Chapter 6
6
CARTER
I t was hard to believe this woman had a tough time in the romance department. Just looking at her now, I would think she’d spent half her life fending off unwanted advances.
Okay, maybe she had. But it was surprising to me that she’d ever been interested in someone who didn’t like her back. It wasn’t just that she was beautiful—she was smart and full of personality. Just looking at her made me feel a little lighter. How could any guy see that and not be interested?
Yes, this was exactly the type of woman I’d been looking for my entire life. The problem was, she wasn’t from here.
Not only that—she was here to land a deal and get out of town. Since I was the deal, that put me in a tricky position because there was no way in hell I was selling. And I didn’t want to lose her over it, even though it was inevitable that I’d lose her, anyway.
“Wine,” Ana said. “Maybe I should go get my wine.”
“Hang on.” I eyed the boat. “I’ll get it.”
She reached over, putting her hand on my forearm. That froze me. Not because her grip had any power to hold me in place, but because her touch was doing things to me. It was like when I’d taken her hand in mine. It wasn’t just that it sent heat straight to my groin. It also felt right. It felt like her hand belonged to me. She belonged in my arms.
It all just felt…right.
“I don’t want it,” she said.
I settled back into place as she removed her arm, disappointment filling me. She didn’t want…wine? Oh yeah. The wine. It wasn’t a rejection of me. It was a rejection of my offer to get up. Maybe it even meant she wanted me to stay close to her.
“I’d probably go for a swim,” she said.
I looked over at her. I’d missed part of the conversation. Instead of drinking wine, she’d go for a swim? Maybe she thought drinking would make it unsafe to swim.
“You asked earlier what I’d do if we were stranded here all night,” she said, looking over at me. “I’d go for a swim.”
Oh. That question. I’d been thinking of something else, but having her strip down and jump into the water was at least closer to what I’d been thinking about. I’d definitely rather see that than hear her life story.
Not that I didn’t want to hear her life story. I was all ears. But my mind kept straying to thoughts that had my dick twitching, so by now I had the makings of a raging hard-on, and what she’d just said had only made it worse.
“We don’t have swimsuits,” I said.
“I’ll swim in my underwear.”
Ana pushed herself to her feet and began unbuttoning her blouse. Holy hell. This was happening.
“It’s no different than a bathing suit,” she said, probably taking my silence for panic or excitement or no telling what else. “I usually wear a one-piece, but we’ll pretend this is a two-piece.”
We could pretend whatever she wanted. Hell, I’d pretend she was fully dressed if it worked for her. I was just beyond happy to see the clothes coming off.
She removed her shirt, revealing a white bra. She next worked the button of her pants, and I knew they’d drop down any second. I expected her to stop at some point—to wait and see what I was going to do—but she didn’t.
The pants dropped, revealing a matching pair of white underwear. Ana stepped, barefoot, toward the water, her shoes no doubt under the little puddle her fallen pants had made.
It was dark out here, but the moonlight cast just enough of a glow on the area that I could make out her form as she waded into the water. I stood, hands on hips, watching her. She swam around the same way I had just hours earlier when she’d watched me. The tables had turned, and I was enjoying the view.
Once my jeans were on the ground, I removed my shirt and looked down at my navy-blue briefs. Why couldn’t this be the day I’d worn my old boxers—the ones I wore just hanging around the house? But maybe these would hold up better in the water. Who knew? I’d never swam in my underwear before.
By the time I reached the edge of the water, she was watching me. She was standing, and it was shallow enough that the water only came up to just below her chest. That meant I had to force myself not to stare at the dramatic curve of her cleavage highlighted by the moonlight above.
The water was chilly, but that would change once my body temperature adjusted. It wasn’t quite as warm as my pool water—especially at night when I liked to flip on the heater.
I didn’t show any signs of discomfort, though. Part of my stupid macho man act. I wasn’t proud of it, but it was what a guy did when trying to impress a woman. Don’t look like a wimp in front of the girl you’re trying to impress. That was rule number one.
She wasn’t a girl, though. She was all woman. It had been so long since I’d been this invested in a woman, I wasn’t sure how to verbalize what I was thinking. I couldn’t make sense of it.
Yes, the last time I felt this way, I’d been a teenager and the females around me had indeed been girls. This was different. This wasn’t just some crush. It wasn’t puppy love, either.
No, this time, when I was thinking about a future with a woman, I knew exactly what that meant. It meant babies and bills and supporting each other through thick and thin, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. It meant sitting by her side while she gave birth to our baby and making big decisions about where we’d live.
This woman had me thinking things I never in a million years would have imagined. Not at this point in my life. Not after I’d made the decision to move up here and live alone.
“It’s not very deep,” she said. “I guess you know that since you live on this pond.”
I shook my head as I continued into the water. I should just dive in, but as she’d said, it wasn’t deep. I could tell that as my feet sank into the soft ground, mud slipping between my toes.
“I’ve never tried swimming in this before.”
Her eyes widened, and I immediately regretted my words. I didn’t want to scare her. That was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Is it dangerous?” she asked.
I shook my head, dislodging water as I waded in deeper, getting closer and closer to her. I’d stop soon, but it wouldn’t be easy. I wanted to keep going until I was within kissing distance of her. Until I could wrap my arms around her and pull her toward me.
“It’s just not something I’m personally into—swimming in the pond alone,” I finally explained.
“Oh yeah, you have a pool,” she said. “Why would you come out here when you could swim laps in your backyard?”
That wasn’t it. I’d have no problem hopping my fence, walking to the pond, and going for a swim. It just wasn’t something that had ever occurred to me.
