by Jill Sanders
“Yes,” she finally answered him, “I’m okay.”
Chapter Two
Conner was hovering over Kara, looking down into her hazel eyes and trying to decide if she needed further saving.
The fact that she was still smiling threw him off, and he frowned down at her.
Her dark hair was fanned out on the wet sand, and her pale skin almost glowed in the moonlight. The sight of her beauty at such a time caused him to wonder if she was part mermaid. After all, most women he’d known didn’t look half as good as she did after almost drowning.
He’d noticed how pretty she was the first time he’d seen her, but she’d been busy and, well, he’d been trying to avoid entanglements. The kind that came with sexy hazel eyes and skin he wanted to spend a lifetime exploring. He balled his hands beside her head in the sand to try and control the urge to lean down and kiss her lips, which were turned upward in a slight grin.
“You didn’t hit your head or anything, did you?” he asked, suddenly concerned that she was concussed.
“No.” He watched her lips as she smiled up at him. “I’m fine.”
Why hadn’t he seen how beautiful she was before? Sure, he’d noticed her. But the woman laughing back up at him now was a complete knockout. He felt the effects of her smile deep down in his soul.
Then he realized what had happened to her, how reckless she’d been, and he felt his temper grow.
“Do you have any idea how stupid it is to swim in the ocean at night?” he heard himself saying.
The fact that he too had been on an evening swim when he’d bumped into her warm body fighting the tide did little to discourage him from berating her.
His words cause that sexy smile to slip from her lips, and he realized he should have kept his mouth shut.
“I wasn’t in any danger. Not really,” she said softly. He knew instantly that she didn’t believe her own words. Then she reached up and shoved his shoulder until he moved to sit next to her in the sand.
“Really? Because it sure seemed like that to me.” He’d grown up around his sister and cousins and knew all too well that women always won arguments. He shouldn’t have tried to argue with her, but he wanted to stress how badly things could have turned out if he hadn’t been there.
Her eyes ran over him and narrowed. “What were you doing out here?” she finally asked him. Her eyes landed on his bare chest and then dashed down quickly to his boxer briefs.
“I’m highly trained at swimming in the ocean. I grew up here,” he replied quickly.
There was a moment of quiet, then she started laughing again.
“You’re Kara, right?” he asked, trying to test her, just in case she really had bumped her head.
He knew for a fact that there were sharp rocks under the surf. When he’d been around ten, he’d found out about them himself after being pulled under the surf one summer and needing stitches in his shoulder. The scares he’d gotten were a constant reminder to him of how dangerous the ocean could be.
“You’re Conner, right?” she said back to him as she hugged her knees to her chest.
He leaned back in the sand and watched her. Her wet hair hung over her shoulders now, and he could see that her makeup had washed away with the saltwater. Her clear face made her even more beautiful.
“Yeah.” He glanced back towards the brightly lit barn. “Shouldn’t you be in there… doing whatever it is you do after weddings?”
“I’m all done for the night.” She glanced over at him. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I was training,” he said quickly. “You don’t have to help clean up or… whatever?”
She smiled again. “No. Training for what?”
He frowned and glanced off towards the dark waters. “A test.” He knew he was being vague but didn’t really feel like going into the details at the moment. “You shouldn’t swim after dark. If you’re not a strong swimmer, you shouldn’t be in the ocean at all.”
He watched her change. Gone was the laughter, replaced by annoyance. Good. He wanted to make sure his point got through to her clearly.
“I’m a strong swimmer.” She started dusting herself off and made a move to stand.
He jumped up and took her elbow to help pull her up. When her body bumped against his, he felt a zip of desire race through him like lightning. It knocked the breath out of him, forcing him to freeze up. Well, everything except for his dick, which tented his still wet boxer briefs.
“Why are you training at night?” she asked. If she’d noticed his reaction to her, she thankfully didn’t mention it.
Then she glanced down at his hand, still holding her arm. He would have let go, but he was still trying to figure out what to do with the knowledge that no one else had ever caused his body to react quite like this so quickly before. Well, at least since he’d gotten out of the awkward puberty stage.
“I train at all hours. Any free time I can get.” He needed to find a way to get himself under control. He glanced off down the dark beach. “You live in The Roger family’s old cottage.”
She glanced in the direction of the place and nodded. “Yeah, we got the barn when we purchased the cottage.” She glanced back down the beach at the barn.
“Did you buy the home for the barn or vice versa?” he asked, curious what had brought the sisters to Pride.
“The cottage was a bonus.” She glanced back over at him. “You’re in the Coast Guard, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “For now.” He glanced back out over the dark water and thought about his future. The one that was still so uncertain to him. “Why weddings?”
She smiled and shrugged slightly. “It’s been my dream for as long as I can remember,” she answered with a slight sigh.
He frowned as she talked about starting the business with her sister. He’d finally distracted her from asking him questions about himself. He didn’t mind listening to her talk about her life, but just knowing that all she thought about was perfect weddings reminded him that he’d never believed he was the marrying type.
