by Lori Foster
His fair hair shimmered beneath the sunshine, mussed from his swim—and from her fingers. Every muscle in his tensed body was delineated, drawing her eyes. He watched her so intently, she almost flinched.
Swallowing hard, Elizabeth tried to think of what to say. It was nearly impossible to muster a straight, businesslike face after that…that…She didn’t know what to call it. It was certainly far more than a mere kiss. Admittedly, she lacked experience, but she was certainly not stupid. She knew the difference between kissing and what they’d just done.
It wasn’t easy, but she reminded herself of her original purpose, her continued purpose. All her life she’d struggled to deal with the idiosyncrasies of heroism, why some had those qualities and some did not. Having heroism gave you the ability to change lives, lacking it could leave you forever empty.
She met Gabe’s eyes and cleared her throat. “Well, after that, I expect an entire explanation for my thesis.”
She hadn’t meant to sound so cold and detached; what she really felt was far different from those simple emotions. She’d only meant to stress the point of what they were doing and why.
Gabe’s eyes darkened, narrowed, the heat leaving them as if it had never been there. His jaw flexed once, then stilled. He stared at her mouth and said, “You’ll get it.”
4
HE WANTED to shake her, to…God, he’d never had the inclination to do any more than make love with a woman, laugh with her, tease. But Lizzy had him crazed.
He’d all but taken her on the damn dock, out in the open, on the lake, for crying out loud.
And she’d have let him.
He sensed it in his bones. He knew women, knew how they thought, what they felt, when they were turned on and how to turn them on. Little Red had been wild. She’d bit his bottom lip, sucked on his tongue, lifted her hips into the thrust of his…She’d strained against him, trying to get closer, and her fluttering heartbeat had let him measure each new degree of her excitement. She’d been on the ragged edge. He could have slipped his fingers past the leg band of her suit and stroked her over the edge with very little effort.
But now she watched him as though it had never happened, demanding answers to questions that were beyond stupid.
“I need to cool off.” With no more warning than that, Gabe went over the side of the dock. He swam down until he touched the bottom, feeling around for a shell. When he surfaced, Lizzy was hanging over the edge, watching for him anxiously. He pushed wet hair from his face and forced himself not to eye her breasts.
“You scared me!” She stared at him in accusation, looking like a wild woman. Thanks to his hands, long strands of hair had escaped her thick braid in various places, giving her a woolly-headed look, like a damn red thistle. Her smooth cheeks were flushed, making the freckles more pronounced. Her lush mouth, which had felt so hot and hungry under his only moments before, was pressed into a severe line.
Gabe almost laughed. Hell, she wasn’t even pretty, not really, and she sure as certain didn’t have the right temperament to lure a man. So why had he reacted so strongly?
“Here.” He handed her the shell, watched her sit back, bemused, to look it over. “It’s just a mussel. The bottom of the lake is littered with them. I dated a girl for a while who used to find live ones and eat them raw.”
Lizzy’s head jerked up, and she dropped the shell. Her lip curled in a way that made her look ready to vomit. No, she looked far from pretty right now.
Gabe laughed out loud. “Gross, huh? I couldn’t quite bring myself to kiss her again after that. I kept thinking of what had been in that mouth. Have you ever seen a live mussel? They’re sort of slimy and gray.”
She covered her mouth with a hand, swallowed hard, then sat back and glared at him some more. “Are you going to stay in there, or will you get out and answer my question?”
“Answer one for me first, okay?”
Her blue eyes widened, and he had to admit that they, at least, were beautiful. No matter her mood, her eyes were a focal point in her face, vivid and filled with curiosity and intelligence. He liked the color, dark and deep, unlike his faded, washed-out color. With the sun reflecting off the lake, he could see green and black and navy striations in her irises, lending richness to the unique color. As he studied her eyes, her pupils flared, reminding him how quickly she’d gotten aroused with him.
