I blinked, wondering if I understood him correctly. “On your back?”
“Unless you’d prefer I shift into my wolf,” he said teasingly. “Which, according to the doc, I’m not supposed to do yet, but I think I could manage.”
The thought of seeing him as a wolf both terrified and exhilarated me. His human form I could handle all day and twice on Sundays. But hiswolf?A shiver cascaded down my spine.
At my hesitation, he added, “Or I could throw you over my shoulder and show you what a brute I really am.”
I gave a nervous laugh. Why did part of me get turned on by feral caveman shit? “Aren’t we just going over to the cabana?”
Since it wasn’t more than a dozen steps away, this seemed liked overkill. I hadn’t seen him do that with anyone else. But then, maybe it was dramatics intended for the screen. He was an actor after all, and the cameras were literally right here.
“No. I’m taking you somewhere else.”
I looked around. “Where?”
“You’ll see.” He made a clucking sound to hurry me up, like you do to a horse. Except thathewas the horse, and he wanted me to ride him.
Keeping my mind out of the gutter and my ass covered (no one needed to seethatmoon), I held my skirt and climbed aboard.
“Good girl, now that’s more like it.” He hooked his arms under my legs, straightened to his full height, and took off down the beach at a good clip.
His knee must’ve been healing well, I thought, as I tried to ignore how his praise heated my insides and that the hottest part of me kept rubbing against him.
God, he smelled good. This time like fresh cut grass and sunshine. I had to keep myself from burying my nose in the nape of his neck and breathing him in. However, when he hopped over a narrow channel of water, my lips accidentally brushed his ear. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as if his body vibrated beneath me like a tuning fork. Had he justgrowled?
It was surprising how intimate a piggyback ride from a very attractive man was.
Soon enough, we were no longer in front of the hotel, and the beach here was dotted with rocky sea stacks. Although it was pitch dark, you could see their imposing shadows rising from the sand.
Travis headed toward one of the largest ones and set me down next to it. “This is Fairy Rock.”
I pulled off my heels and sank my bare feet into the cool sand. Cranking my head up, I estimated the sea stack’s height to be 150 or 200 feet tall. “Why is it called that?”
“Come on. I’ll show you.” He grabbed my free hand and led me around to the backside of the rock where it was low enough to climb up. “Here. Put these on first.” Travis reached into his pocket, unrolled an object and handed it to me.
They were two objects, actually. “What are these?”
“Rubber swim booties. The barnacles on the rocks can hurt. They help with traction too, so you won’t slip.”
“Well, well, aren’t you a Boy Scout,” I said. “Always prepared.”
“I try,” he said with a wry smile. He’d brought a pair for himself too.
After we slipped on our booties, Travis helped me onto the rock. We picked our way over the barnacle-covered lower section, careful to avoid the little tidepools scattered about the surface.
When we reached the ocean side, he paused. “You go first.”
I stepped around him, and what I saw took my breath away.
Colorful tiny lights flitted in a cylindrical pattern from the base of the rock up to the star-strewn sky. Fairy-sprites.Hundredsof them. Like the ones at the Moonlight Lounge. So, this was why it was called Fairy Rock, I mused, as tingles of delight skittered along my skin.
“Oh my gosh, Travis, they’re beautiful.” I was vaguely aware that he was watching me and not the spectacular show of twinkling lights. He’d probably been to this place many times before. “Why are they here, flying like this?”
“You know how an eagle will find an updraft in the sky and just hang out for a while, circling higher and higher?”
“Mmm hmmm,” I answered, not daring to take my eyes offwhat I was seeing. If I blurred my eyes just slightly, the fairy lights formed continuous neon lines spiraling upward.
“At low tide in the evening, there’s a thermal updraft here that the sprites enjoy playing in. We have them all over the island actually. I thought you might enjoy seeing this one.”
