Seduce Me

by Jill Shalvis

  But now, with her eyes still locked on his, Sam lifted the paddle.

  “Two seventy-five,” she said.

  From her platform, Heather grinned. “I’ve got two seventy-five, do I hear three hundred?”

  “Three hundred,” called a man in the back.

  Sam’s wrist flexed as she tried to lift her paddle again, but Jack laughed and held it down. “Stop,” he said.

  She stuck out her tongue at him, and he had the insane urge to suck it into his mouth.

  “Three fifty,” she called out.

  The bidding got crazy after that, and Jack gave up holding Sam back, but he worried as he watched her go at it with such glee. “Sam—”

  “We’re at seven fifty,” Heather said excitedly. “Going once—”

  “Eight hundred,” Sam called out.

  “Eight hundred,” Heather called, looking impressed. “Going once, twice…” She slammed down her gavel. “Sold, to the lady in black with the big smile on her face.”

  Jack laughed, he couldn’t help it. Sam was grinning. “You’re crazy.”

  “Probably.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “Don’t worry, Jack,” she said softly. “I never do anything I don’t want to do.”

  “Is that right?” He stroked a wayward tendril of hair from her eye, ran his finger down her jaw. “What would you like to do now?”

  “Are we finished here?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I am.”

  “Then let’s hit it.” She stood up, then reached for his hand.

  They found Heather, harried but happy with the money she’d collected so far. Sam settled up for her purchase and got her coupon for the lessons.

  Heather hugged Jack hard. “Thanks for doing this. I know I owe you.”

  He looked at Sam, thinking about what he’d gotten out of the evening. “Consider us even.”

  “It wasn’t so bad, right?” Heather asked. “No scandals.”

  “Were you expecting one?” Sam asked.

  “No, but with Jack, the press will make one up if they have to. They love to hang him.” Heather kissed his cheek, and then Sam’s. “’Night, guys.”

  “’Night.” Jack opened the back door and put a hand low on Sam’s spine to guide her out.

  “Oh. Uh, I just remembered…” Heather’s voice trailed off.

  Jack sighed and turned back to see Heather standing there, hands clasped. “I know better than to stop and ask what you just remembered.”

  “One last little favor…”

  “What?”

  “A carnival for the kids,” Heather said. “Next weekend. We’re short of volunteers. It’d only be for a few hours, the two of you could do it together. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

  Jack sighed.

  “Free food…”

  Sam looked up at him expectantly. “I like free food.”

  He had to let out a laugh. “You did hear the ‘two of you’ part, right?” he asked. “Which means, you’re involved now whether you like it or not.”

  “I wouldn’t mind.”

  “For the children,” Heather said sweetly. “It’s all about the kids, Jack.”

  “Which booth?” he asked. “Because you’re not telling me something, I can tell.”

  “Well, it’s a simple one, really. Very easy to run. You’ll have no problem with it at all. And the children just love it—”

  “Which booth, Heather?”

  His sister rolled her eyes. “The dunking booth.”

  Jack raised his eyebrows at Sam. “See?”

  “I don’t have a problem with a dunking booth,” Sam said. “I like water.”

  Both women grinned and turned to face Jack, but it was Sam’s promising smile that grabbed him, and he groaned because he knew.

  He was a goner.

  5

  THEY MADE a late-night stop at McDonald’s for sodas—both aware they were just trying to make the evening last—and Sam couldn’t get over how much she laughed as they sat at that little table in the empty fast-food place. In fact, she couldn’t believe the entire evening—everything about it and her date had made her smile.

  But the smile faded as they walked back to the SUV. The night was quickly coming to an end, and now she needed an answer to the eternal question.

  To kiss or not to kiss.

  Actually, the question was moot now, wasn’t it? She’d already gone that far, with an ease that shocked her. Tonight had been so much more than she’d bargained for, and she felt the need to retreat and think.

  So as they got into his car and drove toward the café, she made the decision not to tell Jack she lived above it, mostly because she wouldn’t be able to resist him if he asked to come in.

  On the highway, Jack reached out and took her hand. His expression sent little shivers of pleasure down her spine. She knew he wanted more than a kiss.

  And so did she.

  But wanting more and getting it were two separate things. Nope, she needed to sleep on this one, which meant neither of them were going to get what they wanted, not tonight.

  THE MOON hung above the waves, making the frothing white water glow as they pulled into the café’s parking lot.

  Jack had felt Sam’s retreat, and he turned to her. “You okay?”

  She smiled at him, though it didn’t quite make it to her eyes. “Sure.”

  “Sam.”

  “I’m just thinking.” She put her hand on his arm, making him feel better. “I get quiet when I think. Thanks for tonight. It was nice.”

  “Yeah, it was.” He turned off the engine and walked around to her side of the SUV.

  “’Night,” she said, poised for flight.

  “At least let me walk you to your car.”

  “That’s okay, I’m going to go inside for a minute. I’ve got stuff to do.”

  Nodding, he studied her face by moonlight, or what he could see of it since she wouldn’t look directly at him, and wondered what had happened to scare her off. “You work late out here a lot?”

