Flirting with Destiny

by Christyne Butler

  “Oh, really?” The feminine voice came from behind him, cutting off his words. “It sure sounds like a big deal to me.”

  * * *

  Tanya’s trained eye caught the moment every muscle in Dev’s body stilled as he heard her speak. He had plenty of them, and the more he worked out, both in the pool and with his physical therapist, the more sculpted the man became.

  Putting back on the weight he’d lost, in a good way, was doing wonders for his body, and since he’d started spending more and more time out in the sun, his skin had turned golden brown despite her constantly harping on how he should use sunscreen.

  Standing in the shallow end of the pool, thanks to the light blue swim trunks he usually wore and the way the sun danced on top of the waist-high water, the man actually appeared naked at first glance.

  Yowza!

  He’d never gotten that far that night in Reno. Although he had looked mighty fine wearing nothing but a pair of unzipped jeans that barely clung to his lanky frame and allowed a glimpse of black briefs.

  But still...

  Hands on his hips, Devlin slowly turned around, dark sunglasses shading his blue eyes. Not that she needed to see them to guess they held the same guilty expression as her grandfather’s for her finding the two of them discussing her financial issues.

  Mac hastily got to his feet and shoved his sandals back on, making ready for a quick getaway. Smart man.

  “Elise invited the two of us to stay for a barbecue this afternoon.” She spoke directly to her grandfather. “I told her you had some errands to run, but you’d be back. Around three?”

  “Uh, sure.” Mac nodded while backing away from the pool to the grassy area. “I’ll be here. Thank Elise for me, and Dev... Good luck, man.”

  “Deserting a buddy when he’s in the line of fire?” Dev deadpanned under his breath. “Thanks a lot.”

  Mac only grinned, holding his hands wide in mock surrender before giving a quick wave and heading for his truck.

  Tanya waited until she had Dev’s full attention again before she walked to the nearby table and set down the water bottles she’d brought out from the kitchen.

  “Look, Tanya, I didn’t mean to...”

  Keeping her back to him, she ignored his words while tucking her thumbs into the waistband of her yoga pants. One quick push and they were past her hips and backside. A thrill raced through her when Dev’s voice trailed off to nothing as he apparently lost the ability to speak.

  She gave a little wiggle and the pants shimmied to the patio. She stepped out of the material gathered around her feet and then unzipped her lightweight jacket, letting it slide past her shoulders to catch on the tips of her fingers for a moment. Taking her time, she slipped out of her sandals and laid her clothes on one of the lounge chairs.

  “Ah, you...you look...” Dev’s words were short, sweet and barely above a whisper. “Wow.”

  Just the reaction she’d been hoping for. And she hadn’t even turned around yet.

  To think she’d been nervous about wearing this suit today, and even more nervous about putting her let’s-get-to-know-each-other-a-little-better plan into action.

  The other night she’d called a couple of girlfriends back in Colorado Springs, and during their three-way chat that had covered everything from jobs to families to men, she’d finally told them about Dev.

  When they’d insisted on visuals, she’d sent a link to his page on the Murphy Mountain Log Home website that had two great pictures. A more formal one in which he looked amazing in a suit and tie, with just a hint of that killer smile of his, while the other was more casual, taken on a job site where he rocked the flannel shirt, jeans and work boots look.

  After much discussion, her friends had convinced her she was crazy for holding this guy at arm’s length.

  She liked him. He liked her. Why not do a short-term, let’s-have-fun-while-it-lasts kind of hookup?

  Did she really want to get to London and be forced to live with regrets over what might have been?

  Go for it, her friends had urged.

  Tanya had finally agreed. The next time she saw Dev, she’d be the one asking for a date. Still, switching gears on him, from turning him down every time he’d asked her out to her now doing the asking—

  What if he said no just to spite her?

  That’s when she’d decided a kick-ass bathing suit instead of her standard lifeguard-style one-piece was the reinforcement she needed. She’d spent the day shopping for the perfect one and had come out here ready to put her plan into action.

  Shoulders back, posture straight, sunglasses on, Tanya slowly turned around, giving him the full effect.

  This suit was still a one-piece, but black, with a halter-style top that tied around her neck. The front plunged to show off lots of skin and curves, with only three tiny silver buckles keeping the material snug over her breasts. There was full coverage across her backside—this was his family’s pool after all—but the low, scooped back was very sexy.

  Yeah, the way Dev’s mouth fell open and snapped shut—twice—was exactly the effect she’d been hoping for.

  Until she’d overheard him talking to Mac about doing her a favor.

  She’s helping me. I can help her.

  Familiar words. The same ones spoken a few years ago by someone else who’d said he’d wanted to help when she found herself in a tight financial situation and needed to pay for some job training.

  An offer that supposedly had no strings attached.

  She’d taken Ross at his word that day and accepted his assistance, only to have him throw how much money he’d given her back in her face when he ended things between them.

