Chapter 3
Some inner proximity alarm made Izzy look up. Drake stood two feet behind her, ferocious scowl on his face. She drew in a breath and straightened her shoulders. "Yes?"
"Let's go get some food."
Izzy felt her mouth drop open a little. He'd just left her, not even half an hour ago, in a back room reeling from his touch. She thought that had been the end of it in his mind. Now, he wanted to grab dinner with her? Really?
"Okay, nice invite," she murmured, frowning. "Drake, this is Virginia. Ginny, my Navy SEAL rescuer, Drake."
The two of them shook hands and she watched Drake's face to see how he reacted to the sultry, dark-haired, perfectly made-up Ginny. There was no reaction. His gaze flicked away as soon as he dropped her hand, focusing back on Izzy.
"Let's go." He held a hand out toward the buffet line.
Rather than cause a scene she headed that way, tugging Ginny along behind her.
"What is this about," Ginny hissed in her ear.
Izzy shrugged and shook her head.
They made their way to the line and several men stepped aside to let she, Ginny and Drake ahead. It must be a rank thing or something because Drake stood glowering just behind them.
Tyler and Kiko were already at the raised table, eating with their parents.
Izzy gathered her utensils and went down the line, but she was too conscious of the man behind her.
The food looked delicious, but she only took a few things.
Ginny did the same. She glanced back at Drake. His plate was heaped with food.
"Do you need a back-up plate?"
He glanced up at her and gave her a slight grin. "I like to eat."
"I guess so," she murmured.
She didn't wait for him to finish piling, just headed back to their table. Ginny was already there, swirling sugar into a glass of tea. "So is this good or bad?" she whispered.
"I have no idea. He's kinda purty, though, isn't he?"
Ginny giggled and nodded, face flushing pink. "In a dangerous, 'I might snap your hand off if you try to pet me' kind of way. I'll make sure if things start getting intense to find something important to do."
Drake sat down beside her in the almost-too-small white folding chair and plunked down his plate. Then he got back up and waded through the crowd. When he returned he had a handful of longnecks woven through his fingers. He set them in front of the three of them. "Help yourselves."
Izzy took one and unscrewed the top. Maybe she needed a little liquid courage to steady her rioting nerves.
"So," she said. "What happened to not being good for each other?"
Drake threw Ginny a glance, then looked at Izzy. "We're just grabbing a meal. What's wrong with that?"
Izzy narrowed her eyes at him but didn't say anything. If he wanted to play dense she would let him, for now.
“I do need to apologize, though,” he murmured gruffly. “I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that, especially after what the other guy did.”
Tilting her head to the side, Izzy considered him. “You’re apologizing for rescuing me?”
“No,” he said, voice firm. “But I am apologizing for manhandling you afterward.”
Izzy smiled slightly. “Well, in all fairness, I kind of encouraged it.”
He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and gave her a tight nod. They ate in silence for a few minutes.
"So, Drake, you're a Navy man, huh?" Ginny asked.
He flashed her a grin and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
Izzy tucked into her food, letting Ginny ask questions. Her friend seemed to know what Izzy wanted to know, but was afraid to ask. Drake was based out of Virginia Beach, had three siblings all male and was not currently attached.
He sounded like a typical bachelor, living it up while he could. But he was definitely older than she'd expected. If he'd been in the SEALs fourteen years, he had to be about mid-to-late thirties, well into the time when he should have started to settle down.
"No skeletons in your closet?" she asked impulsively.
With a quirked brow, he grinned at her. "No, not really."
"Hmm…"
Izzy ate her food, but she barely tasted anything. And Kiko's poor, beleaguered dad had spent so much money on it. But she was too fascinated by the man beside her. Mere inches separated their hips and occasionally their knees brushed. His shoulder was a solid heat against her side.
Then, as if without conscious thought, he brushed his fingers over her tattoo. Her body flared with heat and she glanced at Ginny, but she was occupied by the man sitting on the other side of her. Izzy glanced back at Drake. "What are you doing?"
"Just… checking," he told her eventually.
"Checking what?" she hissed.
He smiled at her frustration, and there was an edge to the narrow quirk of his lips. "Seeing if you'd changed your mind."
Izzy frowned. "You were the one that left."
