Dane waved to the women behind the desk and then guided Lacy to a particular aisle and began pulling books from the shelves.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“You got the itinerary,” he said with a smile.
“All it said was, library therapy.”
“That’s what we’re doing. Come on.” He carried a stack of books to a table in the back of the library and sat beside Lacy. “Here. Take a look at this and tell me three facts about tiger sharks.”
“Tiger sharks?” She crinkled her nose.
“You’re awfully cute. You know that?” he asked.
“I haven’t been called cute for years. Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself,” she said.
He pointed to the book. “Tiger sharks.” Dane watched her open the book, mumbling, Tiger sharks, under her breath. He opened another book and ran his finger down the index, then opened to a page and set the book aside. He did the same thing with the next three books in his stack.
“Okay, I’ve got it,” Lacy said.
“You’re a quick study. Let’s have it.” Dane sat back, expecting Lacy to rattle off the first three facts in the book.
“They grow to be fourteen to twenty feet. They’re the fourth-largest species of shark; they’re solitary creatures living primarily alone—which is really sad. They must get lonely. They can live almost one hundred years. They sleep with their eyes open.” She stopped to take a breath, and Dane cut her off.
“Lace, their sleeping habits aren’t in that chapter,” he said. A flash of excitement ran through him. Maybe she wanted to overcome her fear as much as he wanted to help her.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, biting her lower lip.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you have been researching sharks.” Dane took the book from her and set another one in front of her.
“I might have read a few things about them,” she admitted.
He pushed another book in front of her. “Have you read up on these?” he asked.
“Basking sharks?” She clenched her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, she let out a breath. “The Cetorhinus maximus grows to a length of thirty-five feet; their mouths can reach three feet in diameter, and—this is cool—they swim with their mouths open because they eat zooplankton. I would think they’d eat seals, fish, gosh, anything, but they don’t. That’s weird, right?”
Dane was still hung up on the fact that she knew the genus of the species. “Yeah, that is weird,” he managed.
“And they’re known as sunfish because they like to swim up by the surface. I swear, if I saw one, I’d be scared to death, but they have these tiny little rows of teeth.” Lacy shook her head.
“Lacy, what’s going on?” Dane asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you know so much about sharks?” he asked. “I wanted to help you to understand sharks, but it sounds like you do understand them.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned back in the chair.
“Oh, that,” she said. “I sort of stayed up all night Sunday night reading about them. It was an accident. I was reading about a shark sighting off the Cape, and they mentioned Brave, and then I clicked around, and you know how the Internet is. A few hours later, I was neck deep in shark facts.”
“Amazing,” Dane said. The right side of his mouth lifted. “You are full of surprises. How do you feel about them now?”
“About sharks?” Lacy’s eyes darkened. “What do you mean?”
Dane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. His hands stilled a few inches above her leg. He was careful not to touch her, though he wanted to take her in an embrace and kiss that confused look from her lips. “In here.” He touched his chest, just above his heart.
“I don’t know. I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way. I mean, until we were out on that boat together, I didn’t even know how scared of them I really was. Now that I’m thinking about it, when I was reading about them, I had started out feeling a little creeped out by the pictures. But then, by the time I was ready to go to sleep, I was actively searching for more.” Lacy looked at the books that lay on the table. “You know, I think it helped.”
“You beat me to the punch,” he said. “There’s a new aquarium about half an hour from here. Would you like to go?” Dane asked.
“I don’t know. It’s one thing to see them in pictures and a whole other thing to see them up close and personal,” Lacy said.
“It’s up to you,” he said.
Lacy’s eyes met his and held his gaze. “You brought me here to try to help me understand sharks to help me with my fear, didn’t you? Not to learn about Brave.”
Damn right I did. “Is that such a bad thing?” he asked.
“It’s about the sweetest thing a guy could do.” Lacy reached over and touched his thigh. “Really sweet.”
The muscles in Dane’s legs twitched. “Babe,” he whispered.
Lacy leaned in closer. “Yeah?”
Don’t kiss her. Do not kiss her. Dane leaned forward. No. No. No. No.
Her perfume permeated his senses. Dane held his breath and pushed away. He moved her hand from his leg.
“I’m sorry, Lace. No pressure. We have a pact,” he said. He leaned back, giving himself enough space to clear his mind. He was only human, after all. How close could he get without giving in?
“The pact. Right.” She straightened her back. “Okay, Mr. Braden, what’s next on the Brave tour?”
My lips on yours, my tongue in your mouth, my hands—Jesus. Stop it. “Aquarium?” he asked.
“You’re the boss,” she said, holding his gaze.
They returned the books to the shelves in silence and left the library. Every glance stoked their fire, radiating tense, stifled passion between them as they made their way down the street toward the parking lot. Dane felt Lacy stealing glances his way, and it was all he could do not to turn and kiss her right there in the middle of the sidewalk. Instead, he picked up his pace. Get to the car. I need a distraction.
Minutes later, they were back at the car. Dane opened Lacy’s door for her. She leaned her back against the car, fiddling with the edge of her blouse.
“I don’t know what you’re worried about. I’m not going to fall in love with you,” Lacy said with that same dark challenge he’d seen the night before in her eyes.
Dane held the door with his right hand and clenched his keys in the left. He held her stare. Every breath pulled at his groin; every thought tightened the string of nerves that ran through his hard body.
Lacy looked up at him through a handful of curls that had fallen into her eyes.
Jesus, you’re sexy.
“Maybe you can’t help yourself from falling in love with me…but I’m strong. You can put that hot body of yours against me every night of the week, and I’ll be able to resist,” she said.
Dane took a step closer to her. His mind raced, his body revved, and his hands had a mind of their own—reaching for Lacy, grabbing her by her slim waist and holding her tight, then pulling her hips against his. He leaned down and opened his mouth to settle it over hers. Damn it. He couldn’t fight the feelings any longer, especially when she was flashing a green light with every breath.
His lips hovered over hers. Lacy arched against him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Her breath was hot; her chest pressed against him.
“Test me, baby,” he whispered, and then he strutted to the other side of the car, gritting his teeth against his raging desires. Anyone looking would have seen a confident man in control of his emotions. Dane could barely see past his intense yearning for her or hear past the curses he tossed at himself for not kissing her. He slid into the driver’s seat.
Lacy threw herself into the passenger seat and clicked her seat belt in place. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead.
“You okay?” Dane asked in entirely too light a tone.
“Perfect,” she said.
“You look…frustrated.” He smiled to himself as he started the car. At least she was thinking about him now. His cell phone rang, and he let out a breath and answered the call from the unfamiliar number. “Excuse me,” he said to Lacy.
“Dane Braden.”
“Dane Braden? This is Officer Eaton of the Chatham police. Do you know of a Robert Mann?”
“Yes, he works for me,” Dane said. Fear flattened his desire. “Did something happen?”
“We’ve detained him for disturbing the peace. Are you willing to come get him?”
Shit, Rob, what did you do? “I don’t understand. Disturbing the peace?” Dane shot a look at Lacy, who watched him out of the corner of her eye.
The officer explained, “He was provoking a group of college kids.”
“That doesn’t sound like Rob at all. Are you sure you have the right guy?” Dane asked.
“Robert Mann, thick brown hair, graying. Stocky, five ten, mid-forties. Says he works for the Brave Foundation,” the officer said.
“I’ll be right there,” Dane said. He ended the call and tried to mask his worry and irritation and tuck the guilt that was brewing inside him away. He should have forced Rob to talk and gotten to the bottom of this shit. Damn it.