The Backup Plan

by Sherryl Woods

  “This has nothing to do with your mother. I’m here because I thought we could spend a little time by the ocean. I find it soothing.”

  Dinah had always found the beach to be soothing, too. She told herself that was why she eventually caved in and said yes. Maybe the change of scenery would do what nothing else had. Maybe it would calm her and ease her soul.

  “I’ll be down in ten minutes,” she told Cord.

  He gave her a disappointed look. “Darn, I thought maybe you were going to let me hang around and get an eyeful.”

  “You wish,” she said, trying to hide the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. The man was outrageous, but he was beginning to grow on her. Of course, she didn’t trust him, but that hardly mattered because all they were doing was hanging out together.

  And her mother was definitely right about one thing. When she was with Cord, she actually did feel alive. The effect he had on her was rather remarkable. She was be ginning to wonder if he would agree to a wicked, no-strings fling. Something told her it would be memorable.

  And maybe that memory would finally be powerful enough to wipe out all the other devastating memories she couldn’t seem to shake.

  As they got closer to the sea, Cord noticed that Dinah visibly relaxed. The tension in her shoulders eased and a smile actually touched her lips from time to time. With her dark glasses covering her eyes, he couldn’t see if the usual turmoil was still evident there, but he was beginning to think he’d had a fine idea when Dorothy Davis had called to plead with him to get Dinah out of the house.

  He watched as Dinah leaned forward, clearly anticipating the moment when she would be able to catch her first glimpse of the water. When she did, she sighed with obvious pleasure.

  “We used to come out here every single summer for a month,” she told him. “Mother and Tommy Lee and me. Daddy would come when he could, usually on weekends and for maybe a week in the middle. Tommy Lee and I thought we’d died and gone to heaven because we were allowed to run around barefoot and wear our swimsuits all day long.” She gave him a sad look. “Life was so much simpler then.”

  “It usually is when you’re a kid,” Cord responded. “My best memories are of summertime. Of course, Bobby and I were lucky if we got to the beach even once, but we were allowed to spend all day away from home, riding our bikes, and steering clear of our father. In the morning, our mother would give us each a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and a dollar for something to drink.” He grinned. “We always split one drink and got a couple of Popsicles or a candy bar with the rest of the money.”

  “What did you do all day?”

  “Found some other kids and played baseball or just rode our bikes to the Battery and sat by the water. Once in a while we’d run into a kid from school who lived nearby and he’d invite us home for lunch. Actually, he’d invite Bobby, but Bobby would always say he couldn’t go without me. You should have seen the horrified look on the mother’s face when her kid showed up with us in tow. I’d have turned around and left, but not Bobby. He just assumed we truly were welcome and breezed right on in. Next thing you’d know, sure enough, he’d won over the mother. I envied him that ability to make people look past his upbringing.”

  “You could have done the same thing,” Dinah said. “Goodness knows, you don’t lack for charm now.”

  Cord chuckled. “It comes in handy from time to time,” he acknowledged. “Back then, though, it was a matter of pride. I wanted to be accepted for me, not because I knew how to kiss up to somebody.”

  “Was it hard?” Dinah asked. “I mean knowing that somebody had smoothed the way for you to be in our school, that some benefactor had paid the bills?”

  “I hated it,” he said succinctly. “But at least I wasn’t fool enough to turn my back on it. I had just enough sense to see that it was an opportunity I had to grab or I’d wind up losing way more than I gained.”

  “Is that why you took every opportunity to remind the rest of us we were a bunch of privileged snobs?”

  “Indeed,” he said. “I wanted all of you to know that I could have the same education you had, but I didn’t have to be you. I was determined to be my own man.”

  “Did you ever figure out who’d paid the bills?” she asked.

  Cord shrugged. “Never seemed to matter, though once I was older, I wanted to thank him. I tried to get the school’s administrator to tell me, but that old biddy was as tight-lipped then as she had been when I was causing trouble in her classrooms. Told me to be grateful and maybe pass along the kindness when I had the chance.”

  “That must have been frustrating.” She studied him intently. “Is there anything you regret about staying on the outside?”

  Cord gave the question thoughtful consideration. “I suppose if I’m being totally honest, I’d have to say it was lonely.” He grinned. “At least until a few of the girls decided to live dangerously and start going out with me.”

  “I imagine you loved that, not just the social life, but knowing you were driving their mamas and daddies crazy,” Dinah guessed.

  “Absolutely. What’s the fun of doing something wicked, if it’s not going to stir things up?”

  “Is that still your philosophy?”

  Cord glanced over at her. “Pretty much.”

  She lifted her gaze to his and for the first time he could recall since she’d come back, there was something bold and full of life flashing in her eyes. It caught him by surprise and set his blood humming.

  “Want to do something wicked with me?” she asked, her gaze unblinking.

  Cord couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. “What are you suggesting, Dinah?”

  “The beach is pretty private around here,” she said, her expression all innocence, despite the heavy innuendo in her tone.

  An image of steamy sex on a beach blanket immediately formed in his head and nearly had him swallowing his tongue. He needed to be absolutely certain, though, that he knew what she was suggesting. He couldn’t afford to get this one wrong. Heck, he even sup posed he needed to know for sure if she understood what she was suggesting.

