by Jill Shalvis
But she wasn’t ready. She was way behind him in this and he knew that. What they had between them scared her, and more than a little. She needed time, and he could give her that. Would give her that.
Even if it meant walking away from her tonight when she was smiling up at him, her eyes shining, her cheeks flushed, happy. Warm.
Willing.
“’Night,” he said softly. “Lock up tight.”
“Wait.” She blinked once, slow as an owl. A tipsy owl. “You’re . . . leaving?”
“Yes.”
“But . . .” She stepped into him, running her hands up his chest. “Aren’t we going to . . .”
He went brows up, forcing her to be specific.
“I thought you’d come in and we’d . . . you know,” she whispered, her fingers dancing over his jaw.
Catching her hand, he brought it to his mouth and brushed a kiss over her palm. “No,” he said gently. “Not tonight.”
“But . . . when?”
“When you’re ready to fill in ‘you know’ with the words,” he said.
She stood there, mouth open a little, a furrow between her brows, looking bewildered, aroused, and more than a little off center.
Maybe she wasn’t so far behind him after all.
“’Night,” he said, cupping her face for a soft kiss. Walking away was one of the hardest things he’d ever done.
When Pru’s door closed, another opened and Mrs. Winslow poked her head out. “You sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked him.
Hell no, he didn’t know what he was doing.
She shook her head at him. “You sure don’t know much about women, do you. You can’t leave them alone to think about whether they need you, and do you know why?”
He shook his head.
“Because it’s only in the moment that a woman will act impulsively. It’s all the testosterone and pheromones that pour off you males, you see. Without you right in front of her, that magic stuff wears off and she’ll easily remember that she doesn’t need you in her life.”
“I’m going to hope that’s not true,” he said.
“You can hope all you want, but you’ll be hoping alone in an empty bed.”
Chapter 27
#SmarterThanTheAverageBear
Late the next afternoon, Pru was at work wishing she was anywhere but. She was in the middle of an argument with a guy who’d paid for a tour for him and his son the week before, but they hadn’t shown up. Now he wanted a refund.
She’d only stepped behind the ticket counter as a favor to one of the ticket clerks who’d had to leave early. This guy was the last person she had to deal with before going home. She’d paused, looking for a credit option on the computer, when he decided she was dicking him around.
“Listen,” he bit out. “I’m not going to deal with some homicidal, hormonal, PMS-y, minimum-wage chick who doesn’t give a shit. I want the supervisor. Get him for me.”
“Actually,” she said. “You’ve got a supervisor right here. And no worries. I was homicidal hormonal last week. This week I’m good. Even nice, if I say so myself.”
He didn’t smile. He was hands on hips. “I want my money back.”
Pru’s gaze slid to the person who’d just come in behind him. Finn. He stood there quietly but not passively, watching. Pru turned back to Pissy Man and pointed to the large sign above her head.
No refunds.
The guy leaned in way too close. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
An asshole? A thought she kept to herself because she was busy noticing that Finn shifted too, until he was standing just off to her left, body language signaling that while he was at ease, he was also ready to kick some ass if needed.
She’d thought of him today. A lot. Last night after he’d left, she’d nearly called him a dozen times. He wanted words and she had them. She wanted to say “please come back and make love to me.”
Because if she knew one thing, it was that what they’d done together wasn’t just sex.
Dammit.
For now, her cranky customer was still standing there with a fight in his eyes. “I’m in charge of the budget for the city’s promo and advertising department,” he told her. “We make sure that your entire industry is listed in all the Things to Do in San Francisco guides. Without me, you’d be cleaning toilets.”
Okay, now that was a bit of a stretch. “Listen, it wouldn’t matter if you were POTUS. There are no refunds. I can get you a credit for another tour but you have to be patient with me while I figure out—”
He slammed a hand down on the counter, but she didn’t jump. She’d dealt with far bigger assholes than this one. Before she could suggest he leave, Finn was there.
He’d moved so quickly she never even saw him coming as he stepped in between her and the guy. “She said no refunds and offered you a credit,” Finn said. “Take it or leave it.”
“Leave it,” the guy snapped.
“Your choice,” Finn said. “But unless there’s something else you’d like to say, and fair warning, it’d better be ‘have a nice day,’ you need to go.”
The guy stared down Finn for the briefest of seconds before possibly deciding he liked his face in the condition it was in because he strode out without another word.
“Seriously?” Pru asked Finn.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “What?”
“I had that handled.”
He slid her a look. “You’re welcome.”
She let out a short laugh. “I was handling myself just fine.” Always did, always would. Having been on her own for so long, she really didn’t know any other way.
And yet he’d been there for her. When she’d been lonely. When she’d been sad. When she’d been sicker than a dog.
Whenever she’d needed.
“Pru,” he said, “that guy was a walking fight. Where the hell’s Jake?”
“Off today, and I didn’t need him. It’s not like he was going to take a swing at me. The only thing he was swinging was a poor vocabulary and a small dick.”
