by Ranae Rose
“I’m dead serious. The struggling kid from the wrong side of the tracks trying to woo the smart, beautiful college girl even though he has nothing to offer her but his dick? Sounds like a bad movie made for teen girls.”
She almost laughed, but the sound died in her throat before reaching the tip of her tongue. Was that really how he’d felt?
“What do you mean struggling? And for the record, I’m the lower-middle-class daughter of a nurse and a factory supervisor. It’s not like I was some princess.”
“You were to me.”
Her head spun with disbelief, amusement and a surprisingly potent sadness. “Is that really how you felt?”
“Yeah. And by struggling, I mean I shared an apartment with three other guys and was still living paycheck to paycheck. Had no idea what to do with my life. I was twenty-something, and I was nothing. Far as I knew then, that’d always be true.”
Belle frowned. Strong, gorgeous and hardworking, Jackson had turned heads and teased hearts everywhere. When he’d walked onto the beach, women had often sighed – or sometimes catcalled – in his wake. And he’d seen himself as nothing?
It boggled the mind.
He’d stood out among other guys his age, a man in a sea of boys. He’d been the polar opposite of the carefree, entitled guys she’d rubbed shoulders with at college, and his maturity had fascinated her.
“You know, the sexy construction worker stereotype is a fan favorite among women. It may not beat hot cop, but it’s up there.”
That wrung a laugh out of him.
“Nothing sexy about a twenty-something who has a GED and took the first job he could get, playing in the dirt for a living.”
But that wasn’t true – his work ethic was and always had been something she’d admired.
“Look at you now, though. You have a totally different career. You even graduated from college.”
He nodded. “Things have changed a lot.”
“Obviously, you underestimated yourself. And here we are.”
“Yeah. Nothing to stop me from going after you now that I’m solidly lower middle class.” He grinned.
“Well, as Assistant Director of Admissions at a trade school, I probably make about as much as a city cop. So I’d say we’re a pretty even match, financially.”
He nodded. “If this works out, we could be living the high life together. Think about it: with our combined wealth, we could ditch our apartments and upgrade to a condo. Maybe even a little house – a bungalow, or something.”
She laughed. “Already talking about moving in together? I must’ve made quite the impression on you six years ago.”
“Oh, you did, Princess.” He flashed her a grin. “Don’t let your guard down, or I’ll sweep you off your feet and over a condo threshold before you can blink. By the time you realize what I smell like when I get home after twelve hours of sweating in Kevlar, it’ll be too late.”
A smile lingered on her lips for the rest of the ride. She liked his teasing. Most of the other men she’d known would’ve sooner eaten dirt than spoken a word about moving in together, even in jest.
She and Kyle had never even moved in together, although she realized now that his aversion to the idea had probably been because it would’ve made it harder for him to cheat.
“What made you want to go for a walk?” she asked when they parked in the public lot at Blue Mile Beach.
“Weird day at work.” They shed their sandals and left them side-by-side in the sand by the beach access steps. “Couldn’t think of a better way to get away from it all and relax.”
Twilight cast the beach in soft pastel tones: shades of grey, pink and blue that blended together. Their footprints looked like shadows in the damp sand as they walked at the edge of the surf, into the wind. She hadn’t put her hair up this time, and it streamed behind her.
The sea breeze combing through her hair like that and making her scalp tingle was one of the best feelings in the world.
“Anything to do with Sanders? Or don’t you want to talk about it?”
“My lieutenant is taking some time off to care for her sick mother. Weeks or months – nobody knows yet. We had a little get together to wish her well after work today – met at the Due South Bar and Grill, down on the east end of the island. Sanders showed up.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Let me guess – he said something?”
“He made sure to rub it in my face that he’d gotten off the hook. Implied that Elijah – he’s my roommate I went through the academy with – only supports me because we’re gay lovers, then made some vague promises of retribution. The whole trifecta of petty bullshit.”
“What a dick. I’m sorry.”
“I can handle the bullshit. I can even handle his stupid smirks. I can’t handle him walking free with a badge and a gun.”
“He should be kicked off the force, if not fed to sharks.”
Jackson took one of her hands and raised it to his mouth.
When his lips brushed her knuckles, a hot shiver raced down her spine.
“You’re a woman after my own heart, you know that?”
His smile made her feel as if he were squeezing her heart instead of her hand. God, he was hot, and that smile hit her like a freight train every time, flattening her defenses.
“I feel bad for his wife,” she said, forcing her mind back into the conversation. “I bet things have been even worse for her since the arrest.”
“I know it. And I feel guilty as hell. Guilty for doing the right thing.” He frowned.
“Imagine if you hadn’t, though. Imagine if you’d shown up and left without doing anything. She would’ve known it was hopeless then. At least now she knows she has some sort of recourse, if she’s brave enough to use it. You showed her that there are people willing to help.”
“All I can do is write charges. I can’t help her out of the situation unless she wants me to.”
“That’s not your fault.”
