Gabe (The Buckhorn Brothers)

by Lori Foster

  She bit her lips and looked away. Gabe couldn’t help but laugh out loud, it was so obvious she’d been caught. Damn, but she was a surprise. She sat there with her little feet pressed primly together—those damn lacy ankle socks somehow looking kind of sexy all of a sudden—while her snowy white sneakers got damp with the water in the bottom of the boat. Her hands were clasped together in her lap, holding onto her big floppy hat, her eyes squinted against the wind and sun. Her freckles were even more noticeable out here on the lake. She wasn’t exactly what you’d call a pretty woman, certainly not a bombshell like Sawyer’s Honey or Morgan’s Misty. But there was definitely something about her….

  “Where are we going?”

  She sat facing him in the boat, so he pointed behind her to where the land stretched out and the only living things in sight were a few cows grazing along the shoreline. The man-made lake was long and narrow, shaped a lot like a river with vacation cabins squeezed into tight rows along both sides. Several little fingers of water stretched out to form small coves here and there, only a few of which were still owned by farmers and hadn’t been taken over by developers. The land Gabe lived on with his brothers had a cove like that, a narrow extension of the main lake, almost entirely cut off from the boating traffic since it was so shallow. But it made for great swimming and fishing, which was what the brothers used it for.

  Though they didn’t have any cows there, it was peaceful and natural and they loved it, refusing to sell no matter how many times they were asked and regardless of the offer. They jointly owned a lot of property, and in two spots runoff from the main lake had formed a smaller lake and a pond. Gabe intended to build a house on that site some day.

  “We’re going there?” Lizzy asked, interrupting his thoughts. She sounded horrified.

  Gabe bobbed an eyebrow. “It’s real private.”

  “Are the cows friendly?”

  “Most bovines are. You just don’t want to walk behind them.”

  “They kick?”

  She sounded appalled again, so he had to really struggle to keep from laughing. “Nope. But you have to be real careful where you step.”

  “Oh.”

  Slowing the motor, Gabe let the boat glide forward until they’d rounded the cove and nudged as far inside as possible. Someone in years past had installed a floating dock, but it had definitely seen better days. It tended to list to one side, with three corners out of the water and one corner under, covered by moss. But at least it was a good six feet square and didn’t sink if you climbed on it.

  Gabe threw a rope around a metal cleat on the side of the dock. It was strange, but his heart was already pounding like mad—he had no idea why—and he had to force himself to speak calmly.

  He looked at her, saw her shy, averted gaze and felt the wild thrum of excitement. He swallowed hard. “This is as far as we get, so you can skin out of that dress now.”

  She peeked at him, then away. “Why don’t you go ahead and get in, then I’ll…inch my way in?”

  “Have you ever driven a boat?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know how to start it?”

  She glanced dubiously at the pull start for the motor, then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  He nodded. “So at least I know you’re not plotting on getting me overboard then taking off.”

  Her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t do that.” She chewed her lip, looking undecided, then admitted, “It’s just that I hadn’t figured on how to go about stripping off my clothes out here in the open.”

  “With me and the cows watching?”

  “Right.”

  He could have offered a few suggestions, but that would be crass. Besides, he was afraid his suggestions would offend her. Likely they would.

  Oh, hell, he knew damn good and well they would.

  “All right. I’ll turn my back. But don’t take too long. You can put your folded things on the cooler so they won’t get wet.” Before he could change his mind, he turned his back, stepped on a seat and dove in. He heard her squeal as the small boat rocked wildly.

  The water was shallow, so he made the dive straight out, and seconds later his head broke the water. He could easily stand, so he waded to the dock, keeping his head averted, then rested his folded arms over the edge of the aged wood. He could hear her undressing.

  “The water feels great.” His voice shook, damn it.

  “It’s…green.”

  He cleared his throat. “Because of the moss.” She probably had her shoes off already, and those ridiculous, frilly, feminine little socks that looked like they’d come from a fetish catalogue, though he doubted she knew it. He pictured her wearing those socks—and nothing else. The picture was vague because he had no idea what the hell her body looked like, but the thought still excited him. Dumb.

