Page 60 of The Bombshell and the Bodyguard
I huffed a laugh. “We haven’t even been near a bed yet.”
“Yet,” he repeated in a slightly threatening tone.
Staring at the stars above and the tops of the palm trees swaying in the breeze I gave voice to the thought that had been circulating through my brain since our first kiss—well, our first kiss on the island.
Our first kiss as teenagers had apparently ruined me for life, branding me for Wilder’s sole possession and making it impossible for me to find a real, lasting connection with anyone else.
“I don’t ever want to leave here,” I said. “All I want to do is stay here with you and swim and make love and drink rum like a couple of horny pirates. Therewerefemale pirates, you know.”
Wilder was quiet. Finally, he said, “I think we should talk.”
Wellthatdidn’t sound good. I nodded, tracing an infinity pattern on his chest with my fingernail. “Okay. What are you thinking?”
“Honestly?” He gave a self-deprecating laugh, scrubbing a hand through the hair on the top of his head before lying back on his palm again. “I’m thinking I want to go down on you again. Every. Fucking. Day. You are so unbelievably beautiful and sexy and—well, I’d better stop there, I think. What weshouldtalk about is what we’re going to do aboutthis.”
I lifted my head to look at his face. “And what exactlyisthis?”
“Well, on my part... it’s been a long time coming,” he said. “I’ve always liked you, Jess. I’ve always been attracted to you, like, a ridiculous amount. But obviously, I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Because?”
“Well, your brother’s my best friend. And you were too young for me... back then. I should never have kissed you that first time, but you surprised me, and you were so fucking cute and sexy.”
“And now? Should you have kissed me now?” I asked, pleased by his assessment of teenaged me.
“Definitely not. But I did it anyway. Well, to be fair, you kissed me first… but I wanted you to.”
I smiled against his delicious warm skin. “And thenyoukissedme. Finally.”
“Yes. I did. But I’m not sure where we go from here. I’ve been devoting so much energy to resisting you, I’m not sure what to do now.”
“Stopresisting me?” I suggested.
He laughed. “Yeah, well you see that’s where things get a little sticky. It might be all well and good while we’re here on the island. But what about when we get back home and go back to our lives? Aside from the issue with Hap, I’ve got my career in Eastport Bay, and you have your career... everywhere else. I mean, it’ll be easy for you, but I’m different—especially when it comes to you.”
I pushed up to one elbow, my head quirking to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean? It’ll be ‘easy’ for me?”
He rolled his head to the side to look at me, grasping a wet tendril of my hair and twirling it slowly around his finger. “Well, you know... the whole trail of broken hearts. I mean, chances are good I’ll end up as just another platinum record on your wall.”
For a moment I just stared at him in shock. My emotions progressed from confusion to irritation to flat out anger.
“Wilder Lowe, do you actually believe everything you read about me? You work with celebrities all the time, don’t you? And you must have experienced some of the same garbage yourself back when you were a star athlete. Most of what peoplethinkthey know about me isn’t true. The rest is overblown. I’ve hardly evendatedanyone, much less broken a bunch of hearts.”
“Oh.”
Beyond that single syllable, he seemed dumbstruck.
I pushed to my knees then stood, brushing sand from my legs. “I’m ready to go.”
Chapter Twenty
No-win Situation
Wilder
I wasn’t sure if Jessica meant she was ready to go back to the house—or take the yacht and leave me stranded here on the island.
Based on the wake her digging strides left in the sand, it was the latter. I’d said the wrong thing… obviously.