  “What did you have in mind?” he asked. “And, please, be explicit, sugar.”

  “You don’t want to use your imagination?” she asked, opening the car door and heading off across the dunes after casting one, last tantalizing look over her shoulder.

  Cord’s imagination had gotten him in way too much trouble over the years. He wasn’t taking any chances this time. He grabbed a blanket and cooler from the back seat of the car and set off after her.

  Once he crested the dune, he began to find a very provocative trail of footprints and clothing. A sandal here, a scarf there. When he spotted the shorts and halter top, he dropped everything he was carrying and started strip ping off his own clothes.

  “Please tell me she had a bikini on under there,” he murmured as he got down to his own swimsuit. It was the noblest moment of his life. He knew if he walked into the ocean and found Dinah stark naked, he was going to turn the entire Atlantic into a steambath. He was already hard and aching. He needed her to be wearing…something.

  He splashed out in the water, grateful that it was still cold enough to bring his temperature down to a simmer. She popped up beside him, her shoulders completely bare, the water teasing at her chest which, thank heaven, was still submerged.

  “You certainly took your time getting here,” she said, moving closer, that diabolical glint back in her eyes.

  “Something tells me I had on more clothes than you did,” he said in a strangled voice.

  She grinned. “You certainly do now.”

  Cord thought desperately. Nobility was not what it was cracked up to be. He would have backed up a step, but his feet were surprisingly firmly planted even in the shifting sand.

  “What are you up to?” he asked warily.

  An expression of pure mischief spread across her face. “Cordell Beaufort, don’t tell me that reputation of yours is bogus. Surely you recognize when a w
oman is coming on to you.”

  “Oh, I recognize the signs, no question about that,” he said. “But since it’s you we’re talking about, I’m thinking maybe an explanation is in order.”

  She stared at him with evident surprise. “You want to discuss this?”

  “Not really,” he admitted candidly. “But I think we should.”

  “Kiss me and then we’ll talk,” she offered.

  “If I kiss you, believe me, it won’t be followed up with talking,” Cord warned her.

  She shrugged. “Okay, then. Kiss me, anyway.”

  “Dinah!” he protested, just as she closed the distance between them and plastered herself to his body like a barnacle attaching to a seashell. Desire shot through him with the force of a cannon. Dinah wasn’t wearing so much as a scrap of clothing, and his swimsuit could hardly save him from the effect of all that bare skin next to his.

  Before he could say a word, before he could even form a coherent thought, her mouth was on his, hot and greedy and demanding. She clearly wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  Maybe she needed this, Cord reassured himself. He sure as hell needed it. He’d been needing Dinah, wanting Dinah as far back as he could remember. He knew she couldn’t say the same, but did that really matter right here and right now? People made love for all sorts of reasons—lust, neediness, a way to forget. Would it be so terrible to take what she was offering without examining all the motives behind it, his or hers?

  She framed his face in her hands and looked into his eyes before he could find an answer to any of that.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Please make love to me. Don’t say no, Cordell. Whatever’s going on in that head of yours can wait. It’s not important.”

  Cord knew it was important, but in that instant, he also knew that he couldn’t deny her anything. The desperation in her eyes, the desire, the heat of her surrounding him, it was all impossible to resist.

  His gaze still locked with hers, he tugged down his swimsuit, lifted her slightly and plunged into her, joining them. There was an instant of stunned surprise in her eyes and then she began to move, taking what she wanted, her head thrown back, water streaming from her hair. She looked like a sea nymph, glorious in her passion, even more glorious when a powerful release shuddered through her.

  When she would have moved away, Cord held her in place. “Not just yet, darlin’. That one was for you. Now let’s do it one more time for the two of us.”

  The water slicked over them as his body found its rhythm. It was an extra sensation that he’d never experienced before, not even during some long and very provocative showers. Maybe it had something to do with the way the waves stirred around them so that her breasts played a tantalizing game of hide and seek. He cupped her bottom, tilting her hard against him, then plunged inside one last time, finally shattering the unbearable tension for both of them.

  Dinah went limp in his arms, her cheek resting against his shoulder. “That was…amazing,” she said, her voice still breathless.

  “Definitely right up near the top of the Beaufort scale.”

  She glanced up at him. “The Beaufort scale?”

  “Richter wasted time measuring seismic shifts in the earth. My scale measures another sort of earthquake entirely.”

  A grin tugged at her lips, even as she gave him a light punch. “You’re irredeemable.”

  “Could be,” he agreed. “But right at this moment, I’d have to guess you’re glad about that.”

  She met his gaze. “Yes, I am, but smugness is not an attractive trait, Cordell.”

  “Duly noted.”

  With her legs still wrapped around his waist and her hands linked behind his neck, she looked in his eyes. “Do you know what I’d like right now?”

  If it wasn’t more sex, Cord thought he might very well cry. “What’s that?”

  “That burger you promised me. I’m starving. It’s the first time in days I’ve felt like eating.”

  “Making love will do that to a person,” he agreed, hiding his disappointment. “Brings back all sorts of appetites. Of course, if you expect to go someplace for lunch, you are going to have to let go of me, get out of the water and put some clothes on.”

