Into the Heat

by Tamara Lush

  He’d only need a week or two more to get the bakery up and running—if he didn’t procrastinate and do stupid shit like carve sand sculptures in the middle of the day so he could stare at Jessica. Yeah, that was the other thing he wanted to do. Needed to do. Before he went away, he had to tell Jessica how much she meant to him, how much he’d loved her back then and still did today. It was the least he could do for her, and for himself. He wanted her to know how sorry he was for disappearing when they were teens, and how he hoped she’d someday find love again. Because, more than anything, he wanted her to find happiness.

  If only he could be the one to give her a good life.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Auntie Jess, can I make my own sand sculpture?”

  “Grace, you sit right here where I can see you. Here’s a bucket, a shovel and…” Jessica handed her niece a small plastic rake as her words trailed off. Leo was walking toward them on the sand.

  Her heart began to race. How had he known she’d be here? Why was she so breathless? Why did he look so sinfully hot?

  Today, thankfully, Leo was wearing a shirt—an old, thin gray T-shirt and blue surf shorts, which did nothing to hide his muscular body. Brawny, burly, beefy, he looked like a soldier coming to defend the shores of Palmira.

  Or to capture her heart. Again.

  He hauled a tackle box in one hand and a bucket filled with tools in the other. A collapsible cooler was slung over his shoulder, and grinning, he walked closer. She could hear the blood rush in her ears and felt a little dizzy.

  She hated the way that she couldn’t get the previous night’s potent kisses out of her mind. Goosebumps formed on her arms and she shivered, recalling how his fingers had felt on her face and his hands on her breasts. Thank God they had been interrupted by that phone call, because she could have easily ended up in bed with him. Which was where the fantasy probably would have ended.

  Every time she thought about sex with him, she also thought about her condition. Would she be able to relax enough to actually have sex ever again? She’d tensed up when he touched her between the legs. Of course, that could have been because they were dry humping like teenagers in the reception area of her hotel. God, how embarrassing it would have been to be caught.

  She shoved the thought aside. They hadn’t been.

  Illogically, his suggestion to “take things slow” nagged at her. She knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn’t help feeling rejected. She’d all but thrown herself at him, and he’d backed off. Why? He certainly hadn’t been slow when they were younger.

  Leo stopped in front of her and Grace, and Jessica looked up and frowned. But his gorgeous smile made her bust out into a grin. She couldn’t help herself. He was too handsome and obviously happy to see her. The urge was strong to reach out and stroke the muscles in his legs.

  He grinned back. “Hi, Jess. Who’s this?”

  She adjusted her sunglasses, making sure they were firmly on the bridge of her nose so he wouldn’t notice how she was checking him out. “This is my niece, Grace. She’s Nicole’s daughter. Em, this is Leo. Grace is with me for the morning because it’s a school holiday.”

  Grace stopped digging in the sand with her shovel and squinted up at Leo. “Is he a friend of yours, Auntie Jess?”

  She cleared her throat. “Ah. Yes. Leo is a friend.”

  Leo laughed. “A friend? Hmm. It’s a start.”

  He walked to his sand station and stripped off his shirt, treating Jessica to the sight of his rippling back muscles. How she longed to run her hands over that back, massage him with suntan lotion and… She exhaled, stopping herself from going down that fantasy path. Where did it end exactly, anyway?

  Had he been annoyed last night at how she’d insisted on handling the guest’s problem herself? That’d be silly. If he was the kind of guy who wanted to insert his male “expertise” into her career, he’d have to change his attitude. The last thing she wanted was a man like Nicole’s husband.

  Thoughts of her sister invaded her mind. Doing everything herself at the hotel was essential because she didn’t want Nicole to think that she was relying on anyone else. There wasn’t too much time left to prove they should keep it.

  Crouching on all fours, she sprayed the sand in front of her with water so that it would be more pliable, then patted and shaped it into what would hopefully, eventually, look like an oasis of palm trees. Nearby, Grace worked on her own small sandcastle.

