by Elle James
She laid hers in his.
If he was ever to fall for a woman and risk his heart and hers, it would have to be a woman like Sophia. He’d seen her night after night at the Salty Dog Saloon.
She was strong, and she was smart.
The problem was that Blade wasn’t the marrying kind.
“You’re a good friend, Sophia.” He squeezed her hand and let go. Reminding himself that she was a friend, not a life partner or lover. He didn’t need to screw up his life or hers by getting too friendly with her. They had to live next door to each other. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to buy the house beside hers. But now that it was done, he needed to keep his distance.
He liked talking to her over the fence or sitting out in her garden. He’d hate it if that part of his life went away. And it would as soon as he slept with her.
When they finished their breakfast, they ducked into one of the shops where Blade bought a cap with Cancún written across the front of it. The cap covered his hair, making him look like any other tourist. Feeling a little better about his disguise, he suggested that they spend some time at the beach.
Sophia grinned. “I’m game.”
They hurried back to the bungalow. All the while, Blade kept an eye out for anything or anybody unusual. When they arrived at their unit, he insisted on being the first through the door, checking the rooms before he allowed her to enter. When he was sure that it was clear, he let Sophia inside.
She insisted on being first in the bedroom to change into her swimsuit.
While she was changing, Maria, the maid, came by the room.
Between his rudimentary Spanish and the maid’s limited English, Blade let her know that if anyone tried to get into their room while they were out, to let him know. She looked somewhat alarmed, and he explained to her about the incident that had happened the night before. If she’d looked alarmed before, she looked almost terrified when he finished.
Maria shook her head. “No bueno, señor. No bueno.”
“I know. That’s why we’re worried. So, can you keep an eye on things while we’re gone?”
She nodded. “Si, señor. I will let you know.”
“And if you know anybody who knows of the cartel’s movements,” he added, “I’d love to talk to them.”
Maria appeared to be a woman who didn’t much care for the local cartel. She crossed herself like a good Catholic. “I have a cousin,” she said, “I will let him know.”
“Thank you, Maria.”
She nodded. “You and the señorita be safe. I will return when you have left the room.”
He smiled at the housekeeper. “Gracias, Maria.”
When Maria left, the door to the bedroom opened.
“Did I hear you talking to someone?” Sophia stood in the doorway, wearing her royal blue bikini and lightweight cover-up. She looked absolutely beautiful.
Blade’s heart skipped several beats before he could answer her question. “I was talking to Maria, the cleaning lady. She’ll come back to take care of the room after we’ve left.”
“Did you warn her to be careful coming in and out in case somebody tries to get into our room?”
He nodded. “I did warn her. She’s aware of who Calderón is.”
“Great,” Sophia said. “I’m the only one in Mexico who didn’t.”
“I don’t think most people coming here look up cartel names. Tourists just assume everything will be all right.”
“Still, you hear too often about women who are kidnapped from resorts. They either never find them or find their bodies after it’s too late. You’d think I would be smart enough not to get myself in a situation like that.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Blade said.
“Anyway, I’m glad you informed her,” Sophia said. “I would hate to see her get hurt because of us.”
“Exactly.”
Sophia frowned. “Are you sure it’s okay for us to go out?”
“I hate to be held hostage by anybody,” Blade said, his brow furrowing. “If we remain indoors, we’re being held hostage. And maybe for no reason at all.”
“Exactly how I feel.” Sophia snagged a towel and her sunscreen, and then plunked a hat on her head where her hair was still drawn up into a tight knot. “Let’s go.”
They spent the day on lounge chairs, hiding under an umbrella and watching the surf. Sophia faced toward the ocean while Blade turned toward the resort. That way they had both directions covered, and it gave Blade all too much time to study the freckles on Sophia’s face, neck, shoulders, and the tops of her breasts.
When she asked him to smear sunscreen on her shoulders and back, he almost declined, knowing how it would feel and the reaction his body would have. But if he declined to perform the task, he would have to explain, and he wasn’t ready for that.
Sophia didn’t need to know that he was lusting after her body.
With a fake smile, he nodded and said, “Sure.” As soon as he had the sunscreen smeared on her, he excused himself and dove into the water. He didn’t stay under long. He had to keep an eye on Sophia. Thankfully, she followed him out to the water, which made watching her easier.
Once she was in the water and her hair was wet, it looked as dark as anybody else’s, not the glorious strawberry-blond that was so unique and recognizable.
She dove into the water, grabbed his ankle and pulled. He went under, grabbed her around the waist, picked her up and threw her into the surf. Then he dove in to tickle her. They both came up from the water sputtering and laughing.
“I can see why all the guys love you,” Blade said.
Sophia laughed. “Hah. You know how many dates I’ve gone on in the last six months? I can’t even count them on one hand because there weren’t any. So, I don’t know why you think all the guys love me.”
Blade smiled. “You should’ve heard the talking to I got from the guys when I told them I was taking you to Cancún.”
“Oh, yeah?” Sophia’s eyebrows rose. “What did they say?”
“They told me not to break your heart. That they like seeing you at the Salty Dog. You’re one of their favorite people. They were afraid I’d screw things up.”
