of his jeans she had felt the throb of his erection, the length of it, the promise of passion and satisfaction.
“Don’t leave,” she had whispered as he drew back from her. “Don’t go, Rowdy. ”
“If I don’t, I’ll ruin us both forever…” He had set her from him, staring down at her, his eyes raging with lust. “Don’t forget me, darlin’, because sure as hell, I don’t think I’ll ever forget you. ”
