As he spluttered and cursed, she promptly took the catch, then waved the ball under his nose. ‘Caught like a girl, I believe.’
Sitting in the sea, elbows on his knees, he smiled blandly up at her. ‘Well played.’
‘I thought so.’ She turned to throw the ball back to the bowler, then yelped as she felt a pair of wet hands slide under her legs and lift her up.
He wouldn’t.
His dark eyes danced mischievously, and the bland smile turned into a grin of pure evil as he strode further into the sea. Then dumped her into it.
She screamed, letting out a string of swear words as she staggered to her feet.
‘You squeal like a girl, too.’ He tossed back his head and laughed – a full-on belly laugh that drew more of a gasp from her than the cold dunk in the sea.
Ryan Black was attractive when he was snapping angrily or brooding silently in his office. With his face lit up with laughter, wet T-shirt clinging to the muscles of his chest, he was far more than attractive.
He was dangerous.
Damien had hurt her, but this man? If she let this man get any closer, she was afraid he could destroy her.
He reached out a hand. ‘Come on, boss.’ His grin held a touch of wicked. ‘Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.’
Despite the chill, a warmth settled in her stomach, fanning out to the rest of her body. If she let him get closer? Who was she kidding? Right from that very first night, when she’d thrown off her caution and taken him back to her place, the choice hadn’t really been hers. There was a saying, something about the heart wanting what the heart wanted.
She had to hope this was only her body doing the wanting. That her heart would, please God, remain safely protected behind the wall of hurt Damien had created.
Chapter 19
Ryan was sitting round a fire pit on the beach with the rest of the team feeling mellow; lapping waves, a gentle breeze, the crack of the fire, a cool beer in his hand. He’d changed into dry clothes after his unplanned dunking, as had Sam, though he hadn’t had a chance to speak to her since she’d taken his hand and allowed him to lead her out of the water. Mainly because Becky had rushed over to them and given him the evil eye while she’d flapped all over her friend. Deciding to take the path of least resistance, he’d quietly retreated.
Did he deserve Becky’s condemnation? Had he felt guilty seeing Sam wet and shivering? A bit, maybe, but she’d started the whole dunking episode. Maybe a gentleman wouldn’t have retaliated, but Ryan reckoned today’s world was all about equality. He’d happily take a woman running the country, a woman boss, but he wasn’t going to take a woman dumping him in the sea and then getting arsy when he dumped her back.
To be fair, it was Becky who’d got the hump with him. Sam might have shaken her head as he’d tugged her out of the sea, but he’d seen the amusement in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks. She hadn’t minded. Just as he hadn’t minded her pushing him over.
He figured if she didn’t like him, she wouldn’t have done it.
Not that he wasn’t still cross with her over Alice, he reminded himself as he deliberately kept his eyes on the fire, so they wouldn’t stray in her direction.
Slowly people began to leave, pleading tiredness. Soon only he, Sam, Lucas and Kerry remained.
Kerry was clearly drunk on fresh air, exhaustion or alcohol – or maybe all three. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t stop talking.
‘Best part of the day?’ she demanded.
‘Easy.’ Lucas batted his eyes in Ryan’s direction. ‘Finding I’m sharing a bed with Ryan.’
‘Sharing a room,’ Ryan corrected quickly, which set Kerry off on another round of giggling.
‘Same question to Ryan,’ she announced when she’d stopped long enough to draw breath.
Immediately a show reel of images flashed through his mind. Walking with Sam along the cliffs. Watching her as she’d held court at her end of the table at dinner, all warmth, humour and spellbinding self-assurance. Seeing her rise like a bedraggled mermaid out of the water after he’d dunked her.
Clearing his throat, he glanced back at Lucas. ‘Finding the room I’m being forced to share with Lucas has two single beds set at least three metres apart.’
Three months ago, there would have been a strained silence at his cutting words. Now there was laughter. Was it hopeful thinking, or were these people were finally starting to get him?
‘Your go, Sam,’ Kerry prompted.
Ryan’s gaze shifted over to Sam, and when her eyes met his, she gave him a slow smile. ‘Shoving Mr Black into the sea.’
Another round of laughter, louder this time.
