Light After Dark: Gansett Island Series, Book 16

by Marie Force

  “You’re doing great,” he said, his breath warm against her sensitive skin.

  “I’m going to crash if you keep that up.”

  “No, you won’t. I won’t let you.”

  Mallory wanted to lean back against him, to let him hold her up when the load became too heavy to carry on her own. For someone who prided herself on fierce independence, that thought alone should’ve made her think twice. But with him pressed against her, she couldn’t be bothered with anything as boring as thinking.

  “You got it?” he asked.

  “I hope so.”

  “I’ll be quick.”

  Because it felt so good to be held by him, she wanted to ask him not to let go. But she didn’t say that or anything when he left her in charge of the boat and went down to the cabin. Mallory had things under control until the sail caught a gust and the boat began to list to the side. “Quinn! What’s it doing?”

  “Heeling. Totally normal. Steer the boat into the wind if it becomes too much for you.”

  She did as he directed and marveled at how that slight adjustment righted the boat, but it also made the sails flap uselessly.

  “Too much,” he said. “Fall off a little bit the other way.”

  She made that adjustment and smiled when the sails filled, propelling them forward once again.

  “You’re a natural,” he said when he came up with a tray of sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies and bottled water.

  “Sure, I am,” she said with a laugh. “What do I do when we run out of water over there?” She nodded to the beach that was getting closer by the second.

  “We tack, which is the sailing term for turning. Let me show you how.”

  He walked her through the steps from releasing the main sheet—which he said was another word for rope—and turning the boat, and how to always watch out for her head when the boom came across the cockpit. “It’s too high to hit you on this boat, but that’s not the case on all boats. You haven’t lived until you’ve taken a boom to the skull.”

  “Sounds pleasant.”

  “It’s not. Trust me on that. You want me to take over?”

  “Not yet. I think I might be figuring it out.”

  He handed her half a turkey sandwich wrapped up in a napkin.

  “Thank you. You’re going to spoil me if you keep feeding me.”

  “I can live with that.”

  Brutus lay with his head on his paws, staring at Quinn, begging without making a scene. Quinn rewarded the dog’s patience with a big piece of sandwich and a handful of chips.

  “Something tells me that dog is frightfully spoiled.”

  “Ridiculously so,” he conceded. “And I make no apologies for it.”

  “Nor should you. He’s a good boy.”

  “He really saved me when I was at my lowest point after rehab when I was trying to figure out my next move. One of the nurses at the rehab facility suggested I get a dog when I was ready to. She said having a pet would force me out of my pity party and get me out for the daily walk I refused to take on my own. She was right about both those things.”

  “Nurses are wise, wise people.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that.”

  “I had a question after last night, too,” she said tentatively.

  “What’s that?”

  “Your family wasn’t notified when you were injured?”

  “They were, or I should say Jared was. He was listed as my family contact when I was on active duty. They knew I’d been injured. I just never told them the full extent of it.”

  “I’m still trying to understand why you’d choose to go through such an ordeal by yourself.”

  “I didn’t intentionally choose to go through it alone. It just sort of happened that way. At first it was about trying to save my leg, and then… After…” He sighed. “I felt like such a failure.”

  “Why? You couldn’t help that you got an infection.”

  “No, but I still felt a profound sense of failure afterward. All my medical training, and I couldn’t save my own leg. I’m not saying it was rational. It’s just how I felt, and I didn’t want anyone around me then.”

  “You were grieving.”

  “I guess. I’d also been away from home a long time by then—almost twenty years. I was used to doing things for myself.” He stood to take a closer look at where they were. “We’re going to need to come about again. You got this, salty dog?”

  “Yep.” Mallory pointed to the entrance to the Salt Pond, where the Coast Guard Station was located. “Can we go out there?”

  “It might be a little sporty outside the pond. You up for that?”

  “Define ‘sporty.’”

  “Windier, rougher, a little wilder.” He waggled his brows to punctuate the statement, and the double meaning wasn’t lost on her. Was exiting the pond a metaphor for walking on the wild side with him, too? And what exactly would that entail?

  Mallory decided she wanted to find out. “Let’s do it.”

  He talked her through the steps of navigating the boat through the narrow channel that took them out into open ocean, where the water was, indeed, sportier than it had been in the pond. Off in the distance, they could see a huge gathering of sailboats that Quinn told her was part of Race Week.

  “Let’s head over that way,” he said, pointing toward the northern tip of Long Island. “Out of the way of the racing.”

  It took all of Mallory’s concentration to keep the boat on course as they coasted over two-foot “rollers,” as Quinn called them. To her, they were waves. The wind and the sun and the salt air made for an exhilarating experience, not to mention the sexy man who was taking such pleasure in watching her sail the boat.

  “You really are a natural,” he said.

  “I don’t know about that, but it sure is fun.”

  “I’ve created a monster. I’ll never get my helm back.”

  “I’m totally hogging it. You want a turn?”

