Dare Me Once

by Shelly Alexander

If he was going to be such a smart-ass, then she was going to give him a hefty sample of the same. “Who’ve you been having great sex with?”

  He stopped dead in his tracks, pulled her back to him, and laid the sexiest, sultriest openmouthed kiss on her. With lots and lots of tongue. So much tongue that it was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling. A tiny noise came from somewhere deep inside her, and she melted into him.

  He broke the kiss and let his mouth linger a fraction from hers. “Want to ask me that again?”

  “Maybe later,” she whispered.

  He chuckled, laced his fingers with hers again, and they walked up the lane.

  When he led her down to the dock, past the pier, and around the boathouse, Lily asked, “Where are we going?” She’d explored the grounds, but the map Lawrence had given her didn’t show anything beyond that point.

  The wood walkway ended just past the boathouse, and Trace stopped. “Ever wonder how Angel Fire Falls got its name?”

  Now she was really intrigued. “Yes, actually. I have.”

  He took off his backpack and handed it to her. Then he turned his back to her and stooped. “Then climb on, and I’ll show you.”

  “Um . . .” Climb on? “Riding on your back would be an awkward position at my age.”

  He glanced over his shoulder with smoky eyes. “Of all the positions we’ve been in, piggybacking you across a muddy trail is the least awkward.”

  She was sure she blushed.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’ll carry you.”

  She caved and climbed on his back. He carried her as easily as a feather.

  When they got to a yellow rope that had a KEEP OUT sign anchored in the center, he lifted the rope and handed it to her. “Flip this over our heads.” He stooped, and she did what she was told.

  “I didn’t realize anything was down here,” she said.

  He ducked under a mass of overgrown vines and veered left. They cleared a copse of maple trees, and then the landscape opened up into a sandy beachhead that gently sloped to the water.

  “This is a hidden treasure,” she said as he set her down. She handed him his backpack. “Why isn’t the resort using this as a swimming hole? It’s close enough to the resort that it would be perfect. Families would love it.” The cove was as smooth as glass, and sunshine reflected off the water.

  “I secretly named it Camilla’s Cove after my mom.” He toed the wet sand with the tip of one hiking boot, sadness filling his expression. “No one comes this far anymore.”

  She angled her head to the side. “Why not?”

  He shoved both hands in his pockets and scanned the expanse of the cove. “She . . . this is where we lost her.”

  She let out a soft gasp. “Oh, Trace.” She walked over and slipped her arms around him.

  “It was hard for all of us, but especially so for my brothers. They were with her that day.” He swallowed. “I was with my dad on a campout with the Scouts.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Lily whispered. She’d spent a lot of time feeling neglected by her parents. Losing one completely was beyond her imagination.

  “Maybe that’s why I’m so overprotective of Ben.” Trace rested his chin against the top of her head. “I’ve felt like a parent since I was eleven. Spence and Elliott had a rough time after it happened, and I had to be strong for them. The responsibility has been like a weight around my shoulders for years.”

  She rested her cheek against his chest. The soft rhythmic beat of his heart lulled her.

  He stroked the nape of her neck with his fingertips. “I guess I felt betrayed and abandoned by Mom’s absence.”

  A feeling Lily knew well. “Sometimes we don’t understand our parents’ actions.” Lily felt fortunate that her parents had still been around to explain why their lives had taken a turn for the worse, so she could finally start to heal. Trace didn’t have that luxury because his mother was no longer alive. “But they usually do have an explanation for their mistakes. I’m just sorry you don’t have the answers you’re obviously looking for.”

  They stayed wrapped in each other’s arms for a long time. Finally, he leaned back to look down into her eyes. “The last few weeks that weight has felt much lighter.” His expression turned lazy and lustful. “Thank you.”

  His attraction, his need was raw and so apparent that Lily’s heart squeezed.

