“How did that go over?”
“Not well,” she said. “I’d failed at something else.”
“Getting out of a marriage that was killing you slowly isn’t a failure,” he said.
“Says the man who’s never failed at anything in his life.”
He laughed. Tossed back his head and let go, and watching him, she felt her own smile curve her lips. “So you’re a big, fat loser too?” she asked hopefully.
“Many times over,” he assured her, and his gaze ran over her slowly, warming her up.
He was so different from anyone she’d ever known. Even when he was pissed off or hurting—and she’d seen him both ways now—he neither internalized his feelings nor put the weight of them on anyone around him.
And she was breaking her rule. Falling for him. “Jacob?”
“Yeah?”
“You remember our promise to each other, right? The one where I won’t fall for you and you won’t fall for me?”
He studied her a beat, giving nothing away. “Hard to forget,” he finally said. “Why?”
“Just making sure.”
“Are you reminding yourself, or me?” he asked.
“Maybe both.”
He smirked. “Can’t resist me, can you?”
She laughed in spite of herself, and he smiled. “Come over here,” he said in his bedroom voice, “and I’ll prove it.”
Oh boy…He was most excellent at distractions, but she had to stay strong because she was missing something. She could feel it. “Just talking though, right?”
He smiled and instead of answering, hooked her paddleboard with his paddle and drew her toward him.
Chapter 23
Jacob watched Sophie sit up on her board as he towed her toward him. She was right about her hair. It had rioted, falling to her breasts in wild, fiery waves that his fingers ached to sink into.
And then there was Sophie Marren in a bathing suit.
She had curves that made his mouth water and legs that went on for days. Their boards gently bumped as he slid an arm low around her hips and leaned in to kiss her.
She put a hand on his chest, and with their mouths an inch apart, gave him a long look. “You don’t look like you’re about to talk.”
“Caught,” he said. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
“Well…you never said what brought you to the inn today.”
He didn’t really want to go there. He’d had a shit day, and his first instinct had been to be with Sophie.
“Talk,” she said in an imitation of a guy’s voice, which he assumed was supposed to be mimicking his own. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Spending time with Hud and the others again had been pretty great but also hard. Back when he’d been a stupid punk kid, he done his damnedest to keep his distance from Gray and Aidan, but they’d gotten past his walls more than he’d thought, something he hadn’t realized until he’d left.
Being back had those walls crumbling with shocking alacrity.
But not with Hud. They’d worked together all week and yet it was still…strained. So after a long day it had felt natural to hunt up Soph, because nothing was strained with her except for his zipper.
Exerting pressure on the hand she had on his chest, he leaned in past her barrier and nuzzled the sweet spot he knew was just beneath her jaw.
She sucked in a breath and…tilted her head, giving him better access. “You’re trying to distract me,” she murmured.
“Is it working?”
“Are you kidding? You’re a walking distraction,” she said. “What is it, Jacob? Your mom? Hud?”
He must have given himself away, because she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, her wet and nearly nude body a welcome distraction.
“It’ll get easier with him. It will,” she said softly. “Just don’t give up.”
He shook his head. He wouldn’t.
“Is that what brought you to my work?”
“Actually,” he said with a smile at the memory, “it was your text.”
“The one where I said I was busy with my client?”
“Ah,” he said with a smile. “So that’s what you meant.”
She blinked in confusion.
“You had a typo,” he said. “You left out the ‘e’ and ‘n’ in client.”
Her brow furrowed as she worked that out in her head. He was already flat-out grinning when she gasped in horror.
“Oh, my God!” she cried. “I didn’t!”
“Yep. You did. You said you were very busy with your clit. I had to come see that.”
“Oh, my God,” she said again, on a groan this time, and tried to push free of him. “Let go so I can sink into the water and die.”
“Hey, if I were a chick, I’d be very busy with my clit too. I’d be busy twenty-four seven.”
“Spoken like a guy.” Her cheeks were red, her green eyes wide. “I can’t believe my phone changed ‘client’ to…”
“Come on, make my day and say it,” he teased.
She covered her face. “Bite me.”
“I’d love to,” he said. “Right on your client, minus the ‘e’ and ‘n.’”
One hand still over her face, she used her other to point at him. “You, I could do without right now.”