His mouth twitched. “Okay, I stand corrected.”
“And?”
“And what?” he asked.
“And you’re sorry for stepping in and handling my fight for me?”
He just looked at her.
Nope, he wasn’t sorry for that. Good to know. She took a longer look at his face and realized that not only wasn’t he sorry, he looked a little tall, dark, and ’tude ridden. She’d seen him mad several times now so she recognized the stormy eyes, tight mouth, and tense body language. “So how’s your day?”
He lifted a shoulder.
Okay. She reached out and put a hand on a very tense forearm. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly. “Because it doesn’t feel like you are.”
“I’m fine.”
She gave him an arched brow.
He shrugged. “I just hate pushy assholes who think they can push someone around to get what they want.”
She stared up at him, once again reminded that she wasn’t the only one in this relationship-that-wasn’t-happening with demons. “Because of your dad?”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “Or maybe because I spent a good portion of my youth protecting Sean. He was a small, sickly kid with a big, fat mouth. It wasn’t easy to watch his back and keep him safe because he attracted assholes and bullies.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I guess I still get worked up about that. I saw that guy being aggressive with you and I wanted . . .”
“To protect me,” she said softly.
“Yeah.” He gave her a half grimace, half smile. “Not that you can’t do it yourself, but emotions aren’t always rational.”
With her hands still fisted in his shirt, she gave a gentle tug until he bent enough that she could kiss him softly. And then not so softly. “I know,” she whispered. She kissed him again.
“What was that for?” he asked when she pulled free, his voice sexy low and gruff now.
“For being the kind of guy who
can admit he has emotions.”
He cupped her face. “We don’t have to tell anyone, right?”
She smiled. “It’ll be our secret.” But then her smile faded because she wasn’t good at secrets.
Or maybe she was too good at them . . . “I’m not helpless,” she said. “I want you to know that.”
“I do know it.” He paused, looking a little irritated again. “Mostly.”
“Good,” she said. “Now that’s settled, you should know, the caveman thing you just pulled . . . it turned me on a little bit.”
He slid her a look. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Looking a little less like he was spoiling for a fight, his hands went to her hips and he pulled her in tighter.
What the hell was she doing? Clearly, she wasn’t equipped to stay strong, and who could? The guy was just too damn potent. Too visceral. Testosterone and pheromones leaked off of him. She dropped her head to his chest. “Ugh. You’re being . . . you.”
“Was that in English?”
“This is all your fault.”
“Nope. Definitely not English.”
“You’re being all hot and sexy, dammit,” she said. She banged her head on his chest a few times. “And I can’t seem to . . . not notice said hotness and sexiness.”
He smiled. “You want me again.”
Again. Still . . . She tossed up her hands. “You wear your stupid sexiness on your sleeve and you don’t even know it.”
His smile widened. “All you have to do is say the word, babe. Or preferably words. Dirty ones are encouraged.”
When she blew out a sigh, he laughed.
“You really can’t say the words, can you,” he said, sounding way too amused about that, the ass. He flung an arm around her. “Cute.”
Cute? She had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, she’d rather he found her unbearably sexy. But on the other hand, he was already more than she could handle. Maybe cute was just right.
She gave him a push and strode around, locking up.
He followed, still looking pretty damn smug, waiting patiently.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
“Who says I’m going anywhere with you?”
“Your body.”
She realized she’d plastered herself to his front again. “You’re not working tonight?”
“Later. I worked all day and have a full crew on now. They’ll be fine for a few hours on their own.”
Oh God. How was she going to resist? “Are you going to take me out on another date and then dump me at the door?”
“Depends.”
“On?” she asked.
He just smiled mysteriously as he slid his fingers into her hair, letting his thumb stroke once over her lower lip so that it tingled for a kiss.
His kiss.
He wanted her to say the words and she knew what words too. Make love to me . . .
“You’ve got choices,” he said. “You can pick a place, or let me surprise you.”
His bed. She picked his bed.
She retrieved Thor from his nap spot in Jake’s office and then Finn drove them out of there, his hands as sure on the wheel as they always were on her body.
Stop looking at his hands!
He took her for drinks at a cute place in the Marina, where they sat at a small table on the sidewalk with Thor happily at their feet watching the world go by.
Finn paid. He always paid. And he was sneaky about it too. She never even saw the check before he had it handled.
After, they headed to Lands End, a park near the windswept shoreline at the mouth of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The three of them followed a trail along a former rail bed to the rocky cliffs that revealed a heart-stopping, stunning three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vista of the bay. The wild blue ocean below was dotted with whitecaps thanks to the heavy surf of the early evening.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Makes you realize that the whole world isn’t centered around your own hopes and dreams.”
He looked out at the view. “What are your hopes and dreams?”
She glanced at him, startled.
“I know you love being a boat captain,” he said. “But what else do you want for yourself? To own your own charter business? To have a family?”
