by Susan Fox
I dragged my heavy lids open and at first, dazed by the sun and the kiss, couldn’t focus. When I did, he was staring down at me with a stunned expression.
How many men had I kissed? I hadn’t kept track. But never had I lost myself so totally in a kiss. “Mark? That was …” I couldn’t find words to describe it.
He let go of my waist and ran a hand through his already messy hair. A touch of humor glinted in his eyes. “Unexpected?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Now he grinned. “I get the feeling that should be your middle name.”
I grinned back, loving not just the kiss but the way it had loosened him up. “Beats being boring.”
“That kiss definitely wasn’t boring.”
The breeze caught my filmy skirt, whirling it around my legs. Making him glance down, and making me aware that all I wore under it was a thong, and the crotch was soaked. “There’s more where that came from,” I told him. If our first kiss was that mind-stunning, what would sex be like? I knew I’d find out. A kiss like that meant sex was inevitable.
His gaze tracked slowly up my body and I didn’t need to look down to know that my nipples stood out like pebbles against the soft fabric of my tank.
I didn’t need to look down to know he was still erect.
When his gaze finally made it back to my face, I gave him a teasingly sultry smile. “Pity there are so many people on this beach.”
He shook his head slowly—not denial, more like bewilderment. “This isn’t like me.”
“Then you need to loosen up, dude.”
A snort of laughter. “Maybe I do at that.” He drew in a breath, let it out firmly. “We should get back on the road.”
“Mmm. The sooner we do, the sooner we’ll stop for the night,” I teased.
Heat flared in his eyes. Then he blinked and bent to pick up our sandals. The man sure looked more like a surfer than a stuffy scientist. Muscular, naturally graceful in that powerful, masculine way that was incredibly appealing, tanned like he spent more time outside than in a lab.
Maybe he was the Indiana Jones type of scientist.
As we headed up the beach, I linked my arm with his again, hugging biceps to breast. “D’you ever travel any place really interesting in your work?”
“I’ve worked on projects in Thailand, Papua New Guinea, the Mekong Delta, Costa Rica.”
“Wow. Doing what?”
“Helping underdeveloped countries with conservation and restoration projects, research, education. Setting up eco-tourism that’s done right.”
Oh yeah, that was kind of Indiana Jonesy. “Cool job.” If I’d given in to my parents’ obsessive urging that I go to university, I, too … Nah. Academia and discipline weren’t my thing. Travel, though … “I’ve only been outside Canada and the continental U.S. twice. Mexico and Hawaii.” Mexico with a girlfriend, and Hawaii with a lover. “I love living in different places, learning about different environments, meeting different kinds of people.”
“Yeah. I’m not much for staying in one place, especially if it involves a classroom or lab. I like to get outside. Breathe the ocean. And I get bored if I spend too long on one project.”
“I like variety, too.”
We slipped back into our sandals and took the path away from the beach to the parking lot. His camper had heated up so we threw open the doors and windows. He climbed in the back and emerged with bottled water, chilled by the tiny fridge.
I drank gratefully. “All the comforts of home.” Glancing inside and thinking of that incredible kiss, I gestured toward the couch. “That makes into a bed?”
“Yeah. Folds down.” Voice going even huskier than usual, he added, “Into a double bed.”
“Can’t wait to try it,” I purred, itching to get naked with him. “In fact, why wait?” I was teasing, but if he’d taken me up on it, I’d have been right there with him.
He stared at me for a long moment, his tank top not disguising the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Oh yeah, he seriously wanted me, too.
A minivan pulled into a spot across from ours. Two adults and what seemed like a dozen kids piled out, everyone talking.
Mark took a hurried step back. “We’re behind schedule.”
“We have a schedule?”
He slid the camper side door closed. “I figured on stopping for the night at Patrick’s Point State Park near Trinidad. One of my colleagues recommended it. If we’re too late, we won’t get a spot.”
“Do you always plan ahead?”
“Pretty much. I take it you don’t?”
