Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “You were pretty confident I would come.”

  He shrugged. “Dash and I were going anyway. We’re glad you decided to join us.”

  She looked up at him. “So am I. This is fun.”

  He steered the boat toward a sandy stretch on the north end of Prudence Island. When they got close to the shore, he dropped the sails and tossed the anchor overboard.

  Feeling the boat come to a stop, Dash came up from the cabin to see where they were.

  “Stay,” Travis said with a look of warning.

  Dash appeared to smile at him before she leapt over the side and began swimming to shore.

  “Goddamned disobedient bitch,” he muttered.

  Liana laughed. “I can see who wears the pants in this family.”

  Travis shot her a dirty look. “I could’ve made her stay if I’d really wanted to.”

  “Yeah, okay. If you say so.”

  When he went below to retrieve the cooler he had brought, Travis pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the bunk. “Ready?”

  “How do we get to the beach?”

  “We swim.” He lowered a ladder over the side of the boat.

  “And how do we get the cooler there?”

  “Don’t you worry about that. Dash and I have a routine.”

  She glanced at the beach where Dash frolicked in the sand. “Apparently.” Standing up, she pulled her shirt over her head and dropped her mini-skirt.

  Travis went dumb when he saw she was, in fact, wearing a bikini, and it was every bit as spectacular a sight as he had hoped it would be. Reminding himself that he was trying not be predictable, he kept his eyes on her face rather than her breasts as he offered her a hand over the side.

  Once she was down the ladder and in the water, Travis followed her and reached back for the cooler. Propping it on his head, he used one arm to swim to shore.

  “Very clever,” she said, watching him as she floated on her back.

  “I think I would’ve made a good refugee,” he joked.

  She laughed and swam the short distance to shore.

  Travis landed a minute behind her and carried the cooler as Dash danced around his feet. “All right, girl. Just a minute.”

  “What does she think you have in there?”

  “She knows I always have something for her.”

  Liana put her hands on the dog’s pretty face and kissed her head. “You’re a very spoiled girl. Do you know that?”

  Dash barked in agreement.

  “Oh, she’s so cute!”

  “She’s a terror,” Travis said.

  “Where was she last night?” Liana asked, blushing at the memory of being in his apartment.

  Travis ran his finger over her rosy cheek. “With Beck, my security chief. I didn’t want her causing any mischief during the wedding.” He reached into the cooler and withdrew something wrapped in foil.

  Dash went nuts.

  Travis unwrapped a meaty bone and gave it to the dog. “Now scram.”

  Dash galloped off with the bone.

  Reaching into the cooler again, Travis pulled out a sheet, and Liana helped him spread it out on the sand. Next, he withdrew a bottle of sunscreen and handed it to her.

  “Thank you.”

  “That skin of yours doesn’t look like it sees a lot of sun.”

  “It doesn’t.” She lathered on the lotion. “Yours, on the other hand, looks like it sees too much.”

  “I’ve never had a sunburn in my life.”

  “You should still use sunscreen or you’ll have wrinkles at forty.”

  He laughed. “So what?” Her look of horror made him laugh harder. “Sweetheart, I couldn’t care less if I have wrinkles. They tell the world you’ve lived a little.”

  “I can’t imagine not caring about wrinkles.”

  He found two bottles of beer in the cooler and opened them. Handing one to her, he leaned back on an elbow to watch Dash wrestle with her bone. Snorting with laughter, he glanced at Liana and found her staring at his bare chest. “What?”

  “You’re very sexy.”

  Travis hid his surprise at the unexpected compliment. “Thank you, I think,” he said with a grin before he took a long drink from his beer.

  “I want to have a fling,” she said in a rush of words.

  Travis choked on his beer.

  Liana reached over to pound his back. “Are you all right? Travis? Can you talk?”

  He coughed. “Yes,” he croaked. “You need to give me some warning before you say something like that.”

  “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything.”

  “No way. I won’t forget it.”

  “I’m no good at this,” she said in a small voice.

  Travis reached over to tip her chin up to force her to look at him. “No good at what?”

  She shrugged. “All the things other women seem to find so easy: flirting, flinging, casual sex.”

  He swallowed hard. “There’s nothing casual about you, Liana.”

  “I know! That’s the problem. I want to be casual. I want to feel free to make love with a sexy man if I want to, but I can’t.”

  “Why not, sweetheart?”

  “Because.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “Nothing is ever simple for me. My every move is usually recorded in the press, every man I’ve ever been involved with has disappointed me—usually by kissing and telling—and I never have any idea who I can trust.”

  Listening to her, Travis was filled with sympathy.

  “Enid said I can trust you and that I needed to have sweaty sex. So I thought maybe . . .”

  Travis lay back on the sheet as all the oxygen left his body in a long exhale. “I feel like I’ve just dialed a 1-900 number.”

  “If you’re going to make fun of me, Travis . . .”

  He rolled onto his side so he could see her. “I’m not making fun of you, believe me. Tell me about this fling you want to have.”

  She pushed at the sand with a toe tipped with bright pink polish. “It was a dumb idea.”