  He wanted her. And she wanted him. But she wanted him to have all of her. Not just the girl he’d found on the road one day trying like hell to pedal her way into a new life. She wanted him to know the person who’d been desperate to escape the abusive media coverage she and her mother had endured. The death threats in the form of a spray-painted message across her car, and the suspicious package that showed up on their doorstep, which had been the last straw that’d made up her mind to become someone else.

  And she wanted him to love her in spite of all that.

  Her pulse kicked through her veins.

  She wasn’t sure how it had happened so fast, but she was falling for him. Hard.

  She fought off a shiver of guilt mixed with regret, both so powerful she wanted to blurt the whole truth right then.

  “Come on.” He crooked a finger at her. “This isn’t what I wanted to show you.” He notched his chin toward an overgrown trail that meandered up a steep hill on the far side of the cove. “The falls are up there.”

  When he held out his hand, she took it, determined to enjoy the moment with Trace while she still could.

  Trace led Lily up the trail. He hadn’t walked along the old boat launch or hiked to the falls in years. The last time had been in high school on the anniversary of his mother’s death, and he’d kept it a secret. It was too painful, too personal for his brothers.

  After the accident, his dad had shut down that part of the grounds. So when Trace moved back to the island, he’d forbidden Ben and Sophie from going past the boathouse. But Trace wanted to share this part of the resort, this part of the island with Lily because it was a treasure, just like her. Spence and Elliott may not ever be able to enjoy that part of the grounds again, but Trace was ready to move on. And he wanted to move on with Lily.

  After his ex’s disastrous trip to see Ben, Lily hadn’t seemed sure about her future on the island. Today was about showing her how special she was, how much he wanted her to be there. With him.

  Just before they reach the bluff, he stopped. “Close your eyes. I want it to be a surprise.”

  “You want me to climb the rest of the way with my eyes closed?” she protested.

  “Do you trust me?” Waiting for an answer had every muscle in his body tied into knots. He didn’t know many details of her last relationship. Didn’t know anything about her family, but it couldn’t be good. She wasn’t very trusting, and she certainly wasn’t into sharing information about herself. For some reason, gaining her trust with this small thing would give him hope that she’d eventually trust him with the big stuff too.

  When he glanced over his shoulder, she had a plump bottom lip pulled between her teeth.

  She nodded. “Yes.” Her voice shook. “I trust you.”

  His heart pumped with relief. “Then take my hand and stay close.” A sense of protectiveness and possessiveness filled him when she held tightly to his hand.

  Just before he took the last step that would bring his grand surprise into view, he said, “Eyes closed?”

  “Yep,” she said. “Promise.”

  “Okay, keep ’em closed tight.” As soon as he led her onto the bluff, the sound of rushing water filtered toward them. “Don’t open them until I say.” He stepped behind her and placed his hands over her eyes.

  “I hear water.” The excitement in her voice was palpable.

  He walked her to the center of the bluff where the falls were visible to the right and an expansive view of the island swept left with the ocean beyond. “Ready?”

  “Yes.” She gripped his hands with hers. “I’m dying to see.”

  When he move
d his hands, she gasped. She ran a few more steps and then stopped, her hands covering her cheeks.

  God, but she was so damn gorgeous. Those itty-bitty shorts and her tight light-pink T-shirt that molded to every curve and showed enough skin that his prick had roared to life the second she’d opened the door were killing him.

  “It has to be the most beautiful place on earth.” Her tone was all full of awe and admiration.

  Relief slammed through Trace. He hadn’t realized how important her approval was. How much he’d wanted her to embrace his home instead of thinking of it as a resort. How much he wanted her to belong there with him instead of just existing as an employee.

  She used a hand to shield her eyes as she looked up at the falls cascading over the tall cliff. The spray of water created a prism against the sun, and heavenly white clouds peeked over the top of the cliff, the combination setting the sky on fire. “It’s breathtaking. I can see where the name came from.”

  He took her hand, his fingers lacing into hers. “See where the water pools at the base?” He pointed to the bottom of the falls. “There’s a nice swimming hole there.” He tugged her in that direction.