“I haven’t gone for a swim in—gosh, three years,” Ana said. “We went to the beach, a group of friends and I, before we all lost touch.”
“Are you originally from Las Vegas?”
She nodded. “Born and raised. It just seems like everyone’s drifted apart. We were high school friends, so that makes sense. Some went off to college—they were already at college when we went to the beach. It was a summer thing. I don’t know…” She sighed and looked over at the boat. “I guess it’s partly my fault. I haven’t made an effort to stay in touch, really. All I do is work.”
I definitely saw that in her. She was tightly wound. The wine hadn’t even helped that much. She just seemed like she was anxious to rush on to the next thing she had to do. Even when she wasn’t rushing, I felt that edginess in her.
“I breathe better here,” she said. “The air just seems clearer. It has nothing to do with air quality.”
Yeah, I got it. When I stepped outside in the morning and inhaled, it was like refilling my lungs with fresh air. I felt clean afterward. I’d spent time in dozens of places across the world over the course of my life, but nothing compared to Seduction Summit.
“You know what they say about all work and no play,” I said. “This town makes it easier to find that balance. I hear a lot of people saying that.”
She tilted her head slightly. “Your logger friends?”
I was standing only a few feet from her now, feet planted solidly on the ground. That meant I could make out the finer details of her beautiful face, thanks in part to the moon lighting up the area.
“Not just loggers,” I said. “Their girlfriends and wives. People I meet who work at the various restaurants and shops around town. It’s a small town, even though it’s growing. The tourists make it look bigger than it is, but the locals get to know each other pretty well.”
“I always said I’d live in a small town someday. I watch those romantic movies at Christmastime. They make it look so charming. The big Christmas tree on town square. The little gazebo. The quirky neighbors…”
Yeah, we didn’t have any of that. But I wanted to sell her on our town, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Lots of real estate opportunities here,” I said. “People are hungry for rental cabins. Investors are eager to buy them up and turn them into an investment.”
“I’m sure you have plenty of real estate agents here in town.”
I shrugged. “No idea. There’s always room for one more, though.”
Now she tilted her head in the other direction. “Are you trying to convince me to move here?”
“What if I am?”
Silence stretched between us. We continued to stare at each other. I didn’t even want to breathe for fear of taking away from whatever this was we were sharing.
Something was shifting. I had a feeling we both knew in that moment that nothing would ever be the same. There was no turning back from whatever was about to happen.
“I’m just saying, there are worse things you could do than move to a beautiful town like this and date an amazing guy like me.”
Her mouth fell open slightly, and I was aware in that moment just how drawn to her I was. I wanted to kiss her more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. It took everything I had to stay planted in this spot until I was sure she was open to my advances.
“Is that what you want?” she finally asked.
“Hell yeah. I’d love to see where this could go. But with you leaving town…”
I didn’t finish that sentence. I had no idea if she was leaving town tomorrow or three weeks from tomorrow. Three weeks would be ideal—it would give me time to convince her to stay. But if she was leaving anyway, three weeks would never be enough.
“My flight leaves Sunday afternoon.” She shrugged. “I need to pay the bills.”
“And you have to be in Vegas to do that?”
“That’s where my listings are. It’s where I can drum up some more listings too. I’m licensed in Nevada. My client’s in Nevada. So even if you sell, I have to use an agent here to help with the deal. It’s complicated.”
“Sounds like it,” I said. I knew nothing about any of that.
“I’m not licensed to sell real estate in North Carolina, in other words.”
“But you could get licensed.”
“In time to broker your deal?”
That wasn’t what I was talking about. Maybe I shouldn’t call attention to that fact, though. If I told her once and for all I wasn’t going to sell, would she give up and leave town early?
It would be wrong to mislead her. I couldn’t do that.
“No,” I said. “I’m not going to sell. But I also don’t want you to leave.”
There. Honesty. If it meant Ana walked out of my life, yes, I’d probably kick myself. But keeping her here by deceiving her would be wrong. I just couldn’t do it.
“Oh,” she said.
Her crestfallen expression made me want to punch myself in the face. I’d want to punch anyone who put that look there, so why not myself?
“You’re depending on this sale,” I said.
“Yes.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, that cleavage rising and falling. Finally, she opened them again and said, “It’s just so competitive in my area now. I felt like I was building toward something, but lately, it’s been sliding downward. It would be better if everyone was having a tough time making sales, but no. It’s just me. Maybe I’ve lost my touch.”
I shook my head. “I doubt that very seriously. You’re what—twenty-two, twenty-three?”
“Twenty-three,” she said. “And yeah, I know I’m just starting in my career, but I don’t want to go back to bartending.”
She hadn’t mentioned that she’d been a bartender before. I took a step closer.
“I wouldn’t ask you to give up your life for me,” I said. “I know we just met, but?—”
“But there’s something here. And if I don’t explore it, I’ll regret it the rest of my life. I know.”
Those words were music to my ears. They also gave me all the go-ahead I needed to take another step toward her.
She didn’t move away. She didn’t retreat. Instead, her gaze lowered to my mouth. Yes, she was thinking about kissing me.
As I closed the rest of the distance between us and put my arms around her, her words came back to me. She wasn’t the only one who’d kick herself if she didn’t see where this could go. I’d never find anything like this again. I was sure of it. But I couldn’t ask her to give up her life in Nevada to live here with me.
But if she wanted to do it, I sure as hell wouldn’t stop her. In fact, it would make me the happiest man on Earth.