  “Liana . . .”

  “What you said before about how you want to know me and be with me. No one’s ever said that to me before. They’re usually so caught up in how I look that no one ever cares if they know me or not.”

  Travis sat up to cup her face. “I meant it when I said I want to know you. I really do. But I love looking at you, too. I can’t deny that, Liana. I’m not going to tell you how breathtakingly beautiful you are because you’ve no doubt heard it a thousand times and in every possible way there is to say it. So just because I don’t say it doesn’t mean I’m not thinking it. I want to be honest with you about that.”

  “I guess that’s fair enough.”

  “How about you define what you mean by a fling, just so we’re on the same page here.”

  Her cheeks flamed with embarrassment as she cast her eyes down. “You know . . . Sex. Sweaty sex if you’re up for that.”

  “Hmm, sweaty sex. That’s quite an offer, sweetheart. I’m going to have to give it some thought.”

  Her eyes whipped back up. “You are?”

  Amused by her surprised expression, he said, “Well, I wouldn’t want you to think I’m easy.”

  Liana erupted into laughter. When she had finally caught her breath, she was still wiping at the tears in her eyes. “You’re too much. Who writes your material?”

  “My own original work,” he said with a chuckle. He opened the cooler and withdrew sandwiches and chips. “Let’s eat. I can’t think on an empty stomach, and I’m sure you’re going to want an answer to this very nice offer you’ve made me.”

  “You’re going to make me squirm, aren’t you?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “By the time I’m done with you, I’m fairly certain you’ll be squirming—at the very least.”

  Her hand trembled as she accepted the sandwich he handed her. “So does that mean you’re done thinking?”

  He ate his sandwich and contemplated h
er question. “Let’s just say I agree to this sweaty fling you’re suggesting—hypothetically, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “Are we talking strictly missionary, or would I be allowed to branch out?”

  He watched as she attempted to swallow the bite she had taken from her sandwich. “Define ‘branching out.’”

  “No.”

  “No?” she squeaked.

  “No.”

  “How can I answer your question if I don’t know what you mean by branching out?”

  “Either I can branch out or I can’t. It’s up to you.”

  She ate in silence for a few minutes before she said, “Fine. You can branch out, but nothing kinky.”

  He smiled with pride at the courage she was showing by even having this conversation. “Define kinky.”

  She sighed with exasperation. “You know what I mean.”

  “Do I?”

  “This was a bad idea.” She shook her head. “Let’s just forget about it. Really. I’m in way over my head here.”

  He reached for her hand. “I’m only having fun with you, Liana. You don’t have to define kinky, okay?”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry for being so uptight. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  “I know.” He kissed her hand and gave it back to her so she could finish her lunch. “Let’s talk duration.”

  “Two weeks,” she said. “I’m leaving in two weeks.”

  “What if you decide you like me and don’t want it to end then?”

  “Two weeks,” she said more emphatically this time. “I’m not interested in a long-distance relationship, so you can’t have any feelings for me. This is a sex-only fling.”

  He wondered if she really thought she was capable of such a thing.

  “I don’t want you to get hurt,” she added.

  “What about you? What if you fall for me?”

  “I won’t.”

  “How do you know? You haven’t slept with me yet.”

  “You’re pretty confident in your abilities.”

  He shrugged. “I know what I’m doing between the sheets.” Baiting her was turning out to be as much fun as talking about their sweaty fling.

  “You’ve had so many lovers?”

  “A few.” He bagged their trash and put it back in the cooler. “What about you?”

  “A few.”

  He moved closer to her and nudged her ponytail aside. As he dropped hot kisses on her neck, he whispered, “Have any of them made you scream?”

  Her breath hitched in her throat. “Travis . . .”

  “Hmm?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Kissing your neck.”

  “Does this mean you’ve decided?”

  “Nope. I’m just taking a sample so I know what I’d be getting if I agree to this fling of yours.”

  She pushed him away. “You’ve already had a test drive,” she reminded him.

  “Oh yeah,” he said with a grin.

  “I guess it wasn’t very memorable.”

  “It was very memorable. You know, you never answered my question.”

  Her eyebrows knit with confusion. “What question?”

  “Have any of them made you scream, Liana?”

  “No,” she said softly. “No, they haven’t.”

  He reached for her and brought her down across his chest. “I think,” he said with a lingering kiss, “that’s going to turn out to be their loss.”

  Chapter Six

  Liana could barely breathe. Kissing Travis was, without a doubt, the most carnal experience of her life. She couldn’t imagine what making love with him would entail.

  He rolled her under him on the beach and the feel of his chest hair brushing against her sun-kissed skin made her breathless with longing.

  As he trailed kisses down her neck, between her breasts, and over her belly, Liana writhed beneath him. “Travis . . .”

  “Hmm?”

  “Does this mean our fling is on?”

  He nibbled on her hipbone, causing her to cry out.

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  Liana couldn’t seem to breathe. “When do you plan to decide?”

  He kissed his way back up to her lips. “Soon.”

