Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
J ade’s stomach pitched as she stood on the wharf that evening. Day two and she’d agreed to have another drink with the man she’d nearly had sex with on day one.
God, she made bad decisions. No wonder Lauren had such a low opinion of her.
She was in half a mind to walk back to the bookstore when she spotted his tall figure striding towards her from the resort. He slowed when he neared her. Dressed in a sky-blue polo shirt, charcoal linen jacket and jeans that looked soft and expensive, he screamed rich and sophisticated. She looked down at her short denim skirt, her simple sleeveless top. She screamed clumsy and inelegant.
‘Hi.’
Her heart let out a loud thud. ‘Hi back.’
He tilted his head. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Er, I think I may have got cold feet.’
Liam frowned, moving forward a few steps. ‘Why?’
Nerves jangled and she clenched her hands to stop them from shaking. ‘What do you see when you look at me?’
He nodded, like it wasn’t a really odd question. ‘You mean besides a drop-dead gorgeous blonde with a body I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and want to see more of?’
The belly flutter returned, reminding her why she’d come here in the first place. ‘I like that, but yes.’
His gaze scanned her face, and she wondered if he was searching for the right words to guarantee the sex he’d not been given yesterday. ‘I see a woman who made me laugh, which is rare. Also a woman who surprised me, fascinated me. Enough that I was looking forward to seeing her again tonight.’
‘For sex.’
He frowned. ‘For a drink.’
‘So you don’t want sex?’
He let out a frustrated sounding exhale. ‘I don’t want anything you don’t willingly want to do.’
‘Good answer.’ Oh God, why was she making such a big deal of this? This gorgeous man, who only had to look at her to make her knees weak, had invited her for a drink. So what if his motive wasn’t pure, it’s not like he was pretending it would be anything more than a hook-up. And if they did end up having sex, it would be her choice. Her choice to sleep with a guy who said she was fascinating, surprising . If she thought of her resolution about avoiding guys who underestimated her, he’d just seen more in her than anyone else ever had.
‘So, where is the best place on Nantucket to have a drink?’
His eyes flared and he placed his free hand on her hip, turning her to face him. ‘I’ll show you. But first…’
His mouth inched closer and as his gaze pinned hers, her stomach felt like it did at the top of a rollercoaster, all squirmy, a little fear mixed with excitement, adrenaline pounding through her. She could feel the heat of his palm through her skirt, smell his expensive cologne on her every inhale. Feel the tickle of his breath across her lips as his mouth hovered over hers.
‘Fuck, you’re breathtaking.’
This was why she was here. He made her feel worthy of catching his attention. ‘I managed to avoid the smell of stale cocktail this time.’
He let out a low laugh. A second later, his mouth descended and all the breath rushed from her lungs as he started to slowly devour her, his tongue driving between her parted lips, his hips pushing against hers, letting her feel how hard he was.
She whimpered– honest to God, frigging whimpered– when he drew away. ‘Are you up for a walk? It’s about three-quarters of a mile but we can take a car if you prefer.’
‘A walk is good, providing my legs stop trembling.’
He smiled, taking her hand in his. ‘Then let’s go.’
He led her away from the wharf and onto a footpath. ‘So where are we actually going?’ she asked when she managed to catch her breath, though the way his fingers smoothed across her knuckles as they walked did not help to calm her racing pulse.
‘Galley Beach.’
He glanced at her and she frowned. ‘Is that supposed to mean something to me?’
‘Just wondering if you’ve heard of it in any of those guidebooks you devoured.’
It gave her a burst of pleasure to know he’d been listening. ‘I don’t remember it, no.’ She gave him a gentle dig in the ribs. ‘That’s why I wanted the inside knowledge. Why do you come to Nantucket so often?’
‘I visit for business.’
‘Um, business. Is that whale business?’
He shook his head, looking amused. ‘Tourism. How about you? Holiday?’
‘In a way. I’m going to be working in a shop for a few months, but because it’s not my real job it doesn’t feel like work. Just an amazing opportunity to do something different, to maybe, hopefully, make my mark on it.’ She put a hand to her chest, feeling the increase in her heart rate. ‘I’m so excited to be here, it’s crazy. I want to make the most of it so while I’m not beavering away in the shop I want to explore everything Nantucket has to offer. The pictures in the guidebooks looked amazing, and what I’ve seen so far has been… I want to say, cute, but that’s wrong because it’s got this elegant air, but also old fashioned, like I’m in a different century. I mean, boardwalks, cobbles, buildings made of weathered wood, sand dunes and lighthouses. It’s not like London, that’s for sure.’