“Doesn’t matter. This job gives you a front row seat to all sorts of shitty things that aren’t your fault, and if the fact that you can’t fix them doesn’t bother you, I think that means you’ve turned into a useless bastard like Sanders.”
She squeezed his hand. The fact that he cared – about Kate Sanders, and all the other people he couldn’t rescue as he would’ve liked to – melted her heart.
She didn’t have anything to take the edge off the truth of what he’d said, so she didn’t try. The minutes ticked by, at least five before either of them spoke again.
“Jellyfish,” she said, pointing toward a transparent mound in the sand. “Watch out.”
They gave the washed-up creature and its trailing tentacles a wide berth, and when they were well past it, he pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her waist.
The feel of his muscular arm circling her and his hard body against her side took her breath away for a second.
“It’s almost dark,” she said, “do you want to head back?”
“No, but we should. I didn’t bring a flashlight.”
“We can go somewhere else. Walk out onto the fishing pier at the north end of the beach and watch the stars come out, if you want.”
She didn’t want to leave his presence after a brief walk, didn’t want to trade it for the solitude of her apartment. The sea, his touch and his confessions had combined to cast a spell. She was tangled in it like a net – a woven snare of pleasure, heartache and longing.
* * * * *
It was full dark by the time they walked out onto the fishing pier at the end of Blue Mile. It was teeming with nighttime fishermen, anglers pulling in sheepshead and mackerel. Scales flew, flashing silver in the pier lights, as a man cleaned his catch at a large wooden table.
But all that – the sights, sounds and smells of life being wrestled from the sea – paled in comparison to the sky that stretched above its waters.
The moon was a brighter silver than the fish scales, round and almost full in the inky sky. Stars shone all aroun
d it, showcased in all their glory by the clear, almost cloudless night. He and Belle stood at the end of the pier, leaning against an open stretch of rough wooden rail, and admired it.
“Is it true that people go crazy during a full moon?” she asked. “Is there more crime?”
“Yeah. I read somewhere that they say it’s a myth now, but whoever they are, I don’t think they ever worked the nightshift as a beat cop.”
“Huh. I always wondered. Mariah works in the ER, and she swears the weirdest cases come in when the moon’s full.”
He nodded out to sea. “The moon rules the ocean – everyone knows that. The earth’s about eighty percent water, and the human body isn’t far behind. Don’t see why it couldn’t have some pull on people, too.”
“Makes sense.”
“What about you? Anything crazy happen around campus during the full moon?”
She shook her head, wisps of wind-blown hair brushing her cheeks. “We’re not a residential campus. The students don’t live there, like at a university, so there’s not much going on at night. Except, well…”
Her lips quirked in a smile, and she looked down at the water, sighing.
“What?”
She flashed him a quick glance, then looked back out to sea. “The other day, something weird did happen.”
“Yeah? What was it?”
“It happened overnight, though I don’t know how…”
She told him about the admissions office being compromised and the oversized green dildo being left on display for her and her co-workers to find. She laughed when she was done telling the story, but he didn’t.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, meeting his gaze. “Crap, I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up… It’s ridiculous, right?”
He shook his head. “Maybe, maybe not. Whoever left that in your office might be some kind of freak.”
“It was probably just a prank. A little gift from someone who didn’t get accepted for fall classes, maybe.”
“They broke into your office. That’s criminal activity.”
She sighed and shook her head. The way her hair caught the moonlight made his chest feel tight, his ribs a prison of bone around his speeding heart. Coupled with the idea of someone causing her trouble, it made it hard to breathe, for a second.
“You sound like Mariah. She loves to watch crime documentaries, and she’s got a sinister theory about everything.”
“You should listen to her. She might be right.”
“Do you really think so?” Her smile finally faded, although her eyes were still bright.
“I don’t know, Belle. But you need to be careful. What time does your workday end?”
“Five o’clock. That’s when I head home.”
“You ever stay late or work alone?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Her assurance put him somewhat at ease, but not totally. Maybe it had been a harmless prank, but life had programmed him never to assume that.
Cries of excitement came from behind them, and they both turned.
A fisherman was reeling in something on a rod that was bowed nearly in half, and others had gathered around him.
“Shark,” Jackson said when the animal was pulled level with the pier, its ghost-white underbelly cutting an unmistakable silhouette against the night.
It thrashed on the end of the line, and they drifted closer to join the other onlookers.
It was maybe four feet long, with pectoral fins that dwarfed the one on its back. Its body was thick muscle wrapped in gleaming sharkskin, and its gills flapped behind its blunt snout, clenching in an attempt to draw in oxygen.
“Bull shark,” someone declared.
It lived up to its name, the muscular body writhing in a display of power and aggression, even as it hung helpless in the air.
“Poor little guy,” Belle said.
Jackson snorted. The animal was a juvenile, but it was also the most aggressive breed of shark to be found in South Carolina waters. A four footer could easily take a deadly chunk out of someone – it was hard to think of it as little.
