HOT ICE: Complete Sporting Romance Series

by Lily Harlem

  Well, the relaxation part would happen real soon hopefully.

  I wandered in. Dustin followed, still in silence, the way he’d been the entire journey as I’d navigated the dusty tracks. Not bothering to take my suitcase in my bedroom or freshen up, I went straight to the small book we kept in the hallway that had the local contact numbers.

  “Here,” I said, handing him the book after he’d dropped his soft leather bag on the floor. “The Hotel Grand. You should really have booked before you left if you were planning on a few days visit.”

  He kind of grunted and took the book from me, tugged his iPhone from his back pocket and keyed in the numbers.

  I folded my arms, watched as he dialed and then listened as he was quickly told the hotel was full.

  “It seems they have a rush on,” he said after ending the call. “No room at the inn.”

  He didn’t seem in the slightest bit put out, instead wandering past me into the large open-plan living area.

  “But hey,” he said with a smile. “This place sure is big enough for two. You’ll hardly know I’m here.” He placed his hands on his hips and looked around, nodding approvingly. “I don’t know why you have a problem.”

  Damn, he’d gotten his own way. I couldn’t exactly kick him out onto the street. There was only one hotel on the island, and if it was full, it was full.

  Perhaps a lounger on the private beach out back? Mmm? I’d loan him a pillow. I could stretch to that.

  But as for hardly knowing he was there? The guy filled up much more space than just his physical presence. It was his scent, his rough voice, how he seemed to change the electricity in the atmosphere in a way that spiked the hairs on the back of my neck and made my body so damn aware that he was breathing the same air as me.

  And what about the one thing we hadn’t mentioned. The elephant in the room.

  That kiss in New York.

  Well, I wasn’t going to bring it up. He was the one who’d kissed me, after all. He’d backed me up against the wall, loomed over me and taken possession of my mouth without even asking. Taken advantage, if I was honest, since I was a little tipsy at the time.

  I nibbled my bottom lip, remembering how his mouth had felt on mine. It was urgent and desperate, hungry, angry and passion-infused. I hadn’t imagined all of that. No way.

  I turned, irritated that I’d been thinking about him in a nonprofessional manner, and stalked into my bedroom, dragging my suitcase behind me. I’d put on my vacation gear, get out of these hot jeans and go and dip my toes in the sea. I didn’t like to swim. I had a blown-out-of-proportion fear of shark attacks that stopped me from enjoying even a splash in the waves. But I liked to cool my feet in the water, sink my toes into the sand and watch the waves rolling toward me.

  Perhaps I’d go for a nice long walk, too. Visit the market and get some of the coconut-spiced candy that reminded me of my childhood vacations here. That way I could avoid Dustin and the roller coaster of emotions his mood swings subjected me to. Why couldn’t it have been Phoenix or Ramrod who’d wanted to come and chat with my father? One of the players who was polite and respectful and wouldn’t have made me want both to slap him and kiss him.

  Kiss him? I didn’t. God, what was wrong with me? It must be the stress and the heat.

  Ten minutes and a quick shower later, I flung open the French doors of my bedroom and stepped onto the decking area wearing a vivid purple bikini and a black sarong. I held a soft cotton purse that was a lurid citrus-orange color, not my favorite, and black thongs.

  A hummingbird was giving attention to a tub of pink lilies and I paused to watch as I piled my hair on top of my head. I recalled a time when Dad had helped me set up syrup feeders for them, and I’d spent a whole holiday recording their movements and markings, giving them all names. I loved the hummingbirds.

  A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my interest. It was Dustin down on the beach at the shoreline, about fifty meters away. I stilled, stepped behind the fronds of a palm into the shade and watched him.

  He had his back to me and was undressing. His shoes already discarded, he tugged down his soft jeans, dropped them to one side and then peeled off his t-shirt.