  “Sometimes.” Again she looked a little distant, as if in her mind she were already inside the café working. “I’ll be safe, don’t worry.” With another flash of a half smile, she turned away.

  He snagged her wrist in a light hold, ran his thumb over her pulse. “Sam—”

  “I’ve got to go, Jack.” But in a surprising move, considering she’d already dismissed him, she leaned into him and gave him a quick kiss.

  The press of her soft mouth on his was welcome, but all too quickly she pulled away and walked off into the night.

  Despite her sudden silence, and how quickly she appeared to want to get rid of him, he stood there for a moment watching her.

  She didn’t go into the café.

  She didn’t get into her car.

  But she did disappear over the bluff beside the café.

  Curious, he followed her, and stopped dead at the top of the rise. Her high-heeled sandals lay discarded at his feet. Lifting his head, his eyes searched the night. There she was, silhouetted at the water’s edge. Before he could so much as move, she raised her hands behind her and unzipped her dress.

  Then let it fall.

  Oh, man.

  The moonlight bathed her body as she kicked free of the dress pooled at her ankles. Wearing only what looked like black panties, she straightened. The thin moonlight streamed over her body, lighting up her shoulders and her slim back.

  Still not turning to face him, she stepped into the water a few feet, and when a wave came in, she dived into it and vanished.

  Unable to believe his eyes, he stood there in frozen shock for a beat, and then when she didn’t surface, started running down the dune toward the beach. He scanned the waves but couldn’t see her. “Sam!”

  He had kicked off his shoes, shucked his jacket, and had his fingers on the zipper of his pants when her wet blond head resurfaced, way out there now, past the next set of waves.

  She dived again.
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  She was bodysurfing.

  That had him relaxing, but only marginally. Now that he was no longer afraid for her, something else had taken him by the throat.

  The way she looked, more than half-naked and wet by moonlight.

  His fingers started working again, and he pushed his pants down and peeled off his socks. He tossed his shirt the way of his tux jacket.

  And plunged in.

  The shock of the cold water took his breath for a moment, but it was exhilarating, too, and he began swimming. When the first set of waves came upon him, he took a deep breath and dived beneath them, feeling them crash over him with thunderous pressure.

  He surfaced, grabbed another breath and ducked under the next wave, letting the momentum take him through.

  With the black sky above him and the blacker sea swirling beneath him, it was almost a surreal experience, with no clear definition of what was up and what was down.

  Feeling awe-inspired for no obvious reason, he dived through the final set of waves and surfaced next to Sam.

  With a gasp she turned her head and blinked at him, her body covered up to her shoulders with the dark, fathomless, turbulent water. “Jack. You scared me to death.”

  “What did you think I was, a shark?”

  A hint of a smile curved her mouth. “I would have been less surprised.”

  “You didn’t think I could swim?”

  “I thought you were long gone.”

  “You’ve never had a guy want to walk you to your door before, or make sure you were truly safe before he took off?”

  Instead of answering, she let the next swell take her, and then she disappeared under a wave. But she must have been thinking about what he’d said because when she swam back to him, she tossed back her blond hair and said, “I’ve been on my own for a long, long time.”

  He had no idea why that both appealed to him and tugged at him. Floating a little closer, he looked into her eyes. “You’re not alone right now.”

  “Maybe I want to be.”

  “Really?”

  She stared at him, then let out a sighing laugh. “No.” She took the next swell, and the next, then after a while came to him. “You still here?”

  Jack touched her face. “Still here. Don’t people stick around for you, Sam?”

  “Some.”

  “Do you have any family?”

  “I have an uncle. And I consider Lorissa my family, too.”

  His heart softened some more. As much as his sister drove him crazy, as much as his parents bossed and nudged and invaded and tried to run his life, he loved them all and couldn’t imagine being without them. “How old were you when you lost your parents?”

  “Hey, here comes a good one, you going to take it?” She made a sound of annoyance when the wave passed them, lifting them high for a long beat in time, then dropping them back down.

  The amazing pull of the tide, the way of the earth.

  “Don’t blow another one,” she said.

  So he didn’t. He took the next swell and rode it in, finding himself grinning in the black night as he swam back out to her. “I don’t think anything beats this, bodysurfing at midnight.”

  “No, nothing does.” She swam a little closer, treading water. “I was fourteen,” she said quietly. “They died in a car wreck.”

  He smiled faded. “God. What did you do?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I was all right. I went to my uncle Red’s. And I had lots of friends so I was never really alone. I’m taking this one.”

  And she vanished on the next breaker, diving into it, flashing him a quick glimpse of her barely covered gorgeous ass.

  When she came back, grinning from ear to ear, he found himself reaching for her, putting his hands on her hips, keeping them both afloat with his legs. The water swirled around her shoulders. “Was your uncle good to you?”

  “As good as he knew how to be.” Kicking free, she retreated and took the next wave. When she showed up again, she drifted close, but not close enough to touch.

  “Sam…I can’t even imagine.”