He was serious, so she answered truthfully. “I do love my job but I don’t want to run an empire or anything. I’m happy doing what I do. And . . .” Her heart was suddenly pounding. “I do want a family.” Because his eyes felt like mirrors into her own soul, she turned to the water again. “Someday,” she whispered.
His hand slipped into hers, warm and strong.
She held on and breathed for a moment. “And you?”
“I love my job too,” he said. “And I want to keep the pub for as long as it works. But I don’t want to live in the city forever. I want a family too, and I’d rather have a yard and a street where they can ride their bikes and have other kids nearby . . .”
She smiled. “You want a white picket fence, Finn?”
“It doesn’t have to be white,” he said and made her laugh.
And yearn . . .
Thor enjoyed himself thoroughly, chasing after squirrels until one of them turned on him and chased him right back into Pru’s arms.
Finn shook his head. “He’s missing something.”
“He doesn’t have the killer gene,” she admitted, giving the mutt a squeeze.
“I was thinking balls . . .” But he took Thor and carried him for her, letting the dog nuzzle at the crook of his neck.
Pru rolled her eyes, but inside, secretly, she wanted to nuzzle there too.
“Look,” Finn said, grabbing her hand with his free one, pointing with their joined fingers to the hillside below of cypress and wildflowers every color under the sun.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Gorgeous.”
“Yeah,” he said, looking at her.
She laughed. “That’s cheesy.”
He grinned. “You liked it.”
“No, I didn’t.”
He peered at her over his dark sunglasses, letting his gaze slip past her face.
She followed his line of sight and realized that her nipples were pressing eagerly against the thin white cotton of her shirt. “That’s because I’m cold,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest.
He laughed. “It’s seventy-five degrees.”
“Downright chilly,” she said, nose in the air.
Grinning, he reeled her in, and with Thor protesting between them, he kissed the living daylights out of her.
Then he tugged her down the trail, heading for the epic ruins of Sutro Baths.
She’d never been here before. Even better, they were alone. Pru had no idea why, maybe because it was the middle of the week, or just late enough in the day, but they had the place to themselves.
They walked through the ruins and Finn showed her a small, rocky cave. It was cool inside. Quiet.
Finn brought her over to a small opening that allowed her to see out to the rocky beach. Standing inside the cave, surrounded by the cavernous rock and way-too-sexy man, she could not only see the water but feel it in the cool mist that blew into the cave and stirred the hair at her temple.
Thor wriggled to be freed and Finn set him down, where he immediately scampered to a pile of rocks to explore.
This left Finn’s hands free to tug Pru into him. “I should probably admit,” he said, his mouth at her ear, “being alone in here is giving me ideas.”
She bit her lower lip. Her too!
Laughing quietly at her expression, he fisted one hand in her hair. The other slid down and squeezed her ass. “You too?”
Okay, yes, so maybe she had a secret fantasy about doing it somewhere that they could maybe get caught, but she wasn’t about to tell him so. Absolutely not. “I have a secret fantasy about doing it somewhere where we could maybe get caught,” she said. Dammit, mouth!
His grin was fast and wicked, assuring her
he was absolutely up for the challenge. She laughed again, nervously now. “But I’m pretty sure it’s just a fantasy,” she said quickly, putting her hands on his chest to keep him at arm’s length.
Or to keep him close. She hadn’t quite decided.
The hand on her ass shifted up a little and then back down, slipping inside the back of her pants. “How sure is pretty sure?” he asked, his fingers stroking the line of her thong, but before they could slip beneath, she laughed again and pulled free.
“Pretty, pretty sure,” she said shakily.
His gaze slid down her body. “I suppose you’re cold again.”
Well aware that her greedy nipples were still threatening to make a break right through the material of her shirt, she scooped up Thor and clutched him to her chest.
Thor seemed to give her a long look like please don’t make me wait while you two do disgusting things to each other. “Don’t worry,” she muttered to the dog. “I’ve got a handle on things now.”
“I’ve got something you could get a handle on,” Finn said.
She rolled her eyes. “Weak.”
“It’s not weak.”
She laughed. “I remember.”
“So if we’re not making fantasies come true, how about dinner?” he asked.
Dilemma. She couldn’t take him home, she’d sleep with him again. “Pizza,” she said, thinking a crowded Italian joint should be safe enough.
“Sold,” Finn said.
They left the cave and walked along the rocky beach for a few minutes. The tide was out, the water receded a hundred yards or more it seemed. Pru managed to trip over a rock and then her own two feet, dropping Thor’s leash to catch herself. So naturally Thor took off directly toward the waves at the speed of light, barking the whole way.
“Thor!” she yelled. “He can’t swim,” she told Finn. “Sinks like a stone.”
“Trust me, he’ll swim if he has to.”
But she couldn’t be so calm. Her baby was racing right for the waves. She started after him much slower, having to be careful on the rocks.
“Don’t worry,” Finn said. “He’ll be back as soon as his paws get wet.”
But Thor hit the water and kept going, right into a wave. And then the worst possible thing happened.
He vanished.