by Kara Lennox
They soon saw the glow of the fire ahead of them. Strains of rock music reached them next. When they drew closer, Reece saw thirty or so people gathered around the fire, sitting on logs or beach chairs or right on the sand. A half-dozen boats of every size and description, from dinghies to yachts, anchored just offshore, and more boats were arriving. He guessed that was how most people arrived, because they hadn’t seen anyone else walking the beach.
“Sara, you made it!”
Reece set Sara down, and she ran up to throw herself into a hug with a shirtless man who bore a surfer’s bleached hair and perpetual tan.
Reece felt a twinge of jealousy. He wanted to claim Sara, throw her over his shoulder caveman style and put every man here on notice that she was his, hands off.
But Sara would never belong to him or any man. Trying to tie her down would be as futile as trying to keep a wave on the sand.
“Good to see you, Josh,” she said, releasing him.
A curvy little blonde bounced up wearing shorts and a bikini top. “Hey, Sara.” They hugged, too.
Sara dragged Reece forward. “This is Reece. He’s…visiting from New York,” she said carefully. “Reece, this is David and Tracy. Tracy is my yoga instructor, and David…what are you doing lately, David?”
“As little as possible,” he said. Then he shook hands with Reece. “Nice to meet ya.”
“Did you all go swimming with your clothes on?” Tracy asked.
“By accident,” Sara said with a laugh. She opened her big straw bag and, to Reece’s amazement, pulled out a bottle of wine. “Who do I give this to?”
“I’ll take it,” David said with a grin. “My brother is the one who popped for the keg and the brats.”
Sara held the bottle away from him. “If I give this to you, your brother will never see it. Point him out.”
“The guy in the red shirt.”
Sara moved through the group with the skill of a public-relations executive working an event. She greeted people she knew with hugs and kisses, introduced herself and Reece to people she didn’t even know. She delivered the wine to the host, grabbed a handful of potato chips, then headed for the keg.
“I’ll get it,” Reece said, belatedly jumping forward to do the honors. All the people, the frenzied talking and laughing and the music, had momentarily distracted him from doing his gentlemanly duty. He was terrible at parties, particularly parties at which he didn’t know anyone.
He filled a plastic cup with frothy beer for Sara, and one for himself. He wasn’t a big drinker, but he enjoyed an occasional beer, and this setting seemed the place for it. Lots of these partygoers were clearly well on their way to inebriation.
Someone was cooking brats over the fire; they smelled wonderful and Reece wished he hadn’t already eaten.
Reece was about to suggest they find themselves a place to sit when he spied his cousin Max, dancing with a redhead who had her back to Reece. He shouldn’t have been surprised to see Max here. If there was a party to be found, Max found it. He was a purely social animal-hated spending the evening home alone. Back in New York he had lived in a noisy apartment building full of other singles who were always hanging out by the rooftop pool. If he wasn’t attending the opening of a new club or entertaining clients at a hot restaurant, he hung with his neighbors or invited people over to watch a sporting event.
“Oh, there’s Tandy,” Sara said. “She has her baby with her!” And Sara was off, like a honeybee lured by the scent of a new flower.
Reece didn’t want to follow her around like a puppy. He headed for Max, whose redheaded partner turned out to be Allie, who was soon to become a part of the Remington family by marrying Cooper.
“Did you steal Cooper’s girl already?” he asked when he reached the dancing couple.
“Reece! I didn’t expect to see you here.” Allie stopped dancing long enough to give Reece a kiss on the cheek.
No, a party was usually the last place anyone expected to find Reece, the family stick-in-the-mud. “I came with Sara.” Just in case Max had any ideas about poaching.
Max looked a bit perplexed by that declaration, but Allie grinned widely. “Too cool. Wanna dance? Cooper’s all tied up with boat talk.” She nodded toward the ocean, where a group of men, including Cooper, were eyeing a beautiful cruiser that seemed to be made of more glass than anything.
