by BJ James
But only briefly, for when he sighed heavily and would have reached for her, she danced away. Pausing only a hand’s length beyond his reach, she smiled, knowing full well that what her tantalizing had done to her was blatantly visible to the hot, fierce eyes that moved over her in a scorching gaze.
“Kate.”
He reached for her again. She danced away again.
“What the…?” Breaking off, raking an agitated hand through his hair, he stared at her. Long, hard, hungry. “What the hell are you doing to me?”
Kate’s smile was calm and innocent, but barely hid her delight in this new power. “I was seducing you,” she said in a voice that was seduction itself. “Now, having failed in seducing or distracting you, I’m going for a swim. A cold shower sort of swim.”
“Kate.”
As he called, he snatched at her shirt, but she was too quick for him. Halfway down the boardwalk, she turned. “Kate, Kate, Kate. For such an eloquent man, you do sound like a broken record.” Backing away, but keeping her gaze locked with his, she called boldly, “You know what your problem is, O’Hara?”
“No, Gallagher, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” She was beautiful there in the sun, teasing and laughing, happier than he’d ever seen her. It might be transient, only the heat of another moment, but if he’d given her this sense of uninhibited joy even for a while, he would cherish it, counting it the gift of fate.
He was smiling as he leaped to the boardwalk. His step was the measured pace of a stalking animal and in his fierce gaze lay challenge. “Well, darlin’? You were going to tell me about my problem.”
His prodding question jogged her from a mesmerizing fascination. Remembering the game she played, Kate mustered a saucy grin. “You’ve been so busy polishing your armor, you don’t know a dare, or a proposition, when it’s flung at you.”
His pace never altered. “You think I don’t, huh?”
“Nope.” With the rush of the sea at her back, and the sun long past its meridian, Kate watched as he came to her.
He stopped then, hooking his hands in the empty belt loops at the waist of his jeans. The little weight of his hands drew the faded denim dangerously lower. “Wanna bet, lady?”
“Do I wanna bet? Ahh…” Kate began to ease away, making ready for the final challenge. “Yes! I want to bet.”
Laughing, Devlin lunged, and this time he caught her shirt. But only because she’d tugged it over her head and thrown it at him. Bringing the purple cloth to his face, he inhaled a clean, irresistible scent of soap and sunlight, and Kate.
She was as naked as he when he caught her. With the surf swirling about them, and the undertow washing sand from beneath their feet, Devlin’s kiss was long and deep. When he drew away, taking the hand he offered, she went with him into the sea.
Ardor tamped, but not forgotten, the next hours were spent in quieter water beyond the breaking waves. Sometimes they swam against the tide, and other times drifted with it, catching a wave to the shore. Sometimes they rode the calm surface of deeper waters, hands linked, bodies touching. Other times they dived, skimming the sand, meeting for a kiss or an intimate touch. As they moved together with comfortable ease, if Devlin was more powerful, Kate was most agile, with one a complement to the other.
Once, as they strayed close to shore, a great blue heron stood at the edge of the surf, watching, one leg poised in a half-taken stride, his long neck preening, his black eyes riveted.
“Do you think he’s deciding whether or not we’re too much for his dinner?” Kate quipped as she floated into Devlin’s arms.
“Nah.” His hands cupped her breasts, his mouth nibbled at her ear. “He’s speculating about what a lucky devil I am.”
“Smart bird.” Laughing, Kate grasped his hair, drawing him down to her salty kiss.
“Jealous bird.” Devlin countered with a kiss of his own.
The sound of the engine reached them long before the shrimper rounded the curve of the island and set a straight course toward them. By the raucous quarreling of the gulls and the size of the pod of dolphins gliding in its swell, the catch had been good.
“We should go,” Kate said against his shoulder.
“No. There’s something I want you to see.”
“But the crew…” she protested with belated modesty.
“Let them see.” Brushing her wet hair from her face, he touched her cheeks. Recognizing that the color in her scraped cheeks was more than a blush. Soon the touch of sun would be more than a touch. “Let them guess what they want to guess, and know what they want to think they know. Above all, let them envy us.”
