“What?” she asked, clearly dumbfounded as she reached for another candy and quickly unwrapped it. “Are you serious?”
“Why not?” he asked, relishing the look of stunned disbelief on her face. “We’re good together,” he said, continuing before she could find her voice long enough to argue with him. “We have fun. And as long as we both know this isn’t going anywhere, why not enjoy what we have as long as it lasts?”
He held his breath while she considered it. Everything depended on how she reacted now.
Karen’s gaze narrowed as she looked at him. “There’s something wrong with that argument,” she said softly. “I just can’t put my finger on exactly what yet.”
“What could be wrong?” he asked with a careless shrug. Then, pushing off the wall, he stepped up close to her, dropped both hands onto her shoulders and pulled her even closer. “We’re two consenting adults, aren’t we?”
“Yes, but—”
“We enjoy each other’s company, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Then what’s the problem?” He smiled at her and lifted one hand to stroke the side of her face. She closed her eyes at his touch, and when she opened them again, he said, “We’ve got nothing to lose, Karen. I know you don’t want to marry a Marine. And I’m not leaving the Corps for anybody. With those kind of ground rules…who could get hurt?”
“Sam,” she said, shaking her head, “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us to spend time together when we know it’s going nowhere.”
So much was riding on this. He had to play it just right and he knew that now was the time for the big guns. Studying her, he played his last card. “Scared?” he challenged.
She stiffened, just as he’d expected her to. “No, I’m not scared.”
“Good,” he countered quickly, not giving her a chance to think about this too much. “Then it’s a deal?”
“This is crazy.”
“Maybe.”
“We’ll regret it.”
“Won’t know till we try.” He held his breath then, waiting to see if her pride would force her into accepting his suggestion. If it didn’t, he wasn’t sure what he could try next.
“No pressure?” she asked, tilting her head to one side to look up at him.
“No pressure,” he agreed, knowing that pressuring Karen would only make her do the exact opposite of what he wanted.
She nodded slowly, almost hesitantly, and Sam released that pent-up breath on a relieved sigh.
“Okay, then,” she said softly, holding out her right hand toward him, “we have a deal.”
A slow, pleased smile curved his lips as he allowed himself to completely relax for the first time since coming up with this harebrained plan. Then he glanced at her outstretched hand and shook his head. “Oh,” he said, sweeping her into a deep dip and then staring into her surprised eyes, “I think we can do better than a handshake to seal this bargain.”
Then he kissed her, taking her mouth with a determination that would have made the Corps proud. He parted her lips with his tongue and crushed her defenses. Holding her, pressing her body into his, he gave her everything he had, past, present and the still-fragile dream of a future.
Karen cuddled into him and listened to the beaten storm outside. In its death throes, the wind whimpered and the rain only occasionally spat at the windows. It was almost over, both the storm and this almost-magical time with Sam.
She nestled her head on his shoulder and listened to the steady beat of his heart. Smoothing one palm across his chest, she felt the warmth of him and let it slide down into all of the dark, empty places inside her. But she knew it wouldn’t last. It couldn’t.
This bargain they’d struck was doomed to end badly. There was no way to avoid it. Yet even knowing that pain was looming somewhere down the road, Karen couldn’t back out of their deal. Because no matter what else happened, she would at least be with Sam for a while longer.
“What’re you thinking?” he asked, and his voice rumbled into the stillness.
She tipped her head back to look up at him. “About this deal of ours.”
“Chickening out?” he asked, running one hand along her bare back.
She shivered, closed her eyes and shook her head against his shoulder. If she had the slightest amount of sense she’d say yes and get out now while she could still escape with her heart only broken, not shattered. But that wasn’t going to happen.
“Nope.”
“Glad to hear it,” he whispered, pulling her atop him and wrapping his arms around her middle.
Karen sighed, relishing the feel of his hard, strong body against hers as she looked down into those warm brown eyes of his. “You’re sure about this, huh?”
He smiled up at her. “It’s the perfect solution, honey.”
His fingers danced along her spine and her nerve endings splintered. Oh, she could be in some serious trouble here.
“It is, huh?” she managed to ask.
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered, lifting his head high enough to nuzzle the base of her throat. “No commitment, no worries, just two good friends, enjoying each other.”
“Good friends?” she repeated, even as she tipped her head to one side to give him better access.
“The best of friends, darlin’,” he murmured, and rolled over quickly, levering himself up on one elbow and smiling down at her.
“Friends,” she said to herself as he lowered his head to take one of her nipples into his mouth.
“Mmm…” His tongue traced circles around her nipple and Karen arched into him.
She held on to him, riding the wave of pleasure that only he could create. Her friend, she reminded herself as a swirl of emotion took hold and rippled throughout her body.
And behind that flood of emotion swelled a rising tide of sorrow as she realized that when she finally lost her lover, she would lose her best friend, as well.
Ten
Except for the fact that her next-door neighbor’s tree was lying across her driveway, Karen thought her house had come through the storm pretty well. Slowly, she walked around the tree, which had crunched a three-foot-high picket fence when it fell. Shaking her head, she looked at the roots of the tree, yanked right out of the ground.