No, that was Tree’s shtick. My big sis even had a project plan for M&M’s wedding. I shook my head. “My way’s more fun. Look at the things you discover. Like Glass Beach. That wasn’t on your schedule, was it? Nor was strawberry pie, I bet. Nor me.” I gave him a mischievous grin. “And look at how much fun I am.”
He gave a husky laugh. “I’ll give you that. Now climb in, and let’s get going.”
I couldn’t wait to find out what he was like as a lover. He definitely had the body for sex, and he was one hell of a kisser. Surely, he wasn’t pulling back; he had to realize sex was inevitable.
Once we were under way, a beep sounded from my tote bag. My cell telling me I’d missed a call. “Crap, didn’t I turn that off?” I was always running down the batteries. At least on this trip I’d remembered my charger, but only because I’d gone through all my belongings, deciding what to take and what to give to friends or charity.
I opened the phone and picked up the message. It was Tree.
“Hi Jenna. You’re really on the road, right? Please drive safely.”
“Nag, nag, nag,” I muttered. Would my family be more or less worried if they knew I was with Mark rather than driving Mellow Yellow?
Her tone shifted to conspiratorial. “Listen, there’s fascinating news. Give me a call. You aren’t going to believe this!”
I closed my phone and frowned at it. Just because God invented e-mail and cell phones, it didn’t mean people had to jump like Pavlov’s dogs when they beeped. And I sure didn’t need to be nagged by my sister.
But she’d hooked my curiosity. “That was my big sis. I should phone her.”
“Sure.”
I dialed Tree’s cell. After three rings, I heard, “Hey, Jenna, you actually called.”
“Your ploy worked, damn you,” I joked.
“You are on your way, right? And you’ve had your car maintained recently?”
“I’m on the road and even have a schedule.” I rolled my eyes in Mark’s direction. “As for my car, it seems like only a few hours ago I was talking to my mechanic.” Eventually they’d find out the truth. No point in having them worry and fuss at me until I was home safely.
Mark shot me a skeptical look, which I ignored. I asked Tree, “What’s this news?” I still couldn’t believe my cynical, divorced professor sister had hooked up with a hottie thriller writer. Easier to believe in a parallel universe. “Is it about your Aussie super-stud?”
A snort of laughter from beside me made me cover the phone and “Sshh” Mark.
“Not this time,” Tree said. “This is about Kat. You won’t believe the guy she brought home.”
“Brought home? Last I heard, her wedding date was flying out from Montreal next week.”
“So we thought. But he came on the train with her. We picked them up this morning. Major shock.”
I winced. Poor old Kitty-Kat. “She’s brought home some real losers. What’s the fatal flaw this time?”
“That’s the bizarre thing,” my sister said wonderingly. “Nothing. At least nothing I’ve been able to find.”
“Oh, come on. You always think they’re too dumb.”
Another snort, muffled this time. I curled sideways in my seat to watch Mark at the wheel. He looked relaxed and confident, steering with one hand, the other resting on the rim of the open window. The cargo shorts and sage-green tank were casual, flattering, perfect on him.
Tree w
as saying, “Well, he doesn’t have a Ph.D., but he does have an M.B.A. from Cambridge, which is moderately impressive.”
“Oh yeah, moderately. So the poor shmuck didn’t go to Harvard. She should obviously dump him. What does he do?”
“Nav’s a photographer,” Tree said. “He has his own business, and he’s talented. He has an exhibit coming up at a prestigious gallery in Montreal.”
“Wow. That’s pretty cool. So he’s bright, well educated, creative, and successful.” I snapped my fingers. “Okay, got it. Another of Kat’s high flyers, like the Olympic skier and the NASCAR champ. With an ego a million times bigger than his cock.”
Mark laughed, and I gave him a mock scowl.
“What was that?” Tree said. “Where are you anyway? Was that the car radio? Are you driving while you’re talking on the cell?”
It figured. We could only be simpatico for so long. She had to get back to being the nagging big sis. “No,” I snapped, “I’m not driving while I’m talking on the cell. Jeez, Tree.” I ignored her other questions. “Now, wait a minute, you said there was nothing wrong with the guy. So he’s not an egomaniac?”
