Sweet Surrender

by Lori Wilde

  “Got a towel?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t think to bring one.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.” He plucked a towel from his own backpack.

  The towel smelled of sandalwood soap. She pressed it to her face, then looked over and saw he was holding out a bar of soap. “Were you ever a Boy Scout?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You seem prepared for anything.”

  His grin widened. “Nope, no Boy Scout here. I told you, I know my way around the jungle.”

  “A regular Tarzan, huh?”

  He pounded on his chest with his fists and made Tarzan noises.

  “Okay, that was dorky,” Madison said.

  “Didn’t do a lot for my sex appeal?” He wriggled his eyebrows.

  “Zero on a scale of one to ten.”

  “No more chest pounding. Got it.” He grinned.

  She was struck again by the paradox of this man. Who was he really? Orchid nerd, or something else entirely?

  She couldn’t help smiling back, though, as she headed for the porch, soap in hand. She left the towel inside on a hook beside the door and stepped out into the rain. It seemed a bit dumb to shower in a deluge, but she felt grimy. She stripped out of her clothes—save for the underwear—and cast a glance over her shoulder to see if Jake was peering out the door at her. To her disappointment, he was not.

  Why are you disappointed? Thank heavens he’s not a voyeur.

  She turned and busied herself with cleaning up, reminding herself that despite the sparks between them, she didn’t know anything about him.

  JAKE SAUNTERED over to the part of the hut that gave him an eyeful of the shower area. From this vantage point, he could see her, but Maddie wouldn’t be able to see him. He watched her shimmy out of her clothes and his heart jackhammered.

  Okay, not cool, Strickland. No staring.

  But he couldn’t seem to help himself. Maddie had a body worth ogling. She didn’t get all the way naked and somehow that was even sexier than total nudity. She wore a skimpy little pink-and-white matching bra and panties with some little belt thing that connected the two at the waist.

  And what a body! It was even better than he’d suspected. Why did she hide it beneath those baggy clothes?

  Jake felt himself harden. Hold up, fella. She’s certainly not on the menu. Especially when you’re planning on stealing those orchids out from under her.

  Still he allowed his gaze to rove over Madison, and he realized he was feeling more than simple lust—extreme interest combined with intense curiosity and a strange, bone-deep yearning. Whenever he looked at her he experienced a strange tingling in the area of his heart. What was it about her that so intrigued him? Was it her intelligence? Her sharp wit? The way she didn’t put up with his shit?

  There might be something to that last part. He was used to women draping themselves all over him. Madison acted as though he wasn’t worth her time.

  Oh, this is so messed up. You wanting a woman who is just not that into you.

  He couldn’t remember ever being interested in a woman who had no interest in him. Women were always interested in him. That was the problem. He’d been accused of sending out mixed signals. Acting as though he wanted to be close, but then when the relationship started getting serious swinging off to one foreign country or the other, gone for weeks.

  If he ever did get serious about a woman, he made sure she understood that he possessed a bad case of wanderlust and there was no cure. Not that he wanted to cure himself of it. Jake loved his life. He was free to come and go as he pleased. Yes, okay, sometimes he did make his money in shady ways. Making off with rare wild orchids for a less-than-scrupulous collector, for instance. But he wasn’t doing that for himself. It was to help Joe keep his bar.

  He stepped away from the window, not wanting Maddie to catch him ogling her.

  The truth was that she was getting to him in a way no other woman had. And it was taking every ounce of self-control—which admittedly wasn’t a lot—he possessed not to stalk out on that back porch, yank her into his arms and kiss her until neither one of them could breathe.

  Jake wasn’t about to do anything that stupid, but his cock was so hard it hurt. She made him crazy.

  His feelings were bizarre, surreal. It was like…fate.

  Don’t be a putz. You don’t even know her and she doesn’t know you. She’d hate you if she did.

  And yet, he couldn’t stop wanting her. He imagined her touching him. A phantom caress that electrified every nerve ending in his body. He visualized her long dark hair lightly tickling his bare skin. He could taste her on his tongue—warm, feminine, alive.

  Jake shoved a hand through his hair, hauled in a deep breath. A strange panic settled all the way into his bones.

  What in the hell was this feeling?

  Better question, how could he make it go away?

  3

  MADISON poked her head through the door and grabbed the towel off the hook. “Turn around.”

  “Huh?”

  “Turn your back, I don’t want you to see me.”

  “Fine.” Jake sighed and spun around.

  Madison slipped inside and wrapped the towel around herself. The chastity belt was plastered to her skin. She whisked the towel over her body, getting as dry as she could, then tied the towel around her wet hair, tucking it into a turban. Next, she tiptoed across the floor to her backpack. “Keep looking at the wall.”

  “What are you so afraid of, Maddie? That I’ll rip that skimpy little lingerie off and have my way with you?”

  “You looked!”

  “No, I didn’t. I’ve been dutifully staring at the wall.”

  “You looked when I was outside.”

  “Hey, you never said I couldn’t look while you were outside.”

  “Pervert.”

  “Prude.”

  Madison gasped. The audacity of the man.

