“That sounds”—she paused, searching for the right word—“kind of depressing.”
“There’s also an eighteenth-century fort and Old Town and old sugar plantations.” Grant watched her carefully, gauging her reaction. “Or there’s always snorkeling or scuba diving.”
“Don’t we have to have a license to dive?”
“Not if we go with a certified guide. If you don’t want to do that, we could always... I don’t know... go shopping in St. Johns.”
He must really be desperate—Ava knew another shopping trip was almost the last thing Grant would do. Once, the summer before Ava started junior high, Seth had been tagged to take her to pick out a new pair of school shoes. Her brother had convinced Grant to go with them, and he had spent the whole time shifting from one foot to another, rolling his eyes and heaving huge sighs.
Apparently, though, lying on the beach for an afternoon was dead last on his list of desirable activities.
Adult Grant wasn’t quite so blatant as his teenage self, but under his recitation of possible activities, Ava sensed that teenager, impatient to be off doing more interesting things.
“Or there’s a cruise around the island. It takes you to all the best spots for diving. And includes lunch.”
Finally, she couldn’t hold back a laugh. “You’ve been hanging out at the excursions counter in the lobby since the last time I saw you yesterday, haven’t you?” She had seen the desk this morning and done her best to avoid temptation by avoiding its rack of brightly colored brochures.
“Maybe.” Grant ducked his head a little sheepishly, but grinned as he glanced up at her through his dark fringe of lashes.
Ava did a quick calculation. One of the reasons she had been able to come at all was the ability to stay in the all-inclusive resort, where her food and drinks were already paid for.
She had already put back the cash for her transfer to the airport at the end of the trip. If she didn’t buy herself a souvenir and waited until a week or two after she got home to get Seth and Kristin a wedding gift—rather than buying them something memorable on the island, as she had originally planned—she might have enough left over for one day-trip.
One of the cheaper ones.
Of course, that would mean giving up her snorkeling plans.
But Grant looked so damn hopeful sitting there.
By all rights, I should hate him.
But even the memory of that one night—and its aftermath—didn’t outweigh his presence. Everything about Grant drew her to him.
He’s exuding pheromones, or something.
It had to be something chemical, right? Ava couldn’t actually identify a smell associated with him, but she would know his scent anywhere. Warm and enticing and entirely male.
She drew in a deep breath, then realized Grant was still watching her.
But as usual, he hadn’t actually asked her for anything.
Well. The days when she would jump in to offer whatever he needed were long gone.
He can damn well ask, for once.
“Those all sound fun,” she said, tilting her face up to the sun for a moment before leaning back into the chair and letting the hat settle over her face, covering a mischievous grin.
“I thought so,” Grant said hopefully.
Ava let the silence draw out.
She bent one knee and stretched out the other leg slowly, rotating her ankle luxuriously, and buried her toes in the sand. Then she lifted up her foot just high enough to let the sand run back off them when she tilted it a little.
“So,” Grant said after a while, “do any of them sound especially interesting?”
Ava tried to keep the smile out of her voice, working hard to sound unconcerned. “I think you should do whatever appeals to you most.” She straightened her other leg and began digging it into the sand, too.
If he wanted her to go with him, he would have to be more specific.
From now on, everything with Grant Porter would be spelled out beforehand.
Ava would never again be surprised when he didn’t want the same things she wanted. She closed her eyes and continued running the sun-warmed sand over her feet.
Dig. Lift. Tilt. Again.
“Would you be interested in going with me?” he asked.
“I might be interested,” she replied airily. “Depends on what you do.”
Cracking one eye open, she glanced at Grant. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his dangling hands clasped loosely together. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, then said, in an overly precise tone, “If I pick an activity that interests me, would you be willing to go with me to do it?”
Unable to contain her laughter any longer, Ava sat up. “Yes. Of course. Go pick something. Then come back and tell me where we’re going and when.”
Grant jumped up to leave, a smug smile on his face. “You got it,” he said.
As he walked away, Ava couldn’t help but wonder what, precisely, she had agreed to.
Chapter 6
Ava gave the dive instructor a thumbs-up. He nodded and moved off to check on the rest of the group. Grant waved at her, his eyes bright and happy behind the clear plastic lenses of his dive mask. He pointed down at something on the ocean floor beneath them.
Ava scanned the dirt and rocks, but saw nothing. With a grin that crinkled his cheeks but left the regulator mouthpiece firmly in place, Grant waved her closer. She fluttered the fins on her feet and moved closer to the bottom, past long, wide fronds of seaweed waving in the ocean currents.
When she swam up next to him, Grant clasped her hand in his and then, so softly she wasn’t even sure it had made contact, he brushed the sand with their knuckles.
The sea-floor erupted in motion, the outline of an almost completely flat fish rising up and rippling away from them, its mottled brown coloring a perfect camouflage. Ava made a noise that on the surface would have been a squeal, but here produced little more than a squeak and a stream of bubbles.
