“I like talking to you while you eat,” Zhanna admitted.
“I like talking to you while I eat, too. You know what else I would like. I would really like for both of us to go eat some place together and talk. So you wouldn’t have to leave me for a moment whenever a new person walks into the diner.”
“That is a date?”
He nodded and squeezed the hand he’d been holding this whole time a little tighter. “That is a date. If you accept.”
“I accept.”
He gently tugged her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist. It made her body flutter and she was sure her cheeks were flushing.
“You’re beautiful when you’re nervous.”
“And you are a flatterer. Now we will go out on this date, will you come back to the diner? You haven’t come for many days.”
He lowered his eyes. “It wasn’t a punishment. I didn’t want to push you.”
She knew it, but still she missed him. “Come, Mary, we will leave the busy vet to help the other truly sick animals.” She picked up the case and smiled at him. “And you will come to the diner tonight as Adel is making meatloaf.”
“I love meatloaf.”
“Yes, I know it is your favorite. And I will make the fattening macaroni and cheese you like. Then we will talk about when our date will happen.”
“Soon, Zhanna. I promise.”
There was a sensuality in his tone. A lower timbre that promised more than soft kisses on her wrist. Zhanna could feel her cheeks heating again and turned her back on him quickly. She knew already someday they would go to bed together, and she knew from how he made her feel with that simple kiss on her wrist that sex with him would not leave her feeling empty.
She did not say this, though. After all, a girl did not want to be too obvious.
* * *
“WHO ARE YOU?”
Jamie looked around on the beach. Since it was only him and Gabby, he thought the question rather odd.
“I mean it. I want the truth,” Gabby persisted as she made her way toward him. She was pulling her hair into a ponytail and for some reason the way she handled all those luscious strands so easily turned him on. He told himself not to think about it because A, he knew from experience running with the hard-on was not especially comfortable and B, he still wasn’t sure where he stood on the whole sex with this woman front.
His body said yes to the sex. His rational-thinking brain agreed. Sex was good. Sex was all he should or could want.
It was the other area of him that was the hold-out. That weird floating soft spot in his gut which sometimes moved to the region of his heart that said she was worth more than sex.
She’s Gabby.
And she could hurt him. It was stunning to realize after having spent so much of his life making sure he never hurt anyone that he was suddenly the vulnerable one.
He didn’t like it.
“Are you a good guy? Just answer me. Yes or no. Would you consider yourself a good person?”
Jamie had no idea where this was coming from, but he saw no reason to not answer truthfully. “I’m neither. I’m both. I’ve done good things and I’ve done bad things. I try to make sure now I’m more good than bad, but I’m never going to stand in front of anyone and say I’m perfect.”
“That answer totally sucks.”
She was so disappointed in him it was comical.
“Come on, we’ll run and have a philosophical conversation on the differences between good and bad.”
“Oh, joy. Running and philosophy. Doesn’t get much more fun than that.”
He took her through her stretches—real ones she finally did correctly—then they started off at an easy pace. One she was able to easily keep up with.
“I hear so many stories about you and I’m trying to put those together in my head with what I know.”
“What do you know? What’s fact?”
“Fact, you were my hero. My first crush. You did an amazing thing people will talk about forever. Then you got caught outside a motel room in Florida by your wife with another woman. That’s a fact.”
“There is a picture of me and my wife and another woman outside a motel room in Florida, it’s a fact I can’t change.”
“Fact, you helped Susan out of a jam when she needed it.”
“She told you about that?” It surprised Jamie that Susan would confide in anyone who was a non-islander, but he liked it. It meant Gabby was getting to them. All of them—Zhanna and Susan—were liking her despite themselves.
“Fact, you’ve won the loyalty of women young and old. You’ve become the leader of this community. It’s clear people trust you despite what they know, and it doesn’t compute.”
“Because you can’t forgive what I’ve done. Maybe you can’t forgive anyone anything. That’s not my problem, it’s your problem.”
He was pushing her at a little harder pace. Not as a punishment but maybe because he didn’t want to hear what came next. Maybe if she ran harder, she wouldn’t have the breath to say it.
“You don’t need my forgiveness.” The words puffed out of her.
“No, I guess I don’t. I guess I could have taken you up on your offer and brought you to my place after our date, screwed you silly and watched you leave the next day without a backward glance.”
“But you didn’t. See, that’s my point. You’re acting like a good guy again. Pretending I mean something to you.”
That stopped him in his tracks. He was barely winded while she was trying to suck in oxygen like there was a finite amount. She would have to listen to him then because she couldn’t run anymore.
“Pretending? You think all of this is pretending? Lady, I could have had you every which way from Sunday by now and don’t bother telling me otherwise. What I’m doing here, what I’m trying to do here is—” What was he trying to do?
“What?”
“I’m trying to tell you I like you. I like who you are. I want to have more time with you. I want to go out again.”
“Our date sucked.”