Her eyelids drifted low. “And will you?”
For a moment he hesitated. The way her eyelids drooped, and her lips puffed out made Blade’s groin tighten. The urge to pull her into his arms and crush her lips with his was so powerful, he nearly caved into his desire. Instead of grabbing her and yanking her into his arms, he planted his hands on top of her head and dunked her under the water.
Once again, she dove for his ankles and pulled him off his feet. Then she pounced on his chest and drove him down into the water until his back hit the sand. He grabbed her around the waist and held on. She was staring at him through the water, her eyes wide open.
His resistance was futile. He leaned up and captured her lips with his in a salty wet kiss. Together they bobbed to the surface. When the sun struck him, he realized what he’d done, and he broke away from her and planted his feet in the sand. Waves washed up to his waist.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
She met his gaze straight on. “But you did, and you can’t take it back.”
“No,” he said, “but I won’t do it again.”
Her lips curled into a sultry smile. “No?”
His eyes narrowed. “No. Friends don’t kiss friends.”
“Friends with benefits do. Have you ever thought of that kind of arrangement?” she asked, tilting her chin. “I know I have.”
His groin tightened even more. Hell, he’d slept in the same bed with her the night before, and it had been all he could do to keep from taking her. It had been a long hard night. If he hadn’t been so tired, he wouldn’t have slept at all. And it looked like he was going to have another long hard night trapped in the same bungalow with the red-haired beauty.
He still couldn’t understand why Sophia didn’t think of herself as beautiful. She was. A more unique beauty he’d
never met. Each freckle on her face, shoulders and arms told a story of a strong woman with a big heart and an infectious laugh. Every time it rang out at the Salty Dog, heads turned. It was only a matter of time before some lucky fool married her.
That thought didn’t sit well with Blade. He couldn’t imagine her with anyone except himself. Then he remembered where he was, and he searched the beach and the ocean for the enemy. The woman made him lose focus, and that was a dangerous place to be if the cartel decided to even up the score. They could strike at any time. “Come on, let’s get back under the umbrella. I feel a little safer in the shadows.”
“I feel a little safer in the shadows, too. My skin won’t get burned as quickly, and you can apply more sunscreen on it.” She gave him an innocent smile.
He frowned. “You’re on your own there.”
She shook her head. “But you’re my protector. I need you to help protect my skin from the sun.” She raised her eyebrows. “And I can’t get my back. Do you want me to ask a complete stranger to do the honors?”
“Hell no,” he replied, gruffly. “Maybe it’s time to go back to the bungalow.”
“What? And miss this beautiful ocean breeze? No, I don’t think so,” Sophia said. “However, I could do with another drink. Think we could snag a waiter?”
As they approached their lounge chairs and umbrella, they spotted a waiter at another set of chairs and flagged him down. They spent the next hour sitting beneath the umbrella, drinking Mai Tais and enjoying the breeze.
It was easy to forget that they might have a cartel after them with the salty scent of the beach filling the air and the sun shining down on them. Maybe he was worrying too much. Still, he couldn’t let his guard down.
When they returned to the bungalow, Sophia curled up in one of the chairs with a book and promptly fell asleep. The room had been cleaned. Maria had been there, leaving a chocolate on their pillows and fresh towels in the bathroom.
Blade would have carried Sophia to her bed, but that would mean touching her body. At the moment, he didn’t feel like he could touch her without wanting to kiss her again. He left her curled up in the chair and spent the time studying her every feature, realizing with every passing minute how much deeper he was getting. How wrong would it be to fall in love with his next-door neighbor?
Sophia must have fallen asleep reading her book. When she awoke, the shadows in the room had lengthened, and the sun was on its way down. Her stomach rumbled.
“Hungry?” a voice asked.
She looked up and stretched.
Blade stood in the kitchenette, his hands curled around a mug of what smelled like coffee.
“I am hungry,” she said. “What do you want to do for dinner?”
“They have a nice steakhouse here on the resort. I called and made a reservation. You have exactly one hour to get ready. Then I’m taking you dancing at the bar, which is also here on the resort.”
She yawned and stretched. “So, you’re telling me I should probably dress nicely, that I can’t go in my swimsuit.”
Blade smiled. “I wouldn’t mind, but there might be a dress code.”
Despite the threat of a drug cartel being after them, Sophia had enjoyed an exciting, pleasurable day with Blade in the sun and in the water. Especially in the water with that unexpected kiss.
Chapter 6
Blade stood before Sophia, dressed in tailored black slacks, a white button-down shirt, a red necktie and a black fitted jacket.
Sophia’s breath caught.
Sweet Jesus. The man was drop dead gorgeous.
Sophia had dressed in a shimmering white dress that reached her ankles, with a low V-neck and a scooped back that exposed skin all the way down to curve of her buttocks. Beth had chosen the dress for her. Around her neck, she wore a simple gold chain with a solitary diamond her mother had left her.
She’d felt beautiful when she’d looked in the mirror. But now as she stood there staring at Blade, who looked better than any of the actors in a James Bond movie, she worried that she didn’t look good enough.
Then she noticed the hungry expression on his face.