“Sure, I’ll dance.” Dancing wasn’t his thing, either, but he took a fortifying gulp of beer and made himself do it. Tonight he was Party Man.
Allie shooed Max away. “Go ask her,” she said in a loud stage whisper. “I know you’re dying to.”
Reece set down his beer, anchoring the cup in the sand and hoping it didn’t get kicked over, then took both of Allie’s hands in a proper, sisterly dance. Someone had put an oldies CD in the boom box, so they hammed it up, pretending to do the jitterbug when neither of them had a clue how.
He watched Max from the corner of his eye, though. His cousin approached a raven-haired beauty who sat alone in a lawn chair, a darling, blond-headed toddler playing in the sand at her feet.
Max pasted on his patented, never-fail charming smile and looked as if he was going to work his magic on her. But at the last minute, the smile fled and he changed direction, heading for the keg instead.
“Who’s that woman?” Reece asked, nodding toward the quiet brunette.
“Jane. She lives on the boat next door to ours.”
“The one with the violent husband?” he asked with some alarm. The day he and his cousins had arrived in Port Clara, Max had made the mistake of flirting with someone named Jane whose husband had taken exception and punched him in the face.
“Not to worry. The husband is soon to be an ex. The divorce is almost final.”
“And are you trying to play matchmaker? ’Cause Max always steers clear of single moms.”
“Really? Why is that? He doesn’t like kids?”
“It’s more that he’s uncomfortable around them. He dated a woman once who had a little boy, and every time they went out, they had a three-foot chaperone. Left a bad taste in his mouth.”
“Ah. Well, that’s a shame. They look nice together.”
Jane’s eyes followed Max to the beer, and Reece suspected some mutual chemistry at work. “Best not to encourage it,” he said. “Max is a great guy, but he plays the field. If Jane is smarting from a divorce, she doesn’t need games.”
“She’s not about to get serious, either,” Allie said. “If she and Max could have a little fun without everything getting heavy, I think it would be a good thing.”
Reece didn’t argue further, because he made it a policy never to dabble in other people’s relationships.
“Hey, you stole my date!” Sara was right at his elbow, grinning.
“You can have him back. He’s wearing me out. Thanks for the dance, Reece.” Allie stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek again, then drifted off.
Sara leaned on Reece’s shoulder. “How ’bout it, sailor? Wanna dance?”
Not really. What had seemed a harmless, low-pressure activity with Allie was altogether different with Sara. He couldn’t hold both her hands as he’d done with Allie-that was far too brotherly. But if he took her in his arms like he wanted to, he would be expected to actually dance.
Sara solved the problem by hooking her arms around his neck and placing her bare feet on top of his shoes.
Deciding to go with the flow, he slid his arms around Sara, holding her close, and moved to the music, which was thankfully a slower song, an Elvis ballad.
She looked up at him, eyes bright. “Are you having fun?”
“I am now.”
“I love parties. Don’t you?”
“Not so much.”
“Really?” She seemed shocked that anyone wouldn’t enjoy something she clearly thrived on. “How come?”
He could have told her he was a classic introvert, that he preferred the company of a few close friends-or even solitude-to a big crowd, or t
hat being surrounded by loud noise and confusion frazzled his nerves.
Instead he said, “Because I don’t want to share you.”
That made her smile. “Well, okay then.”
She laid her head on his shoulder and let her fingers play with the hair at the nape of his neck.
Time stood still as he held her so close they moved as one, inhaling the vanilla scent of her hair, feeling her breasts rise and fall as she softly breathed.
But the song ended and someone had the gall to follow the ballad with hip-hop, something with a rowdy beat and nasty lyrics.
Sara stepped off his feet and looked up at him. “Thank you, that was lovely.”
Reece thought quickly. How could he hold on to the mood? Get her alone. Well, duh. It was hard to maintain intimacy in a big crowd where the music was so loud they could barely talk. Whatever birds were being “protected” here had probably flown their nests and headed for South America.