  “I don’t have a swimsuit handy.”

  “I know.” Desire thickened in his tone.

  “Wait a minute.” She pulled up short, tugging on his hand for him to stop. “Are you saying all of this is resort land?”

  “Yep.” He started toward the waterfall again. “The land on the far side of the bluff is ours too.”

  “My God,” she said. “I knew the resort was big, but I had no idea just how big.”

  He tugged her hand and gave her a quick kiss. “So you’re impressed by the size? Because every guy knows size really does matter.”

  “You’re doing just fine in that department,” she teased. “I’m magnificently impressed.”

  He chuckled, pulling her against him to snake an arm around her slender waist as they walked toward the falls.

  She snuggled into his side. “It’s perfect for a wedding venue. Costly, though. The civil engineering alone for road access would be staggering. If we turned the flatter land on the other side of the bluff into a nine-hole golf course, we could recruit investors and combine it with the wedding venue. As long as the Remingtons maintain a controlling interest, we’d still be in charge.”

  Her mind clicked at a faster pace than most everyone he knew combined. She never stopped surprising him at how smart and creative she was. But what had his pulse racing with satisfaction was that she used the term we. As in her and him together as a team.

  “Do you know how much it turns me on when you talk like a corporate shark?” He eased her up against the rock wall that created a half circle around the falls. From the pool of water where the falls landed, a spray of cool mist drifted up and coated them.

  Her eyes smoldered with passion. “Funny how many of my ideas you actually like, even though you didn’t want to hire me.”

  He nipped at her bottom lip. “Those shorts are very persuasive.”

  She pinched him.

  “Ouch.” He flinched.

  She pinched him again.

  “Ouch.” He laughed. “I take it back.”

  “You better.” Her finger caressed the sting from her pinch. “That’s not the best strategy if you want me to go skinny-dipping with you.”

  He anchored one hand to the rock wall next to her head. “No? Then how about this?” He drew one of her legs up to circle his waist and pressed his throbbing prick into her center.

  “Better.” Her eyes floated shut, and she arched into him. “Much, much better.” She wrapped her arms around his head. “Since we own the place, I say we turn it into our own private topless swimming hole.” She bit his earlobe. “No swimsuits allowed.”

  He growled. “I hear nothing but good ideas out of you.”

  “Yeah?” she teased. “Does that mean my probationary period is over?”

  “Babe, it was over the second you found a way to stop Mrs. Ferguson from cooking.” He pressed into her again.

  Her breath hitched, and her lusty gaze settled on his mouth like she wanted to feast on it.

  “Hungry?” he teased. “’Cause lunch is in the backpacks.”

  Her lips parted, and a pretty pink tongue darted out to smooth across her bottom lip. She nodded. “Oh, I’m hungry.” She lifted her chin like she was playing along.

  He bent his head to take that sassy mouth in a kiss, but she slipped under his arm, and he fell forward, catching himself against the rock wall. “Hey.” He glanced over a shoulder.

  “We can have lunch later.” She backed toward the water with a wicked smile on her lush lips. The backpack was the first thing to hit the ground. A tennis shoe came off with the next backward step, then the other.

  He turned and leaned back to watch the show.

  Her slender fingers went to work on the snap of those sexy shorts, and then the zipper made a quick whirring sound as it lowered. With one swift push, they dropped to the ground and she stepped out of them, still moving backward.

  He shifted, his pants growing more uncomfortable with each step she took toward the water. He jammed his hands into his pockets to keep from acting like a caveman. This was just too damn good not to savor.

  She flicked the T-shirt over her head and kept moving backward, slowly, in nothing but a matching set of lacy lingerie. She ran a fingertip over the top edge of one bra cup.

  “Jesus, Lily,” he rasped out, his voice nothing more than a gritty whisper.

  A naughty smile spread over her beautiful mouth, and she lifted a brow. She reached around to her back and unhooked her bra. She tossed it onto the ground too, leaving a nice trail of clothes that taunted him to follow.

