She was starting to really, really like Sailor. Not just his body. Him.
But he was moving now, and she did everything in her power to keep up. No way did she want to get left behind buck naked while he was safely covered by the night-dark water.
“Be careful on the rocks.” Sailor reached back a hand. “Here, grab my hand. I won’t look.”
Trusting him because he’d kept his word so far, ísa took his hand and he got her safely to the point where they could slip into the water. He went first and swam a little way in the other direction.
ísa dipped in a toe. “It’s freezing!” she whispered loudly.
“Duh. It’s the New Zealand ocean. At night.” Sailor ran his hands through his hair. “My self-control is coming to an end. I’m about to turn around.”
Gritting her teeth, ísa sat down on the rock… then slipped in all at once. “Oh God! My insides are freezing!”
He laughed that big warm laugh that made her want to smile and swam back to her. She didn’t resist when he pulled her against his body. He was hot and beautiful and it was dark and cold and they were in the sea.
Naked.
Something steely hot poked her stomach. “Is that your phone?” she asked, pressing closer instead of jerking away. “I hope it’s in a waterproof case.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” Sweeping his hands down her back, he cupped her backside as if that was a perfectly normal thing to do. His palms were callused, his skin rough. And the sound he made deep in his chest was one of raw male pleasure.
ísa ignited just as she had at the school.
And then he kissed her.
There was tongue. Lots and lots of it. Wrapping her arms and her legs around him, ísa let the sea and Sailor hold her afloat as they kissed under a moonlit sky, the world cocooning them in darkness. His arms were so strong, his body so powerful that she felt petite for the first time in her life.
“I love your lips,” she murmured.
He wove his hand into her hair in answer, the bottom ends wet because she’d forgotten to find a way to put it up. “You have one hell of a mouth yourself, spitfire.”
More kissing, more stroking, more his body rubbing against hers.
Her bones were all but molten lava when she heard a shriek.
Startled into breaking the kiss, she looked toward the path heading down from the house. Two frozen seconds later, a woman came flying down. A man followed. Both tore off their clothes to dive into the waves.
Three more people followed, all ending up in the water.
“Damn.” Sailor sounded like he was grinding his teeth. “Our spot’s probably going to get invaded as soon as one of them figures out it’s here.”
ísa held on tight to him. “I’m not up for a group skinny-dipping session.” Being cuddled up to Sailor was a different thing to being cuddled up with strangers.
A soft kiss to her neck. “Follow me. They’re too involved in their playing to notice us.”
ísa watched unashamedly as he hauled himself up, his biceps flexing with strength. Water sluiced off his flanks once he was on the rock, the thigh with the tattoo closest to her. “Here, spitfire.”
Blushing like anything, ísa nonetheless had no intention of staying in the water by herself. But when she crouched next to him after he hauled her up, she saw he’d kept his eyes closed. Her heart doing silly somersaults inside her chest, she leaned in and kissed him, then turned his face in the direction of the beach. “Let’s go.”
He led her quickly to the sand, their movements apparently going undetected by the partygoers playing in the water. Only once they got to the beach did ísa realize she hadn’t thought about how she’d be soaking wet after a skinny-dip.
“Here.” Sailor threw his T-shirt over his shoulder. “Towel.”
Yeah, he was pretty wonderful. And she wanted to see him again, find out if the fragile, hopeful thing she could feel growing between them had any chance in the light of day. Would he say yes if she asked him to continue the night? If she asked him out on a proper date?
Drying herself with efficient moves while nerves knotted her up all over again, she pulled on her panties and the dress—but the zipper got stuck. “Sailor. Help.”
“I like my name on your lips, my red-haired woman of mystery.” He kissed the curve of her waist as he hunkered down to tug the zipper free of the little piece of fabric on which it had caught. “I want to bite your skin. It marks so pretty.”
“I might let you,” ísa said, her toes digging into the sand. “But we need to go on a date first.” She was starting to feel things for him, dangerous things that had nothing to do with the primal attraction between them. “Want to go get late-night ice cream?” She didn’t want this magical, moonlit night to end.
“I’ve got a better idea—how about a cookie bar?” Blue eyes seared into her as he rose to his feet after finishing the zipping up. “You can tell me your name while I ply you with chocolate chip cookies.”
“Yes,” she whispered, undone by the romance of it all.
“Now?”
“I have to drive home with my friend.” No way would she abandon Nayna in an unfamiliar part of town. “Give me your number. I’ll call you once I’m home and we can figure things out.”
Cupping her face in his hands after inputting his number into her phone, he kissed her breathless. “I’ll be waiting.”
After arriving at the top of the walkway, ísa texted Nayna. Where are you?
In the car, hiding.
Eyes flying up into her hairline, ísa turned to a bare-chested Sailor—he’d thrown his dirty T-shirt over one shoulder with the ease of a man who had no problem being half-naked.
“I’m leaving now.” ísa’s palms tingled with the urge to touch. “I’ll call you in about thirty minutes. Maybe a bit longer.” She had to find out what had gone wrong, why Nayna was hiding.
Another kiss, this one as sensual as the bribes he’d demanded. “Cookies with my sexy redhead.” The masculine scent of him wrapped around her, his kiss flavored with the salt of the sea. “I can’t wait.”
Bubbles of light in ísa’s bloodstream, happiness a giddy dancer in her heart.
As she turned to run quickly to the car along the darkened edge of the property, her heels in one hand, her clutch in the other, Sailor shoved his feet into his shoes, which he’d carried up. “Hey!” he called out. “Wait! You shouldn’t be alone in the dark!”
ísa turned… and the present collided with the past.
Hey! Wait! You shouldn’t be alone in the dark!
No. No.
ísa stared at him. At those blue, blue eyes. At that black hair. It had been shaved that night, all the way down into a buzz cut. His body had been thinner and less developed, and he’d had one hell of a black eye. But it was him. That voice. That face. No wonder she’d kept thinking she knew him. She did.
From the most humiliating night of her life.
The night she’d spent seven years trying to erase from her memory banks.
Her stomach lurched.
11
Never Trust a Man Who Offers You Cookies