  “Nope. It’s much more fun watching you do it.”

  Mallory wasn’t sure what got into her when she said, “I’m not sure I’m doing it right, though. You might need to come over here and check my work.” As her not so subtle message registered with him, she took great pleasure in watching his brows rise above his aviators. It was all she could do to refrain from giggling.

  After standing and taking a second to make sure he was steady on his feet, he moved like a stealthy cat, circling the helm until he was behind her. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he said, “From what I can see, you’re right on course.”

  In for a penny… “I’m not so sure. You should probably take a closer look.”

  “Come to think of it, you might need a few adjustments. Here, let me help.” Pressing his body to the back of hers, he reached for her hands on the big chrome wheel.

  “That’s so much better,” Mallory said.

  His lips nuzzled her neck, setting off a chain reaction throughout her body. “You were doing fine by yourself, but this is definitely better.”

  And wasn’t that the truth? Being with him made her feel lighthearted and unburdened, two emotions that had been in short supply since her mother died and her life changed in ways she couldn’t have predicted. After being further upended by the loss of her job, the last thing she ought to be feeling was euphoric the way she did right now, with a hot guy wrapped around her as she steered a boat through choppy seas. She’d been doing okay on her own. But this… This was so much better.

  When she turned to tell him so, he kissed her, using his hand on her face to keep her there. She opened her mouth to his tongue and completely forgot that she was supposed to be steering the boat. The sails fluttered in the breeze as the boat foundered. Mallory couldn’t be bothered with righting it, and apparently, neither could he. She turned completely so she faced him, resting her hands on his hips as his arms encircled her.

  The boat bouncing in the waves jolted them apart and tested their balance.

  Instinctively,
Mallory held on tighter to him so he wouldn’t fall.

  He laughed when he assessed their predicament.

  “Don’t quit your day job to give sailing lessons, Doc,” she said, smiling up at him as he reached around her for the wheel.

  “No plans for that. Don’t worry.”

  “I was doing great until my teacher distracted me.”

  He kept one arm around her while he got them back on course. “In my defense, I was enticed by my sexy student.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure, you don’t. What do you say we head for calmer water and drop the anchor for a while?”

  “That sounds good to me.”

  He took control of the wheel but kept his arms around her as they sailed to the west side of Gansett and ducked into a little cove. “Be right back,” he said when he went to drop the sails and the anchor.

  Knowing now what she did about his ordeal with his leg, she marveled at the way he maneuvered on the boat. He moved carefully but didn’t let his disability hold him back. There was much to admire in that, she thought, watching him as he returned to the cockpit, where Brutus was still sound asleep and Mallory waited eagerly for whatever came next.

  Chapter 13

  “How’s this?” Quinn asked of the scenic little cove.

  “It’s beautiful.” The sun was warm, and the view of the rugged Gansett coastline exceptional.

  “I found this place a couple of weeks ago and have come here a couple of times.”

  “You do all this by yourself?”

  “Brutus is with me.”

  “You know what I mean. Do you ever worry about being out on the boat alone?”

  “No.”

  Mallory immediately regretted the question. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  He held out his hand to encourage her to join him on the seat. “You didn’t.”

  She took his hand and sat next to him.

  “I’m quite determined to do everything I did before as well as I did it then, and I’m getting there. The one thing I refuse to do is be afraid to do things because they might be hard, you know?”

  “Yeah, I do, and that’s a good way to be.”

  “So no, I’m not afraid to be out here by myself, but it’s a lot more fun with you along for the ride.” He tucked a stray hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind her ear. Keeping his eyes open and his gaze fixed on her face, he leaned in slowly to kiss her again.

  Mallory reached for him and ended up reclined on the seat with him warm and heavy—and hard—on top of her as he kissed her with desperate thrusts of his tongue. She responded in kind, her tongue caressing his, and buried her fingers in the fine silk of his hair.

  “Is this okay?” he asked, keeping his lips on hers.

  As she nodded, she knew he meant the position as much as the desperate nature of their kisses. “It’s okay.”

  “Good answer.”

  He tipped his head for a better angle and went back for more.

  They kissed until her lips were numb and the rest of her body on fire for him. She worked her hands under his T-shirt and explored his muscular back, making him tremble from her touch. Good God, the man could kiss, and he made excellent use of the rest of his body by moving against her suggestively.

  In the back of her mind, she thought perhaps she should put a stop to this or at least slow it down, but she couldn’t find one good reason to do either of those things when it felt so damned good to be held and kissed by him. She’d forgotten how fun it could be to start something new and exciting with a guy, especially one as sexy and interesting as Quinn.

  He withdrew slowly, continuing to tease her with his tongue and the slick movement of his lips over hers. “What’re you doing to me?”

  “Same thing you’re doing to me.”

  “You want to take this somewhere more comfortable?”

  “Like where?”

  “Have you ever made out in a V-berth before?” As he spoke, he covered her face and neck with kisses before returning to her lips.

