New and…Improved? & Andrew in Excess

by Jill Shalvis

  Luckily they were hanging from ropes, so kissing would have been not only impossible, but incredibly stupid.

  Coming down, Becca bounced away from the wall, still laughing and smiling, and still looking so damn wonderful and appealing it should be illegal.

  “Watch what you’re doing,” he told her. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  “I’m watching.” She grinned with pleasure from ear to ear as she slowly and correctly lowered herself to the ground. “See? Perfect.”

  Yep, just about, he decided, still watching her. Which explained how he slipped and fell the last eight feet to the ground with agonizing pain twisting up from his ankle.

  “HOW’S YOUR ANKLE?”

  Kent shrugged, and the movement shifted the cold pack. They were in the emergency room, waiting for his X-rays to come back from the lab.

  Becca leaned across the hospital bed to adjust the cold pack, but Kent’s hand caught hers. “It’s fine,” he said through his teeth.

  “Uh-huh.” Becca looked at him with exasperation. “Why do guys do that, hide everything? You’re pale and shaking and looking like you might throw up. Why can’t you say it hurts like crazy? What would it kill you to admit a true feeling?”

  His brow lifted. “I can admit my feelings.”

  “Oh, really.” She crossed her arms. “Then tell me what this is all about, could you? Because I don’t have a clue.”

  Wariness filled his pained expression. “A clue about what?”

  “About us.”

  “Us?”

  “I admit, at first I didn’t think about there even being an ‘us’,” she said. “I just wanted something new and exciting, which I planned on doing by myself. But then you kept interfering. And then there’s that attraction problem,” she added lightly.

  “Attraction?”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Are you sounding like a parrot on purpose?”

  He grimaced. “Sorry.”

  “So…are you going to come clean?”

  “Uh, yeah…”

  The doctor came in, interrupting the moment. “No break,” he said cheerfully. “You’ll need to stay off it, though, while it recovers.”

  Becca listened politely to his instructions, but the minute he was gone, she gave Kent a pointed stare. “Where were we? Oh yeah, you were going to tell me what’s really going on. And don’t even think about using the worry excuse. I’m not the one who got hurt here.”

  Kent sighed. “Fine. I’ll tell you the truth.”

  “Good.”

  But then a nurse came in with forms. While Becca waited, nervousness filled her. The truth. Suddenly it hit her-she couldn’t handle the truth! She didn’t want him to say something he didn’t mean, or was it just that she didn’t want to confront the fact it was entirely likely he was attracted to an illusion?

  A few minutes later, she helped Kent to the car. They walked in silence, their bodies close. And hot.

  “I’m sorry you hurt yourself trying to keep me safe,” she said, her mind racing, her body throbbing, yearning. “I think you should sit out the next adventure.”

  “That won’t be possible.”

  She stopped. “Why?”

  “Because I intend to be your next adventure.”

  “Oh. Oh my,” she whispered, and Kent’s dark, heated gaze held hers. She could hardly breathe for the pure joy and terror of it all.

  7

  T HE EVENING WAS CLEAR , crisp and beautiful, as only a night in the high altitude Sierras could be. And pain throbbed like crazy through Kent’s system, centering in his ankle, making him delirious.

  That had to be it; he couldn’t think of any other reason why he’d said what he’d just said.

  “You didn’t mean it,” Becca said lightly enough, but not so casually that he couldn’t hear her uncertainty. “You couldn’t have meant it. You don’t do relationships with women, other than for…”

  “For…what?”

  “You know. S. E. X.,” she whispered, looking everywhere but at him, which must have been difficult since she was supporting at least half his weight and he was draped all over her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I work for S.S.L. don’t I? Everyone there knows everything there is to know about everything, just ask any one of them.”

  “And it’s common knowledge, apparently,” he said wryly, “that all I do with women is have sex.”

  They’d reached the car now, and when he leaned on it for support, she backed away from him and turned toward the lake, which was only about fifty yards off. The moon had risen, tracing a silvery pattern across the black water.

  “Becca?”

  She wouldn’t look at him. “Lovely night.”

  “Hello?”

  She finally turned toward him, shooting him a smile void of her usual wattage. “Hello.”

  “Are you going to answer my question?”

  “Well you did mention red panties the other day.” She licked her lips. “And I know you love that show where the lifeguards bounce around in their little red bathing suits.”

  “It’s an American institution. Doesn’t mean that I’m getting-”

  “It’s really none of my business anyway. Even if everyone says you could have a date with a different woman every day of the week. That you’ve…you know, gotten lucky more times in the past month than they have in their lifetime. That-”

  “Becca.” He had to laugh. “Can we establish here, for the record, that we’re talking about gossip, not fact?”

  The pale light shimmered through her lovely hair, but it also cast her face in shadows, hiding her emotions from him. “By my calculations,” she said, “if you truly have gone out as much as everyone says, you’ve…”

  “Had sex?” he asked tightly.

  “Yes. That. Over a hundred times this year alone.”

  He stared at her, torn between the need to laugh again and be insulted. “You can’t possibly believe that.”