Nibbling again at her ear, he whispered, “Maybe then they’ll discover that after a long hard day they aren’t too tired to make love to their wives, after all.”
“Devlin!” The rest of what she might say was lost in the heavy thrum of the shrimp boat.
The engine quieted and slowed. The boat turned a little toward them, setting the water to bobbing and splashing furiously. In the melee, propriety would have been impossible were it not for Devlin’s arm placed strategically around her.
“¡Hola!”
The call came from the bow of the boat as it chugged slowly in a circle rather than its original hell-for-leather course home.
“Hello,” Devlin called. “Good catch, I see.”
“The best.” A loud guffaw followed the cheerful admission. “And you, too, I see.”
“Yeah!” Devlin agreed. “A mermaid.”
“Aye, yi, yi,” the captain called. “I’m new to this pretty American coast, I didn’t know she had the lovely creatures.” Amid cat calls and laughter from the grinning crew that lined the deck, he asked, “What bait did you use to catch this mermaid?”
“My bait? Ah, yes, my bait.” Devlin laughed softly. As the water continued to dash and splash, leaving little doubt that both he and Kate were swimming nude, he nuzzled her cheek and kissed her temple. “You tell them, darlin’.”
Suddenly Kate saw the humor in their situation. Not caring that these jovial men might see her naked, not caring that they might know beyond any doubt that soon this man who held her would make love to her, she joined in their amusement.
As if her laughter were permission that they might include her in their banter, one of the crew called to her. “ Sí, señorita, tell us of this bait, so we might catch a mermaid.”
From Devlin’s sudden wince, the pinch she delivered and its suspected target didn’t go unnoticed as she replied sweetly, “His bait? Why, his handsome face, of course.”
“Ahh, a mermaid of spirit. You are a fortunate fisherman, sir,” the captain called into the roar of more laughter from his crew. As they’d talked, the boat had come full circle. Now, with a touch to the brim of his cap and a smile that wagged his heavy mustache, he set a course for home. “You have made the end of my day a delight. Now I leave one for you. Adiós, amigos.”
Gallant that he was, the captain went slowly, the wake little more than when he circled them. When he was yards away and they were clear of any backwash, he set a speedier course.
Kate watched as the boat moved away, growing smaller. When the sea was quieter, as well, she repeated the captain’s promise. “‘Now I leave one for you.”’ Turning in Devlin’s arms, she asked, “What did he mean? What could he leave us?”
With a finger at her lips, Devlin whispered, “Wait, be very still and you’ll see.”
But when she complied, there was only the quiet sea around them. For the first time that day, time crept by slowly. When she grew restless, sending him a questioning look, he only touched her lips and shook his head again.
Kate was curious, even doubtful, but she did as he asked. With the late afternoon sun slanting down, and with water lapping at her bare breasts, the day was warm and comfortable. Giving herself up to the tranquil rhythm of the tides, she discovered waiting in Devlin’s arms could be more than pleasant.
The first subtle touch against her leg startled her, but g
iving her an encouraging embrace, Devlin reassured her. With the second touch, she understood.
The dolphins that followed the shrimp boat had stayed behind to investigate. Friendly, curious, half-tamed creatures, they swam and dived, and circled. Sometimes they swam at a distance. Sometimes close enough to touch her again. When they perceived these curious, alien creatures meant them no harm and grew braver, Devlin moved apart from Kate.
“Easy, now. Don’t make any sudden moves. Just hold out your hand and wait for them to come to you. Let them brush against your fingers, but don’t make any overt effort to touch them.”
There were three dolphins. Sleek, agile mammals, as curious as kittens. As playful. As gentle. Kate grew accustomed to the glide of smooth, rubbery skin against her body and her hands. In delight the captain had promised, she watched the graceful swimmers arcing through the long, unhurried curves, taking them down, then bringing them back to the surface regularly for breaths of air.
