Afternoon Rhapsody: Bandicoot Cove 2

by Jess Dee

  “Funny strange. There’s nothing funny ha-ha about it.”

  “But it was the right decision for you? Splitting up?”

  “It was the only decision.” She bit her lip. “That’s quite an, uh, intimate question.”

  He gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. It’s probably none of my business. It’s just that…” His voice trailed off.

  “It’s just what?” In that instant, he looked so desolate, so alone, Bee wanted to cross the table, take him in her arms and hold him until his pain lessened. Until her hurt ebbed slowly away.

  Or perhaps Bee was just looking for a reason to touch him. Hadn’t she been thinking about it constantly, the entire way through the meeting with the photographer? How much she’d like to wrap her arms around Brody? Feel his arms around her? How their brief encounter earlier had left her hungry to get to know him better? Physically and emotionally?

  “It’s just something I’ve been questioning a lot lately,” Brody said. “Whether separating was the right decision. I keep asking myself if there wasn’t something else we could have done to make it work. Something I could have done.”

  God, she could so understand. The same questions had haunted her for months. “And was there? Something you could have done?”

  Brody wiped his hand over his mouth and chin. The light shadow of a beard rasped against his skin. At a guess, she’d say he hadn’t shaved this morning. “Maybe. Probably. Or maybe not.” He sighed. “At the time it seemed like the right thing to do.”

  Bee cleared her throat. “Well, this conversation just got a lot more intense than I’d anticipated.”

  “It did, didn’t it?” He looked surprised. “Tell you what. Let’s not talk about divorce for the rest of lunch. We can discuss anything but. Deal?”

  Bianca nodded her approval. “Deal.”

  Brody signaled to a waiter. “You okay for me to go ahead and order a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches? Or would you prefer something else?”

  “Grilled cheese would be perfect.”

  “On brown bread?”

  Bianca shook her head. “Turkish.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I had you pegged as a brown bread person.”

  She smiled. “I used to be. But my tastes have changed.”

  “That seems to happen to all of us as we get older, doesn’t it?”

  Bee shrugged. “I guess it’s part of maturing. You learn things about yourself you never knew when you were younger.”

  “I can relate to that.” Before Brody could elaborate, the waiter approached, and Brody ordered for both of them, checking with Bianca that he had everything correct.

  Bee appreciated both the fact that he took charge and that he didn’t assume anything about her. She appreciated a lot about him, she realized, starting with the physical and moving right along to his behavior and honesty.

  “So tell me, Mr. Evans, what you do when you’re not escaping real life in a tropical paradise,” Bianca said as the waiter walked away with their order.

  “I run an auto repair shop in Newcastle.”

  “Newcastle? I live there too. Talk about coincidence.”

  He grinned. “Oh, yeah. A real coincidence.”

  “So, an auto-repair shop? As in, you fix broken cars?”

  ”I do.”

  “Like a mechanic?”

  “Nope. Like a panel beater. We deal with body repairs.”

  She dropped her gaze to his hands and then couldn’t resist following her gaze with her own hand. She stroked her fingers over his. A quick stroke, nothing too intimate or personal, just a precursor to what she said next. Well, that was what she told herself anyway. Especially when the feel of his fingers made her belly flutter.

  “So you work with damaged cars on a daily basis, yet your hands are spotless. I’d at least expect to see grime under your fingernails.”

  “There’s this amazing invention,” he told her, straight-faced. “Keeps the hands and nails spotless. It’s called…soap.”

  “Soap?” She looked at him with wide eyes. “Really? How does it work?”

  “You just rub it into your hands with a bit of water, and bam, all that grime comes off. It’s amazing.”

  She gave a dainty snort. “Maybe I should try it someday.”

  “Maybe you should.” He looked sheepish. “I have a confession.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “Soap isn’t the real reason my hands are clean. I, er, I don’t actually do the repairs myself. Not anymore.”

  “You don’t?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I’ve kind of extended the business in the last year. Added a whole other shop.”