Sure, the rest of the Jordan clan had been ripe for marriage. But not Conner. For as long as he could remember, he’d known that he would never marry. Never have a family and be… normal.
He wasn’t made for it. There was just something inside him that told him he’d go through life lonely.
It wasn’t as if he was torturing himself, it’s just… he was different. He didn’t have what it took to be normal. Things like knowing what he wanted out of life. Knowing which direction that he wanted to take. Hell, he couldn’t even make up his mind what color socks to put on most mornings. Which is why signing up with the Coast Guard Reserve had been perfect. Those choices had been taken from him.
Every other Jordan had their own missions in life. They had all known what they wanted or who they wanted to be. Starting with his parents.
Iian Jordan was one of the best chefs along the Oregon coast. He’d taken over the family restaurant at a young age after losing his hearing in a boat accident that had taken the life of his father, Conner’s grandfather George.
Conner’s mother, Allison, was an artist anyone who knew anything about art knew of. His mother’s paintings hung in some of the most prestigious art galleries around the world. He had even heard that there was one hanging in the White House somewhere.
Riley, his younger sister, and their cousin Lilly had opened up a boutique, Classy and Sassy, in town a few years back. The store was a huge success.
Riley’s twin, Jacob, had gone to engineering school and had just taken on the job of overseeing construction of their uncle Todd’s latest crazy scheme, Hidden Cove, a subdivision on the massive land Todd had purchased to keep the crooked developer Thomas Carson from getting his hands on the land.
Of course, everyone in town knew of the deal and how the man had been supposedly tied to an illegal gambling and fighting ring that had been dispersed off the coast by his new cousin-in-law, Aiden. Aiden had recently been voted in as
sheriff of Pride after his father retired due to injuries caused by a goon supposedly hired by Carson to hide the gambling ring.
Hell, even Conner’s little brother had a more important job than he did. Sure, saving lives was no walk in the park. In the past year he’d been more disciplined than he had his entire life, both physically and mentally. Still, lots of others had come and gone in the training facility with abilities just like his own, which made him feel more like a cog than a leader.
The same could be said for each of his cousins. Everyone in the Jordan clan had their path in life plotted out already.
“I lost you,” Kara said, touching his bare shoulder, getting his attention again. “I always seem to lose people when I start chatting about my job.” She sighed. “It’s not like all I think about is weddings,” she said with a half-smile. “Honest. I’m not one of those crazed women who hear wedding bells every time I meet a man.” She chuckled. “Honest.” She held up her fingers in a scout’s promise.
“That’s the Boy Scout promise.” His eyes ran over her slowly. “I doubt they would have let you in their little group. Especially looking like that.”
For the first time since he’d pulled her out of the water, she seemed to realize what she was wearing and crossed her arms over her chest as she glanced around the dark beach.
“I… left my dress…” She did a full circle. “Somewhere.”
He chuckled as she started frantically looking for her clothes.
“You were probably closer to the barn when you entered the water,” he pointed out. “We’re well past your cottage now.”
She gasped when she realized where they were. “I guess I must have been in the water longer than I thought.”
“I’ll walk with you. My things are that way as well.” He started walking down the beach, not waiting for her. She easily caught up with him, dropping her hands from shielding the view of her sexy body from him.
He quickly glanced over and smiled at the sexy view before continuing to walk back down the beach.
“You know, I saw that,” she said, falling in step with him.
“Hey, I’m just as naked as you are,” he reminded her.
“Right,” she said, and he could hear the laughter in her tone.
“Besides, what you’re wearing could easily be a swimsuit instead of…” He stopped and looked down at her. He noticed she didn’t lift her arms to cover her body this time. Instead, she stood there, facing him with her chin in the air as she smiled at him. “Instead of a matching set of lacy underwear,” he finished. He leaned closer and squinted. “Are those blue?”
“Purple,” she answered quickly. “My favorite color.”
He stopped and quickly picked up his clothes and dusted off the dinner jacket that he’d worn to the wedding earlier.
“You just dumped your suit in the sand?” She almost gasped.
He chuckled. “No, I set it over the log carefully,” he corrected as he shook out his shirt and dress pants, then folded them all and carried his shoes and clothing, figuring he’d pull them on when he was a little drier. “What did you do with your dress? Hang it up?” He glanced down the dark beach as if to prove his point.
“No, I…” She sighed in frustration. “Whatever.” She shook her head in defeat and started marching down the beach again.
He caught up with her as he held in a chuckle. He could tell she was growing more agitated at him since she was sprinting down the beach at this point. When she almost passed her dress and shoes sitting in the sand, the laughter slipped out. She turned and glared at him, which only made him laugh even harder.
Chapter Three
Kara was so over Conner hanging around at this point. Sure, he was nice to look at in the moonlight. The way the moonbeams bounced off his perfect pecs and six-pack had her mouth watering.