“They should release him,” she said, “he’s just a baby.”
The shark had probably been caught by accident and would most likely be returned to the water after a little gawking and picture snapping. Still, Jackson marveled at Belle’s ability to look at the creature and feel sympathy instead of the fear and fascination that lit up the other onlookers’ faces.
No wonder she laughed at what’d happened at her office and thought her best friend was paranoid. As the bull shark continued to fight, something shifted inside Jackson. Tension ran through his chest, as taut as the fishing line holding up that deadly, finned baby. He tore his gaze from it and looked at Belle instead.
She’d snared him with her optimism, her empathy – both were as sharp and catching as a treble hook. If more people were like her, he’d be out of a job. But her goodness and her lack of the innate suspicion he possessed meant she was the kind of person who would need protecting at some point.
Instinct gripped him, primal and fierce. Maybe it was the moonlight, but he looked at her and wanted to give her that – wanted to shield her from the teethed things that swam in the dark waters of life.
When they walked off the pier together, he held her hand.
It wasn’t until they reached his car that he realized he’d completely forgotten, for a little while, about Sanders and work.
CHAPTER 11
“Will you come in this time?” Belle asked when they reached her apartment door.
“Gladly, but only if you really want me to.” Jackson stood beside her, his fingertips resting against the small of her back. The light touch was electrifying and had every nerve in her body buzzing as she unlocked her front door.
“I do.” She no longer possessed the willpower that had let her watch him walk away the other night. She wanted more time with him – time to hear his voice and feel his touch. His charm had worked its way into her blood and she had no real plans for what they’d do now, only an irresistible desire to be around him.
Once inside, they shut out the muggy night and were alone in the air-conditioned privacy of her home. The only thing that kept her heart from beating right out of her chest was the sense of comfort and familiarity their beach walk had lulled her into.
She didn’t know him as well as she once had, and not nearly as well as she wanted to. There was no question about that. But she felt at ease around him in a way she rarely did with other people. They just … clicked. They had years ago, and they still did. On some innate, personal level, they were compatible.
Now, she finally dared to explore that compatibility in a sense that was more than physical – to see if it might lead to more than kisses, entwined bodies and intense, fleeting pleasure.
Not that she didn’t want those things. She wanted them so badly that when she looked at him standing just inches from her in her home, her pussy drew so tight it stole her breath.
When he put his arms around her, she leaned against his chest and inhaled, her head spinning.
The scent of the beach clung to the fabric of his t-shirt, and beneath that, she detected either a strong soap or light cologne she could only describe as clean and a little spicy. Even better than his scent, though, was the heat of his body against hers. Even though they’d kissed a couple days ago, this was the closest she’d been to him in years.
She could even feel his heart beat. The fact that it was going so strong when he was standing still, with nothing to antagonize it but her touch, was a pleasure in and of itself.
The image of him in uniform rose to the surface of her mind. He’d looked so striking, so damn hot. Fit and perfect beneath that dark blue uniform – all muscle and power, physical and otherwise. It seemed strange to think of the heart beneath that bullet proof vest racing just because she was close to it.
Likewise, when she thought of him as she’d known him in the past, wading into the sea to wash th
e day’s heat and strain from his muscular, tattooed and calloused body, she imagined a heart as hard as the rest of him – not soft enough to beat differently for her, or anyone.
The contrast between his body’s appearance and the way it responded to her made her aware of her own racing pulse. Jackson had always been sweeter than he looked, and that was part of what charmed her.
He buried a hand in her hair and she tipped her head back, letting her mouth meet his, just like the other day on the beach.
This kiss was even more searing, more overwhelming. The intensity took her by surprise, scouring all distractions from her mind – even thoughts of the past.
Soon, he had his tongue deep in her mouth. As his stubble pressed against her jaw and he tightened his hold on her hair, the alternating pressure and retreat of his tongue against hers became an unbearable tease.
She clenched her fists at his sides, holding handfuls of his t-shirt. Butterflies whirled in her stomach, just below where his hard cock was pressing into it.
He tipped his head back, bringing his mouth just out of reach of hers.
Her heart pounded in protest.
“We should stop now if you want to stop at all,” he said, meeting her eyes.
His lips were swollen and the look on his face made her tingle all over. No one else had ever looked at her with such undisguised longing – she could see as well as feel how badly he wanted to continue.
“I don’t want to stop,” she said.
Desire had eclipsed her sense of caution. Despite all her talk about taking things slowly, all she could think about was the taste of him on her lips and the hot ache between her thighs. He’d been right the night before when he’d predicted what would happen if he came into her home.
The thing was, she wasn’t sorry. She wanted him too badly to regret anything.
“You sure you want to do this now?” he asked.
His heat still lingered on her lips, and it swept through her entire body as he continued to hold her gaze.
“Yes.”
He withdrew his hand from her hair and gripped her hand instead. “Why don’t you show me your room?”