Glancing around to find Seth and Kristin, Ava realized she couldn’t see anyone but Grant. Even in the clear, blue Caribbean water, visibility was limited. But the dive wasn’t deep, and Ava knew all she had to do was surface and one of the boat’s crew would help her.
She realized that she would feel safe even if there had been no one here but Grant. Even in this alien, underwater world, she trusted him to protect her. At least physically.
She wasn’t so sure she could trust him with her emotions. She had started to once, and he had walked away.
A flash of bright blue fin distracted her from her gloomy thoughts, and she tapped Grant’s arm, directing his attention to the school of tropical fish a few yards away, then flipping her own fins as she led him toward them.
When he had come back to her beach chair that morning, he had practically been bouncing, and his grin had turned from merely smug to almost insufferably pleased with himself. “Most of the tours were already booked solid,” he said, without preamble, then paused.
Ava blinked a few times as she tried to decide whether or not to play the game. “Okay,” she finally said. “Tell me what you found instead.”
“I talked to Seth and Kristin, and they’re going with us.”
“Oh, good,” she said.
“I found a scuba diving instructor and a private chartered boat to take us diving out on one of the reefs.” His grin widened, and she was again reminded of the boy he had been.
Panic bloomed in her chest at the thought of how much that was going to cost.
Maybe it won’t be quite as much split four ways.
Still, she wished she had put a price limit on the outing.
His next words eased the terror in her chest.
“I’m taking all of us out for the afternoon today as part of their wedding present.”
THEY HAD TRAINED IN the resort pool for some time that morning before heading out, the four of them laughing and splashing in between practice rounds with the scuba tanks, masks, gauges, and breathing
regulators.
Teasing Ava that morning, even for a few seconds, with the fear that she was going to have to shell out a lot of money for a private dive-tour hadn’t been Grant’s kindest move ever. It had taken him far too long to realize that her whole routine about whether or not she would spend the day with him had been an act, and he had planned to use her concern over money to get back at her a little, as he would have done when they were teenagers.
But the terror on her face had been enough to remind him that they weren’t children any longer, and he had moved quickly to reassure her that he was covering the outing.
He still felt guilty over the brief deception, and had been working all day to make up for it.
Now, as they swam together through the ocean, pointing out underwater wonders to one another, he was also thinking about his quiet revelation of the other day.
He did love Ava, and had for years. But there were things about her that he was just now learning. For one, Ava was a good travelling companion—she loved to try new things and never complained if they didn’t live up to her expectations. She hadn’t worried about going to find a new dress for the wedding. She had simply stepped up to the task and dealt with the issue.
She even made a game out of trying on some horribly inappropriate dresses.
Grant hadn’t been to The Chargrill since before that fateful New Year’s Eve, but he wondered if he would view her waitressing skills differently now. How many times a day did she solve minor problems, the kinds of things that other women might view as catastrophes, but that someone like Ava would take care of without blinking.
Those skills would come in handy no matter where she was.
She’s good at what she does. She could get a job waitressing anywhere.
Bubbles floated up around him as he breathed through the mouthpiece, watching a school of yellow fish with blue eyes swirl around Ava. Was he really considering asking her to go with him? To join him in his unpredictable life? He had started in his job as a petroleum engineer when the industry was booming. Now that the U.S. oil and gas industry was in a bust part of the cycle, he needed to take jobs as they came. It wasn’t stable, and before this trip, he wouldn’t have dreamed of asking Ava to join him.
But he hadn’t known how adaptable she was.
Or admitted—even to myself—how much I love her.
THE DIVE GUIDE WAS already chatting with Kristin and Seth by the time Grant and Ava made it back aboard the boat, and took them for their luncheon of traditional Antiguan food to what he called “a very private, very romantic beach,” with a wink at the bride-to-be and her groom.
Having finished eating their fungie—the local dish tasted just like polenta, Ava decided—along with the fish in mango sauce and fried plantains, along with what the captain called “provisions,” but appeared to be a kind of potato, the four of them were resting in the shade of several palm trees. The captain and his small crew had rowed them to shore, set out the food, then returned to the boat. Grant had the captain’s cell number and they were supposed to call when they were ready to leave.
The small beach was lovely. Antigua’s famous pink sand stretched to either side, and a steep cliff created a back wall that made the beach almost unapproachable except by boat. The only structure visible for miles was one of the hundreds of abandoned windmills dotting the island, a remnant of the sugar-cane industry that had dominated the island only a few hundred years before. On both sides, the beach ended in rocks that led to a series of small coves and shallow caves.
Private and romantic, indeed.
“Want to go for a swim?” Kristin asked Seth in a quiet voice.
“Sure.” He jumped up and took her hand. “And maybe a walk, too. We’ll be back later, y’all.” Without a backwards glance, the couple headed toward the water.
