He smiled and stopped the boat. “I’m glad you’re enjoying.”
“I haven’t thought about designs or film crews since we left the dock.”
“That was the plan.” He dragged his hands through his thick hair. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “Hot one.”
Without warning, Beckett pulled his white T-shirt off in one smooth movement. Rachel’s mouth went dry. Oh my. She’d known there had to be an amazing body under the clothes he wore, and she couldn’t drag her eyes away now from his sculpted chest and tight abs. She saw for the first time his full tattoo sleeves, the dramatic designs jumping out even more next to the bare skin of his torso. On one arm, the ink reached the top of his bicep. On the other, the design went up and over his shoulder.
“Hand me that sunscreen?” He pointed to the tube sticking up in the cup holder beside her.
She blinked and licked her lips before she could follow his request. Then she was just as mesmerized watching him smooth the cream on his arms and chest. Her palms tingled. Mischief sparked in his eyes. “Can you get my back?”
She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t eager to touch him, but she felt shy all of a sudden. She squeezed some sunscreen into her hand and then began to smooth the cream over his hot skin as if it were no big deal. To distract herself from the too-intimate task, she asked, “Have you heard from Holly?”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Yeah. She’s having a ball already.”
“Good.” He felt so good.
“I’m glad Suzanna—that’s Davis’s ex—didn’t mind Emmie bringing a friend. She’s not around kids most of the time, so I think maybe she doesn’t know what to do with Emmie all the time now that she’s older.”
“This is the only time Emmie sees her mom?” Rachel closed the tube and returned it to the cup holder, then took her seat on the bench again.
“Suz travels for work and I guess she thought she could do it all when she had Emmie, but according to Davis, she wasn’t willing to stop traveling. It was a mutual decision to split and let Emmie go with Davis.” Beckett shrugged. “She loves her daughter, but I guess this is the only way they can make it work.”
She thought she could do it all. “Women have to make a choice. Career or family.” Rachel had known that from the beginning. “You wanted to know why I didn’t want to settle down and have a family? This is why.”
He frowned. “But lots of women have careers and families.”
“And very few can excel at one without neglecting the other. I’m glad I made my decision early on, so I didn’t have to hurt anyone along the way.”
“That’s a sad way of looking at it.”
“Look at Emmie, living without her mother for most of the year. That’s sad.” Time to change the subject. “I’m glad Holly’s having fun. How are you doing with her gone?”
“I miss her like crazy. I never would have let her go this year if it wasn’t for the show.”
“Are you saying you sent her away because of my show?” It felt like a slap in the face.
“There are going to be cameras all around. Strangers asking questions. She’d be right in the middle of it. I have to protect her.”
“Many of the projects I’ve done have had children in the family.”
“Not my child. And who knows what drama she might have gotten caught up in? Especially since she probably would have been out looking for it.”
Rachel would hate to see Holly caught up in the drama, too. “I can see where you’re coming from. If I were you, I probably wouldn’t trust me, either.” Trust was important for Beckett.
“I trust you, but things happen. Soon enough, she’ll be grown and going her own way. I’ll protect her as long as I can.”
Beckett began to head closer to shore. The sun beat down, and she pulled out her wide-brimmed hat from her bag. She added another layer of sunscreen as she thought back to that summer that changed everything. She’d been so ready to go her own way, yet she still bowed to her parents’ wishes and enrolled in pre-law, on her way to the spot her father’s friend had for her in his law firm, afraid they were right and an art degree would get her nowhere. Believed that it would have been foolish to throw away the opportunity that had been handed to her.
It hadn’t been her own rebellion that caused her to change her degree program. It had been that shouting match with Beckett in the abandoned fire station, she realized. While she’d been telling him he’d be stuck in Lakeside working for his parents, he’d been throwing the words back at her. Saying she’d been popular only because of who her parents were, because of the money they had. She doubted he knew he’d struck a nerve. She was a Bradford and she’d always feared her name was the reason she had so many so-called friends hanging around her. The only reason she would have a guaranteed position when she finished law school. Her father had already pulled strings to get her into Columbia—his alma mater, of course.
In that moment, angry and embarrassed, she knew she had to leave Lakeside and never come back. She couldn’t study for a job she would hate simply because her name would make things easy for her. Beckett’s accusation of her being a stuck-up rich girl had been right on target. It had been the shield she’d held up so no one would know she was as frightened and insecure as the rest of them.
…
Beck headed for a wide cove on the opposite side of the lake from Lakeside. He anchored in his favorite spot, where tall trees shaded them from the worst of the sun. Rachel was quiet, staring out over the water, one hand on the top of her head holding down her floppy hat. The bright red matched the candy-cane stripes on her suit.
He was glad to see she was relaxed now. Rachel was so focused on her work, so ambitious, her career seemed to take up her whole life. And while Beck was definitely focused on The Salvage Station, it would never become his whole life. He was lucky he had his parents to help with Holly. It sounded as if Rachel’s family was never supportive of her.