The smallest was most curious and a clown. His surfacing became more spectacular, with curling leaps and the slap of his tail against the surface of the water. Kate always assumed dolphins were gray, but in this wonderful and amazing proximity, she saw one with a combination of black and white, as well as the expected gray.
After a time, their curiosity sated, the larger dolphin swam away. Eventually, the smaller one followed.
“So,” Devlin asked when the water was calm again, “what do you think of our water-bound friends?”
“I think they’re wonderful. As you are. Thank you.”
“Thank the captain,” he demurred. “It was his special gift to my beautiful mermaid.”
Circling his neck with her arms, linking her fingers at his nape, she refused his humility. “The gift was yours. From the moment you saw the boat, you planned this. The captain was simply gracious enough to collaborate.”
“I didn’t plan, my love. One can never plan the actions of wild creatures. But I had hope.”
“How did you know?”
“That they might be curious and stay?” A bare, broad shoulder lifted from the water in a dismissing gesture. “I grew up on the Chesapeake, remember?” When he saw from her look the small deprecation wouldn’t work, he admitted, “I’ve worked with dolphins, in a place or two.”
Kate was beginning to wonder if there was anything Devlin O’Hara hadn’t done. Just as she was beginning to wonder how much of the wandering he admitted to was purely adventure. Kate was certain a heart as kind as his would demand he do more than chase the next thrill. That he must be more than an adventurer.
Since the dolphins left they’d been drifting with the current, which had taken them toward shore. In an unspoken agreement to call an end to the adventure, when they could stand comfortably, Devlin took her hand to walk with her through the surf.
“The little dolphin, was he a baby?” Kate asked.
“Not a baby, but he was young, probably less than two years. I assume he was still with his mother, whose care would have begun with that first nudge to the surface for his first breath.”
“How do you know?”
Devlin chuckled. “Not by any great magic. The calves stay with their mothers at least a year, and sometimes two, nursing the whole time. The little fellow looked pretty fat and sassy, so Mama must still be good to him.”
The surf was knee-deep, then ankle-deep. With a tug of their clasped hands, Kate drew him to a halt. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
“How did you know I would enjoy the dolphins so much?”
“A mermaid who studies birds and watches whales.” With a lift of a brow, he looked down at her, and when his lips tilted, it was in a smile burnished by the sun. “How could I not?”
“Yes, of course, however could you not?” Kate agreed in a soft voice. He knew, simply because he was Devlin.
When he turned to her, his hands circling her waist, Kate was at ease with his gaze sweeping slowly over her naked body. She welcomed the spark of passion kindling in his eyes. When he brought her back to him, she went eagerly, hungrily.
“Kate, sweet Kate, I didn’t mean this to happen. Not here. Not now,” he murmured against her throat. “We have to talk, there are things I must say. Things…”
Kate stopped the flood of words with a touch that brought his lips briefly to hers. Then, moving away a half step for a degree of sanity, she nodded. “Yes, there are so many things. Things we have to resolve. Things we have to say. Even things we must know.”
Catching a long slow breath, her voice a whispered plea, she said, “But not when you want me as much as I want you. Not when I want you now, Devlin. Here.”
The wordless sound he made as he reached for her was unintelligible. But it said what he’d never put into words. It said all she ever needed to know, as he swept her in his arms to take her to the small gazebo by the boardwalk, where she knew he would make love to her.
What need was there for the words? After all, this was Devlin, who gave her a rose and dolphins to speak his love.
When he stepped within the shade of the quaint and pretty structure meant to give comfort and pleasure to weary beachcombers, Kate wondered how many lovers had loved here, as well. As he let her body glide down his, the hard masculine planes a caress, his gaze keeping hers promised that no matter how many had sought this trysting place, none could ever have loved as Devlin and Kate.
This was their moment, their place. Time stopped. There had been no yesterday. There would be no tomorrow. There was only now. Only Kate and Devlin.