Arousing Little Red was fun, indeed. And from what he could tell, she could use a little fun in her life. Maybe it’d take some of the starch out of her spine and some of the vinegar out of her speech.
He propped his crossed arms over the edge of the dock, facing her and smiling into her stern face. “Where’d you get that suit?”
Bemused, she looked at herself, then at him. She plucked nervously at the material by her waist. “I…well, I hadn’t owned a suit before this. You insisted we needed to swim, so I had to go get one last night. But I couldn’t see spending a lot of money on one when this would likely be the only time I wore it. So I grabbed the cheapest one I could find.”
“The cheapest one-piece?”
Her lips trembled, fascinating him. “I’m not exactly the type to wear a bikini.”
“Why not?” His voice dropped despite his effort to sound dispassionate. “You have an incredible body, Lizzy.” He was serious, but he could tell by the way her eyes darkened and she looked away that she didn’t believe him.
“Lizzy?” She wouldn’t look at him. His heart softened, felt too thick in his chest. Very gently he asked, “When was the last time you looked at yourself naked?”
Her head snapped up, her cheeks hectic with hot color. Her mouth opened twice, but nothing came out. Finally she glared and said with acerbity, “Why do you deliberately try to embarrass me? Is that your idea of fun, to make me feel…feel…”
“Feel what, sugar?” His hand was a scant inch from her small foot, and he caught her ankle, using his thumb to caress her arch. “Shy? You shouldn’t. There’s not a woman on this lake that looks better in her suit than you. Why don’t you know that?”
Her auburn brows snapped down so fiercely, he expected her to get a headache. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Gabriel Kasper, but I’m not blind. I’m well aware of how I look, and if it wasn’t for you and your ridiculous stipulations, I wouldn’t be here now, sitting in this ridiculous suit!”
“You’ve enjoyed yourself,” he felt compelled to remind her, then held on tight when she tried to draw her foot away.
“It was…unexpected.” She looked prim and righteous, and he felt his blood heating in masculine reaction to her silent challenge. “As you’ve already surmised, I haven’t done much kissing in my lifetime. I looked at this as sort of a…a learning experience.”
Gabe grinned, his thumb still brushing sensually over her foot, making her stiffen. “So I’m sort of a class project, huh? Will you write another thesis? What I did over the summer vacation?”
Like a small volcano erupting, she jerked away and scrambled out of his reach. Her hands flattened on the dock to push herself upright, then she squealed and lifted a finger to her mouth.
Gabe watched her antics with curiosity. “What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving,” she grumbled, still looking at her finger. “I realize now that you have no intention of answering my questions, and I can’t afford to waste the time with you otherwise.”
So he was a waste of time? Like hell! He’d make her eat those words. Gabe levered himself onto the dock, and his weight set it off kilter, causing Lizzy to tilt into him. Her attention was still on her finger.
“I’ll answer your damn question, so quit frowning.”
She gave him a skeptical, disbelieving look, then went back to frowning.
“What’s wrong with you? Did you hurt yourself?” He leaned over her shoulder to see her hand, and as usual, she pulled it close to her chest as if protecting it from him.
“I have a splinter, thanks to you.” As an afterthought, she added, “It hurts.”
G
abe wrested her hand away from her body and looked at the injured finger. A jagged piece of wood was imbedded under the pad of her middle finger. “Damn. That sucker is huge.”
She tried to pull her hand free. She did that constantly, he realized, always pulling away from him. Well, not constantly. When he’d been kissing her, she’d strained against him.
“I can get it out.”
“No!” She tugged again, finally gaining her release. “I can take care of it after I get home. If you’re ready to leave?”
Gabe chewed the side of his mouth. “Actually, no, I’m not ready to leave. You have a question for me, and I’ll answer it. But first let me take care of this.”
“Gabe…”
“Stop being such a sissy. I won’t hurt you.”
Her chin firmed, her lips pursed, and then she thrust her hand toward him. “Fine. Do your worst.”