  I swallowed. Damn, the guy was thickly muscled. I knew he was big, but the round balls of his shoulders, the roped tendons down his spine, the bulge of his biceps told me that he was huge. I’d presumed some of his size was hockey padding or clothes or something, but no, what I’d felt when I’d clung to him in that hallway, why he’d made me feel so small—it was because he was enormous. I was small next to him.

  Suddenly he slipped off his boxer briefs exposing tight, round buttocks, the skin a fraction paler than the rest of him.

  I gasped, put my hand over my mouth and, although the beach was privately owned, couldn’t help a quick glance left and right to make sure it was empty.

  It was.

  I returned my attention to the taut butt before me. Dustin was running now, into the surf, galloping through the waves stark naked, his skin glistening as the water splashed over him.

  Several big steps and he leaped into the air, curled himself over and I watched, mesmerized, as his buttocks were the last thing to disappear beneath the dark surface.

  My heart was racing. Really? Naked swimming. He’d only been here a few minutes and he was diving into the sea in the buff. I was part horrified, part full of admiration. I could never swim in the sea like that, dive in as though I belonged there. It was too damn scary. What was lurking in the hidden depths?

  I scanned the waves, looking for him. Waiting for his head to appear.

  It didn’t.

  I stepped from the fronds and into the sunshine.

  Shit. A shark had got him, or a ray or something lethal. It must have. He’d been down about ten seconds at least.

  I darted my gaze around, tried to see over the breaking rollers. He’d really gone. Quickly I rushed to the edge of the decking. Went on my tiptoes, scanning the wider horizon.

  Fuck.

  In a sudden rush I sped onto the sand. It was burning hot but I hardly felt it. I reached his abandoned clothes, set my hand over my eyes to shield them from the sun and peered into the distance.

  Suddenly he burst upward, not too far out at sea. His chest and shoulders were shining like polished bronze and his super-short hair sparkling with trapped drops. He stood waist deep and looked my way.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I called, scanning his arms for signs of shark attack, checking the water for a slick of blood.

  “Painting a fucking picture,” he shouted. “What the hell does it look like?”

  “I thought you’d…”

  “What?”

  “Drowned or…or something.”

  “Drowned?” He began to walk toward me. “What, in this shallow part?”

  “Well, yes, things like that do happen, and…” Oh fuck, as he got closer the waterline dropped each time the ebb of the waves receded. I was getting glimpses of seriously thick hair below his navel, leading a dark trail to his groin and yes, there was a silvery appendectomy scar, right where I’d imagined he’d have one, in a perfect groove of muscle.

  “And what?” His continued to push through the waves. He took no notice of the crests of foam breaking around him or the lowering water level.

  “And there are creatures in there.” I pointed at the sea. “Predators, they might…”

  He wasn’t going to, was he?

  Oh yes. This was Dustin Reed after all. Of course he was going to. Why was I surprised?

  He gave me a full frontal visual of his flaccid cock as he reached the shallows.

  “What might these predators do?” he asked, seemingly completely unembarrassed.

  “They might,” I made a pincer movement with my fingers, “they might bite you, you know, especially there.” Oh God, now I was staring and pointing at his cock. “They might think it’s a worm or something if you skinny-dip.”

  He put his head back and roa
red with laughter, a great big guffaw that must have rattled right across the beach and into the lush forest beyond. His chest heaved and the muscles on his belly tensed, his cock waggled.

  “A fucking worm. Oh my God.” Mercifully he quickly dragged on his boxers, making himself decent. “Me and my dick have been called many things over the years, sweet cheeks, but never a fucking worm.” He laughed again, screwing up his eyes and placing his hands on his hips, bending forward slightly.

  I frowned. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do, and it’s damn funny that you think I have a worm.” He rubbed a small hand towel over his legs then pulled on his jeans. Still chuckling, he grabbed his t-shirt and sneakers from the sand. “It’s made all this worth it hearing you say that.”

  “I’m just trying to explain that it’s dangerous out there.” I pointed at the water. “I’ve seen shark fins many times, and I know some of the locals have been injured or had near misses.”

