Quincy looked like she had on a wet suit top and a bikini bottom. He’d always been enthralled when she surfed. She could ride the waves as easily as she walked. As he watched, she made several three hundred-sixty degree turns on the waves. He was amazed at her skills. That hadn’t changed. He knew she’d be out there a while. His appearance had shaken her, he could tell. Hell, it had shaken him. To the core. God, he still wanted her. Loved her, even. Maybe. Good thing he’d stayed away as long as he had. He’d have made a fool of himself begging her to come back if he’d stayed in this part of Miami. He chose to make a clean cut instead. Seemed like a good plan at the time.
He shook the thoughts out of his head and sat down in the sand in an area that was out of the streetlight’s range. He also knew her well enough to know she’d never come in if she saw him on the beach.
After about thirty more minutes, Quincy emerged from the salt water. She shoved the end of her board into the sand. She grabbed her long hair, pulled it over her shoulder and wrung the water out of it. When she turned to look back at the ocean, Finn noticed she had gone into the water in her silk panties. Not a bathing suit bottom. Panties. The water dripped off the sheer fabric, leaving her bottom wet and exposed to his view. The soaked fabric clung to her buttocks. The wet fabric was much sexier than nudity. He groaned.
She turned at the sound, looked around and noticed him in the sand. He tried to stand up. He pushed the heel of his hand into the ground and attempted to leverage himself up.
Before he could rise, she walked over and pushed him in the chest with her bare foot. He grabbed her ankle. She lost her balance and fell to the beach. She sat half way up, leaning on her elbows and looked at him. “What the hell you doing here, you prick?”
“Don’t act surprised, Q. You knew I’d follow you.” He said as he ran his hand up her ankle to her shin. God, her skin felt good. Smooth. Like he remembered.
She jerked her leg from his grasp as if it were on fire. “Keep your paws off me.” She backed off, crab like. Out of reach.
He leaned toward her. “Q. Will you hear me out? Can I please talk to you? I have to tell you something. I wouldn’t have come back if it wasn’t important.”
She looked at him. She stayed silent.
“Really, Quincy. This is vital. I know you’ll be glad I told you. I know you. You need to hear this.”
“Fine. If I listen, will you go away? Never try to interfere with me again?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Fine. I’ll do it. Now, can we get up? I’m not really comfortable down here on the ground.”
“I know. That was always part of your problem, Finn.” With no effort, she rose from her seat.
“What?” he asked as he struggled to get up, bogged down by his agency issued thick-soled black shoes.
“Not liking sand in your shorts.”
“And that’s a problem, how?” He raised that one eyebrow again.
Intimidation tactics didn’t work with her. “Too straitlaced. Anyone who can’t deal with sand in the crack of their butt is too tightly wound for me.” They were standing close. Less than two feet separated them.
“I guess we all know where the lack of being straitlaced got you.”The sneer was back. “In bed with Craig Miller.”
The crack as she slapped his face was so loud it sounded like an aborted thunder storm. “Wondered how long it’d take for you to bring that up.”
“So, you don’t deny it?”
“Did you ever give me a chance to deny anything, jerkwad?”
“Now’s your shot, Baby. Take it. Let’s see if I believe you.” His face was mottled red, and the spittle flew from his mouth.
She looked at him for a full second. Her eyes filled with tears, and she turned away. She walked over, grabbed her board and tucked it under her arm and stalked off the beach to her Jeep.
As she stowed the board in the back with the other two, Finn walked up behind her. “Sorry about that, Q. I really didn’t look you up to bring up the past.”
She sighed and turned around. “Then why? Why’d you look me up, then? Go ahead and say what you need to say. Then leave. Please. It’s clear to me that you aren’t gonna go till you do.” She stood with her hands on her hips.
He looked at her, sad at what he had to tell her. Even after all the lies she’d told him, he still didn’t like to hurt her. “There’s no way to soften the blow, but you need to know. Your fiancé, Percy Hicks, is an arms dealer.”