  So now, instead of a flirtatious beginning to her and Dev’s session—one which would end with them making more intimate plans for tonight—she was switching gears.

  Tanya was determined not to let him do her any favors. She wasn’t taking any chances. She’d found out the hard way that favors tended to come with strings attached.

  It had cost her dearly last time, but she’d finally cut the last of her ties to Ross, and there was no way she was going to get tangled up like that again.

  Chapter Eleven

  Grabbing a tube of sunscreen, Tanya walked to the stairs that led down into the water. She perched on the top step, next to the foam resistance dumbbells Dev used during their workouts.

  She tossed first one, and then the other, at him. “It looks like you’re done with your warm-up and laps. Why don’t you get started on your arm exercises while I put on some lotion?”

  Dev caught the weights as they landed in front of him with a splash. “Why do I get the feeling you aren’t interested in talking to me?”

  “I am talking to you.” Tanya squirted a large dollop of cream into the palm of her hand. Angling one leg along the edge of the pool, she smoothed the lotion on, starting at her toes and slowly—very slowly—working her way upward.

  “Tanya—”

  “Your mother said your family is going to descend on the backyard in less than three hours. Do you want to be this afternoon’s entertainment?”

  His silence was the answer.

  “Okay, then. Go ahead and get started without me.”

  Dev muttered something under his breath and began the familiar routine. She watched him work as she finished with her legs, wordlessly evaluating the ease with which he moved his upper body. It really was amazing how far he had come in just the past ten days.

  That’s when she came to a decision. Despite her worries over his conversation with Mac, she was still interested in getting a little closer to this man.

  She just had to be smart about it.

  With that in mind, she concentrated on coating her arms and chest with lotion, biting down on her bottom lip when one of the weights s
lipped from Dev’s hand the exact moment her fingertips dipped into the bodice’s edge of her suit.

  What? She had to make sure every inch of her exposed cleavage was protected from the sun.

  Properly lathered, she sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the gentle breeze across her skin for a moment longer, knowing the pool water wasn’t going to be very refreshing at its current temperature.

  And yes, she was aware that Dev hadn’t taken his eyes off her.

  At least it looked that way, unless he had his eyes closed behind his dark shades.

  Deciding it was time to join him in the pool, Tanya stood and walked down the steps. Dev paused, but she motioned for him to continue the workout as she moved through the water toward him.

  They remained quiet for the next half hour as he finished the upper body exercises.

  “Okay, good. Now, the lower. Left leg, standard reps. Right leg, don’t stop until I tell you.”

  Dev only sighed, but handed over the weights to her.

  She moved to the edge of the pool and tossed them up onto the flagstone. Turning back, she watched his movements closely, again noting how easily he transitioned from position to position, cranking out the required number of repetitions for each move without a hint of strain or discomfort.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, just to be sure. “Any pain anywhere?”

  “Nope. I’m fi—” He stopped, a hint of a grin lifting one corner of his mouth. He must be remembering how she’d told him that using that particular word drove her nuts. “I’m doing okay. Physically.”

  “Meaning you’re having issues mentally?”

  “Meaning it’s damn hard to concentrate with you in that swimsuit.”

  Hmm, mission accomplished.

  She moved out of his line of sight to observe from both the side and back, acknowledging her own focus was none too steady at the moment, either.

  Now that she’d decided to take things up a notch, spend some time together away from the pool, could she go through with it?

  Could she ask him out on a date and not have him think—?

  “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

  Tanya pushed her sweaty bangs out of her face with the back of her hand, sending her dark sunglasses askew as she moved back around in front of him. Righting them, she tried to ignore Dev’s smile.

  “Wow, I can’t even see your eyes, but it’s suddenly kind of chilly here in this ninety-plus-degree pool.” He made an exaggerated shudder.

  Tanya crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn’t see Dev’s eyes, either, but she’d bet they weren’t on her face at the moment. “What makes you think I’m mad?”

  “Cause if you make me do one more side leg lift I think I can forget about the cane and just go right for a wheelchair.”

  She shoved her glasses up on top of her head. “That’s not funny.”

  “Who’s kidding?” He huffed, his grin slipping a bit. “I get that the bum leg needs more attention, but I’m in the high sixties for reps on this side.”

  “Why didn’t you say something? Please stop.”

  Dev ended his exercise, removed his sunglasses and slipped completely beneath the water.

  She didn’t react, other than to plant her hands on her hips. Not even when her silent count that had started the moment he disappeared reached one eighty. He’d done this to her during their first session, proving that thanks to his firefighting training he could hold his breath for almost three minutes.

  She, on the other hand, had just about panicked, thinking the worst before he finally came back to the surface with a burst of—

  Tanya jumped when his strong hands settled over hers, trapping them against her hips before he slowly ascended from the water just inches from her.

  “What are you—?” She made an attempt at freeing herself, but the strength of Dev’s grasp and the position of his feet on either side of hers kept her firmly in place. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  He looked down at her and her breath caught in her throat.