  After several minutes, Jessica had worked up a bit of a sweat and rested on her heels. She looked over at Leo, thankful that she’d worn her darkest sunglasses today. Maybe he wouldn’t notice that she was staring in his direction, and she pretended to angle her head to search for something in the water—like her dignity, which was drowning in a sea of lust.

  He gripped a full-sized shovel in his hands and was scooping heavy sand into a box frame. His biceps bulged, and a sheen of sweat covered his chest. Oh, and he had that V at his hips, the sexy, sculpted lines that started at his chiseled lower abs and ended at, well, the exact place she wanted to see again.

  Leo set the shovel down and wiped his brow. Jess couldn’t stop staring at him. A vision of him slowly grinding his erection into her the previous night went through her mind, accompanied by a flash of heat that made her cheeks burn.

  “Auntie Jess, can I have a snack?”

  Grace’s voice jarred her away from gawking at Leo, and she gasped at how X-rated her thoughts had turned within moments of being in his presence. Swallowing hard, she turned to the wagon they’d used to haul everything to the beach.

  As she pawed in her bag for some baby carrots, a figure blocked the sun and cast a shadow over her. “Can I give Grace a cookie I made? I have some chocolate chip ones.”

  “Well…” Had Nicole given her instructions on what not to feed Grace? The list always seemed to change.

  “Chocolate! Yes!” The girl scrambled up and followed Leo a few feet to his sand pile. Jessica would really have to have a talk with her about taking sweets from strangers.

  Warily, she watched as Leo withdrew a giant chocolate cookie from his bag with fanfare and a funny, goofy smile. It was gooey from the sun. Grace laughed and plopped down on the sand to eat it. Leo sat next to her, and Jessica watched as they talked. Leo motioned with his hand at his sand pile, maybe explaining what he was carving. He still hadn’t told her.

  He looked over at her with his slate-colored eyes, and Jessica felt a shimmer of need run through her body. It made her want to lie down and gather herself until she could properly function again.

  “Do you want a cookie, little girl?” he called.

  Jessica couldn’t help but smile. She sighed dramatically. “No, I’m fine.”

  She rose and walked over to Leo and Grace then sat near them on a towel. While Grace devoured her confection, Leo handed Jessica a pink frosted cookie shaped like a heart and flashed her a pleading look.

  “Please? Try my cookie?”

  He pushed out his bottom lip in a pout and Jessica remembered how she’d lightly bitten that lip the night before. She was hungry, but not for a damn cookie.

  She cleared her throat.

  “It’s in the shape of a heart,” Grace chortled then stared at Leo. “It’s not Valentine’s Day yet.”

  Jessica and Leo’s fingers touched when she accepted the cookie, but instead of acknowledging the sparks between them, she turned the cookie over, staring at it. Then she bit off a dainty portion. It melted in her mouth with its sweet vanilla flavor.

  “Certain people get heart-shaped cookies any time of the year,” Leo said to Grace in a serious voice. “Even if it’s not Valentine’s Day.”

  Oh God. He is laying it on thick. But pressing her fingers to her lips as she chewed, Jessica stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes a little.

  Thankfully, she didn’t have to make small talk with Leo because Grace prattled on about her role in her ballet recital, which was the following day. Leo asked her questions about dancing and scho
ol, and Jessica was surprised that he seemed so good with kids. There seemed to be so much that she didn’t know about him.

  A realization suddenly slammed her: If she’d actually been pregnant all those years ago, they’d have a girl almost the exact age as Grace.

  “Going to grab a water,” she mumbled, scrambling up and going to her cooler, devouring the rest of the cookie along the way. Having Leo’s baby back when they were teenagers would have been a disaster. Hell, she didn’t want a baby now. She was still too young. But still, the memory of the intensity she’d felt when she thought she’d made another life with him remained, and it called to her. Yelled, actually.

  What would it hurt to get to know him? To take it slow, like he suggested.

  Jessica was searching in her bag for water when she heard footsteps crunching on the sand. Even before she looked up, she knew it was her sister from the smell of floral perfume.

  “Hey,” she said, turning. “We’re feeding your daughter lots of sugar. You can thank me at bedtime.”