She threw her head back and laughed out loud. “You’re insane, Finn. Yes, he is a dealer. I know that. He’s an antiques dealer. Not arms, antiques. This is what has you in a tizzy?” She slapped her hand on her thigh. “You misheard. But thanks for the warning. If I see a dangerous settee, I’ll be sure to get out of the way.” She laughed so hard, she cried. She bent over double, clutching her stomach. After a while, she stood back up and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
It was too much for him. His reawakened feelings for her, her wet panties and her laughing at him sent him over the edge. He grabbed a handful of her wet suit top and jerked her toward him. He lifted her off her feet by the front of the wet suit. He pulled her close, his lips locked on hers, and he rammed his tongue in her mouth and kissed her like he’d wanted to since the day he walked out of her life. His other hand slid down her spine and into her panties where it squeezed her right buttock. It was cold from being in the water. He could feel the sand in her panties.
She slid her arms around his neck and returned the kiss for the first couple of seconds. He was hard. She kissed him back until his hand entered her panties. As soon as he squeezed her butt, she jerked away from his grasp and smacked him again. “What are you trying to do, Finn?”
“Trying to stop you from marrying an arms dealer.”
“By assaulting me?”
“That wasn’t an assault.” He grinned at her.
“Hey, cop, I know what an assault is, and I bet you do, too. Kissing and pawing a woman without her consent is considered assault in this state.”
“Seemed to me you consented.” His smile broadened.
“Appearances can be deceiving.” She stopped and smacked her forehead. “Oh yeah, forgot for a moment who I was talking to. Appearances do deceive you. You can be blinder than a dead man. How you ever made detective grade, I’ll never know.”
“Nice. That’s real nice, Q.”
“Look, this has been fun, but I really need to go home. I have more packing to do before my trip to Indonesia the day after tomorrow. It was nice to see you, but I gotta go.” She moved to walk away past him.
“Please listen to me. I know you don’t think it was nice to see me.” He grabbed her upper arms gently. “I want you to listen, though. This man you’re planning to marry is an international arms dealer. He uses the antiques business to cover for this other business he’s in. I swear it. I’m not supposed to be here, but I heard you were gonna marry him. I knew you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you did and you found out his true line of work. So I came to warn you.”
She pulled away from him again. “What the hell are you blathering about? Even if I believed you—and I don’t, by the way—but if I did, how would you even have this information? Last I heard, Metro Dade homicide detectives didn’t investigate arms dealers.”
“Like I told Avery, I’m not with Dade anymore. I’ve moved on to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. I now chase firearms and explosives dealers. I’m not even based in Miami. I’m in the South Florida office but not in Miami central. I came home to warn you.”
“How very kind of you, Agent Smith. Or is that Special Agent?” She pulled herself up to her full height of five foot, four inches and added, “I appreciate your concern, Special Agent. But I really need to go.” She moved toward the driver’s side of the Jeep.
He touched her arm. “Sorry about the kiss, Q. Couldn’t help myself.”
“Let’s just say it was a goodbye kiss. The one we never had before.” Sh
e opened the door and slung herself into the seat.
He shut her into the vehicle and leaned in the open window. “I know I was a creep, but believe me when I say this. I’d never want you to do something you were morally opposed to. No matter what our personal past, I don’t hold any animosity and I want you to be happy. If I thought being the wife of Percy Hicks would make you happy over the long run, I’d walk away right now.”
“Please walk away, Finn. If you haven’t noticed, I’m almost driving away. I would’ve already been gone if I wanted to run over your foot.”
“I’m staying at Coop’s house. You remember my brother, right?”
“Yes. I do remember Coop. Contrary to how you treat me, I’m not an idiot.”
“Promise me one thing.” He paused, his hand on the window frame. “Quit making that face and promise me something.”
“You think you have the right to ask me for anything?”
“No. I don’t. But please think back on your time with Hicks. Did he ever ask you to carry anything onto a plane for him? Send any boxes? Anything?”
