by Maggie Wells
One crazy dance and she’d lain awake long after she’d slipped her trusty vibrator back into her nightstand drawer. Remembering the long lines of his swimmer’s body pressed snug against hers made it difficult to sit across from him at lunch. Watching him lick barbecue sauce from his fingertips left her unable to think about anything else but where and when. Looking at him standing wet and half-naked, she prayed it would happen here and now.
“Shoes off.”
She leveled a sharp stare at him and raised her foot. The blood-red shoe popped off her heel, but she didn’t shake it free. Instead, she arched her brows, offered a polite smile and said an overly courteous, “Hello, Brian.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he raked her with a long, leisurely inspection, taking his sweet time getting back to her face. “You wear soft-soled shoes aboard a boat. Preferably ones with traction.” He wiped a drip of water from his chin with the back of his hand. “I’m guessing those don’t have much.”
Brooke flexed her toes and let the shoe drop to the dock with a clatter. She’d never make it onto the boat in those shoes without breaking her neck and they both knew it. But the second her bare foot touched the sizzling aluminum dock, she lost a layer of skin and all her dignity.
Hopping like a crazed flamingo, she let loose with a flow of creative curse words. It wasn’t until she managed to gasp the word ‘hot’ that her hero finally caught on.
“Ah, crap.”
He reached up and snatched her from the scorching-hot dock and she fell willingly into his arms. Brian might have been oblivious to the water streaming from his hair, but she wasn’t. And getting up close and personal with his hard, sun-warmed body was worth a second degree burn or two. The familiar scent of seawater mixed with sunscreen was sexier than any expensive aftershave. Brooke kicked the other shoe aside and curled her toes in the puddle of cool water pooling at his feet. His gaze dropped to her chest, and a shark’s smile stretched his lips.
She glanced down at the dark, damp spots where her blouse soaked up his water then back up into his eyes. The heat she saw was familiar. It burned low and steady like a pilot light, ready to flare to life at any moment. She fought the urge to cover the wet spots highlighting her breasts as she twisted herself from his hold. He started this, and she refused to shrink from an opportunity to go head-to-head with him. As far as she was concerned, their competition ended in a draw. This time, she wanted them to both come out winners.
Gathering all the ammunition in her arsenal of ace-reporting, she lobbed her most pressing, hard-hitting, newsworthy question at him. “Why did you kiss me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
He answered without missing a beat. Seconds too late she recognized her mistake. This was Brian, after all. She needed to be specific if she wanted a real answer.
“I meant back then. Why did you kiss me like that? In front of everyone.”
He smiled, and the realization that he’d expected her to ask made her cheeks flame, but the need to take him down a notch burned hotter. She struck back at the one spot she knew might still be touchy for him.
“Fairly ballsy for a quiet guy like you.”
The light in his eyes faded, but he kept the familiar smirk in place. The sardonic eyebrow twitch that dogged her all through high school was back, too, but she knew the blow hit home. She’d been high school royalty—popular, pretty, and well-liked—and he’d been the guy who blew the curve on every test.
His eyes narrowed but remained locked on hers. “You mean a nerdy guy like me.”
The intensity of his stare dredged up a raft of insecurities she thought she’d jettisoned years before. “You were such a jerk to me all through school.”
“I thought we already covered this.”
“I’m still trying to figure it out.”
“You’re brighter than that, and I’m a simple organism. Nothing complex about the why, Brooke.”
His voice was melodious and deep. The confidence ringing through the cooled molasses thickness of his drawl proved as seductive as poetry. He wasn’t a shy boy anymore. This man knew damn well the effect he had on women.
Blowing out a breath, she stared out over the sun-dappled water. “You wanted to embarrass me?”
“I just wanted you.”
His negligent shrug should have annoyed her, but it didn’t. The combative stance he held should have been off-putting, but it wasn’t. She found everything about him maddeningly attractive.
Knowing the circular argument wouldn’t get the answers she needed, she switched tracks. “This isn’t the boat I pictured for you.”
As she spoke she smoothed her water-stained skirt over her hip. His gaze followed her hand and her heart rushed. The ebb and flow of desire threatened to crash through her best defenses. At last, his eyes met hers again, but the breeze whipped her hair into her face. He hooked the wind-tangled locks behind her ear in a shockingly tender gesture, and he kept his hand in place.
“You thought I’d have a rowboat?”
“I expected something a little more…serious.”
His lips twitched, then a wide, wicked smile took over. “Boring. You expected something boring.”
She wagged her head in fierce denial. “Just more…I don’t know, scientific.”
“You want me to talk displacement, strokes, and thrust?”
“No!”
He chuckled and a blush fired her cheeks.
“I was just saying…”
The words caught in her throat when his fist closed in her hair. He tugged on it and her heart revved at full throttle. The heat in his dark eyes set her blood to a boil.
His lips hovered millimeters from hers. “I won it in a poker game.”
“You did?” The question sounded weak and breathless, but he held her so close she didn’t dare attempt to fill her lungs.
“No, but it sounds better than saying I bought it from a friend who couldn’t keep up with the payments anymore.” Something flickered in his eyes. He lowered his lashes before she could decipher it. “I want to kiss you again.”