  He was devastatingly handsome with his dark hair slicked back against his skull. The eyelashes framing his beautiful blue eyes were spiky and water dripped from the hard angles of his jaw and chin to land on her face and chest.

  Her lips parted so she could breathe again and his head dipped a fraction of an inch, but no farther.

  “Getting to the bottom of whatever it is that’s bugging you.”

  “What makes you think—” Tanya relented, then sighed. “Okay, something is bugging me. Your offer to do me a favor just...rubbed me the wrong way.”

  “Yeah, I sort of figured that out. Do you want to tell me why, exactly?”

  Talking about her ex and everything he’d cost her was the last thing she wanted to do right now. “Not really. Let’s just say I let someone do me a favor once and it came back to haunt me in a big way.”

  “I was only trying to help, Tanya.” His words were soft and low. “Mac mentioned your roommate situation and I just didn’t want you to have any issues that would keep you from going to London as you planned.”

  The sincerity in his gaze, and in his voice, created a flutter in her belly. “Why?”

  “Because you’re truly talented at your craft. Take it from someone who once was a major skeptic about anything related to that hocus-pocus stuff. What you do, the way you help people...” He paused for a moment, his eyes darkening as he gazed at her. “The way you’ve helped me. I had given up on recovering any further, deciding the pain I was living with was a necessary evil. Maybe even someone’s way of telling me that I deserved everything I got for the crash being my fault.”

  Horror that he’d been carrying that belief around inside of him filled her. “Oh, Dev, please don’t think that. You didn’t cause the accident.”

  “Maybe.” His eyes took on a faraway look for a moment. Then he blinked and it was gone. His smile returned. “But back to you. Your studies are important and I think you should be able to concentrate on them and not have to worry about where you’ll live. That’s all I was trying to do.”

  “Thank you. Everything you said about me helping you... It really means a lot to me.” She returned his smile, and tried to lighten the mood by saying, “Even if you won’t let me share my favorite source of healing with you.”

  He released her and took a step back. “I know you keep hoping I’ll change my mind about a pincushion session, but it’s not going to happen.”

  “It’s okay.” Was it crazy that she missed the strong grip of his hands? “You’ve come so far in just the past couple of weeks. You’ve been working hard, Dev, and it shows.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled. “So please just think about what I said. I’m on the phone with the UK all the time, so it would only take a quick call—”

  “Thanks, but no. I’ll handle things on my own.”

  “Suit yourself.” His dimples deepened as his grin took on a roguish quality. “Hey, just think, if you’d come out a few minutes later you wouldn’t have overheard me at all.”

  Oh, the Wonder Woman inside of her still wanted to wipe that devilish smirk right off his face.

  Ask him on a date! That’ll do it!

  She started past him, sinking into the water to her shoulders and pushing off with her feet toward the stairs. The session was over and they both needed to shower and change clothes before the afternoon’s festivities got started.

  It was now or never.

  “I’ve heard there’s a double feature of campy horror flicks showing at the drive-in.” She tossed the words out in what she hoped was a casual tone.

  Dev, who’d been swimming beside her, stopped. “Huh?”

  “There’s a new drive-in theater down in Laramie.” Tanya flipped over on her back, using her arms to stay afloat as
she moved farther away from him. “Actually, it’s an old drive-in that closed down about twenty-five years ago, but the new owners put a ton of money into renovations. I read that it’s become very popular since it opened the beginning of May.”

  Boy, could I be any more chatty? Just say it!

  “Anyway, I was planning to ask if you were interested in going tonight.”

  “You were planning to ask me? But you’re not going to now?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of any international business you might have to take care of— Oh!”

  Dev had caught up with her just as she’d neared the stairs. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he easily maneuvered her to the side of the pool with the built-in hot tub.

  Surrounded by stacks of flagstone, it sat higher than the rest of the pool in a small alcove hidden from view of the house and the outside deck.

  With the two of them still shoulder deep in water, he backed her into the corner and braced his hands on either side of her against the flagstone edge. He slipped one bent knee between hers, and the shock of skin against skin had her grabbing onto his shoulders.

  “Dev, what are you doing? Your family might see us.”

  “No one is outside. Ask me,” he said in that low whisper of his that never failed to send shivers down her spine. “Ask me, Tanya.”

  “Devlin Murphy, would you like to go out—?”

  His mouth covered hers, taking the rest of her words in a searing kiss. That flutter in her belly exploded in a riot of desire, sexual hunger and need.

  Her hands slid up around his neck and she angled her head, deepening their connection as she returned his kiss.

  Seconds later, he started to caress her lower back with one of his hands, pulling her closer until she was pressed against every hard inch of him.

  He took her mouth again and again, his tongue boldly sweeping in and playing with hers, kissing her with a toe-curling resolve that she matched with equal passion.

  It was as if they wanted to make up for wasted time.

  But it hadn’t been wasted.