Beck grabbed a couple of beer bottles from the cooler and handed one to Rachel. He dropped beside her on the bench seat. “How was the dinner party last night?”
“Interminable.” She took a long pull on the bottle. “For some reason, it apparently makes some people feel important if they’ve rubbed elbows with a celebrity.”
“So everyone wanted to rub their elbows on you?”
She laughed. “Something like that.”
He couldn’t stop himself from taking her arm and making a show of studying it. “You have a lovely elbow.”
“Thanks.” She caught her breath when he placed his lips on her elbow for a quick, soft kiss. “What was that for?”
He kissed her elbow again but he wanted his mouth on her entire body. He shook his head to clear it. “Your famous elbow is so soft and smooth, I couldn’t resist.”
“My elbow is smooth?”
“My lips think so.”
“Hmm.” Rachel caught his gaze before she slid her hand along his forearm. “All these tattoos. They’re smooth, too. I never expected them to be.” She lowered her lips to the dragon’s face. Sparks shot across his skin as if the dragon were breathing fire.
“Rachel…”
“How long have you had the dragon?”
“Almost twenty years.” It had been his first tattoo. Go big or go home, right? To him the dragon had meant power and freedom. Today it was still a reminder of what he could do if he wanted something bad enough.
She rubbed her fingers over it and he caught his breath. “It’s a part of you now. I love it.”
He swallowed. “Thanks.”
“Is there a story behind it?”
“No, I just thought it was badass.”
“What about the others?” She traced her finger up his arm, spreading tingles as she went. She stopped at his inner bicep. “Oh, there’s Holly’s name. Such a pretty font.”
“She’s a pr
etty girl.”
She kissed his elbow before continuing up to where angel wings wrapped around his shoulder. “These are beautiful.”
“I had those inked after Holly was born.”
“And her mother died.”
He lifted her hand from his shoulder and kissed her fingers. “Crystal was no angel, but neither was I. Still not. Hell, never will be, but I try my best for Holly.”
“Where did you meet Crystal?”
“We worked together.”
She tilted her head. “Do you have Crystal’s name tattooed somewhere?”
“God no. Never tattoo a woman’s name on your body. All that means is that you’ll be looking for a cover-up tattoo down the road.”
“What do you know, something we have in common. Neither one of us is looking for a commitment, ever.”
He wasn’t sure about himself, but he didn’t want to get into the whole Crystal saga right now. “Hungry?”
“Starved.”
They pulled out the food and drinks from the cooler. “No guy back in California who’s waiting for you to come home?”
“No guy right now. They’re fun once in a while, but too often they’re nothing but a needy distraction.”
“Needy?”
“They expect all my attention, but only when it’s convenient for them. I’m supposed to drop everything to give them the support they think they deserve. My ambitions don’t matter. They’ve been very unbalanced relationships.”
“Maybe you’re meeting the wrong kind of guys.”
She raised her bottle. “Definitely. But I don’t care enough to search for the right kind.” She took a sip and looked at him over the top of the bottle. “How about you?”
He didn’t want to get into his brothers’ theory that he picked the wrong kind of women. “Holly is my priority. I don’t want women wandering in and out of her life.”
“Maybe one would wander in and stay.”
“I’m not going to risk Holly bonding with someone who’s not going to stick around.”
She held his gaze, then leaned away to grab a handful of grapes. “Yeah, I get it.”
The sun was beginning to set by the time they finished their dinner. Rachel wrapped up what was left of her sandwich and tucked it in the bottom of the cooler. “There. Doggie bag.” She gasped. “What about Mocha? Do we need to be heading back?”
“Don’t worry. She’s having a sleepover with Carter and Katie. Do you want to go back?” He’d stay on the lake until Holly returned from Hershey if he had a choice.
“Not yet. There’s a different atmosphere here on the lake while it’s getting darker, isn’t there? The sounds of the water lapping against the hull seem totally different than when it’s bright. I wonder why that is?”
“I think we notice it more when it’s dark. When we can’t see anything of the shore but the lights from the cottages.” He ducked belowdeck and came back up with a blanket. He spread it out between the two bench seats and tugged her down to the deck to sit beside him. “We’re lucky the clouds have cleared out. We’ll have the best view in the world in a little while.”
“The stars?” He loved the eagerness in her voice.
“I used to come out here when I was a kid. I had a small fishing boat and I’d come out here to see the stars.”
“Your parents let you out on the lake at night, all by yourself?”
“Well, I was older than Holly is now. And I swim like a fish. They probably liked me out of their hair. The youngest of three boys and always doing something to get attention, and it usually wasn’t the right kind of attention.”
“I was the oldest and definitely the good girl, believe it or not.”
He glanced over, disappointed it was going to be difficult to see her pretty eyes and wide mouth before too long. “I believe it.”
“The first time I ever rebelled against my parents was when I changed my major to art design.”
He remembered her telling him about it when they were doing dishes the other night. The night of their first kiss. “Bet they were surprised when you stood up for yourself.”
