Page 3 of Silver-Tongued Devil
“I’m not security. And I hope that’s a lie that you were just going, because that looked real fun.”
He had a Southern drawl she’d surely never heard in Wild Horse. Slow as molasses, and just that thick and sweet.Ah hope thass a lah that you were juss goin’.“Let me guess,” she said, feeling a sneaky little surge of excitement. “You’re out here to do wrong. Sign says ‘No Trespassing,’ and you’ve been given the big lecture, but you’re not worried, because you’re a badass like that.”
Some more grin. “Could be. Is that water deep enough to be safe? We’re both too pretty to get ourselves paralyzed.”
“Oh, yeah,” she assured him. “Best spot on the lake for it. No place else has rocks like this or a pool this deep. Which means, of course, that the Man comes and fences it off and tells you that you can’t use it anymore, even if you’re working out here. Gotta love capitalism, and this is about the worst.”
He gazed into the distance and scratched thoughtfully at his cheek. “Bad place to work, you think? Huh.”
“I wouldn’t do it for a heartbeat if I didn’t need the money. You could say that I’m not in love with Mr. Blake Orbison or his company. But you know, we all need the money.”
“That we do. Arrogant guy?”
“Let’s say that I don’t like the way he treats people. On an… institutional scale.”Whoa, girl,she told herself.Lose the bitter and get back to reckless. More attractive, and a whole lot more fun.Trust her to meet a truly prime specimen of manflesh for once and immediately put him off. “So I’m sure I shouldn’t jump off his rocks. But hey, what’s life without a little danger?” There, that was better.
“Now, see, darlin’,” he said, his voice getting even deeper, the accent going a shade richer, “that’s what I tell myself all the time. It’s a real shame that so few people think like us.”
“Hmm.” She might not be good at flirting, but he clearly had enough flirt for two. “You on the project yourself?”
“Sure am. Mind if I join you?”
“They’re notmyrocks.”
“Well, that’s true.” Hot Guy’s irresistible, crooked little grin was still going on like gangbusters, and she remembered with a stab of something too much like chagrin that her swimsuitwasnavy blue and a one-piece style that had been on clearance for $7.99, but that her grandma would have flipped past with a “Boring, baby. I might be old, but I’m not dead.” Her hair was in a messy, dripping braid, she wasn’t wearing any makeup, her nose was probably running, and she was nobody’s dream girl.
Nothing she could do about it now, though. She was about to turn and head up the rock again, but she may have gotten a little distracted. Because Dream Boy was pulling up that black T-shirt, and glasses or no… she could see that he didn’t have a six-pack. He had aneight-pack. And then he kept going, and her mouth might have gone a little dry. It had been a while. And it had been longer… no, it had beenneverthat she’d seen a chest that good. Not up close and offscreen.
When he dropped the shirt and his hands went to his belt buckle, she realized she was standing there staring. And what was hedoing?
“Ah…” she said. “Around here, people generally wear clothes to swim. I mean, I’ll just get kicked out, but you could get arrested.”
“But then,” he said, “like you say, we live dangerously. Badasses gotta badass.” He sat on a rock and started untying the laces of his work boots, which was when she realized that standing there gawking at him as he stripped was probably not her smoothest move. So she turned around and headed for the rock again.
This time, she jumped off cleanly. And if she looked back when she heard the splash behind her… well, she couldn’t really see him anyway, not unless he gotreallyclose. Which wasn’t happening.
Which was fine.
Blake didn’t know who she was, but he was going to have to find out. She had a weird squint, her body was more athletic than stacked, and that was one of the ugliest swimsuits he’d ever seen on a woman below the age of forty, but she had enough attitude for two, honey-colored skin that was already touched by the sun, a set of cheekbones that his thumbs needed to brush over while he held her head for his kiss, and legs that wouldn’t quit. If he’d been in charge of her, he’d have had her wear something cut all the way up to her waist, just so he could look at those legs. Her ears had been pierced in a couple places, and then in a couple more, because she had two piercings at the top of the left ear with a ring through each and a tiny silver chain joining them.
If anything had looked more like a pair of handcuffs, he didn’t know what it would be. That chain was hot as hell.
And then there was that other thing.
When she’d turned around and walked away, then started climbing up that rock, he’d discovered that she had exactly the kind of ass that a Southern boy loved best. The kind that took two hands to hold. Firm, round, and downright juicy.
Hell,yeah.
When she got up there, she got a thumb under each side of the navy-blue material and snapped the suit down over the gorgeous curve of butt cheek, and he thought he’d have a heart attack. And then she jumped off, and he’d just say that following her up there didn’t take any decision-making at all, and swimming behind her to shore to do it all over again was a foregone conclusion.
After the second time they’d jumped, she turned to him in the water, treading water with one hand while she slicked her dark hair back from her face with the other, and said, “Too cold to stay long. Anyway, I have to get going.”
“Aw, now, darlin’,” he complained, “those are words that cut a man to the bone.”
He was rewarded by a smile that lit up her whole face. That was some mouth, too. That mouth saidgenerousandgood time,not to mentionLay me down and love me right.
“Anybody ever tell you that you’re forward?” she asked. “Stripping to your underwear in front of a woman you’ve just met and all? Black might have been a little less obvious than fire-engine red, too, not that I looked.”
“Can’t get anywhere if you don’t try,” he said. “Words to live by. And I thought we’d established that I’m a badass. Two badasses ought to get to know each other better, don’t you think? Maybe have a drink, do a little dancing, see if they get anywhere they want to go. I’ll bet you know the spot for it, too.”