In the last few moments, however, she could tell he was laughing at her and she was growing tired of being told she was irresponsible.
She bent down and picked up her dress and shoes, then suddenly stopped when she realized she’d just berated him for setting his suit carefully on a large piece of driftwood. If there had been any driftwood in sight, she would have hung her dress over it, but instead, she’d just tossed it in the sand earlier.
She’d been so focused on needing to cool off and clear her mind that she hadn’t thought about her own clothes.
Turning back to him, she sighed.
“I’m sorry, I must be tired.”
“It’s no wonder. I watched you and your sister work your magic earlier. I don’t think you sat down once in the past five hours.” He nodded towards the barn again.
“No.” She smiled as she watched a few lights turning off in the massive building. No doubt, her sister would be locking everything up and heading down the pathway towards the cottage soon.
“What time did you start today?” he asked, shifting the pile of his clothes sightly.
“Five,” she told him without thinking.
“Five this afternoon?”
“No.” She shook her head and turned back towards him.
“Five in the morning? What on earth for?”
She laughed. “Who else was going to decorate? Make sure the flowers, the cake, and the decorations arrived and were in place on time?”
“Employees?” he offered.
Her smile slipped slightly. They had a few part-time employees. But so far, it was Kara and Robin’s job to do most of the prep work. The money for employees was saved for waitstaff and cleaning crew.
She would love to have enough money to hire a few full-time employees.
“A few but I’ve found that when it really matters, there’s no better person to handle the details than someone who is invested completely.” She tilted her head and ran her eyes over his face. “Why the Coast Guard?”
He shrugged quickly and moved his eyes past her towards the building. “No particular reason. It was there. I was available.” His eyes moved back to hers. “You know the drill.”
“You went to school in… Portland, correct?” she asked, trying to remember what she’d heard about the man from his family and wishing she’d paid better attention when they’d talked about him.
“Yeah.”
“For?”
“I ended up getting my associates.” He again glanced past her shoulder, as if avoiding her eyes somehow mattered.
“In?” she asked.
“Applied Science.” He shrugged. “You? Did you go to college?”
“No. I finished a couple college classes in high school, but since I always knew what I wanted to do, we jumped at the chance to buy this place and start our business after my grandfather passed and left us money.”
“It seems to be doing well,” he said.
She glanced back and noticed that all the lights were off, sending the old barn into full darkness. Glancing over, she saw the lights in the cottage turn on. She knew that her sister would be wondering where she was soon.
“Yeah. We’re thankful. Most weekends from now until next spring are booked solid.”
“Not bad.” His eyes ran over her again slowly. “I’m sure your sister is going to start wondering where you are. I’ll walk you to the cottage.”
“No need,” she said, but his eyebrows went up as if he was waiting for her to deny him. “Okay,” she relented and started walking with him towards the cottage.
“Do you like it?” he asked after a moment of silence.
“My job?” she asked. When he nodded, she smiled. “I love it. You? Do you like working for the Coast Guard?”
“It keeps me out of trouble,” he answered.
She chuckled. “Your mother says the same thing.”
He chuckled, and the sexy sound of it warmed her. The night air had cooled her off to the point that she was chilled, and she wrapped her arms around herself.
“Here.” He stopped and laid his jacket over her shoulders. “It’s cooled off.” He tucked his shoes and other items under his arm
to lay his jacket over her shoulders.
Instantly, she was surrounded by his scent and the warmth of his jacket and his hands, which still rested on her shoulders.
“Thanks,” she said as her entire body started shaking for a completely different reason. Why was it she kept getting lost in his blue eyes?
He dropped his hands and took a step back and then started walking again.
“So, why Pride?” he asked as the cottage came into view.
“Our parents fell in love here in Pride,” she answered.
“Your parents?”
“Yeah, they were snowed in here one Christmas and ended up falling in love. Long story, but since then, we’ve come back here and stayed at the bed and breakfast once a year. Both Robin and I sort of fell in love with the town.” She shrugged. “So, when it came time to pick a place to start our business, we chose Pride. I found the property and convinced Robin to take the leap with me.”
They stopped on the large front porch of the cottage, under the dim light.
“Any regrets?” he asked her.
“None. Do you regret coming back home after college?”
His eyes moved to the front door, then shifted back to her. “You’d better get inside.”
She arched her eyebrows. “You have a tendency to avoid answering questions you don’t like.”
He smiled down at her, and her knees went weak.
“It’s home. Where was home for you? Before this?”
“We moved around for a while and settled in Portland when I was ten.” She wrapped her arms around herself while holding his jacket tight to her body for warmth.
“You’d better get inside. Get warm.” He sat on one of the wicker chairs and dusted his feet off, then slid his legs into his pants. She watched his reverse striptease and felt her entire body vibrating with want. How could a man be even sexier dressed than undressed?
When he’d finished pulling on his dress shirt and buttoning it up halfway, he moved towards her.