He grabbed her hand. “Come with me.”
She nodded, picked up her purse and her drink, and followed without hesitation, which said something about her level of trust. Or maybe it just said she thought he was harmless.
Hand in hand, they walked up the beach, still heading north, until the party sounds became muffled.
“Sorry if I’m taking you away from all the fun,” he said, pausing to look out over the water. A ship, all lit up, was heading north, also, probably toward Galveston or Houston.
“As far as I’m concerned, the fun’s here. I take it with me wherever I go. Hey, that’s a cruise ship. Have you ever been on a cruise?”
“Me? God, no. I get seasick, remember?”
“I’ve never been on a cruise, either, but I’ve applied for jobs with all the major cruise lines. I could see more of the world that way.”
The thought of her hopping a cruise ship troubled him. She would be completely inaccessible then. It was the one place he couldn’t follow her.
Follow her? Where had that come from? He had a life back home. It was all planned out. He had a damn fine salary, a home, his family, a history. Was he thinking he would chuck it all and go knocking about the world with Sara, living on love? That sort of fantasy was for fools.
“Have you done much traveling?” Sara asked.
“Not much. I went on vacations with my parents when I was a kid-mostly to golf resorts.” His dad-and later, Bret-would play golf all day; his mother would spend hours at the spa; Reece would be entertained by a babysitter. When he went to Hawaii, he saw nothing but the inside of the hotel and the swimming pool.
“I’ve never stayed at a resort. Is it nice?”
He shrugged. “It’s okay. The best part was ordering room service. I could get exactly what I wanted.”
“Hamburgers and French fries for every meal?”
He laughed. “Pretty much.”
Once the cruise ship slipped from view they started walking again. The beach petered out, turning from sand to rocks, so they headed inland toward the dunes.
“Let’s look for shooting stars,” she said.
Reece eyed the nearest sand dune dubiously. His clothes were still damp, and if he sat in the sand he would be coated in the gritty stuff.
But Sara had that covered. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small ball of wadded-up fabric. To his amazement, when she shook it out it was the size of a blanket.
“So we don’t get sand all over us.”
He helped her spread the fabric at the edge of the dune. It was as thin as tissue paper. “What is this?”
“It’s from India-isn’t it wonderful? Batik silk. I never go anywhere without it because it comes in so handy.”
“You’ve been to India?” he asked as they settled onto the cloth. He leaned back against the dune and looked up at the stars.
“Once. It’s an amazing place, both beautiful and harsh. Tracy and I have talked about going back. She wants to do an intensive yoga study there.” She sighed. “But there’s not enough money right now.”
Reece had never had even a fleeting desire to visit India-or even an Indian restaurant. But hearing the wistfulness in her voice, he wished he could take her there.
That was the kind of guy Sara needed-someone who would take off for India on a whim.
They both lay back against the dune, gazing up at the crystal clear sky. No wonder Remington Charters’ stargazer cruises were so popular. The stars here were amazing.
But the woman next to him was even more so. As her eyes scanned the heavens for her much-hoped-for shooting star, Reece’s eyes scanned her. She was so beautiful, it made his heart ache and other parts of him misbehave.
He wanted to kiss her again. But a woman like Sara-so open with her affections-probably had trouble with guys pushing themselves on her, when maybe all she wanted was to share a nice view of the ocean. If he weren’t a decent guy, she could be in big trouble right now.
“There’s one!” she cried excitedly, pointing toward the sky. “Did you see it?”
“I was looking at you,” he admitted.
She turned to him, her mouth parted slightly in her excitement. “You have to watch, or you can’t make a wish.”
“Did you make a wish?” he asked.
“Well, I started to wish for a trip to India,” she said. “But then I realized there’s something else I want more.”
“What’s that?”
Her eyes burned with sudden intensity. “You.”
Reece’s mouth went dry, and he realized he was the one in trouble.
