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Stormy groaned. “Don’t you understand English?”
“Sure, lay some on me.” His lopsided smile began to form, crooking up the corner of his mouth.
Clad in a tan windbreaker, faded jeans, and well-worn sneakers, he exuded uncomplicated beachcomber magnetism. She looked away as she uttered her words. “How much do you get paid to plague a person like me?”
“A lot. Thirty-three percent of recovered funds, property, whatever.”
“Keep following me, and you’ll collect thirty-three percent of zero.”
“That’smyproblem, not yours.”
In spite of herself, Stormy was enjoying their fencing and promptly warned herself against it. Vexed at her own emotions, she pivoted and aimed her footsteps toward home. Tyler moved in tandem with her.
“I do have my back up against it,” she admitted. “What I need is a friend—not you.”
“I’m a terrific listener.”
“You’re the enemy.”
Tyler pursed his lips. “Perhaps. But that doesn’t detract from my ability to offer a sympathetic ear to an attractive woman.”
“Forget I said anything,” she said, suspicious of his sudden over-the-top flirtation.
“Nope. Not going to do that.”
Stormy glanced at him. The last faint colors of the day streaked across sharp cheekbones, making him appear harsh and dangerous. He was keeping pace with her, elbowing into her space, radiating maleness that was impossible to ignore. His arm brushed hers. The contact disturbed her, engaging all her senses.
At Lowell, the main topic of inmate conversation had been men and sex. She had not joined the crude gossip, but she understood the inmates’ fantasies. Lacking the man, they had substituted words and images. Other things, too, but she had stayed well away from that.
She feared becoming captivated by Tyler’s mesmerizing green eyes and throaty voice. Being near him was hazardous. She liked it too much. She lengthened her stride.
Tyler laughed as she put distance between them. “I love the way you walk,” he called. “You’re liquid. You seem to pour from step to step.”
Stormy stopped in her tracks and turned to glower at him. All her frustrations boiled up inside until she could no longer contain them.
“Do you believe that paying me compliments is going to get you somewhere? Do you think because I’ve been in prison that I’m so starved for—for a man that I’m going to throw myself at your feet?” She crossed her arms to block the wind—or maybe it was to protect herself from the likes of him. “You don’t know what it’s like to lose everything you own, lose everything you’ve ever dreamed of. I don’t even have any friends anymore. When you’ve been in prison, people become suspicious of you. You’re not ordinary anymore. People don’t want to get close because they think I’m tainted and maybe I’ll cause them trouble. They’d rather not be involved. They can’t trust me, so they won’t give me a job. Even my own sister would prefer me on the other side of the earth. And now here you are—playing games with my life. I won’t have it. I just won’t. I’ll stop you somehow, some way.”
At the end of her breathless litany, she spun away on the packed sand and raced for the dune walk.
Tyler did knowwhat it was like to have it all—then lose it. He ran after her. She had stopped at the railing and bent over, gasping.
“Go away… please… just go away. I don’t have your damned money. I don’t want you in my life.”
A kaleidoscope of swirling emotions was making Tyler lose his cool. What the hell. He couldn’t just walk away from her. Her bitterness and angst mirrored his own. His circumstances were different, but heart pain was the same. It was moving. It touched him.
“Listen, sugar, if you were acting, that was the best piece of drama I’ve seen in years. If not… well, we’ve got ourselves a whole other ball game.”
She brushed away her tears and lifted her head. For a second, she looked shocked, as if surprised by his concern. Then she stood straight. “Don’t call mesugar.”
“Sweetie?”
“You’re a condescending wretch.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I’m thinking worse, but I have to curb my language…so my daughter doesn’t repeat my words.”
He laughed. The tension broke. “I guessed as much… That you were thinking worse, that is.” He sat on the top step of the walk over the dunes and patted the boards, gesturing for her to sit down. “Look, let’s discuss this from my point of view.”
