“You dropped this in the hall,” she said quietly, handing him a sheet of paper. “It looked important.”
“It is. Thanks.” He hazarded another glance at Dan. His foreman stood grinning like a lunatic, obviously delighted with the situation.
“I’m Dan Perkins, ma’am,” he said heartily, and extended a meaty hand. “I think we spoke on the phone last night.”
Blushing prettily, Kristin clasped his hand. “Kristin Chase. And yes, I think we did. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Perkins.”
“Dan,” his foreman corrected her. “How’re you enjoyin’ your stay?”
Zach jammed the truck’s keys into Dan’s palm and nudged him toward the door. “She’s enjoying it just fine. Start the truck and turn on the air-conditioning. I’ll be right out.”
“Nice seein’ you, ma’am,” he called in amusement as Zach propelled him through the screen door. His next sentence made Zach cringe. “I’ll try to speed up the meetin’ so the boss here can be home by ten.”
When the door had banged shut and Dan was out of earshot, Zach turned slowly to meet Kristin’s gaze. The hurt and confusion in her eyes made him feel lousy.
“That was the other reason I stopped in today.”
“Dinner’s off?”
He nodded. “I got a call this afternoon from a guy over in Manteo who’s interested in a beach house similar to one we put up for a friend of his. If the price is right.”
“You’re starting something new?”
It sounded like a criticism, and Zach grew defensive. “I know I came back to settle another matter, but when an opportunity like this comes up, I have to grab it.”
“The meeting can’t be rescheduled?”
“The client and I are both pressed for time right now. He’s leaving the island in a few days, and I have to get back to Etta’s. I told him we’d see him tonight to work out the figures.”
Kristin drew a calming breath. All right, this was his business and he had to see that it thrived. She understood that perfectly. But suddenly Stephanie’s words about Zach burying himself in work came back to her, and she wondered if this new client was a way to put distance between them after they’d nearly made love. After she’d stupidly given her heart free rein in a situation that had no future.
Tears stung the backs of her eyes, and she glanced away. “Then I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”
Cupping her chin, Zach turned her face back to him. “You’re upset.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Kristin jerked away. “All right, I’m upset. Five minutes ago, you were prepared to blow off all of your obligations to strip me naked. You even managed to forget that Dan was waiting for you outside. Now you’re pressed for time?”
“You have to know that I didn’t plan for any of that to happen. I came back for the file, and when I saw you in my room, I just—” He stopped, pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can we talk about this later? If I don’t leave soon, Dan will be back in here grinning like a damn loon again. I’ll see you as soon as I can. Okay?”
She nodded, but she wasn’t certain she’d be here when he got back. Beneath her raw emotions, she suddenly realized why she was so upset. And it had more to do with Stephanie’s insights than it did with a broken dinner date. “Look, just ignore what I said,” she sighed. “That was frustration and embarrassment talking.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m feeling some of that, too.”
It wasn’t, but she said, “I know” anyway.
“I’ll see you later, then,” he repeated as he opened the door and stepped out onto the deck.
“Sure,” she answered. “Have a good meeting.”
For the next few hours, Kristin fought with herself over what to do. This arrangement of theirs wasn’t working. She tried to lose her low mood in the second journal, unwilling to read any more about Anna Mae’s devastation over losing Paul.
But when she came across a startling, yet touching entry about her own mother, Kristin dissolved into tears. Shutting the journal, she went to the phone to call the airline for departure times and available flights. There was as much turmoil here as there was in Wisdom. She needed to go home.
As for Zach…
Stephanie was right. His first priority was his work, consciously or unconsciously, and anything else came in a distant second. That wasn’t the kind of man she wanted to fall in love with. And if she didn’t get away from him very soon, that could very well happen.
She was packing her bags when she heard the door open and bang shut, followed by heavy footsteps, several curious thuds and the rattle of paper and plastic.
Zipping her luggage shut, she carried it into the living room and braced herself for the discussion they were about to have. Zach was at the kitchen bar, unloading grocery bags.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the carton of fresh strawberries and the thick plaid blanket beside it.