“Wow,” he said. “You look amazing.”
Heat filled her cheeks. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“Who would have thought two blue-jean-clad regulars at the Salty Dog Saloon could look this good?”
She laughed. “Sarge would be proud. He’s like a father to me. He and my dad were in the Marines together. I don’t know what I would’ve done if Sarge hadn’t been around when my folks drowned in Canyon Lake.”
“What happened to them?”
“They were out fishing when the wind got a little bit rough. The boat capsized. Neither one of them had their life jacket on. They were too far from shore to swim in, and the wind caused pretty hefty waves. The authorities found the boat. A couple days later, they found Mom and Dad. I was in college when I got the call, finishing my final semester. I missed a couple of weeks and almost didn’t pass my end of semester exams. It didn’t seem right going back to school after they passed.” Sophia shook her head. “Actually, nothing seemed right. I got my degree in accounting. I passed the CPA exam, but accounting reminded me of Mom and Dad. That’s what they’d wanted me to do.”
“What a blow,” Blade said. “It must’ve been hard.”
Sophia nodded. “Sarge came to my graduation. He offered me a position at his bar. I agreed just so I could be close to somebody I knew. I felt so alone. I lived with him for a while, and then I moved into an apartment over the bar. I saved all of my tip money, which was pretty good, and made a down payment on a house. That’s when I moved out of the apartment over the bar.”
“So, you don’t use your accounting degree?”
She shook her head. “On the contrary, I do. The first quarter of every year, I volunteer to help people with their taxes—people who can’t afford an accountant. I figured my mom and dad would have wanted me to.”
“They probably would’ve wanted you to put your accounting degree to work and get paid for it.”
She nodded. “And I will…someday. But I like working at the Salty Dog. I like the people I’ve met, and I love Sarge. I really didn’t get to know him until I worked with him. He’s one of the best humans I’ve ever met.”
Blade nodded. “I’ve known him to loan money to young soldiers when they didn’t have enough to get home for Christmas.”
Sophia nodded with a smile. “That sounds like Sarge. He’d give the shirt off his back to whomever needed it. I’m a prime example. But enough about me. What about you?” She tipped her head toward his outfit, her gaze running over him from head to toe. “How’d you learn to dress so nicely? I thought a lot of the guys in the military only knew how to wear their uniforms.”
He laughed. “It’s true. For most of them, that’s all they know.”
She smiled. “That suit looks tailored.”
He nodded. “My family had money.”
Sophia’s eyes narrowed. “Then why the Army?”
“If I had wanted to, I could’ve stepped into my family’s wealth, but I didn’t because then I would’ve had to do things my father’s way. My father and I are too much alike. We butt heads all the time. I couldn’t stay. I had to make my own way on my own terms.”
“So is the suit a relic of your high school days?”
“Well, no. I bought the suit. My pay isn’t great as a soldier in the Army, but I do manage my money, and I’ve invested well. I can afford a nice suit. I just happened to need one when my mother died. I didn’t make it back for the funeral, so I visited her graveside dressed as I would have, had I made it home in time.”
Tears rose in Sophia’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“You and me both. I was deployed when she died.” He looked away. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to her. I wasn’t there as she passed. It was bittersweet. She was a good woman, loved by so many.”
“I know what you mean. My mom and dad had closed caskets. I didn
’t even get to see them one last time. At least I got to go to their funeral, so I did have a little bit of closure.”
“I was on a mission. I couldn’t get back until after the funeral. I hadn’t talked to my mother in three months before she died. I didn’t even know she was sick. She had a fast-moving cancer. It was only six weeks from the time they diagnosed it until the time she died. She didn’t want my father to notify me, knowing that I was deployed. Too often we were out in the field with no internet access. But I would have made time. I could have found some way to contact her, and I wish I had.”
Sophia closed the distance between them and laid her hand on his arm. “You can’t undo the past, and you can’t live the rest of your life beating yourself up. Your mother wouldn’t have wanted that.”
He nodded. “I know.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out, forcing a smile to his lips. “Enough depressing talk. We’re in Cancún on vacation. Let’s have some fun tonight.”
Sophia smiled to match his. “I’m in.” She hooked her arm through his, and they stepped out the door. The sun had set, but there was still some lingering light in the sky. The path was lit with lights aimed up into the palm trees.
As they hurried toward the resort hotel, Blade kept his eyes on everything around them while Sophia scanned the shadows.
She hated that she didn’t feel safe. At any moment, somebody could jump out and attack them. She was glad Blade was with her. She might not be able to fight off anybody, but Blade sure had a knack for it, as he’d proven.
Several times when the wind blew the palm fronds, the shadows shifted. Sophia jumped, wishing she had that board she’d used the night before to hit Calderón in the head. She might not have been able to defend herself, but she had been able to help Blade when it was three against one. She’d do it all again.
Hopefully tonight, she wouldn’t have to.
Blade led the way through the resort to the steakhouse where the maître d’ met them at the podium and led them to their seats. Their table was located near the rear of the room, where Blade sat with his back against the wall. They both ordered filet mignon with a side of baked potato and sauteed asparagus.