‘You’re a long way from home,’ he murmured as they rounded a corner, giving her a peek of the vivid blue of the ocean between the perfectly maintained grey shingle properties.
‘That’s kind of the point. I’ve lived what you could call a sheltered life, but this is my chance to stretch my wings. See what I’m really capable of.’
Her head bopped from side to side as they walked past houses that seemed to get bigger and more impressive with every stride. The lawns were immaculate, the hedges precisely trimmed, white picket fences freshly painted. Some had tennis courts, many had a deck on the roof, presumably giving a fabulous view of the sea. There was even a ship’s figurehead.
‘It’s from a merchant ship,’ Liam remarked as he saw her starring. ‘In the 1800s, it sailed six times to the Pacific.’
‘Incredible.’ She shook her head. ‘Not just the figurehead, but—’ she waved at the houses as they walked ‘—the whole street. There’s no litter, no peeling paintwork, no overgrown gardens. It’s all so perfect. So pretty…’ She trailed off as she caught sight of the beach ahead. ‘Oh, my God, that’s beautiful.’
Between the grey shingle buildings was a magnificent stretch of sandy beach which seemed to glow gold, thanks to the glorious orange setting sun.
He paused, gave a little shake of his head.
‘What?’
‘I’ve seen it so often I’ve become blasé.’ He turned to look at her. ‘It’s rare to see it through a fresh pair of eyes.’
‘Well you should spend time in West London. Then you’d appreciate the hell out of this place.’
Her jaw continued to fall open as they walked through the entrance of the Galley Beach restaurant and out onto the beach, where groups of tables were clustered on the sand. Yep, actually on the sand. It was busy with people enjoying a drink in the evening glow of the sun, laughter drowning out the sound of the waves as they lapped up the shore. They were led to the only free table, the waitress not shy about ogling Liam.
Not that he seemed to notice. His gaze wasn’t on the woman who pulled out his chair while giving him a flirty smile, nor was it on the setting sun, or even the drinks menu that was pushed into his hands. It was on her .
She had never felt so absolutely the centre of a guy’s attention.
‘I’m sorry about earlier.’ He looked puzzled and she gave him a sheepish smile, looking around her, drinking it all in. ‘The cold feet. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for the world. Thank you for bringing me.’
* * *
She was like a kid in a candy store, Liam thought, as he watched the expressions of awe, of delight, flicker across her face as they drank their second cocktail and finished off the plate of butter-poached lobster he’d ordered so she could get the full Nantucket experience. All against the backdrop of a perfect sunset. It cast a shimmery light over her, making her skin look more tanned, her hair like fine-spun gold. The short capped sleeves of the silky top she wore fluttered in the breeze, drawing his gaze, which inevitably dipped down to her cleavage. No, not a kid. A fully developed, innately sexy woman who somehow also managed to look innocent, her enthusiasm a refreshing change from the jaded attitudes of the women he usually shared a drink with. She didn’t try to act coy, or cool. She let him see everything she was thinking.
‘What is it you do back home?’ It wasn’t polite conversation. He wanted to know. She intrigued him, this combination of klutzy, funny, vulnerable, brave, all rolled up in a blonde bombshell package.
‘You want the fancy title or the real one?’
He mentally added down to earth and guileless to his list. ‘Both.’
‘I’m a publishing assistant, which basically means I’m an admin.’ Her gaze fell to her drink for a moment before meeting his. ‘I know I have to work my way up, but I’ve been there two years now and I’m still not doing what I want to do. They know I’m not happy, which is why they let me have three months off to come here.’
‘And what do you want to do?’
She looked back at him. ‘Do you really want to know this?’
‘If I didn’t, I wouldn’t ask.’
She seemed to study him before nodding her head. ‘Yeah, I can see that about you. You wouldn’t bother to pretend to like something or enjoy it, so, well, thank you for being interested. Nobody has ever actually asked me what I want to do.’
‘Not your parents?’
‘They’re the best, don’t get me wrong, but they were more about what I was capable of doing.’
He thought back to his own childhood and realised in many ways he’d been lucky. His grandma had always shown an interest in him. ‘You don’t have to thank me for asking questions I want to know the answer to.’
‘Okay. I hope you don’t regret asking though because when I get onto this subject…’ She grinned. ‘I have this obsession with books, and when I say obsession I mean crazy, over-the-top passion for them. Obviously, I’m addicted to reading them, but I also love touching them, smelling them. God, there is nothing better than the smell of a new paperback. Well, maybe some things are as good. Like whatever aftershave you wear, that’s a real belly flutterer.’ He almost choked on his drink and she giggled. ‘Nobody’s ever told you how good you smell? Well, books also smell amazing but in a different way. Comforting, yet with a hint of promise because you know when you open it, you’re going to be transported somewhere thrilling. And then there’s the covers. There is nothing prettier than a stack of books.’ She glanced around her and laughed. ‘Okay, again you’ve got me there because this beach, in this peachy light, is probably the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. In fact, it looks like it could be the backdrop to a raunchy romance novel. It just needs a tall, dark, handsome guy on the front wearing nothing but his shorts and a broody smile.’ Her eyes caught his, mischief dancing in their blue depths.
