Page 41 of Do Opposites Attract?

Carefully he levered himself up from the sofa and thrust an unsteady hand through his now dishevelled hair. What was it about Brianna that made him unable to keep his hands off her? She’d barely been in his house a few minutes before he’d torn off her clothes. He glanced at the discarded items littering the floor. He hadn’t even let her go upstairs to the bedroom, for God’s sake. He’d acted like an animal on heat. Remembering their time in the camp, when he’d accused her of wanting to find out what it was like to make love with a bit of rough, he felt ashamed. Now she knew.

‘Sorry,’ he apologised grimly, hauling himself off the sofa.

Brianna lifted her head and raised her eyebrows. ‘Err, what for exactly?’

Simmering with embarrassment and a fair amount of self-disgust, he found his boxers and yanked them on. ‘I could at least have offered you a drink first.’

‘You could,’ she agreed slowly. ‘But I much preferred your alternative welcome.’

‘What, being jumped on before you’d even taken your jacket off?’ He’d like to bet her usual dates didn’t greet her like that.

Brianna stood up from the sofa and, clearly comfortable in her nakedness, slid her arms around his waist. ‘Absolutely. Do I look like a woman who hasn’t been totally and utterly pleasured?’

Mitch studied her face. Her eyes danced, her lips curved. She sure didn’t have the appearance of someone who’d been forced to endure something they didn’t want to do. In fact she looked happy, satisfied and downright gorgeous. ‘No, you don’t.’ He shook his head. ‘If your parents could see you now.’ With that he moved away from the circle of her arms and went to retrieve his discarded jeans.

Thoughtfully Brianna began to pull on her underwear. He was right. If her parents could see her now they probably wouldn’t be best pleased. Her mother had already warned her off Mitch and Brianna was prepared to admit she might have a point. There was a lot about the man she didn’t know. She cast him a surreptitious glance as he pulled on his shirt, the muscles of his chest rippling, the panther tattoo flashing menacingly before being hidden by the sleeve. But it was that very hint of bad boy about him that made him so irresistible.

‘Did you bring your wetsuit?’ Mitch asked as he did up the buttons on his fly.

Brianna nodded, looking around for her jeans. She spotted them thrown over the back of the leather armchair. ‘It’s in the car.’

Mitch crooked a smile, staring at her matching midnight-blue bra and pants. ‘If you go out dressed like that, Edna will have a heart attack. I’d better get it. Where are your keys?’

Several minutes and some hysterical laughter later, at least from Brianna, they headed out of Mitch’s patio doors and down to the beach. Brianna had never worn a wetsuit. She’d only bought it the day before and couldn’t believe how tightly they fitted, or how they emphasised every bump.

‘I feel positively indecent going out like this,’ she complained as they walked across the pebbles.

He gave her a dark look. ‘I can’t say it leaves much to the imagination. But it will give me something to look at while you’re falling off the board.’

She punched him heartily on the arm. ‘No way. I’m going to be good at this. Just you watch and see.’

An hour later, Brianna was eating her words, along with most of the English Channel. ‘It’s impossible,’ she spluttered, glaring at the board as she fell off yet again. ‘You windsurfers must have special shoes or something that stick you to the board.’

He flashed one of his rare smiles. ‘Staring down the board, daring it to throw you off, isn’t going to work you know.’

She tried in vain a few more times until finally he took pity on her. ‘Here, why don’t you have a rest and watch me for a bit.’

‘Nothing like showing off,’ she muttered, but gratefully plonked herself down on the beach. She wasn’t going to let him know it, but she was dying to see how good he was. If he was anything like as good to watch in the water as he was to watch out of it, she would enjoy the next hour a lot more than she had the last.

She arranged herself comfortably on the beach, propping her head up against her bag and prepared to ogle. A woman was entitled to ogle, especially if she was sleeping with the man she was ogling. Stretching out, she let out a sigh of pure female admiration. He looked heavenly in his gear, the wetsuit emphasising the breadth of his shoulders, the lean lines of his body. His trim, athletic backside. Several times this morning she’d had to ask him to repeat himself as she’d been distracted by the sexy grin, the humour-filled brown eyes. This relaxed, dryly amused Mitch McBride was very different to the austere,distant persona she’d seen at the camp. She found she liked him. A lot.

* * *

They stopped for lunch at a little kiosk on the seafront where he ordered them both hot tea and sandwiches. The day had turned out different to her expectations, which she was ashamed to admit had included only a short stint in the water followed by a very long lunch in a fancy restaurant, but as she sat next to Mitch on the beach, she couldn’t remember ever appreciating the seaside more.

‘This is nice,’ she sighed, leaning back against the stones, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face.

‘What? A kiosk sandwich and a cup of stewed tea?’

She glowered at him. ‘Being by the sea, in the sun.’ She wanted to addbeing with you, but wasn’t sure how well it would be received. ‘On dry land.’

His answering laugh was a deep rumble that made her toes curl. ‘I hate to say this, princess.’ He merely grinned when she frowned at the use of the nickname. ‘But you asked me to teach you how to windsurf. I’m not stopping until I’ve done just that. Time to get up, and back onto that board.’

He stretched out a hand and pulled her up sharply, causing her to bounce into him. Instantly his mouth swooped on hers and they shared a long, deep kiss. ‘Now you’re just trying to distract me,’ he murmured as he drew back.

‘We could ditch the windsurfing and go back to yours,’ she suggested coquettishly, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

‘Don’t tempt me.’ He took her firmly by the arm and led her back to the board.

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