Page 52 of Escape to the Sun

She needed to know more, a lot more. His confession had just given her more questions than answers. Including some big ones: Why would he choose that moment to tell her the truth about his wife? Why would he stand there and confess that he’d vowed never to love again?

Did he think she was falling in love with him?He had mentioned the L word.

Did he think she was getting too close?

Before she could ask any of the questions on the tip of her tongue, they both caught the scent of burning pancakes at the same time. Heather whipped around to see smoke coming up from the pan that she’d stupidly left on the burner. “Oh, shit.” In two steps, she was across the room but she couldn’t find a potholder to grab the pan with. Tears of frustration pricked at her eyes and she was about to reach out with her bare hands when Ash reached around her, a towel in his hands, and grabbed the pan.

“Watch out.” He deftly moved around her and dumped the whole smoking mess into the sink before he turned on the faucet. “Got it. It’s okay.”

“It’s not.” The pesky tears were still threatening to spill. She bit down on her bottom lip to keep it from happening.

“Hey.” Ash stood in front of her. So close she could feel his heat. Or maybe it was the heat from the burnt pancakes. How could she have forgotten about the pancakes? She could have burned the whole place down.

She didn’t stand a chance at keeping her tears at bay. Everything was just too much. She just wanted to do something right. It was bad enough getting stranded on the dock like an idiot. But now she couldn’t even manage to cook breakfast. What kind of bed-and-breakfast manager was she anyway? The tears slipped from her eyes and she didn’t even bother trying to stop them.

“It’s okay.” Ash pulled her into his arms, but she wasn’t ready to be hugged and she pushed away. “It’s okay, Heather.”

“It’s not.” She snorted loudly. “I just want to be able to do something right. I can’t believe I’m messing this up so bad.”

Ash froze and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not talking about you.” She threw a nearby towel at him. “God. You really are a self-centered bastard.”

The minute the words came out of her mouth, she felt bad. He’d just told her a tragic story about his past. She had no right calling him names. If he was offended, he certainly didn’t show it. Instead, Ash did the exact opposite of what she expected. He laughed.

He bent over, his body racked with the laughter. When he finally looked up at her, Heather couldn’t help but join in. “You’re crazy.”

The laughter stopped, and Ash looked at her with false seriousness. “Remember what happened when I called you crazy?”

She certainly did. It had ended up with her chasing him around the room until she caught him and straddled him on the floor, followed by… “Oh.”

“Oh yes.”

It didn’t take her long to get what he was saying. A moment later, she took off running, but he was too quick. Ash caught the edge of her sarong and with one firm tug, it fell to the floor.

“That’s more like it.”

She let him pull her close and kiss her hard. When his hands slipped down her bare skin, she groaned with the need he brought out in her so easily. And when he reached down between them to unfasten the button on his shorts, she pushed his hands aside and did it for him. Because whatever it was that they were doing together—whether or not either of them wanted a relationship, or believed in happy endings, or love, or getting too emotionally invested—the one thing they had in common was their intense desire for each other. And for the moment, that would have to be enough.

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