  Did she only have on the dress, or was she wearing other stuff over her suit? He cleared his throat and mustered his control. “Aren’t you done yet?”

  “Well…yeah.”

  His head snapped around, and he stared. She stood there, pale slender arms folded over her middle, long legs pressed together, shoulders squared as if in challenge. And her suit wasn’t a bikini, not that it mattered one little bit.

  “Damn, woman.” The words were a choked whisper, hot and touched with awe. It felt like his eyes bugged out of his head.

  She shifted nervously, uncrossing and recrossing her arms, taking her weight from one foot to the other, making the supple muscles in her calves and thighs move seductively.

  Gabe had no idea if she blushed or not because he couldn’t get his gaze off her body and onto her face.

  The one-piece suit was simple, a pale lime green, and it covered enough skin to make a grandma happy. But what it left uncovered…

  Her plump breasts made his mouth water with the instinct of Pavlov’s dog. High, round…he wondered for a single heartbeat if they were real or enhanced. He stared, hard, unaware of her discomfort, her uncertainty. Nothing in the suit suggested it capable of that incredible support. There were no underwires, no lined bra cups. The suit was a sleek, simple design, and it hugged her like her own skin.

  The visible outline of soft nipples drew him, making his imagination go wild. He wanted to see them tight and puckered, straining for his mouth.

  Breathing deeply, he traced her body with his gaze, to the shaping of her rib cage, the indention of a navel, the rounded slope of her mound.

  Heat rolled through him, making his nostrils flare. He could easily picture her naked, and did so, tormenting himself further.

  Surely even the cows were agog. She had the most symmetrically perfect feminine body he’d ever seen, and the lake water no longer felt so cool. His groin grew thick and heavy, hot. It was unexpected, this instantaneous reaction he had to her. Women didn’t affect him this way. He’d learned control early on and hadn’t had an unwanted erection since his teens. He chose when to be involved; he did not get sucked into a vortex of lust!

  But there was no denying what he felt at this moment. It annoyed him, with himself, not her. She did nothing to entice him, other than to stand there and let him look his fill.

  Just as he’d suspected, her freckles decorated other parts of her body, not just her face. Her shoulders were lightly sprinkled with them—and her thighs. His heartbeat lost its even rhythm. Damn. He hadn’t known freckles could be so incredibly sexy.

  One thing was certain, he was sure glad he’d brought her here so that every guy on the lake wasn’t able to gawk at her.

  Hell, he was doing enough gawking for all of them.

  Pulling himself together, he cleared his throat again and looked at her face. Her head was down, her long braid hanging over a shoulder, touching a hipbone. He bit his lip, feeling the heavy thumping of his heart, the tautness of his muscles. “Lizzy?”

  Her arms tightened around herself. “Hmm?”

  Belatedly he understood her anxiety at being on display. He felt like a jerk, and tried for a teasing
tone despite the urgency hammering through him. “You comin’ in or not?”

  “Do I get a choice?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “No.”

  Slowly her gaze lifted to his. “You’d better be worth this.”

  Oh, he’d show her just how worthwhile he could—No, wait. Wrong thought. He hadn’t brought her here for that. He’d brought her here to convince her to forget about her silly ideas of heroism.

  He scowled with determination, but his carnal thoughts seemed less and less wrong with every second she stood there, her small body the epitome of sexual temptation. He unglued his tongue and said, “Come on. Quit stalling.”

  She licked her lips and he groaned, practically feeling the stroke of her small pink tongue.

  She glared at him suspiciously, then looked over the side of the boat, looked at him and licked her lips again. “How?”

  Without even thinking about it, he found himself wading to the boat, holding up his arms and inviting her into them.

  And just like that, she closed her eyes, muttered a quiet prayer and fell in against him.