  “But I was only a few fucking feet out.” He still grinned.

  “They’ll come right up to the shore if they’re hungry.” I folded my arms. “And besides, it’s not just sharks, there are barracuda, rays, jellyfish, sea snakes, sea wasps, eels.” I paused for breath. “And down by those rock pools there are crabs that will draw blood and urchins that have poison in their barbs.” I shook my head. “You have to be careful. Really careful.”

  “Jesus, you really have got a thing about the sea.” He furrowed his brow. “Yet you have this fabulous place right by it.”

  “No, not the sea. The things that live in it that want to eat me. That’s what I have a problem with.”

  “But you’re missing out. That was wonderful to have a swim after a plane ride. And there’s nothing there that will bother me if I don’t bother it. You should try it, I bet you’d like it.”

  “No way, and certainly not in the…” I wafted my hand in the direction of his groin again. “In the nude.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting to swim so I didn’t pack trunks. And then, well, after the shit that went down at the airport, and then here, you with the hotel thing, I just needed to cool the hell down before I punched something. I figured you were still in the villa, as you’d shut yourself in your room, and no one would see.”

  He certainly looked cooled down. The sun was rapidly evaporating the seawater from his wide chest and golden shoulders, and his hair was so short it was almost dry already.

  “I guess I’ll go find a shop, buy trunks if I’m here for a few days.” He grinned suddenly, crinkling the skin at the corners of his eyes. “That’ll save you from adding worms to your list of things to worry about in the sea.”

  I tsked. “I’m going to the market. It’s about a mile down the beach and today is the only day of the week it’s on. I’ll grab you some trunks while I’m there.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll come with you, to the market. You don’t know what size I am.”

  I raised my eyebrows. I’d just seen his size, exactly. And it was pretty impressive for a man who was emerging from cold water. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. That would just add to his ego.

  “I know you’ve read my file,” he said, pulling on his sneakers and grinning. “But that doesn’t list all of my statistics. Some of the most important ones are missing.”

  That didn’t deserve a response and I knew that was what he wanted. So instead I shifted my sarong on my hips, dropped my thongs to the hot sand and slipped them on. When I looked up he was studying me, his eyebrows were pulled low and his grin had slipped. He looked angry again.

  “What?” I asked, twirling the thin strap on my purse and quickly glancing at my bikini top to make sure it hadn’t shifted.

  “Nothing,” he said huffily. “I’ll just put this towel back and go lock the villa door. Wait here.”

  He turned and jogged up the beach, sending little kicks of sand up behind himself. His moods were like ice and fire and could flick like a switch. It was beginning to get tiring. Kiss me, don’t kiss me. Shout at me, smile at me.

  I sighed.

  After he’d gone onto the deck I didn’t wait. Instead I turned and marched along the beach in the direction of the nearest village. If I walked quickly enough, perhaps I’d lose him. Then again, that wasn’t likely to happen, him being a super-fit athlete and all.

  I huffed to myself. Honestly. The worm thing hadn’t been that funny. It was simply a fact. I’d like to see how much he’d laugh if something in the sea really did have a nibble on his cock. I was sure he’d be crying then.

  Chapter Six

  Of course Dustin did catch up with me, easily. But his mood had switched again and he didn’t even complain about my leaving him behind when he’d told me to wait. In fact, he went on to chatter animatedly about his last trip to Austria and some of the things he done there with kids in the Alps. It made me long for another ski trip to Europe. I’d been to Lech several times, growing up. I’d made the most of the long runs while my parents had enjoyed the glamour of the resort. I told him about that, and it turned out he loved to ski, but hadn’t done so for years because of winter play commitments and insurance issues.

  When we reached the small fishing village market on Honeysuckle Key, I saw that it hadn’t changed since the last time I’d been. There was still a stall on the first corner selling fish in blue crates of ice, and opposite was another stall laden with fresh fruit and salad greens. As was always the case, the narrow aisles were heaving with locals stocking up for the week. Old women in head scarves and kids with tatty clothes made up the majority of the customers, though I noticed more tourists than usual, which made sense, what with the hotel being full.