Ava’s heart thumped in her chest. This is it.
If she really was going to seduce Grant, this was the moment to do it—when Seth and Kristin were going for some alone time together.
Before I lose my nerve. Again.
“Want to head in the opposite direction from my brother and his bride?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
“Absolutely. I’m thinking we should try to get as far away from them as possible.” Grant’s grin didn’t match his slightly horrified tone. Ava was fairly certain she should trust the smile rather than the pretended shock.
She hoped so, anyway.
Until this moment, she hadn’t admitted, even to herself, how very much she wanted this to happen.
I didn’t know how much I wanted to have an adventure. I want to go home with some memory of a time I was wild, unconventional. A time I followed my heart instead of my head.
She took a bracing breath, surreptitiously checked to make sure the condom she had pulled out of her beach bag and secreted in the lining of her bikini top was secure, and stood up.
“Follow me,” Ava said, wading out into the water and striking out toward the farthest cove she could see—one that she had noticed earlier had no entrance except from the water.
She glanced back only once to make sure Grant was following her.
Chapter 7
I would feel a lot better about this if I had any idea at all how to conduct a seduction.
Finding this particular secluded spot was a good start. Now all she had to do was ... the actual seducing.
The shallow cave was perfect for her plan.
If only I actually had a plan.
She considered simply turning to him and saying, “Okay. Do me now.” The thought nearly made her laugh out loud.
I’m no good at this. Maybe I should just give up.
How had they ended up together last time?
Oh. Right. New Year’s Eve.
The clock had struck midnight, and what started as a chaste peck on the lips had spun out of control, turning into a passionate embrace. They had slipped away from the party without a word.
And then had the best sex of my life.
Maybe if she reminded him of that night, she could prompt him to kiss her again. Glancing up from under her lashes, she found Grant staring out at the ocean, his lips flat and hard.
Was he upset? “Are you okay?”
He jumped a little at the sound of her voice. “Yeah. Just trying to figure something out.”
What if he was trying to decide how to let her down easy? “Want to talk about it?”
“No.” He turned and pulled her into his arms. “Talking isn’t what I have in mind.”
“Oh,” Ava sighed, and sank into the embrace, tilting her mouth up to meet his. The heat of his lips slanting across hers sent chills racing down her spine, and her shiver seemed to move through her and into Grant.
He teased her lips open with his tongue, deepening their kiss, even as he reached up to remove the clip holding up her hair in a loose twist.
I’m not so sure I’m the one doing the seducing here, after all.
The soft trade winds blew her curls around them, and Grant pulled away long enough to brush strands of hair from her face and stare into her eyes. “This okay?” he asked softly.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured, standing up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him back down into another kiss.
Sliding his palm down her bare back and settling it in the small indentation just above the top of her skirt, he pulled her closer to him, molding her body to his until Ava couldn’t tell where she ended and Grant began.
The realization that he wanted this every bit as much as she did broke through the last of her reserves, and she met his heat with a fire of her own, pressing hard against him and smoothing one hand across his shoulder.
With a groan, Grant skimmed his mouth down the side of her neck, dropping tiny kisses along the way until he reached the hollow just below her collarbone. When he licked that spot, Ava whimpered, and she could feel him smile against her skin.
Then he was pulling aside her bikini top with one hand, pulling her tight against h
im with the other hand against her back, and drawing her breast into his mouth, running his tongue over her pebbled nipple.
Streaks of heat sparked from her nipple straight down, to pool in her abdomen, where it seemed to throb in time to her heart, every beat a pulse of sheer desire.
If she’d had any concerns about this before, they were lost in the sheer need she felt for him.
“Please,” she whispered, not even sure why she said it—but the single word seemed to act as a spur for Grant, who swept her up with both hands under her ass and lifted her from the ground, moving his mouth back to hers for another deep, tongue-tangling kiss.
Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist, crossing them at the ankle behind him, and tightened her arms around his neck.
Ava could feel him hard against her, their bathing suits between them an irritant. With tiny, inarticulate noises, she wiggled a little, as if by sheer motion, she could dislodge the fabric between them.
With a laugh, Grant shifted enough to free one hand, using it to pull something out of the waistband of his shorts, then shoving the suit down until it dropped around his ankles, and Ava tightened her thighs around him, as if he might, at this point, suddenly change his mind.
When he put his free hand up to his mouth, she realized he was ripping open a condom package with his teeth.
“Where was that?” she asked, laughter bubbling under her voice. “You didn’t take that snorkeling, did you?”
“I had it in my wallet. I just moved it to my pocket after lunch.”
This was definitely his seduction. He had come prepared, after all.
Then again, so had she.
“I have one, too, if you’d rather use it,” she whispered.
Grant’s only reaction was to finish ripping open the package and lift her up a little higher as he unrolled the condom over himself.
Loving Necessity: The Complete Necessity, Texas Collection Page 11