  “As for me, I haven’t…well, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how, and even if I could remember, I don’t think there’s much that was all that great about it. Don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly as he stood there, rooted in shock, “I’ve read plenty of romances, I know how it’s supposed to go, I’m just saying I’ve never seen fireworks, never felt as if I was falling off a cliff, or sailing through the air in passion. I’ve never exploded with ecstasy.”

  Kent opened his mouth, but nothing much came out. He couldn’t decide which was taking up the most brain space-ankle pain, frustration that she actually believed he was promiscuous, or arousal over the thought of showing her exactly what it felt like to explode with ecstasy.

  “And truthfully, even in the adventurous spirit, I feel a little intimidated by the differences in our experiences.”

  “Becca.” His voice was thick, husky. He couldn’t help it. “First of all, I have a fraction of the ‘experience’ you seem to think I do, and second-”

  “Oh Kent…really?”

  “Really.” Her eyes were wide and on his. Her body, so nicely showed off in those snug punk shorts and a T-shirt, had his fingers itching to touch, to skim over all that creamy skin and explore to his heart’s content.

  Heart’s content.

  When had that happened? When in the world had she sneaked beneath his defenses? The moment she’d fallen right out of the sky and into the water at his feet, he realized.

  “What?”

  She was blinking at him and he groaned. “Did I say that out loud?”

  “What happened the moment I fell out of the sky?”

  “Fresh air,” he decided. “I need fresh air.”

  “We’re standing in it. Doesn’t get much fresher.”

  “Humor me.”

  “Okay.” She helped him into the car. “But I’ll have to drive.”

  “No.”

  She pointed to his bandaged ankle.

  Damn. She wanted to drive his baby, his pride and joy. “I can handle
it.”

  “Don’t be silly. Hand over the keys. Come on,” she coaxed. “You can do it. Just drop them into my hand.”

  He clutched them tighter. “You might get a ticket, most people do in a car like this.”

  “Kent.” She wriggled her fingers for the keys.

  “But-”

  “Kent.”

  In the end, she had to pry them from him and he sat in the passenger seat, agonizing over the two minute drive. “Be careful.”

  “Yes, dear,” she mocked.

  “Watch for cops.”

  “I’m watching.” She went to turn the key and he slammed a hand over hers.

  “The clutch,” he said through his teeth. “You have to put in the clutch first or-”

  “Oh!” She laughed. “Of course.” She slipped in the clutch and sent him a sweet smile. “Got it.”

  He had a very bad feeling about this. “How about we walk?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Slowly she eased out of the parking spot, Kent grinding his teeth all the way.

  “Relax.” She revved the engine, going faster. Then faster. Up ahead, the light went from green to yellow.

  She didn’t slow.

  From yellow to red.

  No slowing.

  “Becca.”

  “I see it.” She hit the brake but not the clutch.

  They jerked forward until Kent was kissing the windshield.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, catching the clutch just before they stalled.

  He pried himself off the glass and glared at her. “Careful.”

  “I am,” she said, insulted.

  “You’re going to get a ticket.”

  “I am not going to get a ticket.” She looked at him. “You know, you’re more concerned about your car than-”

  “A stop sign,” he said quickly, bracing himself against the dash. “Don’t get a-”

  “I told you, I’m not going to get a ticket!”

  “Watch out. Don’t go through it-”

  She did.

  And that’s when she got a ticket.

  “NICE NIGHT,” Becca said. They’d stopped at the lake after her ticket because Kent needed more fresh air.

  He was considering sitting on the beach until he could drive, even though that conceivably could be days. He didn’t mind.

  “I still want to take the deal,” she said suddenly. “That is, if you’re still offering.”

  “The deal?”

  “You know, the adventure. With you.”

  Small, relentless waves hit the shore noisily, only feet from them, while Kent drew a deep, careful breath. “I think we just had our adventure,” he said.

  She laughed. “Well, okay, if you consider getting a ticket the best adventure you’ve got in you.”

  He narrowed his eyes and looked at her. “Don’t you dare twist that ticket around to be my fault.”

  Again, her laughter floated around him, warming him even though he preferred to hold on to his irritation. If he was irritated, she couldn’t turn him on. Right?

  Wrong.

  “You know, you never talked about yourself,” she said, tipping her head back to look up at the incredible sky. “You grew up here.”

  “At south shore.”

  “Any brothers or sisters?”

  “No.”

  “Do you get home often?”

  “No.” He tried not to tense, but it was impossible. He hated talking about his past.

  She studied him thoughtfully. “So talkative.”

  She was beautiful in the moonlight. Soft, sincere. And she wanted to know him. How many people in his life had really wanted to know him?

  How many had he let know him?

  He clasped his arms around his knees, ignored the shaft of pain in his ankle and stared into the most amazing night he’d seen in a while. “I grew up with my mother, she worked at one of the lower-class hotels. Cleaning, cooking, whatever kind of work she could find, when she could find it. I never knew my father, she said she didn’t, either.”

  “It must have been rough,” she said quietly.

  Rough about summed it up, but he shrugged. “We lived day to day, sometimes with her friends, sometimes out of her car. I hated it then, and I hate remembering it now.”