A thread of menace wove its way through the simple statement, but Brooke felt no fear, only excitement. She couldn’t resist testing the waters. “Do you get everything you want?”
“These days I do.”
“Why?”
“Don’t over-think it, Brooke. I wanted to kiss you. It’s as easy as that.”
“Nothing was ever easy with us.” She angled her head to look him straight in the eye. “Is this revenge? You had me haul all the way out here because you could? I need something from you and you’re going to make me dance for it?”
“I liked dancing with you.”
“Brian—”
“You said you needed my help.”
“And you want to be my knight in shining armor?”
He tossed off another one of those careless shrugs. “You want me to be?”
Frustrated, she glowered at him. “What do you want?”
“I want you. Always have. Think I always will.”
Her jaw snapped shut and her heart lodged in her throat. Lifting her chin another notch, she bit back a moan when his hand tightened in her hair. Her nipples hardened to the point of discomfort. “Maybe you need to get it out of your system.”
They stared at one another, locked in a silent battle of wits and wills with no rules. A full minute passed before Brian’s mouth thinned into a line and his hand fell away. “If an interview is all you want, I’ll give it to you, but I want you to be honest with me.”
A hollow ache filled the pit of her stomach, overtaking the churning, burning longing he stirred the moment she set eyes on him. And now, the thought of going one minute without his hands on her left her…bereft. “You know it’s not.”
“I don’t know a damn thing where you’re concerned.”
Arousal flared. The sight of his bare, wet chest did nothing to quell the flames. The sun’s rays gilded the gold-brown scruff shadowing his cheeks and jaw. She had
him a little off-balance, and the knowledge made her pulse race. The dark intensity in his eyes was a call to action.
The urge to chuck her bag into the ocean and say ‘screw the interview’ was a weighty one. She didn’t need the paper to bring this story to light. Nor did she need Brian. Technically. She had the facts and the experts to back them up, even if they didn’t have his name recognition. Still, when she looked straight into those bottomless eyes, she knew she wanted to spill it all. She wanted him. Personally, professionally, and any other -ly way she could manage.
Then the words came, flowing fast and furious, their force made her stumble back a step. “I have a story. An important story. It’s about the clean-up after the spill. The effects of the dispersants they used on aquatic and human life. Impact on the shrimping, fishing, and tourism industries. Health issues being faced by people who worked the recovery.”
One blink. A slow, owlish flicker of long lashes. That’s all he gave her. Well, a blink and the twitch of an eyebrow. “Sounds...interesting.”
“I have all the data. Interviews with the workers, fishermen…a few of the oil company’s contractors. I’ve been working with Dr. Johnson. He’s the department chair at the university—”
“I know who he is.”
The terse interruption took a little wind from her sails. “Of course.” She took a deep breath before meeting his gaze again. “Dr. Bennett over at the Horizon Institute has been verifying the data.”
“What do you want from me?”
“My editor is a jerk.” The possibility of her ambitions stymied by one bitter man burned.
“And you think I’m one, too? You want me to deal with him jerk to jerk?”
She didn’t bite on the tease. Focusing on the boats bobbing in their slips, she waited until the heat of the blush died down then attempted to explain. “Let’s say he wasn’t pleased when the gentleman from the Pulitzer committee called me and not him.”
“I see.”
“For a while there was nothing he could do about it. I had momentum and a certain amount of…weight.” She glanced over at him. “But you know how the news cycle runs. As the hoopla passed, Nels bumped me back to covering local artists and politicians. And not the juicy ones. I mainly profile school board elections and congressional districts where people are running unopposed.”
“The man’s an idiot.”
“He’s the publisher’s son.”
“All the more reason for you to look at other opportunities.”
The blunt assessment sparked a smile and reignited her blush. Ducking her head, she forced herself to face him again. “He never would have given me the assignment to interview you if I hadn’t made a point of exploiting our high school relationship.”
This time both dark brows shot up. “Relationship?”
“Nels was never big on doing in-depth research himself. He likes the facts he can skim off the top.” She waved a hand between them. “Twelve years in the same school. Naturally we were friends.”
“Naturally.”
“Being the salutatorian to your valedictorian didn’t hurt.”
“I’m sure.”
“And when I happened to mention you would be attending Saints Preserve Us….”
“So you really are using me.”
The amusement in his tone made it much easier to meet his gaze again. “Yes.”
“And you want me to be featured in your story? Provide research? What?”
“Yes.”
“To what?”
“To all of it,” she said with a shrug. “I need you to back me up on this.” Realizing that she’d made it personal, she started to backpedal. “I mean, these people need you. We need the exposure—”
“I came back here because I wanted to step out of the spotlight.”
“I know.”
“This is a touchy area, Brooke. Teams of experts on both sides are lobbing suits and injunctions at each other like it’s a game of legal red rover.”
“Yes, but stuck on the sidelines are thousands of people dealing with health issues, economic ruin, and the complete destruction of their life’s work. You know what happened here. You know better than anyone what’s still happening.” She forged ahead, driven by pent-up passion and months of frustration. “Damn it, the world should know this isn’t over just because the beaches are open.”
