Hell yes, he wanted an oyster. Or more precisely he wanted Kagan to suck, slurp, and eat one out of his hand. Shit.
She must have seen the gluttony on his face and decided the aphrodisiac amusing, because she burst out laughing. Her infectious, music-to-his-ears laughter surrounded him and he caught a few guests taking notice as he joined her. Smiles spread across the patio like the wave at a baseball game.
The waitress frowned.
“I’m sorry. It’s not you,” Kagan said through giggles. She put her hand on the waitress’s shoulder. “I think we’d better pass on the oysters.”
“Scared?” Shane challenged. He couldn’t help himself.
“Of you? No.” Yet she avoided eye contact, her gaze falling to the ceramic tiled ground.
“I am.”
Under outrageously long eyelashes, she peeked at him.
“Just looking at you sets off alarms.” He flexed his hands and shifted his weight from side to side. If he’d worn a tie, he’d be loosening it. What the hell was he doing falling off this very dangerous ledge?
“I’m allergic.” She lifted her chin and the faintest twitch of her lips drew his attention to their lush form.
“To me?”
A wide, smart-alecky smile spread across her beautiful face. “To oysters.” The smile stayed as she placed her skewer sticks and a bunched-up napkin on a passing platter. “But give it some time and I could be allergic to you too.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?”
He stepped close enough to graze her neck with his breath. “I’ll spend more time with you. Not really what I had in mind, since you made it clear I shouldn’t think beyond this evening. But I guess my charm got to you.”
She chuckled. “You wish.”
A camera flash went off, prompting them to jerk away from each other. A reporter from the Cascade Gazette flashed a credential around her neck and then weaved back into the crowd.
Kagan gave a long, troubled sigh. The playfulness in her pink cheeks vanished.
“Something wrong?”
“I’m, uh, not fond of the press.”
“Because?”
“Back home…” She shook her head and looked away. “She just caught me by surprise is all.”
Shane wanted to ask what happened. But because of her pursed lips, he let it drop. “If you want I can chase after her and demand she hand over the camera chip.” He flashed one of his nothing-I-can’t-do smiles.
“It’s okay.” Kagan squared her very bare, very sexy shoulders. “So back to where we were before I needed food. I think we were headed somewhere?”
Shane ran a hand through his hair and tried not to stare at the way her dress molded to her full breasts. “Yeah. I wanted to show you the best view in the house.”
“Lead the way.”
As they wove around the pool, they stopped to say hello to all the guests who wanted a word with him. Kagan impressed the hell out of him, like attending a black tie event was second nature. She chatted up the women and joked with the men. Her intelligence and wit shone and she made Shane look good. No, she made him look great.
What was probably an hour later, they made it to the wrought iron balcony and the view Shane wanted Kagan to see. She leaned against the railing, wrapped her long fingers around the bannister, and sighed. In profile, she was so damn pretty, and when the corner of her mouth lifted, he knew she liked the view.
“Wow,” she said.
“I know, right?”
Lights from beachfront properties and businesses glowed along the coastline to the right, but to the left it was inky and peaceful, the beach stretching into the distance. Straight ahead rested the ocean, its current calm under a full moon. Stars winked in the sky, an unearthly blue-white glow sat on the horizon. The silhouette of trees along the beach stood tall and swayed slightly with the breeze.
Shane’s gaze moved back to Kagan. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly through her mouth. Her chest rose and fell, and the curve of her breast moved in the most mouth watering way.
Breathtaking. The view and his date.
“This is why I stopped here,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“When I left New York, I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up. I just drove. There was a quaint town in Wyoming that I really liked, but I couldn’t imagine not seeing the ocean.”
It sounded like she’d escaped from something and he fisted his hands. She’s from New York. Questions raced through his mind, but this was the most she’d ever shared with him, and he didn’t want to say anything to stop her from telling him more.
“I only learned to swim last year and now it’s one of my favorite things to do,” she said.