“No. He didn’t. I would think if he was into what you say he is that the boxes would be huge and heavy. I surely couldn’t carry any box full of weapons. Sounds like your story’s falling apart. I don’t know why you care if I marry or not since you’re the one who left me, but you need to think of a better story because this boat won’t sail.”
“He could’ve asked you not to fly commercial. To fly in one of his jets to a competition. He could’ve had arms or ammo in the hold. He could’ve had bomb materials on board. Anything.” He smiled a tense little smile. “Just promise you’ll think about it.”
“He’s never done any of that. None of it.” She shook her head. “But if I promise to think about it, will you let go of my window so I can go home?”
He sighed. “Yes. Go.” He lifted his arm from the window and stepped back. She drove off. Peeled rubber.
Finn walked over to the Expedition and unlocked the door. Before he opened it, he leaned his head on the window and willed himself not to cry over all he’d lost and the mistake he’d made two years ago. His heart twisted in his chest. He knew in that heart, with the way she’d returned his kiss before she realized what she was doing, she’d never betrayed him. She couldn’t have. Not with all the emotion he felt behind that kiss. He groaned again.
He screwed up his life all by himself two years ago. Two years of loving a woman he thought he couldn’t forgive. Two years of trying to forget her. And turns out, now, he thought, there’s nothing to forgive after all. No reason to try to forget her. He punched the window of the Expedition so hard that he bloodied his knuckles.
Chapter Three
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd”
Voltaire (French writer 1694-1778)
Quincy rolled up the window of her Jeep and drove away from Finn. Fast. She peeled out of the parking lot and onto the highway toward home, blinded by tears of anger. The more she cried, the madder she got. It was one of her weaknesses. Anger to the point of tears. Once she started to cry, it was hard to stop, and that only made her more irate, and thus made her cry more. Drove her crazy when it happened like that.
Quincy wiped the tears off her cheeks with the palms of her hands. Rubbed so hard, her cheeks hurt. Angrier at herself at each turn of the tires of the Jeep, she slammed her hands on the steering wheel and berated herself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why the hell did I let him kiss me? Why’d I let him get close enough to touch me? I knew he’d follow me to the beach. I knew it. Is that what I really wanted? When I saw him on that patio, I wanted him. Wanted him bad. Did I lure him to the beach? Did I want him to follow me?”
Quincy nodded as she peered into the rearview mirror. “I must have. I must have lost Avery on purpose. To be alone with him. God, I’m such a loser. To want a man who dumped me when I have a perfectly wonderful fiancé.”
She stopped to take a breath, but the memory of the kiss came back to her almost as a physical blow, and she started in on herself again. “Moron, he knows that’s your favorite place. You should’ve gone somewhere else. You’re the dumbest person on Earth.” Continuing to berate herself as she drove to her house, when she got there, Quincy squealed into the driveway on two wheels.
She parked the Jeep and laid her head on the steering wheel.
A knock on the window startled her and she jumped. She looked out the window. Avery.
“Damn. You scared the crap outta me. What’s wrong with you?”
Avery motioned for Quincy to roll down the window. “I came back here because I knew he’d follow you and you’d be upset.”
When she’d cranked the window part way down, Quincy said, “Where the hell’d you put your car? I don’t see it. Would’ve been nice to see the car. Know you were here.”
“Sorry. Didn’t think about that. It’s down the street. I walked up in case you came home with Finn. I planned to leave if I saw you two acting friendly.”
“No chance of that.” Quincy got out of the Jeep. She stood on her toes, reached into the open window, and grabbed the pants and shirt she’d worn to the pizza parlor.
“Geez. Did you have that on when you talked to Finn?” Avery’s gaze traveled down Quincy from head to toe.
“Yeah. So?” She looked down and shrugged. “What about it? I was surfing, for God’s sake.”
“In your panties?”
“Yeah. I didn’t have a suit. Only had the wet suit top in the Jeep. What’s the big deal?” Avery shrugged again. “So what?”