  “You’re not nearly as adventurous as you’re cracked up to be,” she accused.

  He looked her in the eye. “You think I’m stodgy?”

  She nodded, her lips twitching as she fought a smile.

  “Really?” He sighed dramatically. “Then I suppose I’ll just have to prove you wrong.” He headed for shore with Dinah still clinging to him. When he would have carried her right on to the car, she started laughing.

  “Okay, okay, put me down, you fool. I need to get my clothes.”

  “Then that was a test?” he asked, halting in his tracks, but still holding her in his arms.

  “Of course it was.”

  “Oh, sugar, you should know better than to test a man like me. If there’s a fork in the road and one way heads toward wicked, that’s the path I’ll take.” Still holding her, he bent down and snagged her panties, then the scanty halter top she’d worn. “What are these worth to you?”

  “You’re holding my clothes for ransom?”

  He grinned. “Pretty much. And just so you know, I hear voices.”

  “You do not,” she said, suddenly looking just a little bit worried.

  “If you don’t believe me, listen.”

  She fell silent. Within seconds the unmistakable laughter of what was more than likely a carload of teenagers drifted toward them.

  “Oh, my God,” she said, snatching at her clothes.

  “Oh, no, you don’t. You have to pay up first.”

  “You haven’t said what you wanted,” she said, beginning to look a little frantic. Her cheeks had turned a bright shade of pink that couldn’t entirely be attributed to the sun.

  “Come home with me tonight,” he said. “Stay with me.”

  Her gaze faltered. “I don’t know, Cord.”

  “We just made love in public, twice as a matter of fact. Is it so much to ask that we try it in a nice, comfortable bed?”

  “It’s not the idea of sex with you that worries me,” she admitted, her brow furrowed.

  “Then what? And just so you know, the car’s engine just cut off.”

  Alarm flared in her eyes. “It’s the implication,” she said in a rush. “This could get complicated, especially if we let this start to mean something.”

  “It does mean something,” Cord replied quietly. “At least to me.” He pushed the clothes into her hand. “Put these on and we’ll finish this conversation over lunch. You can bring up the whole trust thing and tell me again how I ruined any chance of you ever trusting me when I told Bobby that lie to keep the two of you apart. That was ten years ago, Dinah. I like to think I’m a different man now.”

  A tiny flicker of guilt nagged at him even as he spoke. He could dismiss that old lie from now till doomsday and Dinah might even be willing to forgive him, but if she found out he was lying to his brother again right now—at least by omission—it would be all over.

  He grabbed his own jeans and hiked them up just in the nick of time as a crowd of half a dozen teens came tearing over the dunes. They barely spared a glance for Cord and Dinah in their exuberant race to the water.

  It was just as well, he concluded, because Dinah still looked as if she were a little dazed. Cord almost relented and took back his request, but something told him if he gave in too easily, they might never get back to this point. Dinah’s guard would go up and all the progress they’d made would vanish as if it had never happened. In fact, it might be worse because knowing how incredible they were together had clearly scared her.

  To be truthful, it terrified him, too, but he didn’t want to turn back. And he’d find some way to make up for his silence about her return. He’d spin it in a way that would keep both of them from being furious with him.

  “Dinah?”

  She looked up at h
im blankly.

  “You ready?”

  She blinked as if coming out of a trance. “Sure.”

  “You want something to drink before we go? There’s soda and beer in the cooler.”

  “No, I’ll wait till we get to the restaurant.”

  “Okay, then, let’s get moving. The place I have in mind is bound to be packed.”

  Her expression brightened slightly at that. “Good.”

  He regarded her with amusement. “We’re still going to talk about you coming home with me tonight.”

  “As long as you feed me first, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about,” she said.

  “That’s the spirit.”

  She gave him a sassy look as she passed him on her way to the car. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to listen.”

  Cord stared after her. The woman was filled with so many contradictions, it might take a lifetime to unravel them all. He sure as hell was willing to give it a try, though.

  14

  Dinah was already regretting her impulsive, totally uncharacteristic behavior at the beach. She’d suddenly been overcome with the desire to do something outrageous, something that would wipe away all the pain and horrible memories she couldn’t otherwise erase. She’d known with purely feminine instinct that Cord would never turn her down.

  In the heat of the moment, so to speak, it had seemed exactly right to take advantage of his bad-boy reputation. For a few minutes she’d been carried away on a sea of sensation so overwhelming that nothing else had mattered. In that instant there had been only Cordell and her, alone in the world, the sun on their shoulders, the cool water splashing gently over them, their bodies perfectly attuned. It had been instinctive, mind-blowing sex at its most primal level. It was the kind of thing she’d always imagined only happened when two people came together in a desperate need to feel totally alive.

  And wasn’t that what it had been about for her? She’d seen too much death, suffered too much loss. She’d needed to be reminded, if only for a moment, that she wasn’t dead, that the woman who had grabbed onto life with both hands and chose to live still existed even though a part of her had died right alongside Peter. She needed to figure out who that woman now was. Maybe making love to Cord would snap her out of her inertia.