“Hi,” she said, blocking the memories those strawberries evoked. She took her carry-on to the door and set it down. “I didn’t expect you back so soon. Did your meeting go well?”
Zach stared at her luggage for a long beat. Without commenting on it, he carried the berries to the sink. “I bailed a little early, but yeah, it went well.” He turned on the tap, rinsed the berries and dropped them into a bowl. “I figured if Dan wants to be a partner some day, he needs experience in the financial end of the business.”
He finished and turned around, his expression grave. “I also thought that if we were going to roast hot dogs on the beach tonight, I should gather some wood and set things up while I could still see. But it looks like you’re going somewhere.”
He’d left his meeting so they could picnic on the beach?
A hope she knew she shouldn’t be feeling stepped up her pulse. Kristin glanced through the screen door. Outside, the sky was taking on the midnight blue that preceded darkness, but stars had yet to appear. “You…gathered wood for a fire?”
He snagged a paper towel from the holder to his left, dried his hands, and tossed the towel into the nearby wastebasket. “Yep.” Grimly, he took in her gray sweatpants and navy T-shirt. “It doesn’t look like you’re waiting for a taxi,” he observed. “Do we have time for this?”
Time. There was that word again. “My flight leaves at ten tomorrow morning. I need to go home, Zach. I need to start rebuilding my life.”
Nodding, he carried the berries to the bar. After a moment, he motioned to everything he’d assembled. “So. Should I put all this stuff away? I know it’s not the seafood buffet I promised, and I know this afternoon was a disaster, but…” He stared blankly and opened his hands, indicating that there was nothing he could do about that. “Should I put it away?”
Kristin shook her head. He’d cut his meeting short to spend time with her—to make amends. She wouldn’t let herself wonder if guilt or something more meaningful was the motivating force behind it. She only knew that her heart felt lighter than it had for hours, and that Zach wasn’t as rigid about his priorities as his blond visitor had suggested.
“Don’t put it away,” she said quietly. “I’d like very much to have a picnic on the beach with you.”
An hour later, their flame-seared hot dogs were a memory, and she was telling him about the entries in Anna Mae’s journals while Zach roasted more marshmallows. He was crouched before the fire, several yards from the blanket they’d spread in the cove-shaped dunes below his house. Overhead, the black sky was littered with stars, and beyond the sandy beach, frothy waves broke on the shoreline.
Zach glanced back at her, his voice low. “Anna Mae left gifts for your mother? Anonymously?”
Kristin nodded, feeling her throat knot, but glad to be telling someone. Glad to be telling him. “Rachel and I used to find them beside the door. She always left them early in the morning, before anyone was awake. Sometimes there’d be a bouquet of bright, pretty flowers. Sometimes, a small box of candy, or a poem. Little things like Pa
ul gave her when they were together in Panama.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I guess in Anna Mae’s mind, there was some sort of common denominator between Paul’s cancer and my mother’s, and Anna Mae wanted to do something kind for her.”
“You’re probably right,” Zach said quietly. “She was a good woman. Even to me.” He lifted the marshmallow from the fire, then came to the blanket and sank down beside her. “Want this?”
“No, two’s my limit. Zach, what did you mean, Anna Mae was good to you, too?”
Zach popped the marshmallow into his mouth, then threw the stick, javelin-style, into the flames. He wiped his fingers on his jeans. “She pulled my fanny out of the fire when I was a kid and really needed a friend.”
Firelight flickered over his rugged features, touching his perfect mouth and strong throat…the vee of chest hair visible in the open placket of his knit shirt.
“Anna Mae befriended you?”
Zach nodded. “Guess she didn’t write about my little scrape with the law in her journals.”
Kristin blinked. “She might have, but I didn’t see anything about it. What happened?”