  “Who is that?” Nicole hissed under her breath, lowering her sunglasses for a better look. “You’re letting my daughter talk to some strange, shirtless man? But damn. He does look good without a shirt, whoever he is. Look at that six-pack.”

  Jessica rose to standing. She took Nicole’s elbow in her hand and dragged her a few feet away.

  “You’re not going to believe this, but that’s Leo.”

  “Leo? Who? Why are we whispering?”

  Jessica scowled and shushed her. “Put your sunglasses back on. That’s Leo from five years ago. Remember?”

  Nicole took her sunglasses off entirely then cut a skeptical glance toward Leo over Jessica’s shoulder. “The guy from New Orleans?”

  Jessica nodded.

  Nicole widened her eyes. “What’s he doing here?”

  “He bought the Daily Bread. He’s opening the new bakery. Don’t stare. Jesus.”

  Her sister’s lip curled a little in disapproval. “Jessica, that’s really weird. Why would he come here? Did you call him?”

  Jessica shook her head. “No! I didn’t call him. He was in Afghanistan with the Marines. He was wounded. Look at his arm. See the scars?”

  “I see tattoos… Oh yeah. Wow. He’s scarred.”

  “His family’s chain of bakeries is expanding into Florida. That’s why he’s here,” Jessica explained. She added a few more details but tried to pack in all the highlights quickly so that Leo wouldn’t notice Nicole was giving her the third degree while the two shuffled in a half-circle so she could better gawk at him.

  “Where’s his dad? Do you remember his father?” Nicole asked, straightening her posture.

  “His dad’s back in New Orleans.”

  Nicole narrowed her eyes and snorted. “I don’t know if I like this. Leo broke your heart. I remember the way he looked at you that vacation. I remember all the drama when you thought you were pregnant. God, what a crisis.”

  Jessica glared at her.

  “Are you hoping to hook up again? If you are, I suggest you wear something other than jean shorts and a stupid T-shirt with a cat on the front. And yeah, I’m talking about a condom.”

  “Whatever!” Jessica said, looking down at her Bermuda-length shorts and her pink Hello Kitty tee because she also knew her sister was critiquing her outfit. She’d thought she looked cute this morning. It was only the beach, for God’s sake. Nicole could be so bitchy sometimes. That’s why they never really went into any of each other’s personal problems.

  Leo and Grace looked toward them, and Grace ran over and hugged Nicole. “Mommy! Leo gave me a cookie.”

  Nicole glowered at Leo, who followed Grace and introduced himself.

  “You must be Nicole. I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Leo Villeneuve.”

  Jessica watched her sister size Leo up with her eyes. “Yeah. I remember when you and your father stayed at the hotel. Jessica couldn’t stop talking about you for months afterward.”

  Leo smiled tightly and nodded in Jessica’s direction. Of course he seemed uneasy. Nicole was acting snarky, and her voice was frosty. But then he turned to Jess and shot her a serious, smoldering look, as though he could devour her right then as if she were frosted with vanilla and on a platter. Jessica noticed her sister’s gaze travel down Leo’s chest, and a little smile crept onto Nicole’s lips before her eyes went steely again.

  Her sister definitely appreciated hot guys, Jessica knew, even if she’d only ever been with her husband Daniel. The two of them had that in common, if usually their appreciation was confined to things like watching Magic Mike XXL at the movie theater during a rare sister-bonding moment. Now Jessica felt a certain satisfaction that Leo was so stunning and gazing at her with those sexy blue-grey eyes and not at her tinier, blonder older sister. Nicole had definitely been known to flirt.

  She sighed impatiently and shook Nicole’s arm. “I need to get back to sculpting. And don’t you need to get to the hotel to do…stuff?”

  Nicole smirked. “Stuff. Definitely. Yes. The hotel.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Don’t forget that we have the appraiser coming on the fourteenth to look at the building,” she added, bending down to gather Grace’s beach toys.

  “That’s the day of the sand sculpture announcement.”

  “I know, but that’s when he had time. He’s Daniel’s friend and agreed to do it for half price. I can’t be there, so you’ll have to tear yourself away from beach to show him around. Sorry.”