“Nope. He’s confident but in that charming, unassuming way. You know what I mean?”
“Totally. And he treats her nice? Those larger-than-life guys of hers make her act like a second-class citizen.”
“He respects her and seems to totally adore her.”
“He sounds wonderful.” Even I, who didn’t have the slightest interest in a serious relationship, felt a twinge of envy. “There has to be a downside. He’s goofy looking. Short, fat, balding?”
Mark’s lips twitched, but this time he kept quiet.
“Tallish, lean and toned, masses of long, curly black hair. He’s Indo-Canadian and has lovely skin, beautiful eyes. Jenna, the man’s gorgeous. He’s almost as good-looking as Damien.”
Damien, her Aussie hottie. I glanced at Mark, thinking he’d probably give both those guys a run for their money. “There has to be a hitch. With Kat, there always is. What do Mom and Dad say?”
“They only met him this morning, briefly, at the train station. Tonight, we’re all having dinner. That’ll be the test. If anyone can intimidate the hell out of the guy and find a flaw, it will be them.”
“Very true.” And if they didn’t, Kitty-Kat would do something to jinx things. My poor sister really wanted to be married and have kids, but she had the worst track record with guys. I hoped this time her luck had changed.
“Damien survived the parents. Maybe Nav will too.”
No boyfriend ever survived long in my house. I figured her Aussie only had because he’d been there such a short time before heading off on a book tour.
I was the only kid who didn’t give a damn what the family thought. In fact, I’d been known to bring guys home just to shock them. I glanced at Mark. He was too impressive to have shock value. My parents and Theresa would even approve of his academic credentials and career. Kat would dump on him though; she’d say his social skills were defective, and he needed to pay more attention to his grooming.
“You said his name’s Nav?” I asked my sister.
“Naveen Bharani.”
“And they were dating in Montreal?”
“I haven’t got all the details yet. Kat’s being a bit cryptic.”
“Aha. A deep, dark secret. Wonder what it is?”
“Don’t know, but hurry home, Jenna. You’re missing out on all the fun. You even missed the fitting for the bridesmaids’ dresses.”
“Are they terrible?”
“Not at all. They’re pretty sundresses. Yours is a lovely teal color, the closest we could get to matching your eyes.”
“Really?” My sisters had actually cared enough to do that? “Nice. Thanks, Tree. So, how’re M&M doing? Prewedding jitters?”
“Matt’s the same as always. Steady and sweet. Merilee’s tired from making up coursework and writing exams. Happy to see Kat and me but a little ticked off we brought guys home, as if we’re trying to upstage her.” She gave a fond laugh. “Good God, it’s her wedding, of course she should be the center of attention. Anyhow, she’s excited, maybe a little on edge. But she and Matt will be great. They’ve always known they belonged together.”
My baby sis and her guy had been bonded—hips, brains, hearts—since they were seven. “How’s her health?” Merilee’d been diagnosed with endometriosis and had surgery this spring, which was why she’d gotten behind on university work.
“She’s doing well.” A pause. “We should have realized there was something wrong.”
“Yeah.” Guilt wasn’t an emotion I had much time for, but Tree was right. At least she, Kat, and Mom shared this one with me. “Thank God for Matt.”
“He’d been trying for years to get her to see a doctor about her bad periods. But she listened to us, the females who said cramps were normal and told her to take ibuprofen.”
At least Merilee had finally taken Matt’s advice. She’d been diagnosed and had surgery.
“It’s a big reason they moved the wedding to this year,” Tree went on.
“I know.” M&M wanted kids, and endometriosis messed up fertility. I glanced away from Mark to look out the window. We were inland now, and my gaze lit on a couple of boys on bikes. “I sure hope things work out and she gets pregnant.”
“Me, too. She’s always wanted to be a mom. Her and Kat. Not like me, who’s open to it but not obsessed. Or you, who used to talk about having children then decided in your teens you didn’t want them.”