  Again, she lifted a bare, glistening shoulder. “I had it okay. Got to go through high school without anyone telling me what I could or couldn’t do, or that I was being stupid, or that I wasn’t trying hard enough…”

  “I had a family,” he said quietly. “And no one ever told me any of that.”

  “No? Then you’re lucky, too.”

  Comparing her life to his boggled his mind. “Your parents left you enough money to get by?”

  “Some, but their estate was sued, and lost.”

  His heart broke for her.

  She splashed him. “Get that pity off of your face and take the next swell, or I will.”

  “That’s not pity on my face, it’s empathy.” He tugged her close. “Can’t you let anyone be sensitive to what you’ve been through?”

  She thought about that. “No.”

  Well, she was going to start, he decided. She was squirming a little, probably trying to calculate how to outswim him and vanish. Couldn’t have that. And not just because he had her bare breasts against his chest.

  But she slipped out of his arms and beneath the surface of the water, and came up five feet away. She took the next wave and the next. When she finally returned, he asked, “Is bodysurfing naked by moonlight a hobby?”

  “I’m not naked, I’m wearing my bikini bottoms.”

  “Ah. Well then…do you always go on dates in your bikini bottoms?”

  “I usually wear my top, too, but Lorissa made me take it off because apparently it ruined the line of the dress.”

  He silently blessed Lorissa.

  “And if I’d known you were going to spy on me here tonight, I’d have pulled it out of my purse and put it back on before I got in the water.”

  “You…have your bathing suit in your purse.”

  “When it’s not on me, yes. I spend a lot of time in the water.”

  “Bodysurfing in the middle of the night.”

  “And in the early mornings, and swimming in the afternoons when I can fit it in. Jack, why are you here?”

  “Maybe I like the water, too.” He’d never really cared one way or another, but Sam had changed his mind tonight.

  “You should go home.”

  “Why?” He drifted toward her. “Am I getting too close?”

  She splashed him again, and this time she wasn’t smiling.

  Look at that, he thought with some amusement, the surfer girl has a temper. “Okay, you’re right.”

  “About…”

  “I should open up to you before making you open up to me.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “No, but you should have. Want to hear a deep dark secret?”

  “Jack—”

  “I don’t miss basketball. Everyone thinks I do, but I don’t. Not anymore.”

  “You really don’t?”

  “I miss playing but I don’t miss being a celebrity.”

  “You’re still a celebrity.”

  “But I don’t want to be.”

  She stared at him for a long time, then laughed. “That I believe.”

  “Now you.”

  “Now me what?”

  “Now you tell me a secret about you.”

  Another wave passed and neither of them took it. “I’m tired,” she said. “I’m going in.”

  “Liar,” he chided softly.

  She was already a few strokes into her swim back but she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. “Maybe my secret is worse than yours.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I’m…” She rolled her eyes. “You might have already guessed.”

  “Say it anyway.”

  “I’m a commitmentphobe. Okay?”

  “Very okay.” He swam toward her. “Since we share in that trait.”

  “You’re an unusual man, Jack Knight.”

  “Thank you. I think.” They started swimming toward shore again, riding a few b
ig swells in, rolling into each other, laughing. By the time they hit the sand they were entangled in each other’s arms.

  The water retreated, and Jack looked down at the half-naked woman against him. Her body was long and lean, chilled and yet somehow warm and soft, so wonderfully soft. Her bare breasts were perfect handfuls—or perfect mouthfuls—and his mouth watered at the thought.

  Their bodies brushed together, her nipples hardening against his pecs, making him want to die of pleasure. Her legs entwined with his, and he looked down at her glorious body, wet and radiant beneath the night. His laughter had long ago faded, replaced by a burst of white-hot, gut-wrenching lust.

  A look that was mirrored in Sam’s eyes, thank God.

  “I meant what I said,” he murmured hoarsely, keeping his eyes on hers. “I’m no more into promises than you are. But you should know, I find you so attractive and sexy, I can hardly breathe when I look at you.”

  She lifted her hands and slid her fingers into his hair. “So it’s all surface attraction only, just skin-deep. Right?”

  Surface attraction, skin-deep. Yeah, right up his alley. But somehow, this time, with this woman, the description seemed a little…cold. “Sam—”

  “Skin-deep is all I do, Jack. Know that right now. I’m not being coy or playing a game. It’s the way I am.”

  “Yeah.” How many times had he said the same thing? He looked down at her body interlocked with his and felt the ball of fire in his gut stoke into flame. Shifting a hand up her hip and over her belly, his thumb skimmed her breast.

  Her breath hitched. Goose bumps rose over her skin. He wanted to haul her close and smooth each one away, but she shifted out of his arms.

  “Hey, even a beach bum like me doesn’t do skin-deep on the first date.” Bending, she scooped up her discarded dress. Stepping into it, she pulled it up, covering that body he knew he’d be dreaming about tonight. She struggled with the zipper.

  With a sigh and a groan for the quick flash of pain in his knee, he rose to his feet and came up behind her. Gently, he set her hands aside and zipped her wet, beautiful skin into the dress.

  She turned to face him and smiled, her earlier wariness gone. “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.”

  She looked down at his feet.