  “Will you tell me just one thing?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Is that thing you’re wearing what I think it is?”

  “What do you think it is?”

  “Some kind of chastity belt?”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I once had this girlfriend who liked to play hard to get—”

  “I don’t really need the blow-by-blow details of your love life, thank you very much.”

  “You asked.”

  “Sorry, my mistake.” Madison yanked her spare pair of jeans from her backpack and wriggled into them. Then she fished out a plain white oversize T-shirt and pulled that on as well, being careful not to knock the towel off her head in the process. “Okay, you can turn around.”

  Jake pivoted to face her, that ubiquitous grin on his face. Did the man ever stop smiling? “Why do you wear clothes that are too big for you when you have such a smokin’-hot body?”

  “Maybe so assholes such as you don’t leer at me.”

  “Hey, I’m not an asshole.”

  “No? Could have fooled me.”

  “Why don’t you like me?”

  She shrugged. “I know your type. You breeze through life on your own terms, not caring who you hurt.”

  “You talking about Professor Hampton?” Jake asked. “Did you two have a fling that went bad?”

  Madison wrinkled her nose. “No. Yes. Maybe. Sort of.”

  “Which is it?”

  “It’s not just Hampton.”

  “No?”

  “I have a tendency to be attracted to ne’er-do-wells.”

  “Ne’er-do-wells?” Jake laughed. “Who are you? Jane Austen?”

  Madison went on the defensive. “What’s wrong with Jane Austen? She’s my favorite writer.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with Jane Austen if you’re Jane Austen. You however, are Maddie Garrett.”

  “Madison,” she corrected.

  “So tell me about the ne’er-do-wells.”

  “Why?”

  He w
aved a hand at the rain slanting hard in front of the hut. “Not much else to do.”

  “Besides Hampton?”

  “Besides him. How many were there?”

  “That’s a personal question.”

  He shrugged.

  “Four actually,” she admitted, not knowing why she was doing so. “If you count my father. He was the kind of guy who promised you the sky, then disappeared on your sixth birthday and would only show up every couple of years or so to take you to Coney Island, assuming that would make up for everything.”

  “Ouch. I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged. “I’m over it.”

  “Are you really?”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. She had gotten over her anger at her father. In fact, she’d forgiven him, and she saw him more often now than she had when she was a kid. But she still feared she was susceptible to good-looking, dark-haired men with winsome smiles.

  “And the second one?”

  “High-school sweetheart. The usual story. Captain of the football team. Couldn’t believe he was interested in me. Caught him with the head cheerleader. Learned he was dating me to get me to do his homework.”

  “And the third?”

  “Fiancé.”

  “Left you at the altar?”

  “No, I left him after I realized I was trying to tame a man who couldn’t be tamed.”

  “A twist. I like it.”

  “I’m not looking for your approval.”

  “No?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “The fourth?” he prodded.

  “Short-term fling. Rebound from the fiancé.”

  Jake shrugged. “Good enough for me. I guess it’s my turn at the shower.” He held out his hand.

  “What?”

  “My soap and towel. Could I have them back?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” She found the soap she’d left sitting on her bag, unwound his towel from around her hair and gave both items to him. “I’m afraid it’s pretty wet.”

  He raked an unholy gaze over her. “Wet’s okay with me.”

  After he’d disappeared out the door, Madison paced the empty hut. Why was she so edgy? So itchy? So…what? What was she feeling? Why was she so attracted to a guy she didn’t even know? It was beyond all logic, and Madison was nothing if not logical. What was this unexpected chemistry between herself and Strickland? And most importantly of all, why was she letting it get to her?

  Whenever she looked at him her mind just went haywire and all she could do was imagine him naked. Her heart would start hammering and her nipples would harden and she was terrified she was going to set off the stupid chastity belt. Then she’d have to fend off Bianca or Emma or Izzy asking what was going on.

  In despair she stared out the window at the driving rain and wondered just how long they were going to be stuck here. If it didn’t stop raining soon Madison was very afraid she’d find herself falling for another ne’er-do-well.

  “YOU HUNGRY?” Jake asked, toweling his hair dry.

  “Starved. What did you bring with you?”

  “Protein bars, trail mix, bananas and a handful of muffins from the breakfast buffet. You?”

  “I’ve got string cheese, turkey jerky and dehydrated soup mix. Big package of peanuts, peanut-butter crackers and two apples.”

  “We’ve got the makings of a hellacious picnic.” Jake plunked down on the floor of the hut.

  Madison sat down beside him. They went through their backpacks and came up with the food, spreading it out before them. “So,” she began, stripping the peel of a banana. “I told you about my ne’er-do-wells. What’s your story? You married?”

  He raised his left hand, bare of any rings. “Footloose and fancy free.”

  She hadn’t thought he was married, but she wanted it confirmed. Not that she really cared. “Ever been married?”

  “Not even close.”

  “How old are you?” She munched on the banana.

  “Twenty-nine.”

  “Peter Pan complex?”

  “Naw, just not all that impressed with the institution of marriage.”

  “You come from a broken home, too?”