  “Can’t say that I have.”

  “You’ve been missing out.”

  “So this is something you’ve done a lot of?”

  Smiling down at her, he shook his head. “Never on this boat.”

  “I hate to miss out on things.”

  Using his arms, he pushed himself up and off of her and then extended a hand to help her up. She took note of the huge bulge in the front of his pants and licked her lips in anticipation of what might happen next.

  Mallory followed him into the cabin, giving him an extra minute on the stairs. He seemed to have the most difficulty navigating stairs and big steps, such as the one from the dinghy to the boat or the dock to the dinghy. Otherwise, except for the slight limp, you’d never know he’d lost part of his leg. He’d adapted amazingly well, and his upper-body strength was obvious when he used his arms to propel himself onto the V-shaped berth that was his bed.

  When he extended his hands to her, Mallory stepped forward, took hold of his hands and moved into the space between his legs.

  “Hi there,” he said.

  “Hi.”

  “Welcome to my bedroom.”

  “It’s nice.” With navy accents and shiny wood on the walls, the small room had a cozy, nautical vibe that Mallory found charming.

  “You should’ve seen it when I first bought it. I had to refinish all the woodwork and recover all the cushions. It was a mess.”

  “You did a great job.”

  “It was a fun project. My brother and Lizzie thought I was nuts for taking this on at the same time I was overseeing the renovations at the facility, but this helped to keep me busy in my free time.”

  “You like to be busy?”

  He nodded. “Keeps me from thinking too much.”

  Mallory thought about that for a second. Was that why she’d always kept herself so frantically busy when she was working? So she wouldn’t have too much time to think about the things that hurt too much? Was that why her emotions, past hurts and new ones, had been so close to the surface in the last few months? Because she didn’t have the enormity of her job to occupy most of her waking thoughts?

  “What’re you thinking?”

  She shared her thoughts with him.

  “Losing your job was a big deal in more ways than one.”

  “Months later, I’m still figuring out all the many ways it was a big deal.”

  He released her hands and raised them to frame her face. “There’re lots of ways we can keep you busy so you don’t have too much time to think.”

  “Like how?”

  “More of this, for one thing.” He kissed her softly, gently, tentatively, as if it were their first kiss all over again, as if they hadn’t just been kissing each other’s faces off outside. The sweetness totally disarmed her and had her swaying precariously on her feet. “Does that take your mind off your worries?”

  “That takes my mind off everything, except you.”

  “Perfect. Come up here with me.”

  Using those strong arms, he scooted backward and made room for her to join him. Mallory kicked off her flip-flops, put aside her concerns about too much too soon and reminded herself that in the Summer of Mallory, there was no such thing as too much or too soon.

  *

  His pillows smelled like him and the cologne she would forever associate with him. He lay on his side, looking at her, seeming to wait for her to make the first move. Watching him watch her, Mallory decided that while this might be the Summer of Mallory, she wasn’t about to become someone totally different overnight.

  “What is it, exactly, that we’re doing here?” she asked.

  His eyes lit up with something resembling amusement, which she supposed was better than anger or disappointment that she would ruin such a moment with probing questions.

  “What do you think it is?”

  “You can’t answer a question with a question.”

  “Ye
s, I can. I just did.”

  She scowled playfully at him. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you always need to know what something means before you try it?”

  “Usually.”

  He curled a strand of her hair around his index finger. “What do you want it to be?”

  “I don’t know that either. I’m not sure I’m in a good place for it to be anything other than fun. I don’t even know where I’m going to be living in a few months—here or back on the mainland or what.”

  “That’s fair enough.” To his credit, he made no mention of the job offer. She appreciated that he wasn’t pushing her on that. Not yet, anyway.

  “Maybe so, but that doesn’t tell me what you want it to be,” she said.

  “Last night, after I got back here, I realized that was the best night I’ve had since before I got hurt. Being with you and your family and friends… It was good.”

  “It was a fun night.”

  “I haven’t done anything like that in a long time.”

  “Like what?”

  “A date in which I make an actual effort to get to know a woman—and her family, in this case.”

  “So what’s your normal routine?”

  “I haven’t had a normal routine in a couple of years, but before that, it was sort of hit and run. I deployed a lot, and when I wasn’t out of the country, I liked to party, among other things. The seeds for my addictions were sown long before I got hurt.”

  “What else besides booze and pain pills?”

  “I liked sex a little too much.” He looked directly into her eyes. “Is that a deal-breaker?”

  “Only if you haven’t dealt properly with it.”

  “I haven’t had sex in three years, if that tells you anything.”

  Three years? Holy cow. “Ummm, it tells me a lot of things.”

  He laughed—hard, harder than she’d seen him laugh yet. “Like what? Do tell.”

  “Like you must be about to blow.”

  That made him laugh again. “I’ve learned to control myself a lot better than I used to.”

  “What do you suppose was at the heart of that?”