  Jessica almost growled. Her sister wasn’t sorry at all. She always got treated like a child, as if she would shirk all responsibility if left to her own devices. Just like Mom, Nicole seemed to be under the impression that Jessica couldn’t handle the details of life, even if she’d been working hard to keep the hotel running for years—and successfully. She was more accomplished than many twenty-two-year-olds, that’s for sure. She’d also gotten dual degrees and volunteered at community events on the island. Come to think of it, they’d both started treating her like this after the pregnancy scare.

  “I won’t forget,” she snapped. “I’ll put it in my calendar on my phone. You don’t need to remind me again.”

  “Oh, and I want us to interview a few real estate agents who might handle the sale,” Nicole said breezily.

  Jessica gave her a pointed look. Not only was she unsure if she wanted to put the hotel on the market so soon, she certainly didn’t want to discuss the matter in front of Leo. Why was Nicole so hell-bent on selling the property, anyway? Did she just want to erase the memory of Mom?

  “We’ll talk about this later,” she said. “I don’t want to bore Leo with the details of the family business.” She looked over and saw that he was staring at her, hard.

  “Nicole, let me give you some cookies for later,” Leo said, turning to his cooler. He handed a zip-top bag to Nicole, who immediately extracted a small, vanilla-frosted scone and bit into it. Then she closed her eyes as if in ecstasy.

  Jeez, Jessica thought, play it up some more. How amazing could one scone be?

  “You know, Jessica,” her sister said, “we should get Leo to provide breakfast goods and snacks for the hotel.”

  Leo burst out laughing, and Jessica gave Nicole a sideways glance.

  “I’m way ahead of you.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Leo smoothed and packed the sand down inside the rectangular wood frame with wide, sweeping motions of his hands. This would be the base, the support for the sculpture. He’d learned much from the sculptors he’d watched on the Florida Panhandle as a kid.

  Every few moments he checked out Jessica, who was on her knees and fully focused on shaping her sculpture, whatever it was. The sight of her in jean shorts was too distracting. She still hadn’t told him what she was building. Her sun-streaked, wavy hair was gathered in a ponytail, and he longed to release that mane and work his fingers through it while kissing her. And her body, so full and curvy, just as he liked… All he wanted was to trap that
round, jean-clad ass in his hands and squeeze.

  A powerful mix of adoration and carnal need washed over him. He hadn’t stopped thinking about how her full breasts had fit perfectly in his hands, or how sexy she looked while she was underneath him the previous night, sucking on his thumb. That was the thing about Jess; he’d never felt like he would break her or hurt her during sex. She could handle his desire.

  But what had her sister meant about an appraisal? And a real estate agent? Was that for their hotel? Jessica hadn’t mentioned anything about selling. Was she planning to leave soon? Where was she going?

  Damn it, he wanted to know everything about her now, and he didn’t have time to find out. What secrets she was keeping? Her mere presence jumbled his emotions and made his mind run in circles. The way she looked at him made his stomach flip and other parts grow hard with desire. And yet, she also inspired insecurity. The guilt over how he’d disappeared from her life when they were teenagers. The fear of what had happened back in New Orleans. And also, when she’d accused him of wanting to be with that tacky Megan woman at the party… Well, that had just made him indignant. The idea that he would turn out like his father. A womanizer.

  Leo wondered what life would have been like if his mother hadn’t died of cancer when he was five. Growing up, he had watched as his father hopped from woman to woman, his life one long string of lovers. Often the young Leo couldn’t keep track of who was coming and going from his father’s bed, and by the time he was a teenager Leo had such distaste for casual sex that he’d vowed that whatever Adam Villeneuve did, he would do the opposite.

  His thoughts drifted back to the Marine Corps and Afghanistan. Bombs. Dust. Whether or not he might have saved Steve. The salt air of the beach was replaced in Leo’s brain by the smell of cigarettes and blood and the smell of freshly opened bandages. It was as if he couldn’t stop the flood of memories once the spigot was turned on in his brain. How could his mind spin so fast from a beautiful memory of Jessica to the horror of war? He needed to start taking his antidepressants again, but he hated how the damn pills made him feel. Like a zombie. Dead inside.