She stared at him with surprise, as if she’d never thought of it that way before. “They thought I was kidding. They didn’t believe I would defy them.”
“Gotta live your own life.”
Their shoulders touched and their elbows rubbed as they sat there and watched the sun disappear beneath the horizon, the ball of fire sending streaks of pink and orange across the sky, the reflection turning the water to fire for the few minutes the sunset took over the world.
“Gorgeous,” she murmured.
He brushed her ear with his lips. “Gorgeous.”
She turned her head and found his mouth with hers. “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Colburn?”
His lips moved over hers as he replied. “Of course not. I brought you here to see the stars, remember?”
“That’s what you say…”
“One doesn’t necessarily eliminate the other.”
“True.” Rachel pulled back and looked up at the sky. “No stars yet.”
“Give it a little more time. Here. Lie back.”
They stretched out beside each other, cushioned by the blanket, studying the vast sky in silence. Dark blue gradually gave way to inky black and the stars began to pop out, winking, and gradually revealing patterns like the Big Dipper and Orion. Before long, the entire expanse of sky above them was covered in countless dots of light. The moon wasn’t full yet, but its brightness was enough for him to see Rachel beside him.
“Wow,” Rachel breathed. Her fingers curled around his. “Breathtaking.”
Yeah.
He squeezed her fingers but kept his eyes on the stars as he spoke. “I’ve thought about getting a telescope, but this is my favorite view of the sky. The awe-inspiring understanding that the universe is so much bigger than we can imagine, and we’re only a single heartbeat in the history of creation.”
Rachel didn’t say a word, but she turned her head and kissed his shoulder. Her breath brushed along his skin. The lapping of the water gently rocked the boat. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles.
“Beckett,” she whispered.
He sat up. His entire body was crying for her. “We should get back.”
“Should we?” Rachel hadn’t moved. She smiled up at him.
He ached to grab her, claim her, bury himself inside her. “We promised we wouldn’t complicate things with sex.”
“Things between us are already complicated. They’ve been complicated for more than twenty years.”
How could he laugh and cry at the same time? He’d been trying so hard to prove he was more than that bad boy she used to know.
Rachel took his hand and pulled him back down. He didn’t resist her tug, instead he rolled over so he was on top. Their bodies brushed, teased. He captured her mouth with his. The hunger that had been consuming him ever since she sauntered over to him at the marina couldn’t be contained any longer. He crushed her lips with his, tangled his tongue with hers in a frantic dance that left him only craving more.
His hand found a soft, full breast. She arched into his touch with a moan that was lost in his mouth. He brushed a thumb across one beaded nipple and she moaned again. He was hard as hell with only their swimsuits between them. She raised her hips so that her sex rubbed against his erection.
“Oh God,” she cried. She sat up and reached behind her to untie her top.
Lights from an approaching boat made her freeze and drop again to the deck, clutching the loosened top to her chest. “There are other foolish people out here after dark?”
The occupants of the other boat called out a greeting and continued on. Beckett sat back on his knees and pulled her up. In one swift movement, he removed her bathing suit top and there they wer
e, those beautiful breasts he’d been aching to see, to touch, to taste. He wasn’t able to see them as well as he’d like in the darkness, but that wouldn’t stop him from enjoying.
He lowered his face to the valley between them, his arms around her, pulling her as close as she could be. “God, Rachel.” He suckled one nipple, then the other, and back again. As his desire grew, he sucked harder, deeper. And then his teeth began to nip and scrape. He was crazy with need, and her urging cries told him she felt the same way.
Rachel’s nails dug into his back, and he wanted to cry out with some kind of caveman triumph. She wanted him. Chose him. Marked him.
But she wasn’t going to keep him.
He wouldn’t think right now about the goodbyes to come. He was going to enjoy every moment with her, and right now that meant giving her pleasure and slaking his own. That meant getting out of the reach of lights and getting naked.
Beckett caught her face in his hands and did his best to kiss her senseless. “Let’s take this below.”
Chapter Nine
Rachel wrapped the soft blanket around her shoulders and followed Beckett down the stairs into the small cabin. A dim light came on. The quiet, surprisingly introspective and romantic Beckett was gone. Back was the wild Beckett she’d met years ago, the man who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to let his desires be known.
She’d always thought she was the same way. She had her dreams and hadn’t hesitated to do what she needed to follow them. When they reached the triangle-shaped mattress tucked into the bow, she tossed her blanket on top and turned to face him. His eyes followed her curves like laser beams. She didn’t keep herself in shape for anyone but herself, but there was nothing wrong with a man she desired looking at her with that intense, appreciative expression.
He’d kept himself in great shape, too. She devoured all those tattoos and muscles with her eyes, as hungry to touch and taste as he appeared to be. Her glance lowered to the baggy orange trunks. His erection was obvious, and she wanted to see what was hidden behind the fabric.
The Goodbye Guy (The Men of Lakeside) Page 12
