Wicked Sexy(28)

“I remembered.” He growled the words. “Okay? I left and that kiss of ours would pop back into my

head.” Usually it did at the most inconvenient times.

“Uh-huh.” She glared, her eyes piercing right through him. Yeah. He’d blown this morning to hell and

back. “That’s why you never called, never emailed. Never, ever looked me up and said, ‘Hey, Dani—I’d

like to see you again.’ Welcome to the twenty-first century. Communicating is easier than ever.”

No. It wasn’t. If it had been, he’d have known what to say to her. “You were too young,” he pointed

out. “Come on, you were just finishing high school and I’d already enlisted. Should I have kissed you—and it wasn’t going to stop there—and then left you waiting while I did my tour of duty overseas? I didn’t even know what I felt, just that you made me feel something. Something different.”

Something good.

She stared at him silently, and he knew he had to man up or risk losing her again. She’d get up and go

—the one woman who had meant something to him, even when he hadn’t understood what that something

was.

“I love you. I left you, yes. We were both too young for that kind of commitment and you know it. But

I always regretted it.”

Slowly, she shook her head. “You love me?”

“Yes!” he snapped.

“That’s unlikely,” she said calmly. “We’ve been on the island together for just a few weeks.”

“We knew each other before.”

“When we were kids. You said so yourself.”

“I know how I feel.” She was stubborn. And logical. And he liked both of those traits in her, but they

weren’t helping him now. He didn’t know how or why he felt the way he did, just that waking up next to

this woman, being with her no matter what happened, was precisely what he wanted to be doing. “Do you

know how you feel about me?”





DID SHE? HONESTLY, she had no idea. He was demanding, insisting that she put into words emotions

and feelings she’d only just realized she had.

“You didn’t give me a choice. You kissed me. You left. You. Came. Back.” She jabbed a finger into his

chest. “There’s no me in that equation and there’s definitely no us. ”

His dark eyes searched hers, but she knew him. There was nothing easy about him, but part of her

wanted to try. Loving Daeg Ross would be one phenomenal ride, but the odds of a relationship working out were low. Rick had seemed like a sure thing, solid marriage material, and look how that relationship had headed south. She didn’t want to think about the implosion that could come from seeing that happen with Daeg Ross.

“Take the chance.” His big, reassuring hands curled around her shoulders, urging her closer. “Give me a chance.”

His rough sigh gusted over her forehead. It would be so easy to give in. To tell him yes and lose herself in his arms again. Easy, and yet hard because she knew where all this would end—with her heartbreak and his leaving. A tiger didn’t change its stripes just because it wanted to, and Daeg would always be a soldier and an adrenaline junkie.

“I’ve calculated our chances... I don’t like how they’re looking.” The words left her mouth reluctantly, but some things had to be said. This was one of those things.

He tipped up his chin and set his mouth firmly. “But there is a chance.”

“A small one.”

“I want it. I want you, us. You need to trust me, Dani. You gamble on us, okay? You can’t spend the

rest of your life only taking on what appear to be sure things.”

She could. That was the point of this conversation. She didn’t need to risk her heart or her emotions,

not when he’d proved before that he specialized in heartbreak.

“Give me a second chance,” he urged.

“Because you love me?”

“That, too,” he said. “And because I think you feel something for me and you want to find out what.”

“Have you really thought this over?”

“What is there to think about? Either we feel something for each other or we don’t. This is about

emotions, Dani. It’s not a logic problem or a flow chart.”

“And that’s part of the problem,” she said, hating the bitterness in her own voice. “You always want to jump in feet first. You don’t stop and think. You just act.”

“Try it,” he coaxed. “Jump for me, Dani.”

She sighed. “That’s not who I am, you know that.”

The loud rap on the cabin door was almost a welcome relief. Right there real life was issuing a reminder that she had her grandparents’ business to take care of. She couldn’t deal with all these emotions, not now.

“I need to get that.” She reached for her discarded clothes, pulling them on.

“Then do it.” His hard gaze followed her. “But we’re not done here, Dani. Not by a long shot. Do what

you need to do, because I’ll be here waiting for you. You don’t need to calculate the odds on that.”





SHE OPENED THE door and her day went from bad to worse. Rick stood on her front porch, looking

hopeful. He’d armed himself with a bouquet of Stargazer lilies and a wide smile.

And yet she’d finally done her moving on, and he was lying on the bed behind her. Speaking of him, it just occurred to her whose T-shirt she’d pulled on before she cracked the door, although the rub of the cotton against her skin reminded her with every breath she took that she was bare as a baby beneath.

Rick held out the flowers to her. “Can I come in?”

“That’s not a good idea.” She didn’t take the bouquet, and resisted the urge to look over her shoulder.

This redefined the awkward morning after. Rick’s eyes dropped to her breasts, the smile faded and she

looked down. Yup. Her quick swipe and don from the floor had netted her Daeg’s T-shirt.

“Maybe not.” Rick eyed the gray cotton top, proudly sporting the word Navy across the chest. The T-shirt slid off her shoulder, two sizes too big.

They both knew the shirt wasn’t hers.

He offered the flowers again, more out of politeness, she thought, than any genuine hope they’d be

talking or reuniting. All she was doing today with Rick was watching him take his leave.

“You’re not coming back.”

“No.” She met his gaze. “I’m not.”

“All right.” He gave her a wry grin. “But you can’t blame me for trying.”

Part of her wanted to do just that. The rest of her wanted to know why it had taken him so long to come after her and what that meant.

“Maybe you should take a second look at Shari.”

“No.” He was quiet for a minute. “That was my first mistake.”

He gestured toward the T-shirt. “Borrowed?”

“Yes.” If she was lucky, the loaner might stay in bed until she had the door closed again. “I’ll give it back.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t?” Rick guessed.

She wasn’t discussing this with Rick at any point, and certainly not now when she had Daeg waiting for

her in bed. Her soldier had to have heard this conversation, anyhow.

“Goodbye, Rick.”

She turned away, shutting the door. She didn’t know what she should be feeling. That was her past that

was walking away, everything she’d once dreamed of. She had to be crazy saying no to Rick. She looked at Daeg, and he didn’t seem any less of a risk than he was before.

“Am I on loan?” he asked. He didn’t sound happy.

“I need to think.”

He scoffed and threw the sheets back. He was upset, but there was nothing she could honestly do about

that—she wasn’t getting rushed into this. “Just for once, Dani, leap before you look, okay? Can you do that for me? For us?”

She moved toward the bed without answering his question. Instead, she yanked his shirt over her head,

grabbing a clean one from a drawer. “Here. This is yours.”

“You can keep the shirt.” His tone said he wasn’t just talking about the shirt.

“No. I can’t.”

“I love you,” he repeated. “And I’m still waiting for my answer.”

“You want to talk about this now?”

“Why not? We’ve already waited ten years. If we’re going to try for forever, forever might as well start right now.”

“I’m not ready.”

He grimaced. “This isn’t something you analyze, Dani. You go with your gut on this one. If you trust

me, then you make the gamble. On us. ”

“Tell me what you want from me,” she said coolly. “Give it to me straight up.”

“Sex. A commitment. Everything and anything. I want us to be an us. A couple.”

“I can’t do that right now.” She chewed on her lower lip, undecided, staring at his familiar face yet

wondering when he’d changed. When he’d become this stranger who thought he wanted to share forever with her.

“Why not? Because you need time to think? Why can’t you trust me?” His fingers flexed on his thighs.

He’d put on his jeans while she’d been speaking to Rick, and the tight, worn denim always got her thinking about sex. Sex with this man.