by Caro LaFever
“I’m clean. I’ve got the papers to prove it.” His intelligent mind understood exactly where she was going and gave her the answer she’d wanted. It struck her how fast this man had figured her out and knew her thoughts.
She wasn’t sure she liked that at all.
Riq shuffled in place and his gaze fell to his dog. “Come on, boy. Time to go take a swim.”
Trying to find the wonderful once more, she dropped her arms and smiled. “I’ll come with you. Jiggs might need us both to keep afloat.”
Her attempt at a joke went flat. She could tell by the twist of his mouth and the look of wary displeasure in his eyes. “I can take care of my own dog.”
And with that, he took off, limping in a quick step toward the ocean. Sighing, she let herself take him in, although his attitude sucked. He really was a thing of pure beauty, a physical poem to male grace and symmetry. With a splash, he disappeared into the waves, depriving her of her enjoyment. Jiggs danced on the edge of the beach before launching into the water behind his owner.
He might be bordering on surly, but she wasn’t going to give up her new idea. Sniffing, she let the scent imprint on her brain before scrambling out of the Jeep and heading toward the sea.
He’d listen to her.
Eventually.
Deciding to make a splash of her own to get his attention, she took off in a run, aiming for the long dock. For a moment, she felt like the happy, fun-filled girl she’d been as a child. Delighted to be the apple of everyone’s eye. Glad to be alive. Cheerful and content with her life.
His dark head popped out of the water, just as she hit the end of the dock and launched into the water.
“Yippee!” She let out the scream she’d always used as a kid when she dashed into the ocean. The cool wetness surrounded her, engulfing her head. Risa sank into the ocean, an old friend, before swimming up for a breath.
His chuckle caught her attention as soon as she could hear.
Swinging her head around, she found him lounging on the beach, his legs still in the water. Jiggs stood by his side, panting. He’d put on his shorts again, and for some reason, she took it as a pullback. Which hurt. But then, she focused on his expression and his chuckle, which helped soothe her a bit.
“Little girl.” His gibe floated across the water.
“I think you proved that statement wrong a few minutes ago.” She attempted to recover the ground she’d gained in the Jeep. She wanted that guy back. The guy who panted with pleasure into her ear and groaned his delight in her body. The guy who didn’t look at her as if she were a stinky mess designed to irritate the hell out of him.
“Yeah.” His tone turned wry. “I guess I did.”
His grimace twisted her heart.
“You don’t have to look sorry about it,” she said, paddling in place because something about his posture told her to stay clear for now. “I’m not.”
“There’s one of us, at least.”
The twist turned to a knot. “Don’t ruin it.”
He glanced at her before rising with a wince. “We probably should get back to the shelter and eat something.”
“I thought you had more work to do.”
A shrug of broad shoulders was her only answer. He and Jiggs took off toward the Jeep.
With a tiny puff of a sigh, she swam until she had her feet beneath her, and waded to shore. Wringing out her hair, she walked toward the pile of her clothes. A garbled cough reached her, a male sound meant to catch a woman’s attention, but when she looked up toward the Jeep, he had his back turned to her.
Except she knew.
He’d been watching her stroll on the beach. Naked. And liked it.
A tiny, smug smile crept across her face as she flung her sweat-stained T-shirt over her head. She might be salty, sweaty, and scruffy. Yet, he still found her sexy.
“Come on,” he barked, impatience now in his voice. “Let’s get going.”
Sliding her ill-fitting shorts on, she hiked toward the Jeep. She noticed he kept his focus on his dog, who’d taken the front passenger seat. Maybe teasing would lighten his mood so he’d kiss her again. And other things. “What’s for dinner, Chef?”
Those lips of his quirked, making her heart sing. “Up to you. You’re doing the cooking.”
“Am I?” Circling the car, she opened the door and pushed the panting dog to one side of the seat before sliding in. “I’ve been working really hard today. I think it’s your turn.”
He glanced at her, his blue eyes twinkling.
Something she’d never seen before. Shock rolled through her. The mist of his eyes often obscured what he thought, and when it did clear, it left only steely distaste or a laser of aqua desire. Now, though, the mist layered onto the blue, glimmering and glinting in pure pleasure.
She caught her breath at the effect.
“You think, huh?” Gunning the engine, he shot off toward the gravel road leading to the terrace and his amazing home. “First time?”
“Stop.” Instead of being offended, she laughed. Because his tone of voice was filled with merry wickedness. “I think all the time.”
He grunted.
“I do.” Her mind went back to her idea. Although the Jeep no longer smelled like the scent of their sex, she still held it in her nose and her memory. “Let me tell you about the idea I had to make something.”
He grunted again.
Being an optimist, she took that as a go ahead. “There was this amazing scent after we finished.”
“Finished.” The word rolled along his tongue, half tease, half lure. “Finished what, sunshine?”
“You know.” To her surprise, a blush rose to her cheeks.
Why did this man, of all men or women, continue to make her blush? She’d never been the type of girl to be intimidated by the boys’ jeers or worried about how she came off. She knew she came off well almost all the time.
Except with this man.