“It was right after my dad and I came back to town—I was about fifteen. I needed some decent clothes for school, and I didn’t have any money or a job. So I shoplifted a pair of jeans. Funny,” he added wryly, “we always had booze in the house, but food and clothes were no-shows.”
He took the bowl of strawberries and a container of whipped cream out of the cooler. “Anyway, the manager of the store turned me in to the cops. I was only at the station a minute when Anna Mae jumped up from her desk and came to my rescue. She talked Chief Nance into letting me off with a warning, bought the jeans for me and let me work off my debt doing yard work for her that summer. But first, she took me aside and chewed me out royally. She knew how much my dad’s escapades humiliated me, and she looked me right in the eyes and said I’d turn out the same way if I didn’t shape up.”
Kristin’s heart softened for the boy he’d been.
“Actually,” Zach went on with a slight smile, “I didn’t even work that hard. She kept stopping me to feed me sandwiches and lemonade. I’d probably have a juvenile record now if it weren’t for her.”
“I never knew about that.”
“I’m glad. It wasn’t one of my shining moments.” He looked at her again, a new memory in his eyes. “I didn’t have a lot of those when we were together either, did I? Driving off like a hothead…getting trashed to the gills.”
“Zach—”
“No, let me finish. For a long time, I tried to justify what I did by insisting that you shared the blame. But that was a lie. When Gretchen showed up, I told myself that you and I were through and you wouldn’t give a damn. But I knew it would hurt you. Maybe that’s why I did it.”
He gestured to the strawberries, his voice dropping to a murmur. “That’s why I brought these tonight. We cared about each other once. It was one of the best times of my life. When we were together, I felt like I was worth something—that if someone as sweet and decent as you are thought I had potential, than maybe I did.” He slid the strawberries closer to her. “Tonight, I wanted to bring back a few nice memories.”
Touched, Kristin met his eyes in the waning light of the fire, felt a warm breeze ruffle her hair. “That’s ancient history. We’re friends now.”
“Good.” Zach leaned over to kiss her softly, and there was so much gentleness in it, Kristin felt a knot form in her throat. Then he dipped two strawberries into the cream, and handed one to her. “A toast?”
“A toast with strawberries?” she said, laughing. Then, “Okay. To friendship,” and bumped hers to his.
“To friendship.” Zach fed her, then opened for the berry she slipped into his mouth. They chewed and smiled.
Then by unspoken agreement, they leaned forward again for another kiss, maybe because the moment required more than strawberries to seal it. Or maybe because that first chaste kiss was so satisfying.
For several long moments, their lips brushed and bumped together, sweet with cream and marshmallows. Then Zach threaded his fingers through Kristin’s hair to cup her neck and nudge her just a little closer.
Kristin stroked his face, felt the faint prickle of his beard beneath her fingertips, smiled against his lips as he trailed his fingers down her neck to the slowly accelerating pulse at the base of her throat. She slid her hand from his jaw to the back of his collar and nudged him closer, too, prolonging the contact. Then she opened to his slick tongue.
It was inevitable. The slow, wet dance of their tongues quickly became a heated exchange, with hearts pounding and hands roughly exploring.
Zach broke from the kiss to shove the strawberries and cream aside, then in an apparent afterthought, pushed their picnic bags off the blanket and into the sand.
They fell to the blanket, mouths seeking, legs twining. Kristin’s mind swam. His kisses were white-hot, insatiable, covering her cheeks, her mouth, her throat. He smelled of musk and salt air, and she inhaled deeply, drawing his scent straight into her belly. She felt his hand beneath her shirt, felt his fingers deftly do away with the front closure of her bra.
Then he was tugging her shirt over her head, and with a low groan, burrowing into her softness.
Chapter 10
K ristin’s heart pounded as Zach’s warm breath spilled over her breasts. Oh, yes, her heart sang. Oh, yes. She closed her eyes, loving the scrape of his beard on her skin. Loving him.