Chapter Eight
Sara held her breath. Had she really just said that? Oh, she just couldn’t help herself. From the moment they’d run to catch the trolley and had landed on the seat together, laughing and out of breath, to chasing each other and the almost kiss just before getting soaked, holding hands, dancing, talking…
Everything he said, everything he did, made her want him more.
She knew she was being forward, which was what Allie had suggested. She claimed that Reece was enough of a gentleman that he wouldn’t come on to her unless he was sure she absolutely welcomed his attentions.
Well, he shouldn’t harbor any doubts now. She’d made herself pretty clear.
Reece stared at her for several heartbeats, and then suddenly she found herself flat on her back. Reece had her shoulders pressed into the ground with his hands, and he loomed over her like some kind of ocean god.
“You drive me absolutely wild, woman, I hope you know that.”
“That’s kind of the idea, right?”
In answer he kissed her. Not the slow, teasing, sensual kiss he’d treated her to the other night, but a high-energy hurricane of a kiss. His mouth was hard on hers as he held her a willing prisoner against their makeshift bed.
Her body came alive, instantly hot and ready, clamoring for his touch. She had never wanted any man the way she wanted Reece Remington.
She could smell the salt on his skin, mixed with the heady scent of sandalwood soap-the soap she herself placed in his shower whenever she cleaned his room.
Sara ran her hands under his shirt along the smooth skin of his back. He groaned deep in his throat every time she moved, no matter where she touched.
But he wasn’t touching her in the same way. Other than his feverish kiss, and hands on her shoulders, he hadn’t touched her. She took his right hand and boldly guided it onto her breast.
That was all the encouragement he needed. Then his hands were all over her, touching her everywhere, through her clothes, under her clothes. He pushed her blouse above her breasts, puzzled briefly over the front clasp of her bra, then unfastened it. He pressed his face against her bare breasts, rubbing the hard nipples against his jaw, letting his slight beard stubble abrade them.
She nearly came out of her skin. No man had ever done that before. But Reece, overcome with passion though he was, was still attuned to her feelings. That knowledge gave her a warm glow deep inside her chest that had nothing to do with the actual lov
emaking.
Her clothing began to feel like a straitjacket, and she pushed Reece away long enough that she could drag the blouse over her head and shimmy out of the skirt.
“Oh, Sara.” His voice was rough with emotion, and to her surprise her eyes welled up slightly with feelings she couldn’t even name. What had started as something of a game with Reece, seeing if she could get him to lose control, had become much, much more.
She wasn’t simply a conquest to Reece. This wasn’t just two people coming together as consenting adults and enjoying each other’s bodies. This was making love in the fullest sense of the term.
Reece yanked off his shirt; the rest of his clothes soon followed and they were skin to glorious skin, wrapped around each other until Sara couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. His arousal pressed against her belly, and she thought she was going to pass out if he didn’t do something with it soon. She spread her legs and wrapped them around his hips in silent invitation, just in case he had missed the fact she was ready-more than ready. She was insanely ready.
He sheathed himself inside her in one stroke, and for several moments they both were exquisitely still, enjoying every nuance of this new, more intimate joining. Her body stretched to accommodate all of him, and he pushed in even deeper, to the very heart of her.
This was all she needed. When he renewed his kisses she felt the first tingles of what she knew would be a massive climax, one that in all honesty had started hours ago.
He began to move then, slowly at first, and the tingles in her body built in intensity, growing into ripples and then waves and waves of pleasure as his rhythm increased and his thrusting became more frenzied.
She sobbed, completely overwhelmed as she crested. Reece’s body convulsed with one final, deep thrust, and then he slumped against her, whispering her name over and over into her ear.
He rolled slightly to the side so he wasn’t pressing his entire weight into her, but not enough to pull their bodies apart. She didn’t want him to withdraw. She wanted to stay like this indefinitely as the waves of pleasure diminished, leaving in their wake a warm glow.