She was glad she’d missed the gust of wind that had done that. Okay, granted, it wasn’t a really big tree. But it was a tree, for heaven’s sake.
“And people say Californians are nuts to put up with earthquakes,” she muttered, turning her head to look at the broken window on the kitchen door and the scattering of shingles from the roof.
“Yeah,” Sam said, carrying her cooler toward the house. “In California, the ground would have just opened up and swallowed that tree. You never would have had to look at its roots.”
She shot him a wry look. “Real funny.”
Fallen leaves littered the ground, and mud and water sucked at her shoes as she followed after him.
He set the cooler down by the back steps and let his gaze slide across the house, apparently checking for any structural damage. But there wasn’t any beyond the window and those loose shingles. “Looks like the old place stood up fine,” he said, glancing at her. “We were lucky. The hurricane never actually settled right down on top of us. Must have taken most of its juice back out to sea.”
“Thank goodness,” she said, and turned to look down the street. Most of the old trees were still standing, but for the occasional downed branch. Lawn chairs and kids’ bicycles lay in the middle of the road where the wind had blown them, and the neighborhood seemed eerily quiet in this first stillness after the storm.
It was like a ghost town, she thought, and wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the old theme music from the Twilight Zone lift into the air.
Most of her neighbors hadn’t returned from their self-imposed exile yet. Soon enough Pine Ridge Lane would be bustling with the sounds of people putting their lives back together. But for now, it was as if she and Sam were the only two people
in the world.
“Well, good mornin’, Karen,” someone called, and Karen whirled around, startled.
Virginia Thomas, neighbor and owner of the tree that was now reclining on Karen’s property, stuck her head out her living room window and grinned at them.
“Mrs. Thomas,” Karen said, “I didn’t know you were back.”
“’Bout an hour ago, honey,” the woman said, and smiled at Sam. “Went over to my sister’s place to ride out the storm and her husband Mick just drives my Joe crazy. Figured we’d best get gone as soon as we could before Joe took it into his head to give Mick a good thumpin’ just for the heck of it.”
Joe Thomas, all five feet six inches of him, was a sweetheart. And the most unlikely person to be “thumping” anyone. But Virginia saw her husband as a mixture of Superman, Mel Gibson and Rocky. Which wasn’t entirely a bad thing, Karen supposed.
“Joe went over to his brother’s house to pick up their chain saw,” Virginia was saying. “He said to tell you he’d be getting that tree out of your way just as soon as he gets back.”
“No hurry,” Karen told her. After all, it wasn’t as if she had a car to park in the driveway. Instantly, she remembered driving past her abandoned car on the ride home. She’d felt almost guilty leaving it there mired in mud up to the middle of its hubcaps. She’d have to call a tow service, she thought, and then a rental car agency and—think about it later, she told herself.
“Why, darlin’,” Virginia asked, leaning even farther out the window, “where’s that awful car of yours?”
“It died out on the highway.” Sam spoke up before she could. “Thankfully, though, I found Karen and we hunkered down to ride out the storm together.”
Karen just looked at him. Virginia Thomas was a nice woman, but there was simply nothing she liked better than a good bit of gossip.
Her neighbor’s blond eyebrows lifted almost into her hairline. She propped her chin on one hand, gave him an interested smile and said, “Well, do tell.”
If he did, Karen thought, she’d have him killed. “Uh, Sam…”
“Not much to tell,” he said, giving her a quick smile and turning back to the blonde in the window. “Karen and I are old friends. It was just luck that I stumbled across her while she was stuck on the side of the road.”
“Friends?” Virginia repeated, and her mouth turned down in a frown of disappointment. Apparently, she’d been hoping for something a bit more romantic.
Friends. A tiny dart of irritation stung her as she looked at him grinning at Virginia. Well, she’d better get used to it. That’s all they were now. Friends. Which was better than nothing, right?
Yeah, right.
Karen spoke up, suddenly weary to the bone. “I’ll see you later, Virginia. I’ve got to check out the house, and I know Sam’s got to get back to the base and—”
“Oh, you go ahead, honey,” the woman said, already pulling her head back inside. “Lord knows, there’s plenty to do around here. Joe’ll get to work on that tree directly.”
Karen lifted one hand in acknowledgment and turned to look at Sam as he walked toward her.
“She seems nice.”
“She is,” Karen said. “She and her husband bought the place right after you and I broke up.” Which is why Virginia had been willing to buy the “old friends” story. Heaven knew, if the woman suspected even a hint of a romance, she’d be bustling over with a plate of cookies as an excuse to pump Karen for information.
“Ah.” Nodding, he glanced out at the street where his car was parked. “Well, guess I’ll get the rest of your stuff and then head out to the base.”
She forced a smile as he turned and headed back down the driveway. A smattering of rain drizzled from patchy gray skies. Pieces of blue peeked through the cloud cover like shards of broken pottery. The wind had dwindled into a ghost of its former self and the world was beginning to right itself again. Everybody’s world but hers, anyway.