His groin tightened. And yes, he wanted sex, but he also felt the impact of her grin under his ribs and all the way down to his toes. ‘You want to work with books.’ A thought niggled, but vanished at the sight of her uninhibited laughter.
‘What gave it away? But yes, I do. And hopefully when I get home I’ll be able to persuade my boss to give me more responsibilities in that direction. Maybe get the chance to proofread some books, start to learn how to edit. I don’t know. I want to be more than a woman who juggles diaries, files documents and answers emails.’ She stared back at him, face suddenly serious. ‘And I want people to see more than a blonde, busty airhead when they look at me.’
He inclined his head, aware he’d judged her that way, too, when he’d first seen her. ‘I can’t not see the blonde hair, or the sexy as fuck figure’—he gestured to the table they were sitting on—‘but I don’t do this. Or at least I haven’t, not for a long time.’
‘This?’
‘I don’t make drinks reservations. I don’t ask questions of the woman I’m drinking with.’ He made sure to catch her eye. ‘I don’t enjoy listening to her talk.’
‘Oh.’ A flush crept over her cheeks but then her mouth tilted in a playful smile. ‘You want to hear more about books?’
‘Not books, no.’ They brought back bad memories. He glanced at her empty glass. ‘Do you want another drink?’
She sunk her teeth into her plump bottom lip. ‘What’s the alternative?’
‘I take you back to where you’re staying.’ He lifted his eyes to hers, let her see his desire. ‘Or you come back to the boat.’
‘Um, the cocktails weren’t up to much, if I remember.’
Christ, she was teasing him. The sad part was he didn’t even mind. Welcomed the flirting, even if it didn’t end the way he wanted it to, because he was fucking enjoying himself. ‘There’s always champagne.’
‘Oh, yes. I guess I could make do with that.’
She shot him another playful smile, this time added a wink, and he almost groaned out loud. Thank God he’d worn a jacket, so he could hide what he knew was an obvious bulge at his crotch.
When the bill arrived, he batted away the dollars she tried to push onto the table. ‘I’m loaded, Jade.’
‘So? When I sit down for a drink with my mates, we either share the bill or work it out on the basis of what we drank. Not how much we earn.’
He didn’t have friends he went drinking with. ‘I invited you, I pay.’
She thumped her small fist onto the table. ‘Rock-paper-scissors.’ When he just stared at her, she grinned. ‘Come on, you must have played this game. Basically if you put your hand in a fist it’s a rock, and if I put two fingers out like this?—’
He placed a hand around hers. ‘I’m aware of the game. Just not why we’re playing it.’
‘Duh, so I can have a chance at paying the bill, Mr Money Bags.’
Was he seriously about to play this dumb game while sitting in a sophisticated restaurant? She waggled her eyebrows, smiling playfully at him. ‘Fine.’
He went with rock, figuring she’d go with scissors again. But a grin erupted across her face as she signalled paper. ‘Yay, I win.’ She grabbed at the bill, and her face fell. ‘Holy shit, that’s a lot of money. What was in the cocktails, gold leaf? Because I read about that, you can have a cocktail with gold leaf, which seems a real waste of gold. And money.’
Smiling, he took the bill from her and handed it, together with his card, to the passing waiter. ‘Would have been easier to accept my offer in the first place.’
‘Maybe. But then you’d have missed out on an important first.’ He raised a brow and she grinned, blue eyes sparkling with humour. ‘First time you’ve played rock-paper-scissors on Galley Beach.’
Laughter shot out of him. He could have told her laughing was also a first on Galley Beach but he’d already told her more than he was comfortable with. Instead, he took her hand and helped her to her feet. To his astonishment, she reached up on tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.
‘Thank you.’
Her lips weren’t even on his mouth. It shouldn’t feel so good. Yet combined with the soft look in her eyes, the sweet smell of her, he felt an odd wave of dizziness.
Women didn’t thank him for buying them a drink, like he’d done something special. They expected it.
Clearing his throat, he began to lead them back through the restaurant, his focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Not on the soft curl of her fingers around his hand, or the press of her body as it bumped against his. Definitely not on the weird sensation under his ribcage.
Or the throbbing heaviness in his groin.