  And just like that, Bianca found herself fascinated. “A shop that doesn’t require getting your hands dirty?”

  “Uh-huh. I’ve opened up a spare parts business too. “

  “In the same place?”

  “Next door. The space came up for lease, and the second I saw the sign, I knew it was time to expand. Now, if you ever need a new part for your car, you can just come to me.” He beamed at her.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” She’d never had to deal with car troubles before. Rick had always taken care of things for her. “How’s the new business going?”

  “Picking up every day.”

  “And the old? If you’re working in the new shop, is that suffering at all?”

  A shake of his head this time. “I put my floor manger in charge of repairs. He was up for a promotion anyway, and he’s good at his job. So far, it’s all working out well.”

  Bianca regarded him with interest. “Sounds like it could have been a lot to take on. Especially at a time when you’re going through emotional and personal upheaval.” Sheesh, could she sound more like a social worker? Bee mentally shook herself. Yeah, the whole prospect of “dating” again was new to her. Didn’t mean she had to slip into her professional persona to deal with it. She was an adult now. She could handle life on a personal level.

  Brody’s ocean-colored gaze trapped hers, making her breath catch.

  “It was a good time to take on a new project. I’d become bored with the repairs. I’d had enough. Had even begun hating my work.” He grimaced. “I used to dread getting up in the morning.”

  Bianca’s heart clenched. “You did?”

  Brody inhaled. “Never spoke about it much, but yeah. Hated work. The new business has given me a new lease on life. It keeps my mind off my personal troubles and my brain stimulated at work.”

  The waiter returned with their food, and as Brody tucked in, Bianca spoke, picking up the conversation as if there hadn’t been an interruption. “I can relate to that.”

  Brody looked at her questioningly. “You also hated your work?”

  “No. I love my work. Always have.” Bianca was a medical social worker. She’d studied hard for the qualification, relying on Rick to support her while she got her degree. He’d never once complained about having to work hard to put her through uni. He’d done nothing but encourage her.

  Funny, she’d kind of forgotten that in the last few years. It took chatting with Brody to jog the memories out of her subconscious. “I mean, I also took on a new project after my marriage broke down.” She bit into her toasted cheese. As different as it tasted from the one she and Rick had eaten on their honeymoon, memories from that evening still filled her head. She shoved them neatly aside.

  Brody didn’t respond. He simply waited for her to swallow and continue speaking.

  “I started doing some voluntary work at the fire department.”

  Brody blanched. “You’re a fiery?”

  “God, no,” she was quick to reassure him. “I’m way too scared to ever put myself in the line of fire like that. Er, so to speak.”

  He grinned and took a healthy swallow of wine. Bianca did too.

  “No, as a social worker I run support groups there twice a week. One group is for victims of fires and the other for fieries who’ve experienced trauma while on the job.
”

  “Sounds intense.”

  “It is. But it’s something I’d wanted to do for a while now.”

  He looked surprised. “It is?”

  “Yeah.” She ate a bit more toasted cheese, remembered the shared laughter and the rapturous moans of her honeymoon and forced herself to focus on the present, not the past. “See, last year, after Danny was trapped in a fire while on the job, well, I got majorly freaked out. Suddenly the possibility of him or my father dying or being seriously injured became very, very real.” Both her brother and father worked as firemen. It was kind of a genetic thing with the men in her family. There wasn’t a generation gone by that didn’t have a Rogers fiery in its midst.

  “I needed to do something useful for a change. Help out at the station, I guess. And since I’m way too much of a coward to ever work in the field, I figured I’d put my skills to use as best I could. Besides, I found I suddenly had a lot of spare time on my hands.” Her evenings had grown very quiet and very lonely without Rick. And since they hadn’t had any children, Bianca was well and truly alone.

  Pain stabbed her heart, but she pushed it aside and concentrated on Brody.

  He regarded her with intense eyes for the longest time. “I’m impressed,” he finally said. “Very impressed. Must take it out of you though.” He bit into his sandwich.

