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“I will take you to Bar Harbor.” His hands warmed her right through the fabric where he touched the quilt. The rest of her remained chilled while two perfect imprints of his palms flared hot on her forearms. “I have to go there anyhow to drop off the boat for Keith’s colleague.”
“That doesn’t mean we ought to travel together.” How could she survive being penned up on a boat with her controlling, I-know-best ex-boyfriend? Not in this lifetime. “In fact, that’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
He turned her out of the wind, taking most of it on his back and shielding her from the light spray the gusts kicked up. He was protective like that. Always had been. Some would call that thoughtful. But there came a point where a woman didn’t want to be wound up in bubble wrap for safe keeping and somehow Jack had never understood that about her. He’d told her she shouldn’t wait for him while he was in the Navy since it would be too much to expect of her.
Another way he’d cut her to the core.
“You didn’t think it was such a bad idea ten minutes ago when we were in bed together.”
She’d need a crowbar to pry her jaw off the deck.
“You did not just say that to me,” she managed finally, her throat cracking on a dry note at the reminder of how she’d been drawn to him like a magnet. “I wasasleep. Are you going to hold it against me that I was having some anonymous sexy dream?”
“It was hardly anonymous. You said my name.”
“Did I?” She vaguely recalled this. “I wouldn’t know what I said or did because I wassleeping.”
“Would you like me to remind you?” His hands shifted ever so subtly on her arms, the play of his fingers up her shoulders taking the touch from gentle restraint to… sensual? Romantic?
She didn’t know how to define it since the last time she checked Jack Murphy had told her to have a nice life since they clearly weren’t meant for each other. The news came after their umpteenth argument about how to make a relationship work while she was still in college and he was globetrotting for his father’s company. He’d ditched her and the family job in one swoop, encouraging her to date guys her own age since he was “tying her down,” preventing her from having a real college experience.
“You. Wouldn’t. Dare.” She knew him well enough to know he would never use her attraction against her. He was all about protectiveness. Doing what was best for her even when she’d hated it.
As his eyes narrowed, a dangerous light glittered in their depths. Too late she realized she’d also just issued him a challenge to a man who’d never known how to walk away from one.
ChapterTwo
He wouldn’t dare?
Jack suspected she didn’t have any idea what he would dare when it came to her.
Alicia LeBlanc had transformed from a sweet college co-ed in need of a date for her fall formal, to a sexual dynamo with an attitude.
He didn’t know what to make of this woman that bore little resemblance to the hard working swimmer and sorority girl he remembered before he’d joined the Navy, but he didn’t feel the same limits with her as he did four years ago, that was for certain.
She’d grown even more beautiful, her athletic body still trim and lean but the curves more subtly voluptuous. She was five foot and a half in heels, but she had a can’t-miss presence when she walked into a room. A throaty laugh you could hear across a crowded party. An abundance of freckles across her nose reminded him she loved the outdoors as much as he did as an avid diver and surfer. Hell, she’d been game for any sport he’d ever wanted to play and that was saying something. Most guys he knew couldn’t handle the mega-competitive weekend reunions at the Murphy household, but Alicia hadn’t just sat on the sidelines flipping burgers. She’d tried her hand at pitching when they played stickball, and got prickly if her receivers didn’t run the routes she’d dictated when they’d let her quarterback a team in the Turkey Bowl. She had a natural competitiveness that made her fit right in with his family.
If she hadn’t been so damn young – or maybe if she hadn’t been every bit as strong-willed as him – they might have gotten somewhere. But both those things had tripped them up and he hadn’t thought it would be fair to maintain the relationship when he made the decision to take a Navy contract after… well, when the call to serve became undeniably personal.
He hadn’t been at liberty to discuss the way the war had hit too close to home back then. Couldn’t let her in on why he needed to sign that contract so badly. And the secrecy had cost them both.
He’d heard she’d dated half his high school graduating class since then – okay, two other guys that he knew about. But apparently she’d dated with enough of a vengeance that she’d intended to show him she didn’t care about the break up.
A fact which stung when he’d gotten the news on his first stint overseas, back when he’d been sitting on a ship.
“I’m going to give you a fair warning, Alicia.” He kept his hands on her, ill prepared to deal with the riptide effect of seeing her – alone- for the first time in four years. He was too exhausted and too turned on from finding himself in bed with her. “Because even though I play to win, I believe in a level playing field.”
“How generous of you.” The soft words held plenty of sarcasm, but she didn’t move a muscle, her body perfectly still under his hands.
“I would dare a lot when it comes to you.” Because he’d never forgotten about her. Because she’d moved on with an ease that rankled long afterward. “So if you won’t admit you felt something for me in the cabin earlier, I’m not going to think twice about proving what a lie that is.”
“Okay, so I felt something, damn it,” she snapped, leaning forward to get in his face. “Satisfied?”
Her gutsiness had always made her irresistible. And he had no reason to hold back now. She’d sparked an old flame inside him and he couldn’t imagine any reason not to follow it to its natural conclusion. Maybe this time it would burn itself out since shutting it down four years ago had backfired. He’d thought about her more than any other woman he’d ever been with, probably because he’d stomped out the relationship too soon.
They might not have the personalities that meshed for the long term. But they sure as hell had the chemistry that would light things up in the here and now.
Damn it, they needed to find out what was between them once and for all.