Without hesitation, Gabe lifted her finger to his mouth. He heard Lizzy gasp, felt her tremble. Probing with his tongue, he located the end of the splinter, then carefully, gently closed his teeth around it. It pulled out easily.
He smiled at her, still with her hand close to his mouth. “There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She had that glazed look in her eyes again, like the one she’d had before the fishing boat had interrupted. Unable to help himself with her looking so flustered and shivering, he held her gaze and kissed her fingertip. Her pupils dilated, her lips parting. Damn, but she was quick to react—which made him react, too.
It was if they were connected by their gazes, an intimate hold that he’d never quite experienced before. Gabe touched the tip of his tongue to her finger and heard her inhalation of breath. Her eyes grew heavy, her lashes dipping down. He drew her finger into his mouth and sucked softly. With a moan, she closed her eyes.
Damn, it was erotic. She was erotic. Moving her finger along his bottom lip, he said, “Being in the water is second nature to me. It never scares me.”
He was shocked by how husky his voice had become, but still, it jarred her enough that her eyes opened. Gabe dipped his tongue between her fingers, licked along the length of one. “I’m as at home in the water as I am on land. Especially this lake. I never once considered there was any danger to me, because there wasn’t, so I wasn’t afraid.”
“Oh.”
He moved to her thumb, drawing it into his mouth and tugging gently, just as he might with a breast. The thought inflamed him.
“After the kids and their mother were out of the way, I didn’t have time to think or be afraid. I just reacted.”
“I…I see.”
Her voice was so low and rough he could barely understand her. She watched him through slitted eyes, her body swaying slightly. “I learned to drive boats when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I started working on boat motors when I was ten, knew more about them than most grown men by the time I was fourteen.”
He licked her palm, then the racing pulse in her wrist.
“Because I knew what I was doing, there was no danger, no reason to be afraid.”
“I see.”
Her eyes were closed, her free hand curled into a fist, her breasts heaving.
“Therefore,” Gabe added, as he started to lower her once again, “I’m not what you’d call a hero at all.”
Her back no sooner touched the dock than she bolted upright. Her head smacked his chin with the force of a prizefighter’s blow. She blinked hard, rubbed her head and scowled at him.
After working his jaw to make certain she hadn’t broken anything, Gabe asked, “Are you all right?”
“You’ve given me a concussion.”
He smiled. “I have not.” Then: “Why’d you get so jumpy?”
“I need to write everything down before I forget it.”
Rolling his eyes, Gabe said, “So you’re finally satisfied?” No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he looked at her spectacular breasts, saw her pointed nipples and knew true satisfaction was a long way off. Not that she’d ever admit it.
Her gaze downcast, she said simply, “I’m satisfied—for that question. But I have so many more.” Looking at him, a soft plea in her gaze, she asked, “Will it really be so difficult to let me get some answers?”
Damn, he wanted her. He wanted to see that look on her face when she was naked beneath him. It defied reason and went against everything he knew about his preferences and inclinations. She was so far from the type of woman who usually caught his eye that it was almost laughable.
But it didn’t change the facts.
Gabe chucked her chin. “I’m willing if you are.”
“Meaning?”
There was a note of caution in her tone that made him smile with triumph. “Meaning as long as we stick to our original bargain, I’ll answer your questions. One kiss per question.”
Lizzy turned her head to stare at the lake. There was a stillness about her that he hadn’t seen before, and it made him uneasy.
“Because this is important to me,” she said without inflection, “I’ll agree if you insist. But what we’ve just been doing…that was more than kissing.” She turned her big blue eyes on him and added, “Wasn’t it?”
Sure felt like more to him! But he’d never admit that to her. He had a feeling that if she knew how she’d turned him on, how close he’d gotten to losing all control, she’d never agree to see him again, much less let him kiss her. “It’s not a big deal, Lizzy. You don’t have to worry for your reputation or your chastity.”