  Heat slammed into Bianca. Dear Lord, even with his mouth full, the man was sexy. She almost offered him a bite of her sandwich—just so she could have a close-up of his lips closing around the food. She and Rick had shared their grilled cheese. Couldn’t she and Brody?

  “Sometimes it does. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my distance and I get too involved, especially if I know one of the fieries in the group.” She shrugged. “But I’ve been a social worker for a long time. I’ve learned how to keep my distance.” She’d learned how to keep her distance from Rick as well. Just another part of their whole big suitcase of problems.

  “Are you happy with the volunteer work?”

  “I am.” She smiled then. “It’s been a tough year to be happy, but this definitely helps. Are you happy with your shop?”

  He smiled too. “Yep. I really am. It’s nice to be stimulated again. To do something that excites me.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if he’d found a woman that excited him since the breakdown of his marriage, but she figured that question just held way too many landmines. She studiously avoided it.

  And then the devil came out to play, and although she considered sending it back into hiding, Bianca decided to let it stay. She let a small smile play on her lips. “I know of something else that might stimulate and excite you.”

  Brody sat up in his chair. “You do?” His eyes glinted, and the heat that had slammed into her earlier spread fast.

  “Yeah, I do.” She winked. “Finish up, and then it’ll be my pleasure to show you.”

  Chapter Three

  “A pool?” He looked from her to the water and back again in disbelief. “This is your idea of exciting and stimulating?”

  She grinned at him. “A cool dip on a hot day. Stimulating, for sure.”

  He held up his hands in defeat and gave a soft snort. “Okay. I’ll admit it. You got me good with that one. A swim was the last thing on my mind.”

  She gazed at him with wide-eyed innocence. “You thought I was referring to something else?”

  He didn’t gaze back, exactly. No, she’d never describe the smoldering, sensual look he shot her as a gaze. Devastating, perhaps. A jumpstart to her libido, maybe, but not a gaze.

  “Not thought. Hoped.”

  “Brody…” Without realizing it, she’d placed her hand on his chest. Suddenly her palm was smoking, burning against his firm pecs and smooth skin.

  Sheesh, what was it with her and touching him? She just couldn’t seem to help herself. But then his chest did feel incredible beneath her palm. Hot. Strong. Appealing.

  So very, very appealing.

  “Yeah?” He placed his hand over hers, holding it close to that warm, strong and appealing chest of his. His heart beat a steady rhythm beneath her hand, reminding her again of how alive she’d felt since barreling into him.

  Bianca shook her head. “I have no idea what I wanted to say.” His eyes were so blue and so green and so beautiful, she found herself getting lost in them.

  The air between them crackled. Well, not really, but it sure felt like it did to Bianca. Felt as if something electric zipped between them, from his chest into her hand. An awareness, a connection.

  She liked the feeling. It heated her blood. Made her breasts perk up with interest and her belly flutter with anticipation.

  It was Brody who broke the connection, but only to let his gaze wander away from her eyes, down past her neck and breasts…although it settled there for a few brief seconds before continuing on.

  He might as well have run his hands over her skin, the way his gaze burned wherever it landed. It gave her both goose bumps and shivers at the same time, and she knew he’d see the telltale signs of her arousal in the millions of fine hairs standing to attention all the way down her arms.

  What would he make of them?

  His gaze landed on her left hip, and he did a double-take. “You have a tattoo?”

  Bianca’s hand found it an instant after his gaze did. She yanked her fingers from his chest and traced them lightly over the stem of the tiny red rose, lying just below the strap of her bikini bottom.

  “I do.”

  She’d had it done a few months back, after she’d been living alone for a while. She’d wanted to do something crazy, impulsive. Something to show her life was changing, show she was moving on. She’d gone and done the last thing she’d ever have thought she’d do, the last thing Rick would ever have thought she’d do. “It’s new. I’m still not used to having it.”

