Born Ready (19 page)

Or maybe not. Maybe he would leave her out of the story altogether and just talk about rescuing the boy. For no good reason, the thought of being left out of his future narrative saddened Jackie.

She cleaned the wound with peroxide and then bandaged it up again. “I’d tell you to stay off it for a few days but I have a feeling you wouldn’t listen to me.”

Scott sat up, looked down to admire her handiwork. “You’re right. I’m not one to sit around, but thanks for this.”

“Don’t mention it.” She dealt with putting away the supplies to keep busy. He didn’t make any move to put his pants on. Where was this going?

They stood looking at each other; neither one of them said anything, but the air fairly crackled with tension.

Then thankfully, miraculously, the phone rang. The caller ID flashed her professor’s number. “I have to take this,” she said.

“Sure, sure.” He finally reached for his pants as she snatched up the phone and turned her back.

“Hello.”

“Jackie, Professor Donnelly here.”

“Is something up?”

“I didn’t receive your weekly report and I’m just calling to check in. You’re never late with your assignments and since you’re out there on your own, I worried.”

Stunned, Jackie gulped. In her flustered state over her date with Scott, she’d forgotten to send her report. It was prepared. Ready to be emailed, she’d just forgotten to press Send. Was she that thrown off balance? “I’m so sorry. The date slipped my mind.”

“It’s no problem really. Like I said, it was so uncharacteristic of you that I got concerned.”

“I’ll email it to you right now, Professor Donnelly, and I promise this will never happen again.” She had never missed a deadline and she was mortified to have done so now.

This is what happens when you let sex take over your brain.

“No worries. Now that I know you’re all right, I’m happy.”

“Thanks for checking up on me,” Jackie said, then rang off.

“Troubles?” Scott asked.

“I’ve been neglecting my work.” She cradled the receiver.

“Because of me.”

“I try not to blame others for my mistakes.” She pushed a hand through her hair.

They studied each other across the length of the room. The expression on Scott’s face said he wanted to scoop her into his arms and take her to bed. The pounding in Jackie’s chest said she wanted the same thing.

She wasn’t going to go there. Scott was sexy as all get out and she really enjoyed herself with him, but this was her career, her livelihood, her life. He was nothing except a good-looking distraction.

“I should go,” he said.

She didn’t argue.

He moved toward the door. “Thanks again for the nursing care.”

“You’re welcome.”

He opened the door, turned back at the threshold.

Just go.

Jackie planted one bare foot against the side of her opposite leg, stood like a stork. She forced a smile and tried not to think too hard. “Have a good night.”

“When can I see you again?”

“We should cool it for a while. I have a lot of work to do.”

“I understand.” He shook his head and Jackie realized he didn’t understand at all.

Neither did she.

“I guess I’ll see you when I see you?” he asked.

“I’ll give you a call in a few days.”

“Do you have my number?”

“No.”

“Give me your cell and I’ll program it in.”

“Just tell me. I can do it.”

He clenched his jaw, and then told her his number. “Will you remember it?”

“Yes,” she told him, but she knew she would not. Better to forget him now before she got in any deeper. It had been a fun night, but it was over. She had to get back on track. Had to recommit to what was the most important thing in her life.

And it wasn’t Scott.

10

Sun over foreyard.

—Coast Guard equivalent to “It’s after five, time for a drink.”

THE FOLLOWING DAY Jackie kept her head buried in her work, managing to forget about Scott for large chunks of time, and then she’d hear a song playing from the bar down the street or catch a whiff of some delicious scent wafting from the food vendors along the beach and it would remind her of him.

Finally, she got up, shut the window, turned on the air-conditioning and went back to analyzing the data being sent to her computer through the satellite feed. She’d just shaken off lingering memories of last night in the aquarium when the doorbell rang.

Sighing, she put her laptop aside and got up. Who could it be? Not too many people knew she was here. She checked the peephole and when she saw Scott standing on the landing, her stomach took a nosedive at the same moment her heart soared.
Oh, stop it, seriously.

It occurred to her that she did not have to answer the door, but he rang again and a fluttery sensation went through her body.

His smile widened as if he knew she was watching him. In his hand he held a brown paper bag that he raised to the level of the peephole. On the paper bag were written the words in block letters: SCOTT’S HOME COOKING.

Don’t answer it. Be strong.

She opened the door.

“Hey,” he said, looking sheepish.

The old Jackie would have snapped his head off with a smart retort for interrupting her work, but this new sappy Jackie that she did not recognize stepped aside and let him in.

What the hell?

He held up one palm as if anticipating an argument. “I know you’re busy and I don’t want to interrupt your work, but I wanted to make sure you were eating right. You took care of me last night, I figured turnabout—”

That was as far as he got. She took the sack from his hand, set it on the table, then turned back to plant a big kiss on his lips.

“Wow,” he said, “if this is what happens when a guy brings you food, I’m cooking for you all the time.”

