That One Summer: A Collection of Steamy Contemporary Romance

Chapter 3

James

I flinched as the sound of rushing water upstairs hit my ears.

Apparently, the siren wouldn’t be coming down for a while. Not that I blamed her. I hadn’t exactly been a gracious host. Hell, I hadn’t known I’d be a host at all.

But maybe if the gorgeous creature floating at the end of the pier hadn’t knocked me nearly speechless, I would have been a little more charming and a little less combative.

Too late for that now.

I pulled out my phone.

JAMES: What the hell, Jackie?

JACKIE: I need more context. What’d I do this time?

JAMES: Why’s there a woman at the cabin?

JACKIE: Oh, did you meet Emma?

“Emma,” I exhaled. I liked how her name sounded way too much. Definitely a siren. The phone buzzed in my hand, my sister’s name on the screen.

“What’s she doing here?” I answered.

“You went to the cabin? I’m surprised,” Jackie said with a bored sigh.

“I told you I was getting out of the city for a week, going to the beach.” I’d talked to my sister two nights before and she hadn’t breathed a word about Emma.

“I thought you meant some fancy beach. Cabo or Puerto Vallarta. Wherever rich assholes go when they want to relax from their hard lives of making too much money.”

I groaned. “Now, why would I do that? It’s my week to use the cabin. Not yours.”

“And you have company. You’re welcome.”

“I don’t want company,” I bit out. “I want peace and quiet.”

“Well, then Emma’s perfect. She’s a librarian. Did she tell you that?”

She hadn’t had the chance to tell me much of anything before I barked at her. Not that I planned on telling Jackie anything about how we’d met. “It didn’t come up.”

“She wants peace and quiet as much as you do. And she’s a great cook. Did you hear the fish camp closed down last year? There’s nowhere to eat on the island anymore. You’ve got to drive all the way back to the mainland for anything good.”

“She can’t stay here, Jack,” I said, more for Emma’s sake than my own.

Fuck it. A little for my own, too.

I hadn’t reacted to a woman that strongly in years. Probably not since I was a horny teenager. And sure, being naked in the ocean didn’t help, but I had to admit that her fiery reaction had only solidified that gut punch of lust.

“Of course she can. It’s a big cabin. Hell, other than sharing the beach, you don’t even have to talk to each other. But you should. She’s great. Spunky, lots of fun. You could use a little fun, James.”

The type of fun I wanted to have with Emma was decidedly not the type of fun Jackie was talking about.

“This is your problem, Jackie,” I said in my best impression of our dad’s pissed off tone. “Get rid of her.”

“What was that? I can barely hear you,” she lied from half a country away. “The cell phone reception on the island is getting awful. I can’t hear you at all. Anyway, have fun. Tell Emma I said hi!”

Jackie hung up, and I glared at the phone. If I tried to call back, she’d send me straight to voicemail.

Fine. I could get rid of the sire...Emma. I negotiated with scarier people than some angelic looking librarian on a near daily basis.

I slouched back in the Adirondack chair and popped open a bottle of beer and waited.

I’d been iced out before, by players and brands, and I could wait out the best of them. I had a beer and all the time in the world.

But as I finished my second beer, I felt myself getting antsy, a mixture of annoyed and concerned and desperate. I tilted my head up to the bedroom, listening for the sound of water, her voice from the bedroom, any sign that she’d be down soon.

Nothing.

I popped open a third bottle as I glanced at the door, wondering whether to slip inside and wait in the kitchen. At least there, I could hear whether she planned to actually come out or was holing up in a bedroom, preparing for war.

A soft patter down the stairs alerted me to her return, and I took a pull from the bottle, feigning nonchalance. As if I regularly evicted water goddesses from my presence.

The nonchalance only lasted until she stood in front of me.

Jesus, and I thought she was gorgeous before. In the water, she’d been ethereal, her red hair fanned wildly around her, body soft, cheeks tinged pink by the water. A natural beauty. And, to some extent, she still was. Not a goddess or a siren, though. An angel.

She wore a white dress that swished across her calves, plain and almost matronly except for the low cut top. And despite seeing those breasts less than an hour ago, my breath caught in my throat and my mouth turned dry, fingers digging into my pants to resist the urge to reach for her.

She definitely had to go.