Turning, she stared at him. Beyond this moment, what was she going to do with this guy? This guy who’d given her the best sex she’d ever had. This guy who treated her with sensitive care one moment and surly anger the next. This guy who’s changed her world and her view of it in one day.
What was she going to do with him?
He eyed her from across the seat. “I’m waiting.”
“The scent was amazing,” she blurted. “I think we could bottle it. Make a perfume with it that would help save my company. That’s only one way you could help.”
Now it was his turn to be shocked. She could tell that’s what he felt because his eyes widened until she saw the white beyond the blue. His hands tightened on the wheel until his knuckles also went white. “So that’s what this was all about.”
The tone of his voice wasn’t good. It told her he’d decided against her before he even heard the whole idea. “Wait, I have more—”
“That’s why you came on to me,” he snarled. “Not because you wanted me, right, Princesa?”
Her heartbeat picked up into a frantic tattoo. “What are you talking about?”
He jerked the wheel and punched the gas, pushing the Jeep’s tires to squeal as it rounded a corner. “Let me tell you something.”
She glared, angry at him for refusing to even listen before he passed judgment, and angry at herself for not finding the words to change his mind.
The car roared over the top of the hill and yanked to a stop at the edge of the terrace. He flipped off the engine and turned in his seat to confront her. His bare chest glistened with sweat as his jagged breath billowed in and out. His expression had gone from irritated to outraged. “I don’t like it when women use me.”
“What?” She gaped, stunned.
Leaning closer, his intensity surrounded her—the blaze of his eyes, the broad roll of his shoulders, the heat and scent of his spicy fury. “I don’t like it when a woman tries to use sex to manipulate me.”
“That’s not… That’s not why…” She sputtered to a stop, because the hurt welling inside
made it hard to breathe.
“So I’m warning you.” His lips shot the words out, sharp and hot with fiery animosity. “Don’t do that again. No more sex with me to try and get your way about your damned family business.”
His dog woofed, a plaintive cry rising between them. His glare switched to Jiggs and the edge of his mouth softened. “Come on, boy.”
Before she could gather a rebuttal, he threw the Jeep’s door open, grabbed his dog in his arms, and stalked off toward his amazing house.
Leaving Risa with a slash of hurt on her tender heart and a growing rage in her gut.
Chapter 22
“Stop sniffling.” Riq slung the rope attached to his hammock over one tree limb. “You’ll be safer in the shelter.”
The princesa pouted a few feet away. Not distant enough, as far as he was concerned, because much to his disgust, he still felt the lust for her running through his veins. Even though he’d ignored her as they ate their evening MREs and ignored her pitiful attempt to explain her motivations for having sex with him.
He knew.
He wasn’t stupid.
However, he’d acted stupidly, he’d acknowledge that. He’d let her pretty face and sexy body cloud his mind. Not since he’d been a clueless virgin had he fallen so hard and so fast onto a woman’s body.
She hadn’t orgasmed.
The knowledge stuck in his pride like a dagger. He’d functioned like it had been his very first time, climbing off a woman knowing she hadn’t enjoyed the sex as much as he had.
“It’s too hot in there,” she grouched.
Glancing at her, he stifled an evil chuckle. The last of the sunlight slid across the terrace, seeming to highlight her. But it didn’t do her any favors. Because of the swim in the ocean with no shower after, she looked like a grumpy crustacean. Her skin was coated with salt, and her hair stood out at odd angles, stiff and crunchy. As he watched, she scratched her bare arm and grimaced.
For a second, he thought about telling her of his outdoor shower behind the house, or the fresh-water falls located a half mile from here. Momentarily, he wavered on whether to tell her the shower in his home worked just fine.
“You must have another hammock I can use.”
The whiny tone in her voice stifled any urge to make this easier. She was the leech who’d arrived uninvited, and it wasn’t his damn fault she’d flaunted herself in front of him, trying to win his influence and money.
“Must I?” He tied the other end of the hammock on another tree and flipped open the covering. The hammock resembled the Marine-issued one he’d used on numerous missions. Netting would protect him from the bugs, and the flap would come in useful if it started to rain during the night. “There’s no must I between you and me.”
She huffed, but to his irritation, kept going. “Do you or do you not have another hammock?”
At the command in her voice, he arched his brows. “None of your damn business. Get in the shelter.”
“There’s no reason for me to stay in there for safety.” Her pouty lips twisted. “Unless there’s another hurricane on the way.”
Jiggs woofed in apparent agreement, before laying his head on her bare foot.
Riq snarled at his traitor of a dog. “You’re staying out here with me, Jiggs. Go to your bed.”
He’d dragged the doggie bed from the shelter, and placed it under the palm tree next to the hammock. His boy had slept outside with him many times, when they’d taken off on an adventure to explore this island. After he’d bought this land, there’d been a year before his house and the village had been constructed. He’d used the time to canvass his new property, and sometimes pretend he was a modern-day Robinson Crusoe.
Even then, with that image in his mind, he hadn’t found much peace.
Shrugging off the thought, he re-focused on the irritating woman who still hadn’t left him alone. “Go into the shelter. Jiggs—come here, boy.”
His dog obediently got to his feet, and scrambled across the terrace to his bed.