He shrugged his broad shoulders, then winced, as if he'd just remembered the scratch on his side. "I pulled back because I'm not the kind of guy that you can count on long term. My job doesn't allow long-term."
He paused and she found she held her breath just waiting for his words. "But…" she prodded.
"But, if you'd still like to explore this thing that's between us, no expectations beyond tonight, I would be more than willing."
Izzy choked out a laugh. "I'm sure you would."
Then she looked at his face. He was not joking. His eyes were steady and calm, though there was a need in them that she only just recognized.
Did she dare turn him away? That one kiss had left her slick with need, and the mere mention of continuing their interlude made her heart hammer.
Just in the hour's worth of time she'd spent with him he'd done more for her than any other man ever had.
The curiosity would kill her if she didn't explore this.
Settling the decision in her mind, she gave him a look. "If I said yes, just what are your plans? I'm thirty-four, a little old to climb into the back seat of a truck, and I know for a fact this hotel is booked solid with Kiko's family and wedding guests."
"I'll take care of it." Drake's eyes closed, and one hand rubbed across his brow.
If she didn't know better she would think he was relieved that she'd given in. His cool emotions were a little hard to read. She kind of figured he'd get cocky about it.
With a glance at her sideways, he gave her a slight smile. "I wish you could feel the rush of heat that just rolled down through my body to my cock," he told her softly. “You’re a beautiful woman, Isobel.”
Apparently it wasn't soft enough. Ginny swung around, her dark eyes focusing on Izzy. "It sounds like things are getting a little intense. I'm going to roll out of here, okay? Are you good?"
Izzy nodded, loving her friend for being protective. Reaching forward, she hugged Ginny. "That guy's cute," she murmured in her friend's ear. Ginny nodded. "If Kiko starts looking for you, I'll tell her you're busy."
They giggled together and Izzy watched as the tall man Ginny had been talking to led her to the dance floor.
When she glanced back at Drake he was just swallowing the last swig of beer from his bottle. He turned, their gazes connecting. "Are you ready?"
Izzy nodded, her skin flushing pink as gazes turned to them as they walked across the crowded patio.
A few of the guys grinned at Drake, but nobody said or did anything disrespectful.
Drake held the door open for her to enter the resort building, and she appreciated the wave of air conditioning that hit her.
Maybe it would cool her excited, tingling skin.
Tugging her by the hand, Drake led her down a softly lit hallway, then another side hallway.
One of the florescent lights in the ceiling had gone out completely and he stopped in a little shadowed alcove area.
Izzy was about to ask him what was going on but he pushed her back flush against the wall, then leaned into her.
The erection that she'd been thinking about for the past hour pressed into her and it was more than she could have dreamed. "Oh, my happy hell."
His hard lips came down on hers, almost swallowing her words.
With an aggressive thrust he kissed her, his tongue gliding smoothly along hers.
Izzy moaned, lost in a need sharper than any she'd ever felt before.
The man knew how to kiss. His hips surged into her and it was everything she could do to restrain herself from stripping right there in the hallway.
If he didn't have a way for them to follow through, she was going to be majorly pissed.
Then one of his hands traced the sweetheart neckline of her dress. One finger slipped between the fabric and her skin, brushing her right nipple, and yet he seemed to be waiting.
"Yes," she hissed.
Instinctively, her hips rocked forward into his erection. When he paused his movements to feel what she was doing, Izzy was pleased to realize he wasn't as in control as he pretended. She rocked again, then hiked a leg up his thigh.
It wasn’t as well-done as she would have liked. She almost pulled her own legs out from beneath her as the narrow skirt of the dress caught and tightened. With an aggravated huff she pulled the skirt up to her thighs.
Drake caught that leg and ground himself into her deeper. Only a couple of layers of cotton and satin separated them, and it was getting hard to think.
Then Drake did something naughty. Sweeping his hand down to her knee he found her skin, then followed it slowly, torturously, up her thigh to her damp heat.
Izzy quivered, praying he would touch her there.
But he paused, panting, and pressed a kiss to her temple.
Then he shifted to the side to lean against the wall and stopped moving completely.
Izzy heard a sound. Somebody had just come in the same doors they had and were walking down the perpendicular hallway.
"Hold still and be quiet," he whispered into her ear.