We passed the boys, and I didn’t turn to watch them. A familiar pang of regret moved through me, and I hugged my free arm across my belly. “Right.” Or at least so I’d made everyone think, because I hated pity. Besides, it was stupid to want what you couldn’t have.
I’d never told a soul that I couldn’t have children. What my family and friends had seen was a romantic seventeen-year-old who ran away with her boyfriend one summer, then came back in the fall saying I wasn’t cut out to be a one-guy girl and never wanted to be tied down to a husband and family. What else could I say? That I was even worse of a screw-up than they thought I was?
Tree chuckled. “You, with kids. It boggles the mind. You’re still a kid yourself.”
The subtle dig pissed me off. “Best way to be,” I said flippantly. “If you mean having fun, being optimistic, and seeing the best in people rather than being cynical and middle-aged.”
There was a moment’s silence, and I knew my jab had hit target just as hers had. What was it about me and my sisters? We were adults with different, happy lives, yet together we so often turned bitchy.
“Jenna? Come home soon. It’s … I … We all miss you.” Her tone was uncharacteristically tentative.
They missed me. I missed them too. No one could annoy me the way my family did, yet we shared blood, history, and love. “Me, too. I’m on my way.”
“Don’t pick up any hitchhikers.”
If only she knew. I smiled to myself and gave her one of my flip, trademark lines. “You know me; I was born to shock.”
Still, when I hung up, it was the old grief that lingered with me. Grief over the loss of the old Jenna, the one who’d been full of dreams. Grief, too, that my family always judged, that my teenage self hadn’t had a safe place to confess my mistakes and share my deepest sorrows.
Usually, Mark paid more attention to the subtle messages offered by the ocean than to human communication. But this afternoon he had a bewitching woman beside him.
A woman who—maybe?—had offered him sex. Surely she’d been teasing. Flirting? No matter how carefree and impulsive she was, she wouldn’t have sex with a virtual stranger. Would she?
Would he? Hell, with a woman as beautiful and bewitching as her, he’d be insane not to if she really wanted him.
At the moment, she didn’t look so carefree. Despite the provocative closing line she’d shot at her sister, she was subdued, staring out the windshield with one arm across her waist
as if she might have a stomach ache. It was the first time he’d seen her anything other than animated, which made him curious and concerned. “Are you all right?”
“Hmm?” She glanced over, nodded. “Fine, thanks.”
“That was your older sister?” he asked. “The brainiac?”
“Uh-huh.”
Earlier, she’d chattered away and drawn him into being more talkative than usual. What had happened during that phone conversation?
He scratched his head, feeling clumsy about his conversational skills. “Everything okay at home? The wedding on track?”
“Seems so.”
Normally, he’d never pry. But she’d certainly asked him enough questions. “Your other sister, Kat, brought home a new guy? You’re worried about her?”
“A little.” After a moment, she gave a little shake, as if she was tossing off whatever had upset her. She curled her legs up on the passenger seat under the drape of that gauzy skirt and turned toward him. “Kitty-Kat’s so driven to find Mr. Right that she’s always falling for Mr. Wrong.”
He pondered that. “I went out with a woman like that.” It had been the first and only time he’d made the mistake of not discussing expectations before sleeping with a woman. “She was on my Costa Rica ecotourism project.”
“She thought you were her Mr. Right?”
Embarrassed, he shrugged. “Guess she wanted me to be. We worked well together, seemed compatible. I thought—assumed—she was totally into her career, but after we got together she surprised me by saying she wanted to settle down and have kids.” She’d been older than him by several years, nearing the time that it would be too late to safely have children. “She urged me to get a teaching position at a university.” She’d even said she loved him, but he’d known it wasn’t true. The emotion he’d seen in her eyes was desperation.
“You don’t want that whole white picket fence thing, with the wife, two kids, and a dog and a cat in the yard?”
A tough question. “Yes and no. I hate the idea of being stuck in one job, one place, for years and years. And I’m no fan of the institution of marriage. Yet, I do want a life partner and kids.”
“A lot of people do,” she said quietly. Subdued again.