Chapter 7 #3
“Not really. I usually lock the gate before sunset, so I have the place to myself.” Except, she thought, when men on motorcycles drove around the gate.
“I had a really nice time tonight, Jenny. I’d like to see you again.”
How to say this diplomatically? “I had a nice time, too.” That much was true. “Things are a bit…unsettled in my life right now.”
“Is that a polite way of saying you don’t want to go out again?”
Jenny winced, thankful for the cover of darkness. “That’s a polite way of saying my life is unsettled, and this isn’t the best time.”
He pondered that for a minute. “All right, then. How about I call you in a week or two to see if things have settled down?”
“That’d be great,” she said with a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to push her to commit to a second date.
Leaning toward her, he spared her further embarrassment and awkwardness by kissing her cheek.
“Thank you for dinner,” Jenny said.
“Thank you for the pleasure of your company.”
Jenny got out of the car and appreciated that he waited until she was inside before he drove off. She ran up the stairs to the kitchen as she tried to figure out what to do. Should she go to Alex? And do what, exactly? Push him to talk about something he didn’t want to talk about?
In the drawer under the microwave, she found the phone book the previous lighthouse keeper had left behind and thumbed through it, looking for the address of Martinez Lawn & Garden. She found the address and even knew where it was. But how did she know if he lived there?
Below the listing for the business, she found separate listings for George & Marion Martinez and Paul Martinez, all at the same address as the business. So they lived on the grounds.
Jenny still didn’t know what she was going to do with this information when she went up one more level to her bedroom and changed into shorts and a tank top, tossing the dress she’d worn on her date across the foot of her bed.
She slid her feet into comfortable flip-flops and went back downstairs, grabbing her purse and keys in the kitchen and running for the stairs to the mudroom.
She threw open the door and screamed with fright at the sight of a large person standing in the dark outside her door.
“It’s me,” Alex said. “I knocked.”
“I…I was upstairs. I didn’t hear you.”
“I hear keys. Going somewhere?”
“I…um, I was going to find you.”
“Were you now?” He took a step forward and then another.
Out of self-preservation, Jenny backed away from him until her backside bumped against the far wall of the mudroom, right where one of their previous encounters had taken place. Her purse and keys dropped to the floor with a clatter.
“What happened to pretty boy?”
“Who?”
“The pink shirt you were with earlier.”
“He went home.”
“Did you send him home with a smile on his face?”
A bead of sweat slid between her breasts, and she wasn’t sure if it was the heat or his nearness that had caused it. Probably both. “How is that any of your business?”
His hands found her hips in the darkness. “I’m making it my business.”
He nuzzled her neck and made her melt. How did he do that so easily? She wanted to object to what he’d said, but her brain cells were as fried as her nerve endings.
“Did you send him away smiling?” he asked, more insistently this time.
“I sent him away confused about where exactly our great date went wrong.”
“Where exactly did it go wrong?” His lips and breath against her neck made her nipples tighten.
“You know exactly where it went wrong.”
“I want you to tell me.”
“It went wrong the minute you walked into the Tiki Bar.”
“Why’s that?”
As her frustration with the conversation mounted, so did the throbbing need between her legs. “You know why!”
“If I knew for sure, I wouldn’t be asking.”
“Yes, you would, because you enjoy tormenting me.”
His rough chuckle against her neck gave her goose bumps on her arms. “Is that what I’m doing?”
“How did you get here anyway? I didn’t hear the bike.”
“My brother dropped me off.”
“Did you tell him about me?”
“Nope. I told him I was going for a walk in one of my favorite places. I’ve always loved it out here.” His hands slid from her hips to cup her breasts. “Now I love it even more than I used to.”
Jenny arched into his hands, needing to get closer.
“So what happened when I walked into the Tiki Bar?”
She’d hoped he had forgotten that she’d never answered his question. “I thought about what happened last night.”
“I thought about it, too. All damned day.” He pushed his erection into her belly. “I walked around like this all day, which is your fault.”
“How is that my fault?”
“Because all I could think about is how damned sexy you are, and how badly I want another taste of you.”
His words made her lips burn for another taste of him.
“Alex?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you want to talk about what happened earlier with your mom?”
“Fuck no.”
His adamant reply made her sorry she’d asked.
“This is what I need.” His hands were big and rough against her face as he held her still for his almost violent possession of her mouth. Lips and tongue and teeth and needy moans combined in an explosive wave of desire. “Take me upstairs.”