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ChapterOne
Jack’s cell phone buzzed at least three times before he even got his brother’s sleek 45’ power catamaran into the open water.
He knew it was nothing pressing since the text messages had subject lines like “quick heads-up” as opposed to “URGENT.” So he ignored them, figuring Keith wanted to share a lot of nitnoid details about his high-end vessel- as if Jack couldn’t figure out how to steer a boat without the help of GPS gizmos. Jack had succeeded in life by knowing when to tune out the rest of the world, a lesson his workaholic brother had yet to process.
Keith the Corporate Mogul took every incoming call like it was life or death, assuming the world couldn’t turn without his input. Jack had weathered enough of life’s storms to know plenty of problems blew themselves out without him lifting a finger. While Keith positioned himself for theForbeslist, Jack was content to invest some of his savings in local businesses since returning home a month ago. Nothing big. He gave a couple of struggling bars a hand up in a rough economy while he figured out what direction he wanted his career to take now that he was out of the service. Returning to the family business wasn’t a direction that particularly appealed.
In the meantime, he’d started selling off a few of his personal possessions to consolidate his assets and simplify his lifestyle. Truth be told, he was glad not to be the one to hand off the vintage Pearson Triton that was full of memories for him. Alicia had helped him christen theVestaback when his life had made more sense.
Not that he would think about her now, damn it. His brother’s engagement party had messed with his head tonight to put thoughts of her back in his brain.
But you broke up with her because she was too young…some obnoxious voice in his head piped up.That problem no longer exists.
The fact that they’d both matured, however, wouldn’t take away their bulldog personalities. Or erase the fact that she’d moved on since he’d been away. Any time he’d been home on leave in the past four years, she’d been dating someone else.
If he had any sense, he would fall for someone softer. Someone who wouldn’t argue his every decision. Someone a whole lot less like him. But first, he needed to find a way to come to terms with a shared past he’d never really forgotten.
Now, at about two-thirty in the morning, he had his ropes thrown off and he’d steered through the coastal traffic into open water. He’d checked out the chart plotter and the self-steering feature enough to feel comfortable moving around deck while the boat cruised ahead. No doubt about it, the power catamaran had every cool feature known to mankind, the Zeus steering system and GPS position locking features both incredibly cool bonuses that made handling a big vessel easy.
He figured he’d put enough distance between him and the rest of the Murphy clan to settle down for the night. He was out of the main shipping lanes and his lights were burning bright, so he figured he’d get some rest.
It would kill his mother to know it, but he hated the trips back home. Too many memories of a time where he’d dreamed of a different life for himself. Jamming the cell phone back in his jacket pocket, he tugged his tie off hours after leaving Ryan’s party. The fact that he hadn’t even changed out of his suit spoke volumes about his need to get underway, as far from Cape Cod and the possibility of bumping into Alicia as he could get. He needed to see her sooner or later – yes. But not until he figured out why the memory of her continued to mess with his head on a regular basis.
He’d stopped at a convenience store for some supplies on his way out to the marina from the festivities – this despite Keith’s assurance the corporate toy was fully stocked – but other than that brief pause, he’d been running non-stop since he’d walked away from the family hoopla.
The boat was a beauty. Now that he’d cooled down a bit, he could appreciate some of the features of Keith’s 45’ power catamaran. Roomy as hell. Laid out by someone who’d been at sea before, with no skimping on practical stuff even though there were some fluffy add-ons like a spa in the front deck. He switched on the nightlight in the hall leading to the forward cabin. He’d done a quickie inspection of the hull layout before he’d left the marina, tossing his bag into the cabin that looked like it had been recently used with the berth still rumpled and a duffel in one corner. Had to be the space Keith had used, therefore the one most likely to have sheets and an alarm clock at the ready.
Yanking off his jacket and belt, he trailed clothes like a stripper, too wasted to hang things up. He didn’t even bother turning on the light when he slid into the queen size bed, liking the dark just fine. Oblivion couldn’t come soon enough after the day he’d had.
He was happy for Ryan finding The One. Truly, he was. But seeing that promise of a future on both their faces had poured acid on an old wound, reminding him of the way Alicia had started to think long term with him when he’d been embroiled in family drama that had needed his attention. Those days should have been too long ago for him to remember their break up in such vivid detail.
Unfortunately, he remembered all too well.
On the plus side, he’d put some serious nautical miles between himself and the woman he’d walked out on before he finally drifted into exhausted sleep…
* * *
Alicia LeBlanc could almost swear Jack Murphy was back in her arms.
An annoying rational voice – inescapable even in her dreams – told her that was because she was on board a Murphy-owned boat. Dealing with Keith and arranging transportation to Bar Harbor to check out a business prospect had put his whole family back in the forefront of her mind after all these years, and that’s why her subconscious had concocted a delicious nighttime fantasy about Keith’s older brother.
“Jack,” she sighed his name in her half-sleep, resenting the bitchy practical side of her who insisted she was just dreaming. Why couldn’t she simply enjoy sexy dreams like the rest of the population?
Because dreaming about him makes you weak!Her cranky ego shouted.
Undaunted, she pressed her cheek to Jack’s broad, bare chest. Her dreams added muscle and weight to his younger form, altering her memories of him to account for the Navy-hardened form he sported these days. She’d caught sight of him on the beach earlier in the week when she’d been giving kite surfing lessons to tourists, one of her many gigs while she saved up the money for her own coastal bed and breakfast. Nothing big like Murphy Resorts owned all over the Cape, but something small and personal where she could entertain all the time and share her love of the water with travelers. She’d been hooking up the safety harness on a couple of college kids who wanted to catch big air on the water when she had heard Jack’s voice carrying from farther out in the surf.
Sure enough, he’d sailed into sight on theVesta– even the name of his sailboat cutting her like a knife since it had been his nickname for her once. She might have taken a moment’s pleasure in knowing he’d kept the boat even though he’d dumped her, but Keith had informed her afterward that Jack had already made plans to sell the vessel to a friend down in Charleston later that week. Apparently he’d been too busy saving the world during his Navy stint to ditch the vintage Pearson Triton 26-footer the second he’d ousted her from his life.
Damn the man.
Still, he was hot and hard everywhere in this dream moment that would be over all too soon. She pressed a kiss to his naked chest, her tongue darting along the flat pectoral to steal a taste of him. He was salty with sea air, just the way she remembered. Turning her cheek against him, she absorbed his warmth, her fingers finding the dark hair along the center of his chest. She followed the smooth path lower, savoring the way his skin tightened at her touch, his muscles twitching in response.
Greedy for more, she rubbed her breasts against him, arching into his body so she touched as much of him as she could. The friction had her heart racing. Pleasure simmered in her veins and she wondered why her brain insisted on maintaining the reality of her tank top between them in the fantasy.
Ditto Jack’s boxer shorts.
She’d slid a thigh between his at some point and she resented the presence of lightweight cotton, no matter that the fabric was soft. What she wanted throbbed behind the fly and she had every intention of enjoying it. Enjoying him.