She, on the other hand, didn’t obey. “I’m not going.”
Before he could growl her into compliance, she took off toward the hut where he stored the gardening equipment, as well as his camping gear.
There was another hammock.
His blood heated in anger. Not only because she refused to do what he told her, although this was his island and she was at his mercy, but because of that ass of hers. Her borrowed shorts sagged, and her legs were coated with salt, yet that ass still swung like a beacon, drawing him in.
“Coño,” he muttered under his breath.
He did not want her out here with him. Listening to her breathing and movements last night had been bad enough. The same noises would combine with his memories of what happened in his Jeep and drive him wild. He wouldn’t catch a wink.
“Get back here,” he shouted.
Disappearing into the hut, she clearly didn’t care, or worry about his rage. Again, the realization stunned. She wasn’t intimidated by him.
The princesa reappeared, her smug look on her face, and the other leaf-green hammock in her hands. “Ha.”
“So what?” he sneered. “You still have to get the thing set up, and my bet is you won’t know shit about tying a knot.”
“There, caveman, you’d be wrong.” Strutting to a palm tree far too near his hammock, she strung the end rope around the trunk. “I’ve boated with my dad my entire life.”
He folded his arms in front of him, frustration and lust strolling through his body like unwanted guests.
Like her.
“I don’t want you near me.”
At his announcement, she turned, her gaze glittering with a seductive tease. During the last few hours, after he’d firmly rejected any more advances or any more sex, she’d subsided into a simmering quiet. But the look in her eyes told him she hadn’t abandoned trying to use her body to get him to agree to help her family business.
Outrage made him straighten his spine and glare. “If you won’t stay in the shelter, then take yourself farther off, where I won’t have to hear you sniffling and snoring all night.”
Blonde brows arched. “I don’t snore. You do.”
“You make stupid noises that keep me up.” For example, the kittenish purrs when she rolled in the bed, or the adorable snuffles into her pillow. He’d been too irritated lying on the floor to catalogue the effect those sounds had on him, but since their sexual bout, he knew they’d contributed to his fall into her allure. “Go over there.”
She swung her gaze to stare at the stout pair of palm trees on the other side of the terrace he pointed to. “That’s too far from you. I wouldn’t feel safe.”
A tiny zing of pleasure zipped through him. She felt safe around him.
He halted that thought and the zing with an abrupt twist away from her. “I thought you weren’t worried about safety.”
“Well,” the word strung out, as if she weren’t sure what to say, “I’m not but I am.”
Which was so typically a thing a woman would say. His mimi and yaya would have said much the same thing in much the same way. Reluctant amusement curled into his gut. Except he still wasn’t willing to have her near. “If you go over there, I’ll help you assemble the hammock.”
“No.” This time the word was quick and sharp. “I’m staying close.”
The last ray of the sun fell behind the mountain, leaving the jungle’s creeping shadows to fall across the house and them.
Jiggs whined.
“It’s all right, boy. I’m right here.” What the hell. He didn’t intend to go near her and bodily move her where he wanted. Likely, she’d merely follow him back here if he did. Resigned to a night filled with female sounds, designed to annoy and vex, Riq swung himself into his hammock and closed the flap.
She rustled and grunted and swore
Ignoring her and her struggles, he rolled in the hammock and looked through the netting at the gathering darkness.
A quiet fell.
Against his will, he stilled, waiting for her next sound. Had she managed to get the hammock assembled?
“Shit.” Her voice was filled with disgust.
Riq grinned. Something was wrong, and it appeared he’d get his wish and she’d retreat to the shelter.
Another rustle. Another.
Jiggs woofed from below.
“Quiet, boy,” he ordered.
“He’s only trying to encourage me,” she said, her voice wry. “Unlike his owner.”
“I’m not in the business to encourage you.” He rolled back to look at the top of the flap. Something rolled in his heart too—an ugliness that surprised him. Yet, it was there, roiling, urging him to strike. “There isn’t anything you can offer me to help you. Including your body.”
A quiet descended on the terrace. A quiet he swore was filled with disappointment.
Riq knew all about disappointment. He hated the unspoken emotion that had permeated his childhood. He’d hated when Chief or one of his SEAL buddies slung the emotion at him. He hated disappointing anyone.
“You’re better than that, caveman.” Her soft words filtered through the netting and canvas. “I know it.”
Risa managed to tie the bowline knots at both ends, just as her daddy had taught her, even though the shadows had turned to black darkness during the last few minutes. There’d been nothing but silence from the other hammock after her provoking charge.
She believed in the charge, knew its truth to the bottom of her soul. She still felt a bit remorseful.
Which was silly.
The caveman was a jerk. Absolutely. He’d given her an amazing joy, had shown her what sex really meant, and then he’d gone and ruined it with his nasty innuendo. He’d compounded his sins by not letting her explain what she really meant about her idea.
A sigh escaped her.
But tomorrow was another day. Another day where she’d have time to convince him that she…
That she…
Liked him?
No, more than that. Lusted after him. That was all. Merely lust.
But she needed to make him understand. She hadn’t let him inside her for any other reason than that she wanted him.