‘That was my favourite, too,’ Kerry said and giggled. ‘Not so much the shoving, more the part when he walked out with his wet T-shirt clinging to his chest. I mean, I always thought he looked fit, but wowzer. He’d give Magic Mike a run for his money.’
Ryan shifted awkwardly. ‘I am here.’ He wasn’t averse to being ogled – heck, he was flattered – but this was Kerry. Cheery, sweet. She was going to be mortified tomorrow. And he wasn’t going to know what to say to her.
Kerry slapped a hand over her mouth. ‘Oops.’
Lucas leapt to his feet. ‘I think it’s time we headed back. Big brainstorming day tomorrow.’ He clasped Kerry’s hand and pulled her to her feet. ‘Come on, sweetheart. You can make sure I get back safely. We’ll leave Ryan and Sam to sort out the fire.’ Just as Ryan was about to give Lucas points for tact, the guy glanced over his shoulder at him. And winked.
Quiet descended as they strolled off, the sounds of Kerry’s giggles growing fainter and fainter until all Ryan could hear was the roll of the waves and the crackle of the fire.
‘That’s him being subtle.’
‘As a brick.’ Ryan’s pulse hammered as he looked at Sam, desire burning through him. Christ, she was sexy, sitting there with her legs crossed, her red hair tumbling around her shoulders. The light from the fire making her eyes appear luminous.
‘I guess we should put out the fire.’
The irony of her words wasn’t lost on him. The fire in his blood would be a hell of a lot harder to extinguish. If he felt her naked body tremble around him just one more time, could that be enough? ‘Why the rush?’
She didn’t answer him straightaway. It was almost as if she was having her own internal battle. ‘You and me, out here together. People will talk.’
‘You really care that much about what they think?’
She looked at him as if he’d just asked her a stupid question. ‘You have to ask, given my relationship history? Of course I do. You don’t?’
‘I used to.’ He poked at the fire with a long stick, causing sparks to flurry around them, bright red against the inky night. ‘It screwed with me for a while. Now I think, stuff ’em. There are only a couple of people whose opinions I value. My mum.’ He raised his head to look at Sam. The woman who only a few hours ago had thought he was being mean to Alice. Yeah, that had really, really stung. ‘And you.’
Sam looked taken aback. ‘Me?’
‘Yes.’ He tried to shrug off the crushed feeling in his chest. ‘I tried not to care, but it seems I do.’
Shock was the first thing she experienced, quickly followed by something akin to a swarm of butterflies flapping in her stomach. ‘I’m not sure what to say.’
He gave her a small, dry smile. ‘Doesn’t usually hold you back.’
God, he was gorgeous. Arms hugging his muscular legs, swarthy dark looks glowing in the firelight. ‘If you value my opinion, you need to know what I thought when I came up to you and Alice earlier.’
His jaw tightened. ‘Forget it.’
‘No, I won’t. I can’t.’ She was supposed to be good at reading people, at dealing with them, so how did she keep getting it so wrong where Ryan was concerned? ‘In a way you were right, I wouldn’t have come over had it been Lucas or Becky talking to Alice.’ He flinched, and she reached out to touch his arm, her eyes drawn to the sca
ttering of dark hairs that added to his powerfully masculine vibe. ‘That doesn’t mean I thought you’d upset her.’ His expression said do I look stupid? and she huffed. ‘Okay, you can be blunt, and I know Alice is sensitive, but that’s not the reason I intervened. I thought she might find it easier to talk to me.’
He stared at the fire for a few seconds before turning to face her. ‘You didn’t think I’d be any good handling a crying female?’
‘Just because I thought Becky, Lucas or I would have found it easier doesn’t mean I thought you couldn’t do it.’ She smiled. ‘After all, you coped with me just fine.’
He caught her eye and laughed softly. ‘More by luck than judgement.’ He paused, his face growing serious. ‘My father was a bully.’
Slowly his words, and their meaning, sank in. ‘That’s why you were so upset when I came up to you. You believed I thought you were bullying Alice?’ Emotion caught at her throat and this time when she touched his arm, she clung to it. ‘God, Ryan, no. A million times no. You speak your mind and when you work you don’t like to be interrupted. You can also be curt, but you’re not, I repeat not, a bully.’ He looked down at her hand on his arm, pale against his tanned skin, then nodded, once, though his eyes remained on the fire. ‘That’s why you said you didn’t miss him.’