No lovers had lain together in the soft shadows. No gentle adventurer had ever drawn his lady down to a lover’s bower more beautiful than one of castaway jeans and a purple shirt. And when his body covered hers, seeking entrance, no lover had ever been more needed, more wanted. Never more loved.
When his lips traced the shape of her face, taking the mingled tastes of the salt of the sea and the sweetness of Kate on his tongue, no heart belonged more completely to another.
“Kate,” he whispered. Only her name, an endearment none could rival, spoken in a timbre humble and triumphant at once.
“Yes,” she answered, though no question had been voiced.
A single word that acknowledged every need and every desire. A word that held the key to Devlin’s heart and stirred his passion beyond any he’d ever dreamed.
Barely leashing the rampant hunger that seared his soul, his body embraced and sheathed in her and trembling with the force of his need, he lifted his lips from her kiss. Rising over her, as his bracing arms framed her face and his fingers stroked the wild silk of her hair from her brow, he looked down into the shimmering shades of the golden eyes of a tigress.
This was how she should look. How she would always look in his mind and heart. This was the look of love and desire, of passion and lust. This was the real Kate, lusty, uninhibited, wanton.
This was the look that forever sealed the fate of Devlin O’Hara. The look that swept away control, and decorum, and gentleness. As eyes as blue as a mountain lake darkened to midnight, recalling a memory and a teasing promise made the first night he made love to her, he whispered softly, a warning, a covenant. “This is someday, my beautiful golden eyes.”
There in a stranger’s borrowed gazebo, on a bed of clothing cast away in haste and with tenderness forgotten, Devlin, the gentle knight who could no longer be gentle, made fiercely passionate love to Kate.
And with the whisper of the sea as their song of love, and the setting sun bathing them in its fiery glow, no mating had ever been so sweet.
Nine
Three days. Devlin wanted three days to deal with the troubles that brought them to Summer Island, and to each other.
Kate had dealt with her own troubles in Devlin’s arms. But in the time he’d imposed, she’d done some thinking, better resolving issues from her past. When neither thought nor resolution would’ve been possible in Devlin’s distracting presence.
Smiling, Kate knew she could
n’t think of anything but Devlin when he was near. The afternoon of the dolphins and the gazebo proved that. Laughter that had been missing too long from her life rang out over an eerily quiet beach.
“A seductress.” Laughter became a musing smile. She wasn’t aware she knew how to seduce a lover. But she had. Just as Devlin never intended to make love to her. But he did.
“Wanton.” Kate chided herself, with no real shred of remorse. As she remembered untamed lovemaking on the sandy floor of a sunstruck gazebo, she knew that if their roles were reversed, the end would have been the same.
Then the need to deal with separate pasts intruded, and set them apart. But only for three days.
“This is the third.” Kate laughed aloud again, and was struck by the commonness of what had once been rare. She’d thought laughter was lost to her, until Devlin. Sobering, she wondered how many times she had said that litany. Until Devlin.
How many more times in her life would she say it again?
Countless, without question, for he was responsible for every good thing in her life. The days alone hadn’t been bad, because he filled her thoughts. From the moment he’d stepped into her life, Kate Gallagher, ever the loner, was different. Even her hours at the piano had changed. Though she played long into the night, the music was quiet, soothing. Because she was at peace.
The only blot on the days of waiting was a call from Jericho. A call proving her fears.
“Where are you, Tessa?” The soft query was lost in the shivering whisper of palmetto fronds. But Kate was barely aware of the sound or the errant breeze. “What’s happened to you?” she wondered. “Why can’t anyone find you?”
Mary would have provided for the child, Jericho had reminded her adamantly in the course of their telephone conversation. Yet, in nearly the same breath he’d cautioned her that neither police investigation nor electronic searches had turned up a clue. Despite a state and nationwide search that had come up empty-handed, he kept doggedly to his theory that, given Mary’s precarious health, she couldn’t have taken the child far. With each day, Jericho became more convinced the child was near. More convinced that time was all that was needed for Tessa to be found.