Her lips tightened, giving her a wounded look. Gabe cursed. He’d wanted to reassure her, not make light of their mutual attraction. “I didn’t mean…”
“Why?” She turned to face him. “Why is it so important to you to toy with me?”
“I’m not toying with you, damn it.”
She obviously didn’t believe him. “Do you enjoy seeing me flustered, embarrassed? Do you enjoy knowing this is all very strange to me?”
A direct attack. He hadn’t been expecting it, no more than he’d anticipated her vehemence. He watched her, but she once again avoided his gaze. After some thought, Gabe said honestly, “I like you. And it’s for certain I like kissing you.” She made an exasperated sound, but he continued. “You’re different from the women I know around here.”
“You mean I’m odd?”
He laughed at the suspicious accusation in her tone and look. “No, that’s not what I mean. I’ve known most of the women in these parts for all of my life. They’re entirely comfortable with me and with their own sexuality.”
She slanted him a look. “I’m odd.”
“No, you are not!” He tucked a long tendril of hair behind her ear, still smiling. “You’re a…contradiction. Sweet and sassy—”
“What a sexist remark!”
“—and pushy but shy. You intrigue me. I guess it’s tit for tat. Just as you seem to want to know what makes me tick, I want to know what makes you tick. It’s as simple as that.”
“It doesn’t feel simple.”
“That’s because you’re evidently not used to men paying you attention.” She didn’t answer his charge, and he frowned. Catching her chin and bringing her face around to his, he asked the question uppermost in his mind. “Why is that, Lizzy?”
She shook her head, her lips scrunched together.
“I figure you must be…what? Twenty-two?”
She looked at the sky. “Almost twenty-three.”
“Yet you had no idea how to kiss. What girl gets through high school these days, much less college, without doing some necking?”
She glared at him and growled, “Redheaded, freckled, gangly girls who are shy and bookish, apparently.”
Gabe took a telling perusal of her body. “Sweetheart, you’re not gangly. Far from it.”
She stared at him hard for at least three heartbeats, then asked with endearing caution, “Really?”
Tenderness swelled over him, taking him by surprise. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that you�
��d filled out real nice?”
She clasped her hands in her lap and shook her head. “My mother died when I was twelve.”
Gabe scooted closer to her and put his arm around her sun warmed shoulders. He didn’t question his need to hold her, to touch her. “Friends? Sisters?”
Shaking her head, she explained, “I’m an only child. And I didn’t really have that many friends in school.” As if admitting a grave sin, she added, “I was always very backward until recently.”
Gabe squeezed her gently. “You’re hardly a robust conqueror now.”
“I know. It’s not easy for me to do all these interviews, but they’re important, so I do them.” Her expression turned mocking. “Most of them have been fairly quick and simple.”
“Then it’s a good thing you ran into me, huh? Because lady, if anyone ever needed shaking up a little, it’s you.”
“I need to complete my thesis.”
“You have the rest of summer break, right?”
She nodded warily, obviously uncertain of his intent.
“So why don’t we indulge each other? I’ll answer any questions you have, and in return, you’ll let me convince you how adorable you are in that bathing suit.”
Her chin tucked in close to her chest. “Convince me…how?”
“By what we’ve already been doing. I won’t ever push you further than you want to go, you have my word on that. But I can promise there’ll be more kissing.” His hand cradled her head. “You won’t mind that so much, will you, Lizzy?”
She didn’t reply to that, and she didn’t look convinced. In a slightly choked voice that gave away her tension, she said, “I need you to be more specific than that.”
Gabe chewed it over, trying to think of how to couch his terms so she would be reassured. “Okay, how’s this. I’ll answer a question and you’ll cut loose a little, my choice of how. And before you start arguing, first I want you to go to a drive-in with me. You ever been to the drive-in?”
“With my father when I was young. I didn’t even know they still had them.”
“You’re in for a treat!” And I’m in for a little torture. “We can go over to the next county, to the Dirty Dixie.” He bobbed his eyebrows. “They play fairly raunchy movies—which will probably be another first for you, right?”