‘Yeah.’ He reached for a stick and banged the fire back into life.
The ease, the lightness he’d carried with him earlier had vanished and he was back to brooding and quiet. At least now she was starting to understand the reason for that. Growing up with a bully of a father can’t have been easy.
‘How did your mum feel when he left? Did she love him?’
‘She must have done once.’ The fire cast shadows across his face, making it seem more angular. ‘But by the end she loved the drink more.’
Sam winced. A bully of a father and a mother who drank too much. ‘Does she still drink?’
His jaw tightened. ‘I’ve tried to get her to quit. She’s tried to quit. But she just …’ He shut his eyes, pain etched across his face. ‘She keeps going back to it.’
‘God, I’m so sorry.’ It explained her heart troubles. His worry for her. His reaction to the gambling app, because, like alcohol, it had the potential to be addictive.
Slowly but surely she felt her heart open up to him. There was so much going on beneath his blunt surface. So many layers she was starting to reveal.
And so many reasons why she didn’t want to push him away any more.
They fell into a companionable silence, her hand still on his arm. Now they weren’t talking, she was fully aware of the strength beneath her fingers. The warmth of his skin. How much she wanted to slide her hand down to clasp his.
He must have read her thoughts because when he turned to look at her, his eyes flared. ‘Sam.’
Her name on his lips sounded full of heat, of longing, and her heart began to race. ‘The sensible thing to do right now,’ she whispered, ‘is head back.’
He nodded, but his gaze skimmed her face, searching. ‘Fuck sensible.’
His bluntness made her laugh. ‘That is one option.’ Unconsciously she leant into him, resting her head on his shoulder. ‘What about tomorrow morning?’
Finally, a return of his wicked grin. ‘I’m game for a repeat if you are.’
Laughing again, she nudged his side. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘We’re on a beach, Sam. Just you and me. No job titles, no office.’ He bent his head, his mouth a tantalising few inches from hers. ‘It’s not as if it’s the first time.’
‘All true.’ Yet nothing about sleeping with him would be simple now.
As she was bombarded with conflicted thoughts his mouth touched hers and a bolt of lust surged through her. Even as she fought to stay in control, to keep it at just a kiss, she found herself lying back on the blanket, his large frame leaning over her, hands caressing, lips nibbling, tongue dancing with hers. She heard a faint moan, her, then a deep, husky groan. Him. The sound sent further heat rushing into her blood.
Chest heaving, he drew back a little, dark eyes smouldering, reflecting the flames from the fire. ‘Tell me you want this.’
‘I want you.’ When she stripped everything else away – the fear of falling for him, the fear of another relationship going up in flames, all under the bright glare of the office – that was the simple truth.
He groaned again, his mouth finding hers with more urgency now, his warm hands unbuttoning her blouse and smoothing over her stomach, then up to her breasts. ‘God help me, I can’t get enough of you, Sam Huxton.’
She arched her back as his mouth moved to her breasts, sucking them over her bra. ‘Are we really going to do this?’ she panted. ‘In the open. On a sandy beach.’ His answer was to slip the blouse from her shoulders, and then undo the clasp of her bra. ‘I guess we are.’
He stopped for a second to stare down at her. ‘You really think a bit of sand is going to stop me?’
Mesmerised by the hunger in his expression she slowly reached for the button on his shorts. ‘I guess we’d better get your clothes off, too.’
‘Hallelujah.’ With that he lifted his T-shirt over his head, the glow from the fire playing across his rippling muscles. Her breath caught, eyes drinking in his rugged beauty, and his lips twitched. ‘Still think I’m nicely packaged?’
She smiled, remembering that first time. Then he’d been an exciting stranger. Now he was a man she’d cried on. A man she’d opened up to. A man she’d hit, managed to upset, yet who somehow still wanted her. Reaching out, she ran her hand across his hard pecs, feeling the rough dusting of dark hair, the smooth heat of his skin. As she lowered her hand to his taut stomach his muscles tensed, and his breath came out in a hiss. ‘I think you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.’
