“Very. You should be, too, and it terrifies me that you’re not.”
Closing her eyes, she let out a breath in defeat. There would be no winning this battle, and honestly, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to. Elliot Pruitt never admitted to such weaknesses as worry or fear. That he would do so now only went to show exactly how concerned he was.
“All right.” She took a moment to fortify herself before she faced Jude. “What should I pack?”
The man grinned, and tendrils of heat curled through her belly at the sight of his dimples. Damn him.
“Swimsuit,” he said.
“Figures.”
As she stalked toward her bedroom, she heard him laugh. This was going to be one long, headache-inducing vacation.
Chapter Four
The house was exactly the way he remembered it: smack dab in the middle of the city and completely secluded behind a stone fence and a lush tropical garden.
Perfect place to hide from the world.
Jude pulled up to the gate at the backside of the property and leaned out his open window to wave at the camera. As he waited for the gate to slide open, he glanced over at Libby, asleep in the passenger seat. Her hair was loose for the first time since their reunion. A sudden, visceral memory all of that sleek gold spread across his thighs as she did the most amazing things to his body with her mouth hit him hard in the gut and made his jeans painfully tight.
And yet he couldn’t look away. He’d missed seeing her like this, completely relaxed, her defenses down. Somehow, she looked smaller when she slept, and he wanted to wrap himself around her, shield her from all the bad in the world. No other woman aroused that protective instinct in him like Elizabeth Pruitt, and it was irritating as hell.
Damn, she was still as gorgeous as she’d been in college—maybe even more so now because her body had curves it had lacked back then. Lush, intriguing curves that had tormented him during the entire flight to Florida. Thanks to her reclined position, her baggy T-shirt pulled tight across her chest and showcased her bigger breasts. What he wouldn’t give to see those babies bare as she sat astride him, riding him hard until they both came screaming.
Fuck.
Annoyed and uncomfortable, Jude shoved open the rental’s door and slid out. Why was he torturing himself with something he’d never have again? He’d burned that bridge to ashes eight years ago, and there would be no crossing back over it. So he needed to chill with the X-rated fantasies.
Leaning against the hood of the car, he jingled the ring in his pocket and took a moment to enjoy the warm night air, fragrant with salt, sand, and flowers he couldn’t begin to name. Someone played a guitar nearby, and the dulcet tones of the song soothed over him like a lover’s caress.
Ah, Key West. He’d missed it here, hadn’t been back since his very short visit last year. He winced at the memory as a figure stepped into the splash of his rental’s headlights. A vice tightened in Jude’s chest, but he plastered on an easy smile and faced the house’s owner.
“Hey, Seth.” He walked slowly toward the gate, hands held in plain view at his sides, the poster boy of nonthreatening. Even though he’d called ahead and his arrival had been expected, he didn’t dare make any sudden moves.
Last time he’d seen Seth Harlan… Well, it had ended badly. He’d thought that after his best friend’s experience overseas, a friendly face would do him good, help him heal or some shit, so he’d traveled to Key West as soon as Seth was stateside. But he’d been wrong. The mere sound of his voice had sent Seth hurtling into a flashback. The guy had smashed a beer bottle, then threatened everyone in the bar with the shards of glass. After that, as much as it had killed Jude to keep his distance, he’d stayed away.
Until now.
Christ, first Libby and now Seth. All the skeletons from his past were rattling to life this week.
“Been a long time. How you doin’?” he asked. The guy had lost a lot weight and no longer resembled the muscular man Jude remembered from their days of raising hell together on and off base. “You holdin’ up?”
“Working at it.” Seth’s voice sounded rusty, like he never used it, and his gaze was a little wild as it bounced from Jude to the car, where Libby slept in the passenger seat. “That the woman?”
“Yeah, that’s Libby. You remember me talking about her during OCS, don’t you?”
A ghost of a smile drifted across Seth’s lips. “You wouldn’t shut up about her.” The smile disappeared. “Then one day you wouldn’t talk about her at all.”
“Shit happens, people drift apart.”
“I know. Believe me. And yet here she is with you.” He stared at the ground. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous you got her back.”
Jude winced. “Yeah, I was sorry to hear about Emma calling off the engagement like that. You two were great together.”