“Shh.” She kissed him again, her fingers going to the buttons of his shirt.

It seemed her body had taken her mind hostage. She didn’t think. Couldn’t think. Not for one second. She just ripped his clothes off and it didn’t take long before Scott was doing some equally enthusiastic ripping of his own.

In under a minute they were naked and Jackie was lying under him on the floor of her living room carpet. Both of them breathing like runners on the last mile of the Boston Marathon.

Their gazes meshed and they fell down the well of each other. Scott’s masculine energy filled Jackie to the brim. There was no room for anything else but him. He stoked in her a desperate, insatiable thirst. A thirst so vast all the oceans of the world evaporated to a single drop.

How could this be? How could she have become so deliriously bewitched by him?

This bombardment of emotions terrified her.

The air between them vibrated. Each molecule alive with awareness. Their entire time together had been like this. A daring adventure.

At last, Jackie understood why she’d always been blasé about sex. No man had ever made her feel this way. Feminine. Wanted. Sexually powerful.

It felt glorious.

And scary as hell.

He was glorious. All biceps and triceps and gluts and hamstrings. She couldn’t ever remember having such a well-built lover. She would remember this man’s body for a long time to come.

And his face! Straight out of a daydream—square jaw, prominent cheekbones, dark hair.

She thought he was quivering, but then realized it was her, shaking so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. Why was she trembling?

His hand was a silken glide, his lips delicious. He swirled his fingers over her navel. Softly and sweetly, he kissed the leaping pulse at her neck. He dropped down the length of her throat, and then took tiny succulent nibbles.

Then his tongue went traveling farther south, flicking out to lick one tight nipple, while his thumb achingly rubbed the other straining bud, drawing it into his furnace of a mouth. His thigh tightened against her leg and his abdominal muscles hardened to pure, smooth steel.

“Scott…” She breathed his name on a sigh.

Then he did something so wonderful with his illicit tongue that her eyes flew open and she lifted her head up off the floor. She had to see what he was doing to make her feel so good. Her gaze latched on his lips as she watched him drawing her nipple slowly in and out between his teeth.

She dropped her head to the ground, arched her back. “Go lower.”

He dipped his head, trailing his tongue down the middle of her chest to the flat of her sternum before he veered off into other territory.

His hand danced at the juncture of her thighs. She parted her legs, allowing him to slip a finger between them.

And then his mouth and his fingers were in the same place. His lips closed around the tiny throbbing head of her cleft while his fingers tickled her entrance.

“Yes,” she hissed as he moved his mouth back and forth, his silky hair a glossy glide between her fingers. “That’s it.”

She surfed the flow of emotions, navigating the swell of bliss and longing and discovery with unexpected dexterity. His warmth embraced her, bracing as a hug and she experienced a sense of rightness with him that she’d never felt before.

He took her up to a place she never knew existed. He was a fascinating adventure and she couldn’t get enough.

A sudden bittersweet sensation seized her. This moment could not last. She knew that. She closed her eyes, determined to ignore the overwhelming sadness. It was okay. The feeling would pass. Honestly, this was all she needed from him. One brief slice of pleasure. Delicious and homey as apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

And he was licking at her as if she was indeed vanilla ice cream, sending sweet shock waves of sensation throughout her body. Binding her to him with wiredrawn skill.

She broke all at once. Fragile as the thinnest peanut brittle. The orgasm hit and she shattered, breaking into pieces in his strong, safe Coast Guard arms.

Ten minutes later, with his face buried against her neck, Scott murmured something.

“What?” Jackie whispered dreamily, her foggy gaze skimming the ceiling.

“I didn’t come here for this,” he said. “I promise.”

“You’re forgiven.” She smiled.

He propped himself up on one elbow, peered down at her. “I came here to feed you.”

“There’s all kind of ways of feeding a woman,” she observed.

“Are you hungry?”

“Ravenous.”

Lazily, he crawled over to where she’d left the paper bag he’d brought and he carried it back to her. She propped herself up against the couch. Scott opened the sack, removed a Tupperware dish of chicken and dumplings and two spoons.

“You came prepared.”

“Always ready,” he quipped. “I’m Coast Guard.” He spooned up a mouthful. “Have a bite.”

She opened her mouth and he slipped the spoon between her parted teeth, feeding her. Then he took a bite for himself.

The delicious flavor of down-home comfort food delighted her taste buds. A bit of manna from heaven. And he’d made it for her from scratch.

“You’re an excellent cook.”

“Not really. My repertoire is pretty limited. Scrambled eggs, sandwiches, chicken and dumplings and key lime cheesecakes.”

“Hey, you’ve got me. If it can’t be microwaved, I’m lost.”

It seemed incongruous to be eating dinner in the nude in the middle of the afternoon with her red-hot lover, but here she was.

Romantic. This is too damned romantic.

Yes, but she was hungry and the food was so good. Once they’d polished off the chicken and dumplings, they turned to his key lime cheesecake.