  Her gaze was luminous, filled with the compassion he didn’t want, and other things he did want. “You’ve come so far, done so much for yourself. It’s a miracle.”

  “For a street rat, yeah.”

  “Summer and I grew up here in Incline, and had a house right on the lake. We had a tennis court, an indoor swimming pool, servants, everything we could want.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  “Everything except parents.” She smiled when he looked at her. “They traveled extensively, they were rarely home. Sometimes I used to have nightmares that they’d forgotten us, that they’d never come home again. We’d worry about what would happen if the servants ran out of money, if they’d take off and just leave us alone to fend for ourselves.”

  He shook his head, angry for the two helpless, little children they’d been. “What happened?”

  “One day my parents really didn’t come home. Their plane crashed somewhere in Europe, where they’d been vacationing.”

  “Becca…God. What a nightmare.”

  She shrugged. “I’d just turned eighteen. Summer was only sixteen, but they let her stay with me because I’d always been so-” She broke off, let out a self-deprecating smile. “Good. Responsible. We turned out fine,” she said softly.

  Fine. There was that word she so resented, and he thought now, finally, he could really understand why. “So…we’re both fine?”

  With a smile, she turned to him. “Yeah.” Her humor faded a bit as she held his gaze, replaced with nerves and awe and something else, something he couldn’t quite name. “Actually, I feel very fine right now,” she whispered. “Right here, with you.”

  She was pressed to his side, held there by his own arm. He could feel the heat of her skin beneath her clothes. Her hair smelled wonderful and he shifted just a bit closer still, more relaxed and comfortable than he could remember ever being.

  He considered kissing her senseless, he knew he could do it. Considered taking that adventure right now. It’d be incredible, with only the sounds of the water and the moonlight for company.

  Making his move, he slowly drew her in his arms and looked at her mouth, which trembled open.

  He leaned closer, all sorts of hot thoughts tumbling though his head. Hot thoughts and light-

  Light?

  Bright, glaring light. “What the-” Turning, he shielded Becca.

  A cop stood there, wielding his flashlight. He sighed, loudly, at the sight of them. “You guys are too old for this necking at the lake stuff,” he said grumpily. “Take it to a hotel, will ya?”

  8

  “I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO write you up,” the cop said when neither of them moved.

  Becca let out a laugh at that. She clamped her hand over her mouth and blinked her huge eyes up at the officer.

  “Everything okay?” he asked her, frowning, shining the light in her face for a moment. She nodded, but he didn’t relax. “Let me see your identification please,” he said to Kent, who inwardly groaned, but reached into his pocket.

  “You wouldn’t believe the evening we’ve had,” Becca told him.

  “Try me.”

  “Well, first Kent hurt his ankle trying to show me how to rock climb, then I got a ticket in his car-”

  “You got a ticket? This evening?”

  “Just a little one. And getting another would sort of ruin our plans.”

  The cop studied Kent’s driver’s license. “What plans, ma’am?”

  “Another adventure.” She looked at Kent and smiled. It wasn’t a casual, oh-let’s-go-eat-sushi smile either. No, it was the mother of all smiles, a cat-in-cream smile.

  “An adventure,” the officer repeated doubtfully, dividing an annoyed look between the two of them. “An
d would this include anything illegal?”

  “Absolutely not,” Becca said sweetly, with contrasting fire in her gaze.

  Kent’s heart stopped. Desire flooded him.

  The policeman sighed in annoyance. “Just make sure you go home first, could you? I don’t know what you people see in these woods. It’s damn cold out here.”

  “You’ve never been in love,” Becca decided.

  No, Kent thought. Not love. Never love.

  Vaguely he heard Becca answer another question before they were left alone, but he couldn’t concentrate on any of that now.

  He’d only offered an adventure, nothing else, he assured himself. He hadn’t led her on.

  Not on purpose anyway.

  “Whew, that was close,” she whispered with a smile, moving close again. Happiness shimmered from her. “This must be what it’s like to be a lust-struck teenager. I think I like it.”

  Her eyes were shiny with excitement. Just excitement, he told himself, but that was a lie, too. There was more in her gaze, much more, and he felt his heart crack.

  Dammit!

  He’d known this would happen, that his fondness for her as a friend would war with the part of him that lusted after her. They hadn’t even done anything more than kiss, and already he was feeling responsible for her, worried that he was going to hurt her.

  He wasn’t even aware of moving back away from her until she sighed, a wealth of sudden sadness in the sound. “You have that panicked look on your face,” she said quietly. “The one that Cookie told me about. She said it’s the look you had last summer when your girlfriend brought up the price of diamonds.”

  “She wasn’t my girlfriend.”

  Wrong answer. Becca’s face blanked, all emotion cleanly wiped away. “Oh, would you look at that?” she said, glancing at her watch. “It’s late. I’m sorry.” She rose gracefully. “I’ll walk.”

  “No, you won’t.” He managed to hobble after her and after a brief hesitation, he handed her his keys.

  “What if I get another ticket?” she asked coolly.

  “You won’t.” He held the driver’s door open when she would have shut it on his face. “Becca…I’m sorry.”