“Yes, they should.”
They stared at one another, startled by their sudden accord. Admiration shone in his dark eyes. He didn’t move and he didn’t blink. He stood, focused entirely on her. And the effect was devastating.
The deck swayed beneath her feet. Grasping the rail, she stared back at him, unable to look away, unwilling to compromise this tenuous connection. “But I can do it without you,” she whispered. “I thought I needed you, needed some kind of a…hammer to get this done, but I don’t.”
“No, you don’t.”
She swallowed hard, wondering how the hell she was supposed to handle one of life’s crossroads when she was literally and figuratively out to sea. For years she’d hidden behind the questions rather than stepping out in front of them. But Brian never was one to let her hide. Fixating on the man who pushed her to the brink, she gave voice to the truth at long last.
“I don’t need you, but I want you.”
Chapter 7
Brian reared, clearly taken aback by her declaration. Brooke couldn’t blame him for his surprise. “I’m going to need you to clarify that statement for me.”
“I want you to help me with this. I don’t want to see you slink off into some research hidey-hole like you did something wrong. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I know I didn’t.”
“Use this. Use the platform you’ve been given. Use me and let me use you. Maybe together we can do something good.” At last, she spotted the light of understanding in his dark eyes.
“The Courier isn’t big enough. Unless you can get this picked up by the services, you’ll be telling the folks around here something they already know.”
“But if I have you, I can fish for a bigger audience. Like it or not, Brian, people are waiting to see what you do next.” A stray drop of water fell from the curling ends of his hair to his shoulder. It coursed a leisurely path down his chest, darting through the brown hair between his pecs and disappearing into the trail bisecting his ridged abs. Her mouth ran dry. “What if I said I wanted both? You and your…expertise?”
“Yes.”
His answer popped out with gratifying swiftness. A wispy laugh escaped her. He may have changed a lot on the outside, but on the inside Brian remained the same—a man with few gray areas. She pressed the tips of her fingers to his chest, tracing the path that lucky drop of water had taken. Her skin absorbed the streaky line of moisture. Eyes locked on his, she skimmed along the trail of dark hair tapering into the waistband of his board shorts. “That easy?”
“Easier.” He lowered his head and warm breath tickled her lips. He kissed the corner of her mouth but drew back before she could respond. “I’ve known you all my life and wanted you for half the time.”
She wound her arms around his neck and bowed her body into the curve of his, hoping to entice him into giving more. His soft chuckle did strange things to her insides. “But what about the professional stuff?”
“We’ll figure that out.” He ran his hand up her back then cradled her nape, squinting slightly as he stared down at her. “More than half my life, if I count back to the time you gave me your pink pencil.”
“It was a Barbie pencil. It was special.”
“It was yours, so it was special.” He pecked a soft, sweet kiss to her lips then pulled back again.
She opened her eyes with an impatient huff and found him staring at her, his face serious and solemn.
“I kept it.”
The confession stunned her. “You did?” She stepped back but didn’t relinquish her hold on him. “You were snotty to me all through school.”
“I was
scared shitless of you.”
“You were condescending and rude,” she retorted.
“Still am.” A wry smile twisted his lips. “And by the time I outgrew being scared, you were way out of my reach.” He framed her face with his hands, his palms cradling her cheeks and his long fingers stroking the tender lobes of her ears. “But you’re not now.”
Brooke fought the urge to dissolve on the spot.
“I’m not shy anymore,” he continued, “and I’m not afraid to take what I want.” Angling his head, he brushed a kiss to her lips. “And if you want me, too, I’m going to have you.” He sealed in her sharp intake of breath with a hard, fast, and bone-melting kiss. A mewl of compliance rose in her throat, but apparently the needy little sound wasn’t good enough for him. “Say yes, Brooke,” he ordered. “I want to hear you say it.”
“Yes.”
In the next breath, his arms were locked tight around her and her feet dangled inches from the deck. He kicked the door blocking access to the boat’s cabin and it folded into itself. The back of her head whacked the low clearance, but he wiped the ache away with a gruff apology and a hot, hungry kiss. Before she knew it, she was pitched backwards onto a triangular berth padded with a thick foam cushion, and Brian followed her down.
Two small portholes lit the cabin and striped his skin in waves of liquid gold. The length of his erection pressed against her thigh. He braced his weight on his hands and stared down at her. “You want me.”
It was a statement and not a question. Either way, it was true. She wanted to feast on his sun-dappled skin and quench her thirst with the cool droplets dripping off the ends of his hair. She wanted him to fill her hand and her mouth. She wanted his hard, hot cock buried deep inside her. Abandoning all pretense of self-control, she wriggled beneath him.
“Yes.”
He smiled but refused to move. “Did you think about me last night?”
“Yes.”
“And the night before…did you think about me then?”
Brooke moaned a soft assent and squirmed to get closer.
“I kissed you, but you kissed me back. I never forgot you kissed me back. Then last week….” He cleared the rough edge from his voice. “All these years…did you wonder about me?”