  By the time she reached the edge of the pool, a thick sheen of spray from the falls glistened off her skin. She turned to dip a toe in.

  He swallowed. Because hello. She was wearing another thong.

  She shivered and wrapped both arms around her torso to peek over a shoulder. “The water’s freezing. You said this was a swimming hole.” Her eyes were wide with fear.

  Her silky hair cascading down her bare, toned back and the creamy skin of her perfectly round ass cheeks were his undoing. He was on her before she could turn around again, shucking his clothes as he went. He wrapped her in his arms and molded himself around her.

  He nuzzled her ear and whispered, “It’s easiest if you plunge right in instead of easing in a little at a time.”

  Another shiver and shimmy against his cock made him groan. He pressed against her so they leaned toward the water.

  “You wouldn’t,” she said.

  “Let’s jump together.” He applied a little more pressure to her back. It seemed symbolic of their relationship, their connection, and there was no one else on earth he’d rather jump with than Lily.

  “Trace.” Her hands clamped on top of his, and she tried to push back.

  Did no good.

  She squealed as he propelled them into the water, and she slipped from his grasp.

  He broke the surface first, and then she popped up gasping from the frigid water.

  “Oh . . . you . . .” She couldn’t finish because of her chattering teeth. She splashed him.

  He laughed and reached for her.

  She pushed away and swam in the opposite direction.

  “At least let me warm you up, babe.” He said it with pure innocence.

  She ignored him and disappeared through the falling water to lounge on the far side where a rock formation formed a shelf. Elbows behind her, she stretched her legs and kicked her feet.

  He pushed off and swam to her, breaking through the falling water into the private cavelike alcove. His feet touched bottom, and he framed her with a hand on each side of her shoulders.

  Her wet lashes batted at him. “This place is beautiful. You’re very lucky.”

  “Maybe it can be yours too if you’ll stay here with me and Ben.” He placed a soft kiss on each eye, th
en feathered kisses down her neck and across her collarbone.

  “Trace,” she whispered. “I . . . maybe we should . . .”

  He bent lower and grasped one of her granite nipples between his teeth.

  She hissed in a breath.

  There was plenty of time for talk. Maybe a lifetime, if things between them kept going so well. His lips closed around the nipple again, and he began to suckle.

  She let out a loud moan.

  God, he loved it when she moaned.

  He covered her other firm breast with a palm and massaged. And they spent the rest of the day doing exactly what he’d wanted—they enjoyed the beauty of the resort that was his home, his future. And Lily could be part of it if she wanted.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  LILY’S LIFE LESSON #21

  Go big because going home a failure sucks.

  The next few days passed in a blur, with Lily firming up the new programs she’d implemented for the resort and setting up as much as she could to fulfill her obligations and the bartering promises she’d made. Trace’s dangerous talk about the future during their skinny-dipping adventure stiffened Lily’s resolve to get everything in order so she could come clean without leaving the Remington at risk.

  She sat at her desk and finished up a list of instructions and contact numbers should a new person fill the hospitality manager’s position in the near future.

  Ronald Parker was scheduled to arrive—she glanced at the time on the screen—fifteen minutes ago.

  The clock had run out on her conscience, and she planned to tell Trace the truth as soon as she could get him alone. Unfortunately, alone time had been in short supply between Lily’s busy work schedule, Trace getting his delivery business ready to roll, Trace’s endless argumentative phone calls with his ex-wife, who still hadn’t dropped the custody suit, and Ben’s science project.

  She picked up her phone and sent Trace a text.

  Did you notice Ronald Parker on your manifest?

  The dots did their dance.

  Yep. Running late. Guests’ luggage didn’t show yet.

  Lily sighed. To keep busy, she flipped through the next few months on the reservations calendar, very few vacancies showing. Now fully staffed, the resort already buzzed with activity even though the official summer season didn’t kick off until the following weekend. Her hard work was already paying off for the Remington family. They deserved it.