  CHAPTER 3

  GABE FOUND his arms filled with warm, soft woman. It wasn’t the first time, of course, but it sure felt different from any other time. Unexpectedly, her scent surrounded him. Lizzy smelled sweet, with a unique hint of musk that pulled at him. Her fingers were tight in his hair, her arms wrapped around his head in a death grip. His mind went almost blank. He could feel her firm, rounded bottom against his right forearm where he’d instinctively hooked her closer, to keep her from falling when she’d jumped in against him. His left arm was around her narrow waist, his large hand splayed wide so that his fingers spanned her back.

  More momentous than that, though, was the fact that his face was pressed between her breasts. They certainly felt real enough. Jolted by the sexual press of her body, he froze, not even breathing. She was wrapped around him like a vine, but she didn’t seem to notice the intimacy of their position.

  Gabe noticed. Damn, but he noticed.

  He shifted the tiniest bit so that his hand could cuddle a full, round cheek, and felt the shock of the touch all the way to his throbbing groin. She panted, but not with excitement.

  “Lizzy?” His voice was muffled, thanks to having his face buried in lush breasts. His hand on her bottom continued to caress her, almost with a will of its own.

  Her arms tightened, her legs shifting to move around his hips in a jerky, desperate attempt to get closer to him. The movement brought the open, hot juncture of her thighs against his abdomen, and he sucked in a startled, strangled breath. If they were naked, if he slipped her down just a few inches, he could be inside her.

  He was losing his grip on propriety real fast.

  “Lizzy,” he said, speaking low to keep from jarring her, “you’re afraid of the water?”

  Her growled, “No…yes,” almost made him smile. Even now, she tried to hide behind her prickly pride.

  “It’s okay. There’s nothing in here to bother you.” Nothing but him, only she didn’t need to know that.

  “I’ve never…never swam in a lake before.”

  Her lips were right above his ear. She sounded breathless, and her voice trembled. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he crooned, and then, because he couldn’t help himself, he turned his face slightly and nuzzled his nose against the plump, firm curve of her breast.

  She screamed, making his ears ring. In the next instant, she launched herself out of his arms and thrashed her way wildly to the floating dock. The back view of her awkward, hasty climb from the water didn’t do a thing to cool his libido. She seemed to be all long legs and woman softness and enticing freckles. The suit, now wet, was even more revealing. Not more revealing than a bikini, but that didn’t seem to matter to his heated libido. He watched her huddle on the dock, wrapping her arms around herself, then hurriedly survey the water.

  He owed her an apology. That made him disgruntled enough to grouse, “I’ll be deaf for an hour. You screech like a wet hen.”

  Lizzy shook her head, and her teeth chattered. “Something touched me. Something brushed against my leg!”

  Gabe stalled. So she hadn’t screamed over his forwardness? From the looks of her, he thought, seeing how wild-eyed she appeared, she probably hadn’t even noticed that he was turned on, that he’d been attempting to kiss her breast. Making a small sound of exasperation, Gabe said, “It was probably just a fish.”

  She shuddered in visible horror. “What kind of fish?”

  He looked around, peering through the water, which was stirred up from her churning retreat. “There.” Pointing, he indicated a small silvery fish pecking at bubbles on the surface of the lake.

  Lizzy carefully leaned forward on her hands and knees, making her breasts sway beneath the wet green suit. “Is it a baby?”

  He kept his gaze glued to her body. His tongue felt thick and his jaw tight. “No. A bluegill. They don’t get much bigger than that.”

  Her gaze lifted and met his, forcing him to stop staring at her body. “What’d you expect,” he asked, “Jaws?”

  Her face heated. To Gabe, she looked sexy and enticing and adorable, perched on the edge of the floating dock, her bottom in the air, her eyes wide and her cheeks rosy. Her brows angled. “Are you laughing at me?”

  “Nope.” He waded over to her then leaned on his forearms. No way could he join her on the dock. His wet cutoffs wouldn’t do much to hide his erection. “I didn’t realize you were afraid of the water,” he told her gently. “You should have said something.”

  After a deep breath, she sat back. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “I was embarrassed,” she admitted with a sideways look at him. “I hate being cowardly.”