“About time,” I mumbled, draining my beer and setting the empty bottle back into the six-pack. “So, do you need a ride to the airport? A hotel?”

She shook her head, face collapsing into a frown. “I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“I’ll run through a drive-thru on the way to a hotel.”

“Enjoy yourself. I’m not going,” she said as she slid back inside. The screen door slammed behind her.

I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose before grabbing the now-empty six-pack to follow her. “I thought we established Jackie had no business renting you this cabin. It wasn’t hers to give.”

She stood in front of the open fridge, whirling around with a wrapped steak. My mouth watered for entirely other reasons than before.

“She didn’t rent it to me,” Emma said. “Besides, she texted when I was taking a shower and said she spoke to you. Cleared it all up.”

“Cleared it up? Jackie pretended she couldn’t hear me and hung up.”

Emma set the steak on the kitchen island and grabbed two potatoes out of the bowl at the center before glancing at me. “Knowing Jackie, I’m not terribly surprised. But where exactly do you think I’ll find a room on this island?”

“I’ll drive you to another one. Hell, back to the mainland if you’ll pack your bags.”

She pursed her lips, green eyes boring into mine in a way that made me squirm like a rowdy second-grader. “How do you like your steak?”

The rapid change in conversation took me off guard. “Steak?”

The edge of her lip rose just a fraction of an inch. Enough to know she had come downstairs with a plan, and I’d fallen for it.

“Right.” Her voice turned buttery smooth. “Steak. Since I assume you haven’t eaten yet, I’ll make dinner. How do you like your steak?”

“You’re not dis—”

“Or did you get dinner on your way in? If that’s the case, I hope you don’t mind if I make myself something. I’m starving.”

“I haven’t eaten,” I admitted, rewarded with a pleased smile.

“So, rare? Medium rare?” she prompted.

“Medium,” I ground out, my stomach betraying me with a loud grumble.

“Great. Do you like baked potatoes? And salad? It’s not much, but I’m happy to share.” Her combativeness washed away the second my stomach rumbled.

“You can stay until the morning,” I muttered. “I’ll drive you to the airport tomorrow.”

She nodded with a hum. Not a “yes” hum, but acknowledgement.

She’d won the first round. I had to give her that. Distracting me and then catching me off guard with dinner. She was good. Too good. But she wouldn’t win. By tomorrow night, she’d be gone.

“I’m sure your sister already told you, but since we didn’t get properly introduced, I’m Emma.” She extended her arm over the counter in my direction.

I froze, my body not cooperating with my mind which desperately wanted to walk across the room and take her hand.

“James,” I grunted.

A flicker of disappointment washed over her face and I fought back a grimace. She shrugged, dropping her hand and grabbing a bottle of olive oil. “Jackie said this was a family cabin. It’s really nice here. So quiet.”

I made a living talking to people, but apparently sirens left me tongue-tied. “Yeah.”

“So, how long has the home been in your family?” she asked as she rinsed the potatoes in the sink, turning away from me.

My jaw tensed as my eyes wandered over the bare skin of her back, mind immediately jumping to running my fingers over the soft skin, cupping her neck and kissing every inch.

“Years,” I barked, startling her into glancing back with a raised eyebrow.

“Informative. Have you considered offering island history tours?”

She stabbed the potatoes with a fork and covered them in a light layer of oil before setting them on a plate.

I shook my head, getting back into the game. “You’ll have to excuse me. I didn’t drive for seven hours expecting company.”

“Do you want to lie down until dinner’s ready? I’m in the main bedroom, but I’m happy to move to a smaller bedroom.” She set the plate in the microwave and tapped a few buttons until it hummed to life.

I briefly considered making her move, just to have some win. But sleeping in the same bed as Emma seemed like an equally bad idea. “I’m fine, just not talkative.”

She wrinkled her nose as she turned back toward me. “That’s not what your sister said. She said you love talking. Isn’t that your job?”

“My job is negotiating contracts. Not talking.” Especially not to naked sirens who seduced me into letting them stay at my cabin with steaks and warm smiles.

“Well, I need to grill these. If you’re not going to lie down, could you make a salad? Think you could handle that?” She tilted her head, a faint smile on her lips as if cajoling me into action.

“I know how to make a salad.” I pushed myself off the wall and stalked to the refrigerator while she slipped out the porch entrance with two steaks and a grin.