“I can’t help but think that standing beside a former lover in nothing but wet panties is a mistake. Was it?”
Quincy nodded. “It was, sorry to say. You’re right.” They walked up the drive to her covered porch.
“What happened? Why’d he come see you?”
“Come on in and I’ll make some chai tea. Let me tell you all about it.” Quincy unlocked her front door, and they went in through the living room past all the boxes and entered the kitchen.
As Quincy made the tea, Avery sat on one of the bar stools at the counter and watched her friend. Quincy pulled the tea pot down and saw her reflection in it as she filled it with water. “God, look how pale I am. Looks like I’ve seen a ghost.” Her hands shook as she pulled the wrappers off the tea bags.
“I think you did. Finn coming out of nowhere was almost as big a shock as a seeing a ghost.”
As the water boiled, Quincy told Avery about the discussion with Finn, about his accusation of Percy being an arms dealer. She left out the part about the kiss on the beach. She knew Avery would go into orbit over that information. Better to keep quiet.
When she finished the story, Avery said, “You think Percy’s an arms dealer?”
“No way. I’d know if he was a criminal.” She added a tea bag each to two mugs and poured boiling water into them over the bags.
“Would you? Why?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. I just feel like I’d know if he was mixed up with some bad guys.” She slid a cup of tea on the bar in front of her friend and played with her tea bag as it seeped into the mug. In a few seconds, she took a sip. She needed the heat in her system as she stood in the cold kitchen. She was still in her damp panties.
“So you give no credence to what Finn said at all?”
“I don’t know. It makes me wonder. You know, why he’d come back after two years. Only after my engagement announcement was in the paper. Makes me wonder if he saw it and had regrets.”
“Could be.” Avery picked up her own cup and took a swallow.
“I know it sounds crazy, but maybe he’s making this up to win me back. You know he knows how I hate guns. Or maybe he just can’t stand to think I’ve moved on with another man.”
“Did he try anything at the beach to make you think he wanted you back?”
Quincy turned red. “He kissed me.”
Avery squealed. “He did? How was it?”
She glared at her
friend. “It was fabulous. As always. But it doesn’t change a thing. Nothing.” She shook her head.
“How can you say that? You told me earlier that you had doubts about your marriage. Finn is back and interested, and you say it makes no difference.”
“It. Makes. No. Difference.” Teeth clenched, Quincy added, “How hard is that to understand?”
“Whoa. Whoa. Just asking. Don’t take my head.” Avery held her hands in front of her face in a defensive posture.
“Besides, I have a great fiancé, so it can’t make a difference.”
“Saying Percy’s great is fine, Quincy, but you and I both know you feel a little rushed into marriage. You said so earlier.”
“I know, but he really has been the perfect man when we’re together.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Avery took a swig of her tea.
“Look. I’m exhausted. First all that packing and then the drama with Finn. I’m gonna take a shower and go to bed. You mind?”
“I can take a hint. I’m going home. Call me tomorrow and I’ll come help ya.” Avery stood and shoved the bar stool back. They walked to the back door from the kitchen.
Quincy opened the door for her friend. “Thanks. See you tomorrow. Want me to walk you back to your car?”
“Na.” Avery squeezed her friend’s arm and left.
Quincy put the mugs in the sink and rinsed them out, then headed to the shower to wash the salt out of her hair. She spent a long time in the steam, trying not to think about the kiss and the way her knees didn’t want to hold her up whenever that kiss crept into her mind.
* * * *
After the hot shower, Quincy sat on her bed. She looked around the room that had been hers for her entire life. She’d finally gotten it to look like a real grown up woman’s room, and now she was going to leave it and move to London. She sighed. She loved the light green walls and the darker green bedspread. A mural painter had painted a surf scene on one wall. It depicted a big wave crashing to shore with a female surfer hanging ten off the end of the board on the top of the wave before the foamy break. The surfer’s hair matched Quincy’s. It was long, curly, and blonde.
Chantal, Jillian - Surfer Bride (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 3