“No, I liked it. Liked that you were nervous around me because you like me, too. I liked the way your hair fell around your shoulders and I liked when you talked about your mother. I like that I feel normal with you. I’m not on a stage. I’m not Jamison Hunter, Astronaut, with you. And I’m not Jamison Hunter tabloid star, either. I’m just me. I’m Jamie and I like that, too.”
He could see the wariness in her eyes. He could also see he was right that she did like him, too. She was fighting herself and he needed the right part of her to win the argument. The part of her that was still willing to take a risk.
He moved forward and wrapped his hand around her neck. “We can do this. We can like each other and let it grow into more. If you let yourself.”
“You don’t know,” she whispered, “how badly I want to try.”
Trying wasn’t bad. Try was better than can’t.
“We’re going to finish this run and then we’re going to my place to shower.”
“Together?”
He loved the raspy quality in her voice and reminded himself he would be a good boy. “No, definitely not. But we will make dinner and talk all night and then I’m going to make out with you. A lot. Because people who are trying to get to know each other don’t start with sex. They finish with it.”
Her lips twitched—maybe on a smile or maybe in anticipation. He wasn’t sure. “Don’t think you can always tell me what to do.”
“Gabby, anytime you want to tell me to do something to you, you let me know.”
“Okay, then kiss me now.”
Jamie had no problem obeying that order. He was leaning toward her to do just that when something caught his eye out of the corner.
Damn it. Bobby was out fishing off that damn dock.
It was as if the fear of what might happen suddenly turned into a bubble in his head. A picture of a dock collapsing into the cold water and taking the boy down with it. Only he wasn’t see
ing the bubble in his head. He was watching it happen out over the water as the supports of the short pier started to crumble beneath the not so insignificant weight of the ten-year-old.
Jamie could hear Gabby talking. Something about here he went again, but his legs were already in motion heading closer to the water, his body churning as he realized what was about to happen.
The dock would fall into the water, it would take Bobby with it, possibly trapping him under broken beams of wood. It was April, not January, but still the water would be freezing. The shock of it would paralyze him and prolonged exposure would put him at risk of hypothermia.
Jamie could hear Gabby again but this time it was a muffled sound, like she was swallowing a shout. The sound of a yelp came to him from forty feet away as Bobby slid into the water while the dock came to pieces around him.
Jamie had three minutes.
“Don’t follow me. The water is too cold.” He didn’t bother to turn around as he stripped off first his shirt, kicked off his sneakers and shucked his running pants. “Keep that dry. We’ll need to warm him when I bring him in.”
When I bring him in. I have to bring him in.
Jamie didn’t issue another order. He waded into the rocky shore line, inhaling as the frigid water flowed around his ankles and calves and the broken shells and rocks dug into the bottom of his feet. He thought of breaking into a swim, but he knew he could make up more ground up with his legs than by pulling himself through the water with his arms.
The weightlessness combined with the heaviness of the water instantly brought him back to his training days, submerged in a pool for hours a day as his body learned to move and function in the different gravity environment.
He didn’t remember freezing his balls off back then though.
The dock was now completely broken down in the water. Nothing more than large floating pieces of driftwood. He could see Bobby’s head pop up amongst the flotsam with a panicked jerkiness of movement, seeming to search for help.
“Bobby hold on to something!”
Jamie wasn’t sure if the words penetrated but he needed the kid not to go below the surface where it would be harder to find him or to get stuck under the floating wood planks. Too deep now to walk, he pushed himself off the bottom and began to swim as fast as he could, heading into the debris.
As soon as his hand came down on a piece of dock, he knew he’d reached the destruction area. He picked up his head in search of his target, but didn’t immediately see him. Breathless from the cold rather than the exertion, it took him a half a second before he shouted his name.
“Bobby!” It sounded harsh and raw to his ears and he could only hope the sound carried.
“There!” Glancing at the shoreline he could see Gabby at the edge of the water bouncing up and down pointing at something as she shouted. Pointing at something more to his left. He looked that way and saw a particularly large bit of the dock bobbing in the water.
Two small hands, bone white, clung on top, but it was all he could see.
He put his head in the water and pushed with his arms and legs forcing himself to make up the distance.
How long had Bobby been in the water? How long had Jamie himself? Not three minutes. Not yet. He was a fast swimmer.
Reaching the small life raft Bobby had found for himself, he saw the kid’s body was completely submerged. Only his hands held on to the wood while his head barely cleared the surface. His lips were blue as he struggled to keep his chin out of the water.
Getting behind the kid in the water he lifted him, so his body flopped onto the piece of dock that was just big enough for him to get his chest out of the water if not his legs.
Jamie didn’t issue instructions. There would be no point as the kid was half in shock. He simply started to push against the planks, kicking with all the energy left in his body. As soon as he knew he was close enough to set his feet on the ocean floor, he stood. Leaning over the kid he pulled him up and then lifted him over his shoulder.
He wasn’t sure what Molly Claymore was feeding this kid, but he might recommend a little less butter with any lobsters the boy had been catching. Making his way to the shore he stopped, momentarily rattled by the fact that Gabby was wearing nothing but a pink bra and some hip hugging panties.