  She decided if he could test out the merchandise, so could she. Sliding her hands over his back, she ventured further south and discovered he had muscles everywhere.

  His gasp told her she had his attention. “Liana . . .”

  The sound of a speedboat caused her to panic. She pushed him off her and sat up.

  Startled, he asked, “What is it?”

  “Paparazzi.”

  “Huh?”

  “Reporters, Travis. If they catch me rolling around on the beach with you the photos will be all over the Internet in an hour.”

  He took a good look at the boat. “That’s Tommy Boyle. I’d know that boat anywhere.”

  “Photographers could’ve hired him. They’ve done it before.”

  He whistled for Dash. “Let’s go back to the boat.”

  They packed up their picnic, folded the sheet, and waded into the water.

  Liana welcomed the coolness of the water after the heat of the beach. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d told Travis she was in over her head. Suggesting a fling! What had come over her? This was all Enid’s fault. She hadn’t found her life to be lacking anything until Enid had pointed out what she was missing. And now she was dying to know exactly what she’d been missing. What if Travis said no? Would she ever have the courage to offer it to anyone else? Probably not. She reached the boat a minute ahead of Travis and Dash. Climbing the ladder, she tried not to think about the view he was getting from behind her.

  When he caught up to her, she leaned over to retrieve the cooler and caught the quick glance he gave her breasts in the skimpy bikini.

  He lifted Dash onto the boat with a warning for Liana to watch out for the shake the dog launched into the moment her paws hit the deck. Travis climbed up after the dog and brought the ladder in with him. He put it away and ordered Dash to stay on the bench seat.

  Unaccustomed to his sternness, the dog lay down with a whimper.

  Travis looped an arm around Liana’s waist and urged her into the cabin.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To where your imaginary reporters can’t find us.”

  “And what are we going to do there?”

  He pushed her back against the V-berth and captured her lips in a deep, lush kiss. “Practice.”

  “For?”

  “Our fling.”

  “Are we having a fling?”

  “I’m still trying to decide.” He untied her bikini top and peeled it down. “Oh, Liana,” he sighed. “You’re so . . .” His lips took a slow journey from her long neck to her full breasts. “So very beautiful. I know I wasn’t going to say it, but . . .”

  Liana moaned when he ran his tongue over her nipple.

  “Do you like that?”

  She clutched his shoulders, which were still wet with salt water. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Do you want more?”

  “Yes!”

  “We’ll get back to that,” he said as he kissed each of her ribs before he dipped his tongue into her belly button.

  “Travis,” she gasped. “Oh God.”

  He urged her back onto the bunk and stretched out next to her. “Kiss me, Liana.”

  She reached for his face and molded her lips to his.

  His arms tightened around her, brushing her sensitive breasts with his soft chest hair. He cupped her bottom with one big hand and pulled her tight against his erection.

  Soon her lips were numb and her face chafed from the abrasion of his beard, but she didn’t pull away from the kiss. Skimming her hands over his back, she discovered he was now slick with sweat, and suddenly she got it. This was sweaty sex—or the start of it anyway. “Travis, please . . .”

  “What, sweetheart?” />
  “I want you.”

  “And I want you.” He kissed her throat, her jaw, her ear, and then her lips again. “You’ll be glad to know I’ve decided to have a fling with you. Two weeks, no boundaries, no emotion. Is that we what agreed to?”

  “Yes. Can we start now?”

  He chuckled as he caressed her breast. “Not quite yet.”

  Her eyes flew opened. “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t say ‘no’ to romance, did you?”

  “Romance? What are you talking about?”

  “Before we have sex, we’re going to have a little romance.”

  “But I don’t want romance,” she protested. “I want sex. Sweaty sex.” She pushed her hips against his erection. “Remember?”

  “Yes,” he hissed. “I remember. Sweaty sex is always better after a bit of romance, sweetheart. Take my word for it.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” she snorted with disgust. “You’ve got all kinds of experience at this.”

  “And you’ll be the beneficiary of all that so-called experience. When you’re screaming out with one orgasm after another, you’ll be thanking all those women you think I’ve been with for showing me how to do it.”

  “One orgasm after another, huh?”

  He kissed her breast and made her shudder. “Uh huh.” “Good luck with that.”

  He stopped what he was doing to her breast and looked up to find her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve never . . . you know . . .”

  “I have, but not easily.”

  “Oh,” he said with a smug grin. “A challenge.”

  She pushed him off her and sat up, retying her bikini top. “I’m starting to think you’re all talk and no action.” Before she knew what had hit her she was flat on her back with two fierce brown eyes staring down at her.

  “I’ll show you action, sweetheart. And when we’re through with each other, you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to find another man who makes you feel the way I’m going to make you feel.”

  Liana felt a tremble go through her entire body as she studied his handsome face. Reaching up to caress his cheek, she brought him down to her for a kiss. With his soft lips gliding over hers, Liana’s heart began to race with fear and excitement as she realized she might have just made a deal with the devil himself.

  The sun was setting in brilliant pinks and oranges by the time they returned to the marina. Dash sprinted from the boat the moment it landed alongside the floating dock.