He laughed, low and seductive. ‘Thank you, though we’ve already established I’m only the second man you’ve slept with. Still, it means I’m better than your git of an ex, so I’ll take it.’ With that he shrugged off the rest of his clothes, reached into the back pocket of his shorts for his wallet and gave her a dry smile as he pulled out a condom. ‘Remembered where I put it this time.’
At the sound of the packet tearing, an unpleasant thought ran through her – unfair, too, because they weren’t dating. She hadn’t offered anything beyond now. Catching her expression, he reared forward and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. ‘You’re the last person I slept with, Huxton,’ he told her fiercely. ‘You’re the only woman I think of.’
Delight and smug satisfaction coiled in her belly. ‘Good to know.’
In a flash he’d sheathed himself and was lying on the blanket, lifting her up and onto him. ‘Don’t want sand rubbing against your fine backside.’
She rolled her eyes, gazing down on him. Hair messed by the sea and the wind, lips curved in a crooked smile, dark eyes devouring her. ‘I call you beautiful, but my backside only merits a fine?’
He shifted his hips, causing her to gasp. ‘Thought you’d be all over the word “fine”. Fine as in the wine. Outstanding quality.’
Clasping his hands around her waist he started to move beneath her. Sam let out a moan of deep, sensual pleasure, losing herself to the moment, to the romance of the setting.
And slowly but almost inexorably, to him.
Chapter 20
Ryan woke gradually, slowly realising where he was. Not in his big bed, in his crummy flat, but crammed in a small single bed, in a freshly painted room. The walls were decorated with paintings of the sea, an artfully distressed set of drawers stood by the window. And a man stared at him from the bed across the room.
‘You made it back then.’ Blond hair flopping messily over his forehead, Lucas raised himself up on his elbows.
‘Obviously.’ Memories from last night flooded back to him. The feel of Sam’s lithe body. The way she’d moved over him, her hands sliding over his chest. His body twitched and he shifted in the bed, desperately blocking an
y further images. Bad enough waking up in the same room as a bloke. No way would he add hot and aroused to that scenario.
‘Took your time leaving the beach though, you and Sam,’ Lucas added pointedly.
Ryan rubbed his eyes, both to wake himself up and to avoid looking at Lucas. ‘How do you know Sam didn’t come back earlier?’
Lucas laughed. ‘Come on. You think I wasn’t messaging Becky? She’s staying in the room next to Sam.’
Ryan tucked that information away for future reference. If – and he knew it was a big if – he saw Sam tonight, make sure to get the right bedroom.
‘So?’ Lucas persisted. ‘Anything to tell me?’
‘Yeah.’ He skimmed his eyes deliberately up and down the part of Lucas that was exposed above his duvet. ‘Nice pyjamas.’
Lucas frowned down at the blue-and-white striped top he was sporting and then glanced pointedly at Ryan’s bare chest. ‘Some of us show appropriate decorum when sharing a room.’
Ryan chuckled and eased his long legs out of the cramped bed. ‘Chill. I kept my boxers on especially for you.’
‘I wouldn’t have complained if you’d taken them off for me,’ Lucas countered, making Ryan laugh even harder.
‘You’re all talk, Baker. You wouldn’t know how to handle me.’
‘If you gave me half a chance, I’d show you,’ Lucas muttered, then sighed and sat up. ‘All of which conveniently sidetracks me from my original question.’ He gave Ryan a hard look. ‘What happened with you and Sam?’
Ryan rolled his eyes in an effort to appear casually unfazed by the question. ‘She’s your friend, ask her.’
‘I will.’ Lucas’s expression turned serious. ‘I like you, Black, I really do. And as I said earlier, a hot affair could be just what Sam needs. But know this. If you hurt her, I’ll throttle you with my bare hands.’
Ryan flashed him a grin. ‘I’ll consider myself warned.’
Lucas didn’t smile back. In fact, the look he gave Ryan reminded him of a tiger, snarling to warn potential predators away from her cub. ‘Don’t be fooled by my appearance, or my mild manner. When it comes to protecting those I love, I’m every inch a man.’
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