  Brody kept staring. “Is that a…bee on the petals?”

  She smiled. “It is.” Her symbolic bee, with its wings spread while it stood steadily on the rose. Free to fly, yet happy to have found its feet in a safe place. “I was never into tattoos before, and the idea of getting one always scared the bejeepers out of me, but now that it’s there, well, I kinda like it.” She stroked the petals.

  Brody’s face filled with appreciation. “I kinda like it too.”

  “You do?” His expression made her mouth water.

  He nodded. “It’s sexy.” His voice dropped about six tones. “Bloody sexy.” When he looked back into her eyes, his were the color of a polished aquamarine. They took her breath away. Or maybe the way he looked at her did. As though he’d like to get to know her tattoo a little better. A whole lot better. Quite intimately, in fact.

  She couldn’t help it. She pictured him on his knees, his face by her hip, his mouth nuzzling the rose, tracing the outline of every petal.

  “Brody.” His name was a whisper.

  “Did it hurt?”

  “What?”

  “The tat. The needle.”

  “A little.” More than that. But pain was not topmost on her mind right now. Desire was. Her belly was a swirling mass of lust. Wet heat pooled between her legs. More than anything she wanted Brody’s tongue on her hip. Wanted to feel the scrape of his beard against her bare skin as he explored the bee.

  “I would have kissed it better.” Now his voice was a whisper.

  “You still could.”

  “It still hurts?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she lied. “Heaps.”

  He reached out, brushing his fingers over the tattoo, over her fingers. “I’d kiss it here.” He traced the lone leaf on the stem. “And here.” She almost shuddered in ecstasy as he drew his finger along the tiny stem. “And perhaps I’d lick it, just…here.” He stopped at the part were petals met stem.

  “Y-you’d have to concentrate real hard. The rose is small. You m-might miss the spot.”

  “I’d give it my full attention. I promise.” He stepped closer, caressed the bee and rose from top to bott
om. And maybe caressed a little bit of her hip as well.

  “It would…” She cleared her throat. “It would require your full attention.”

  Desire, red-hot and lightning-quick flooded her body. It swept her away on a tide of passion, clouding her thoughts, fogging her brain. Brody stood so close his scent drifted through her nose, his aftershave sinfully seductive: mellow notes of the outdoors and subtle suggestions of man and musk. If she could bottle his scent she would. She’d keep it beside her bed to sniff at night. And in the morning. And perhaps once or twice during the day, as well.

  Then she heard it. The booming, familiar laughter. The unmistakable sound of a man’s mirth, followed by a higher-pitched feminine chuckle.

  Panic hit her full in the chest.

  Oh, shit. She wasn’t prepared for this. Wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation.

  She should run. Fast. Turn and head for her room. Or the sea. Or the safety of the forest behind the hotel. Anything to get away. Otherwise she’d have to deal with something she wasn’t at all ready to deal with. But running wasn’t an option. It would just draw attention to her.

  Bee sprang into action. She did the only thing she could think of on the spur of the moment. Bracing herself, she shoved Brody with all her might.

  No small feat, taking into account her size and his stature. He weighed at least double what she did. But she had both the element of surprise on her side and a sudden, desperate need for privacy. Coupled with a hit of adrenaline, they gave her the strength she needed.

  The unsuspecting Brody lost his footing and tumbled backward into the pool.

  Problem was, Bianca pushed him with such force, she couldn’t stop the momentum once Brody’s body no longer counterbalanced hers. She hit the water maybe a second after he did. And then stayed under a couple of seconds longer than her screaming lungs allowed, knowing he was going to be hopping mad when she surfaced.

  Well, that was if he’d hung around long enough for her to surface. After all, what man in his right mind would stick around after that stunt?

  She popped her eyes and nose out the water, deliberately keeping the rest of her face hidden.

  Brody was still there—gaping at her. Looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. Then his jaw firmed, his eyes filled with determination, and as much as Bianca wanted to stay hidden beneath the surface, she no longer had a choice.