  “I’m going to the far end,” I said to Dustin. “There’s a clothes stall just beyond the fruit. I think you’ll get swim trunks there.”

  “Yeah, and a hat,” he said, rubbing his shorn haircut. “I’m used to cold not heat. Don’t want to get sunstroke.” He turned and ambled off, head and shoulders above everyone else. I didn’t need to worry about losing him. He’d be easy to spot if I decided to walk back with him.

  I pushed through a group of young men, one of whom leered at me, then I moved to the west end of the market. Perhaps I should have put on a t-shirt, rather than just my bikini and sarong. Habit I guessed, I’d always ambled up here in swimwear, ever since I was a kid.

  “Gina, my treasure.” The old man at the sweet stall greeted me with a tip of his hat and a beaming smile. “You never change, you’re still my little girl.”

  “Hi, Raymond, how are you?”

  “I am very well.” His grin widened and I noticed he’d lost yet another top tooth since I’d last seen him. He now had a grand total of three, from what I could make out. I guessed that was the risk he took spending his life sitting at a sweets stall.

  “I saw your father last week,” he said. “He told me he’s retired now.”

  “Yes, that’s the plan. The doctors have advised him to take it easy.”

  “And who is running the team, what is it…” He crinkled his face, each line deepening until his skin was like crumpled paper. “The Cobras?”

  “The Vipers, and that’s down to me now. Well, with help obviously.”

  He pressed his gnarled fist to his chest. “Child, what a lot to cope with.”

  “It’ll be fine when it settles down.” I pointed at the pink coconut sweets I loved. “A big bag of those will help. I’ll put them in my office, keep them for emergencies.”

  “Yes, you should.” He set about filling up a bag with a small silver shovel. “Double your usual amount then?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Mmm, they look good.”

  I turned and came face to chest with Dustin. I looked up and let the scent of warm male wrap around me. He was wearing a red Honeysuckle Key cap.

  “They are,” I said. “But I don’t share, you’ll have to buy your own.”
r />   “I intend to, and some of that.” He pointed to a tray holding fudge dotted with pistachio. “But I do share.”

  “Raymond,” I said, wishing I hadn’t sounded so spoiled brattish about sharing. “This is Dustin Reed, one of the players.”

  Raymond swung the bag over itself to seal it. “I am happy to meet you,” he said, smiling broadly. “You get the points?”

  “No, I stop the opponents getting the points. I’m in goal.”

  “Ah, I see.” He nodded but I’d bet he’d never watched a hockey game in his life. “And you are vacationing with my Gina, this must mean you are very happy together. A wedding soon, yes?”

  Dustin laughed. “Well, she is, but I’m not.”

  Raymond frowned.

  So did I. What was Dustin on about?

  “Can I grab a big chunk of that taffy?” Dustin asked, gesturing to the sticky cubes and then turning to me. “And you’ll be pleased to know I’ve got trunks.” He held up a pair of neon green shorts between us. The brightest material I’d ever seen. Worse than my purse.

  “So you don’t get any more…shocks,” he said.

  “Good.” I slipped on my shades and grinned. “But the color is so shocking they might blind me.”

  “Can’t do anything right, can I?”

  “Well, wearing something when swimming will be halfway there,” I said, shaking my head and still smiling.

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  I took my sweets from Raymond, paid and bade him farewell. Dustin seemed quite taken with sampling honey-coated peanuts, so I left him to it and wandered to a purse stall next door. There was a great variety to choose from, all handmade. I fingered the material, admired the stitching and then chose a deep-purple, velvet shoulder bag that would fit a book, sun protection and a towel, perfect to go with my bikini.

  I hunted for some bills and then paid the woman who unfolded white tissue paper and started to carefully wrap it.

  “No, no,” I said. “I’ll use it now, don’t worry about that.”

  “Are you sure, madam?”