And she did love him—no matter how determined she’d been to ignore it, or how much she’d feared it. Maybe he didn’t feel that way right now, but he’d been so vigilant, so warm, so tender toward her that it could become love if he would just let it in. If she’d had doubts about that before, his bailing out on a meeting he wanted and needed to attend erased every one of them.
Zach fumbled for her waistband and hooked his thick fingers inside to pull off her sweatpants. Then cotton and lace fell away, too, and Kristin was naked against him, thick plaid flannel soft against her back and legs.
“You’re sure about this?” he rasped. “You know I care about you. But—”
“I know,” she whispered, certain that he would come around eventually. For now, she would love enough for both of them.
Quickly, Zach undressed in the faint glow of the fire, light and shadow playing over his hard, lean torso. Kristin’s heart hammered as he cast aside his shirt and unsnapped his jeans, stripped off his briefs and dropped to his knees.
A wisp of arousal curled through her as she took in his beautifully sculpted body, tanned where the sun hit, white where it didn’t. Then she reached for him, and with a ragged sigh, Zach kissed her deeply and came to her.
Hair-roughened legs twined with soft, smooth ones until they found a perfect fit. Tongues plunged wetly. Then the ancient ritual began, bodies gliding and stroking each other until the heat in their hearts became a need in their souls.
Kristin’s mind spun as Zach moved down to kiss her breasts, then inched lower, planting more kisses along her rib cage and belly. His hands were everywhere, magic, hinting at the pleasure to come. Teasing, readying, keying her nerve endings to fever pitch.
When he worked his way back up, he kissed her so deeply, she released a tattered gasp. “Zach, it’s been thirteen years. I don’t want to wait any longer.”
He pulled half of the blanket over them. Then with one sleek thrust, they were one again.
The first tingle swept her away, shocking her with its swiftness and intensity. The second sent a dozen shivery sensations quaking through her. She wanted to wait, make it last. But there was no delaying those quickly building responses. Just before her breathing shut down and wave after wave washed through her, Kristin pressed her forehead to his throat and clung to him for dear life.
She’d scarcely caught her breath when Zach groaned and found his own shuddering release.
Long moments later, they lay blissfully sated, feeling their popping nerv
e ends ease and the beating of their hearts taper to some semblance of normalcy. Waves still crashed on the shore, and above, the moon still shone as if nothing profound had just happened. But it had.
Zach rolled onto his back, then brought Kristin flush against his side. She smiled, pillowing her head on his shoulder. He didn’t have to hold her so close, she thought, though she loved the hard, muscular strength of him. She wasn’t going anywhere. This was where she wanted to be for the rest of her life.
“Nice,” he murmured in a gravely voice.
“Very,” she agreed. Her fingers slid lazily through his chest hair and skimmed a nipple. She moved lower, to his flat, taut stomach and felt him shudder.
Laughter rustled deep in his throat. “Would it be tacky to say I’ve missed you this way?”
“Terribly,” she murmured. “But I’ll forgive you if you say you’ve missed me in other ways, too.”
Zach lifted himself on an elbow. His smile in the fading glow of the fire filled her so completely, she never wanted the night to end.
“I have missed you in other ways. Remember when we used to talk about the company I’d have one day? Even at eighteen, you always said the right things. You made me believe in myself.”
“Supporting you was my job back then,” she returned with a smile. “And now, all of your hopes and dreams have come true.”
Zach shook his head. “No, not all. But I’m working on the rest.”
Kristin’s heart leapt hopefully. Did he mean the two of them? Once he’d yearned for more than a company that would provide him with an income, stature and respect. He’d wanted her, too, and children he could love and nurture as his father had never nurtured him. But she couldn’t ask him to explain himself. This closeness between them was too new, too fragile.
She stroked the hair at his temple, traced the curve of his ear. “I’m not sure what else you’re looking for…but I suspect with your drive, you’ll have it all one of these days.”
“Think so?”
“Know so.”
Zach’s gaze drifted to her mouth again, and slowly, he brought his head down for another kiss. His low voice rumbled warmly. “How about that?” he said. “You still say all the right things.”
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