And on that happy thought, she headed for the back steps. Pulling her keys out of her purse, she unlocked the kitchen door and swung it open.
Pieces of shattered glass winked at her from the floor and a pond-size puddle of water sat smack in the middle of the old linoleum. The embroidered cloth covering the round pedestal table was damp and spotted from the wind-blown rain rushing through the broken window, but other than that, the place seemed fine.
She let her gaze drift around the cozy room and found herself muttering a prayer of thanks that the house and its contents had survived. All of her grandmother’s things, from the bright copper-bottomed pans hanging from an overhead beam to the tiny angel figurines atop the plate rack that ringed the room, were undamaged. And it suddenly hit Karen just how much this house had come to mean to her.
It was more than just a place to live. It had become home in the best sense of the word. Memories filled each room, and if she listened hard enough, sometimes she thought she could even hear her grandmother’s laughter. Walking into the house was like being enveloped in a warm hug, and right now, Karen felt as if she could use one.
“A little damp,” Sam said from behind her, “but otherwise, it looks pretty good.”
“Yeah,” she said, spinning around to face him, “it does, thank goodness.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and rocked back and forth on her heels. Now that their time together was over, she wasn’t at all sure how to act. What to say.
But in the next instant, Sam took care of that for her.
“Wish I could stick around and give you a hand,” he said, and set her bags on the driest spot he could find. “But they’ll be bringing the recruits back to base now and we’ll all have to report in.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I understand. Besides, I don’t really need the help. It’s just cleaning up as far as I can see….”
“Maybe,” he said, tipping his head back to study the ceiling, for what she had no idea. “But I’ll come back in a couple of days. Want to take a good look at the roof.”
“Oh,” she told him quickly, “you don’t have to do that.”
He looked at her and grinned. “I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
“Sam,” she said softly, “you don’t owe me anything. I’m not your responsibility.”
He shook his head and gave her a half smile. “Hey, we’re friends, remember? Friends help each other out.”
Karen inhaled sharply and blew the air out in a rush. There was that word again. “Okay. Fine, pal. A couple of days.”
He grinned at her and she suddenly wished she knew what he was thinking. But with Sam, there was just no telling. And to think that had been one of the first things she’d liked about him.
He looked around the kitchen again. “Not exactly the Dew Drop Inn, is it?” he asked.
She smiled in spite of herself. “It does lack the charm of a broken vacancy sign and water stains on the ceiling.”
He shifted his gaze to hers and stared into her eyes with such intensity, he started another fire down low inside her. Then twin dark brows lifted and he winked. “At least the bed was comfortable.”
“Yeah, it was,” she managed to say, though she knew darn well the bed could have been stuffed with rocks and she wouldn’t have cared. Not as long as he was lying beside her.
Oh, she was in serious trouble here.
“Best hurricane I’ve ever had,” he said, letting his gaze drift lazily across her features like the softest of touches.
“Me, too,” she admitted, then added, “And by the way, thanks for riding to the rescue that first night.”
“You’re welcome.” He glanced at his wristwatch, then back to her. “You’ll be all right?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, disregarding the one small ache deep inside that already missed him.
“Okay, then,” he said, stepping up close to her. “I’ll get going.”
Before she could answer, he bent down and covered her mouth with his, stealing her breath and sizzling every inch of her bod
y right down to the soles of her feet. And as quickly as it had started, the kiss ended and he pulled back, gave her a friendly swat on the behind and said, “See you soon, pal.”
Then he was gone, leaving Karen standing alone in her flooded kitchen with her blood racing, her mind whirling and her lips still tingling.
Oh, yeah.
Friendship was going to work out real well.
He’d stayed away three days.
And it had damn near killed him.
Sam shoved one hand across the top of his head and looked off down the main street of Beaufort. Signs of the storm still lingered, but life went on. Boards were coming down off storefront windows. Most of the mud and debris had already been cleaned up—heck, Marines from the base had been out in full force the last few days, helping the town get back on its feet. In a few weeks, it would be as if the storm had never happened.
But it had. And the hurricane’s coming had changed everything for him.
Slowly, he turned his head to look at the building in front of him. Somewhere inside, Karen was waiting for him—and knowing that was enough to make his breath catch in his chest. It was a hard thing to admit, but this little game he was playing with Karen had him even more nervous than he’d been the day he’d reported for Boot Camp.
Back then, he’d figured that the Marines were his future and he’d known even then that he could do it. That he would make it through recruit training and have the career he wanted. Now his future was once again hanging in the balance, except this time, it wouldn’t be him deciding it.
That decision rested with Karen. As it probably had all along.
Sam had always been able to lose himself in his work. But not even the task of cleaning up after the hurricane or getting ready for the next set of recruits to hit the firing range had been enough to keep him from thinking of Karen. Oh, he’d been busy. And he was too much of a professional to let his personal life affect his work. And God knew his job demanded his full concentration. But the minute things slowed down or he had some time to himself or he closed his eyes to try to sleep… there she was.
Marooned with a Marine Page 9