  “Fractured is more like it. I never knew my dad. My mom…well, let’s just say she’s a real peach. She married a guy who didn’t want children, so she left me with my grandmother, who died shortly after I went to live with her. That’s when I learned the joys of the foster-care system.”

  Sympathy tugged at her heart. “Oh, Jake. How old were you?”

  “Seven.”

  “Poor kid.” She had an urge to reach out and hug him, and Madison was not the huggy kind.

  He pulled a mournful face. “It’s tough being me.”

  “I wasn’t making fun.”

  “I know. I was.”

  “I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you. And here I was whining because I had a Jack-in-the-box dad who showed up when I least expected it.”

  “Hey, don’t feel sorry for me. I ran away when I was twelve, and I met this really cool guy, Joe Maxwell. He took me in, gave me a job washing dishes in his bar and grill, treated me as if I were his son.”

  “Joe sounds wonderful.”

  “He is.” Jake nodded.

  “So what about school?”

  “Not so great at academics, but I shone on the track field.”

  “I bet you were popular with the girls.”

  He looked surprised. “How did you guess?”

  “With that face? Come on.”

  “You think I’m handsome?”

  “I think you’re a man who damn-well knows the effect he has on the opposite sex.”

  “So you admit I affect you,” he said with satisfaction, nibbling on a handful of trail mix.

  Madison couldn’t stop her gaze from watching the column of his throat move when he swallowed, couldn’t stop her eyes from sliding down to where the V of his shirt revealed a sexy sprinkling of chest hairs. “Hell no,” she lied through her teeth.

  “Whew.” He dragged a hand across his forehead, wiping off imaginary sweat.

  “Whew? You’re relieved I’m not attracted to you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why’s that?” she asked, knowing she shouldn’t, but her old insecurities were welling up. When it came to men she was so inept. Falling for the wrong ones, not falling for the right ones. It was best if she just stayed away. Honestly, strapping on this chastity belt was the best thing she’d ever done. It was a great reminder to keep her head screwed on straight.

  “Because if you were as attracted to me as I am attracted to you we’d spontaneously combust.”

  Oh, dammit, why had he said that? And why was he staring at her as if she was the most fascinating woman on the face of the earth?

  “You’re a ne’er-do-well in nerds’ clothing,” she scoffed. “And I have to ask myself why?”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said.

  “What about?”

  He cocked an eyebrow, blatantly eyeing her lips and drawled, “There’s a lot of things I do very well.”

  Don’t fall for it. Don’t you dare fall for it. Seriously, stop looking at him. Stop thinking about him. Calm down. Cool down.

  Just then her satellite phone rang. She had to dig to the bottom of her backpack for it.

  “Madison? It’s Izzy, are you okay?”

  “Sure,” Madison said. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

  “Well, you’re heart rate is galloping like a thoroughbred on Derby day and you’re breathing heavily. Are you over-exerting yourself in the jungle?”

  Madison glanced over at Jake who cracked one of those “do-me darlin’” grins of his, and she quickly looked away. “We…um…I got lost.”

  “Hey, your temperature just went up half a degree. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You sound weird. Did guerillas take you hostage?”

  “Costa Rica is perfectly safe.”

  “Why is you
r voice…omigosh, you’re with a guy!”

  “I’m in a stressful situation, Izzy. I really don’t have time for a phone call.”

  “Is he cute? Your vital signs are telling me he’s cute.”

  “I’m going to have to hang up now.”

  “So you’re out of the bet?”

  “No, I’m not out of the bet.”

  “But you’re not going to have sex with this guy.”

  “Of course not.”

  “But you want to.”

  “I do not!”

  “I beg to differ. Your body says otherwise.”

  “The damned underwear must be faulty. I fell down a ravine and got muddy and showered with it on and apparently something short-circuited.”

  “Yeah, your libido.” Izzy hooted. “And here everyone thought you were the one who was going to win.”

  “How do I know you’re not cheating?” Madison countered.

  “My sensor hasn’t gone off.”

  “Why is that, by the way?”

  “I’ve been a good girl.”

  “Either that or you had your electronic guru friend Hunter tamper with the sensor and you’ve been blissfully having sex while the rest of us suffer.”

  “Ooh, you get cranky when you’re not getting any.” Izzy laughed.

  Madison notched her chin upward. “I am going to win.”

  “Not unless you get your vital signs down.”

  “Fine.” Madison took a calming breath. “Is that better?”

  “Nope.”

  She could feel the heat of Jake’s gaze on her but she refused to look up at him. “I’ve got it under control.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “All right, but if you sleep with him—”

  “I’m not sleeping with him!” she snapped and closed her eyes and let out a soft groan. He’d heard that.

  “I believe you. Or I will when your vitals go down.”

  “They’ll go down. Give me five minutes.”

  “I’m calling you back if they’re not.”

  “Fine.”

  “And if I have to call you back and you don’t answer…”

  “I know, I know, I’m out of the competition.” Madison hung up the phone without even saying goodbye. Sometimes Izzy could get on her last nerve. Good thing she loved her friend like a sister. She stuffed the phone back in her bag and kept taking long, slow deep breaths.