“You said he would need to get warm. You do, too. Put him down.” It seemed she was now the one issuing the orders. That was okay with him. He was sapped.
“Lad-d-dy…I can s-see…your…b-bra.” Bobby’s teeth were chattering as the two of them used Jamie’s shirt and Gabby’s running jacket to rub him down. They removed the long sleeve shirt he wore and Jamie managed to pull off his jeans, but Bobby balked at having his underwear stripped.
“S-s-he’s a g-girl,” he stuttered through blue lips.
Gabby pulled the spandex over the boy’s legs and Jamie concentrated on not thinking about how close to naked she was in the mid afternoon light. Their combined focus was on the boy.
Once he was fairly dry and his lips were a little less blue, they wrapped him in Jamie’s long sleeved T-shirt and started their hike up the hill.
Choruses of I’m sorry, Mr. Hunter was the prevailing theme as they climbed to the top of the hill with Jamie and Gabby still clad only in their briefs as neither wanted to put on their wet clothing.
As soon as they reached the house Jamie put Bobby in his truck and turned the heat on high. Running inside he grabbed a couple of athletic pants and thick sweatshirts. Stripping himself of his wet briefs he dressed and shuddered as he let himself register how cold he’d been.
Outside, he got in the truck where Gabby was still talking to Bobby to keep him alert. She took the offered clothes and both males watched intently as she covered up her bra.
Crisis averted, Jamie allowed himself to lock down the visual memory of a mighty fine rack. It helped to warm him up.
“Is there a hospital on the island?” Gabby asked as she shimmied the pants up her legs.
Nothing wrong with those either, he thought.
“No, but I think we’re better off taking him home. His mom is a nurse and she can make the call if he needs to go to the mainland. She working today, Bobby?”
“Not today, sir. Boy, is she going to be mad, too. Her one day off and I had to go and do this. I didn’t think the dock would ever fall.”
“I told you it was unsafe,” Jamie said sternly.
Once more the I’m-sorry chorus began and continued for the rest of the ride. Bobby’s mom was both grateful and furious just as Bobby had predicted.
After waiting to get her professional opinion on Bobby’s physical well-being, Jamie and Gabby got in the truck as Jamie gave a wave to Molly who was still simultaneously berating and hugging her son.
Jamie looked over and saw Gabby still and silent in the seat next to him.
“He’s going to be fine,” Jamie assured her. “Molly said all he needs is a warm bath and some hot chocolate. He’ll be back fishing tomorrow on some other dock. I’m going to have to let Ted know his dock is now driftwood. Damn it, I don’t know how many times I told him he needed to shore it up—”
“Take me to bed.”
His mouth snapped shut in a hurry. And he had to swallow before he said, “What?”
“Take me back to your place. And make love to me. Please. I don’t want to wait anymore. I don’t want to wait for anything.”
Please. Well, hell. What was a man supposed to do when a woman said please?
CHAPTER TWELVE
JAMIE PULLED INTO his driveway and turned the engine off. A storm had rolled over the island and the first heavy pelts of rain were starting to fall on the windshield. It was the only sound to be heard in the truck. That and maybe their breathing.
Between the warm clothes and the cranked temperature in the cab, he actually felt himself getting overheated. Or maybe it had something to do with the certainty he was about to make love to Gabby Haines.
She hadn’t said a word on the ride home. Had si
mply folded her hands in her lap and stared straight ahead. Hell, he might have thought he only imagined what she said by the way she was acting. No sly looks, no furtive touches. No foreplay.
Only a request. No, more like a plea.
They didn’t move and the rain picked up in intensity. He thought back to the night where he came to get her while she slept in her car. He asked her then if she wanted to have sex with him. She’d never really given him an answer.
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not sure about anything. Except that I need you. I’m sure about that.”
Need. Yes, it was a better word than want. It was more desperate, more urgent, and that’s how he felt, too. When was the last time he’d ever taken a woman to bed with this much urgency riding inside of him? As though if he didn’t lay himself on top of her and come inside her, he would shatter and fall apart into little pieces.
He opened the door and got out. The heavy drops hit him, soaking him as quickly as the Atlantic had. Only it felt good. The water washed over his face which felt hot and tight. He needed to cool down. He needed something to pull him back from this edge he was on or things would get out of control pretty quickly.
He came around the truck and opened her door. He had thoughts of lifting her out and carrying her inside—it seemed like a silly romantic thing any time he saw it in the movies or television, but now felt right. Like he needed to hold her. Needed to own her in a fundamental way.
She’s mine. It needed to be declared.
But as he moved to pull her out of the truck she was already jumping out. Her bare feet covered his as he realized they had left their sneakers on the beach. The sight of their toes, his long and bare, hers tipped in pink polish, mingling together moved him in some elemental way.
She’s mine.
Only then she was moving and taking control. Her hand came up and wrapped around his neck urging him down. He needed little prodding and pressed his lips against her warm swollen ones. Her mouth was hot and luscious and the contrast of it against the rain falling around them and on them was erotic as hell to him.
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