  “It’s not cowardly to be unsure of things you’re not familiar with.”

  “Will you still answer my question?”

  Annoyed that she wouldn’t forget her purpose for even a minute, he shrugged. “Get it over with.”

  Her blue eyes lit with excitement, and she dropped her arms to lean toward him. Her nipples, he couldn’t help noticing, were long and pointed.

  She smiled. “What were you thinking when you went into the water to save those kids?”

  “Thinking?”

  “Yes. You saw they were in trouble, and you wanted to help. What did you think about? How you’d get them out, the danger, that your own life wasn’t important…”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake. It wasn’t anything like that.” Forgetting that he needed to stay in the water, he levered himself up beside her on the dock in one fluid movement. The dock bobbed, making her gasp and flatten her hands on the wood for balance. Water sluiced off his body as he dropped next to her then shook his head like a wet dog. Lizzy made a grab for him to keep from getting knocked in, but she released him just as quickly and frowned at him.

  “So what was it like?”

  He leaned back on his elbows and surveyed the bright sun, the cloudless sky. “Hell, I don’t know. I didn’t think anything. I saw the boat, saw the kids—and just reacted.” Before she could say anything about that, he added, “Anyone would have done the same.”

  “No one did do the same. Only you.”

  He shrugged. “I’d already gone in. There was no reason for anyone else to.”

  “You were quicker to react.”

  “Maybe I just noticed the problem first.”

  When she shifted to face him, Gabe again eyed her breasts. He felt obsessed. Would her nipples be pink or a rosy brown?

  She touched his arm. “Were you afraid?”

  Annoyed by her persistence, he leaned back on the dock, covering his eyes with a forearm. “That’s another question.” Gabe wondered if she even realized he was male. He had a raging hard-on, he’d been staring at her breasts with enough intensity to set her little red head on fire, and she hadn’t even noticed. He snorted. Or maybe she just didn’t care. Maybe she found him so lacking, so unappealing, he could be naked and it
wouldn’t affect her.

  Her small hand smacked against his shoulder. “Not fair! You didn’t even really answer the first question.”

  He lowered his arm enough to glare at her. “You didn’t really swim, so we’re even.”

  Mulish determination set her features, then she turned to the water. Distaste and fear stiffened her shoulders and, amazed, Gabe realized she was going to get in.

  “Lizzy…” He reached for her shoulder.

  “If a snake eats me, it’ll be on your head!” She stuck a toe in the water.

  Smiling, Gabe pulled her back. “All right. I’ll answer your question.”

  The tension seemed to melt right out of her. “You will?”

  He sighed long and loud to let her know she was a pest. Yeah, right. “It beats seeing that look of terror on your face.” He flicked her nose as he said it, to let her know he was teasing.

  She paid him no mind, speaking to herself in a mumble. “I wish I had my notebook.”

  Gabe came to his knees, caught the line holding the boat secure and pulled it in. It was a stretch, but he was able to reach her bag and hand it to her. “There you go.”

  Her smile was beatific. “Thank you.”

  He gave her a gentlemanly nod. She didn’t notice his body, but at least she appreciated his manners. “No problem. Not that I can tell you anything interesting enough to write down.”

  The look of concentration on her face as she pulled out her notepad told him she disagreed. Gabe thought how cute she was when she went all serious and sincere.

  Not that a cute, redheaded virago should have interested him. Beyond making him unaccountably hot, that was.

  Nose wrinkled against the glare of the sun, she looked at him and said, “I’m ready.”

  She looked ready, he thought, unable to keep his mind focused on the fact that he wasn’t interested. Posed on the dock as she was, she made a fetching picture. Her long legs were folded to the side in the primmest manner possible, given her body was more bare than not. She tilted her head and pursed her lips in serious cogitation. The bright sunshine glinted off her hair, showing different colored strands of gold and amber and bronze. Midway down, her braid was darker from being wet, and it rested, heavy and thick, along her side. Her skin shone with a fine mist of sweat, intensifying her sweet scent so that with every small breeze he breathed her in.