Cal showed up and jumped into the conversation. “Congratulations. You’re now a happy resident of
Sweet Moon.”
For the second time that day, Daeg took a trip down memory lane. While he’d never met Dani
Andrews’s grandparents, he’d seen the couple a time or two. He’d also seen the place. From a distance.
Yeah, he’d done his fair share of drooling from afar.
“That the only spot you could hook me up with?”
Tag smiled knowingly. The man had his suspicions about the blonde on the beach and Daeg’s current
dress-code issues. “Problem with the digs already?”
“Be nice to our boy, Cal. Doesn’t Sweet Moon have a reputation for serving up happily ever afters?
Maybe he’s not in the market,” Tag joked.
That was true. Daeg had more than enough on his plate, thank you very much. Hell, he’d had his hands
full of trouble earlier today, and that was only part of the problem. Memories teased him. He instantly recalled Dani’s soft skin and the feel of her shoulders beneath his fingers. He was enjoying her right up until the minute she’d run out on him.
“Absolutely not in the market.” He swiped the keys to his Jeep from his desk. He’d leave the Harley in
town for now; bringing both vehicles over on the ferry might have been overkill. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I’ll go check in.”
His knee ached and he evened out his gait as much as he could as he headed for the door. He was off-
kilter, the threatening rain putting a hitch in his stride.
“Time to catch up with the blonde on the beach?” Cal’s voice was all tease and no sympathy. They were
back to normal.
Making a face at his partners, he left the command center.
He popped the roof off the Jeep and drove, enjoying the wind tearing past his face. The storm moving
in had a smell all its own, the metallic warmth of the spray and the sharper bite of sea salt. He wanted to be out there, riding the waves and surviving that rough swim. The ocean would make him fight for every
stroke. Damn, he missed that.
When Sweet Moon finally popped into view twenty minutes later, he almost didn’t recognize the motel.
Time hadn’t been overly kind. The tiny front lodge was weather-beaten, the paint worn down to a seashell-pink color. Eight cabins were situated cheerfully around the main office, although a small army of stone cupids and amorous lawn ornaments arranged in precise rows had survived time’s test just fine. He had a sneaking suspicion that, if he counted, the cupids had actually been fruitful and multiplied.
The car sitting next to the building announced someone was in, so he parked the Jeep and headed for
the office.
Home sweet home.
THE CORNY BELL Dani’s grandfather had strung up over the door jangled as the same person who’d
torn up the drive too fast strong-armed his way inside. The door always jammed in damp weather, which
Sweet Moon’s newest guest discovered as he forced it open with a muttered curse. She looked up with a
professional smile and, well, there was Mr. Spec Ops and her own personal blast from the past. Daeg Ross.
She hadn’t seen him in ten years, and now she’d seen him twice in two hours. What were the odds?
Her libido started singing hallelujah while her brain backpedaled furiously. He was not supposed to be here. She’d kissed him and left him on the beach. And that had been the end of that particular adventure.
He did not get to come where she was staying.
And yet he was now strolling toward Sweet Moon’s front desk as if he owned the place. That lazy grin
of his told her he was really glad to see her.
No way.
Kissing Daeg Ross on the beach had been an impulse, a dumb one. Letting him get any closer for a
longer period of time would be risking disaster.
Why Sweet Moon? Why, of all the hotels and motels on this tourist-crazy island, had he picked hers?
She’d spent summers on Discovery Island with her grandparents, followed by her senior year of high
school, the year she’d taken that cruel but delicious beach walk with Daeg. Her father had been developing a resort property in Jamaica and decided that a construction site was no place for a teenage girl. That was her father, though. Good-looking and charming, he was fun to be around, but he loved a good gamble—
real estate or the stock market, he’d always been searching for the next big thing and was always on the move. Her summer months on Discovery were an oasis of peace and stability, a handful of weeks when she
wasn’t speculating what her father would do next or where he’d take them. This was her refuge. The one
place she could count on to remain the same.
“No vacancies,” she snapped before he said a word.
Instead of leaving, he rested his forearms on the counter and looked over at her computer monitor. The
antiquated booking system at Sweet Moon’s had been the first thing Dani had tackled. In the week she’d
been on the island so far, she’d researched and installed a new software package. She’d also worked
through her grandparents’ highly personal style of bookkeeping and created an organizational system that would not only move Sweet Moon’s into a more current century but be something her grandparents could
run. Keeping busy was good. Productive, even. It also kept her from thinking—too much—about her
AWOL honeymoon. It also meant that her computer screen depicted, in a highly visual and easily
understood graphic, just how many vacancies Sweet Moon currently had.
“Not a problem,” he told her. “I already have a reservation.”
“Go elsewhere.” She carefully pressed the keys to activate her screensaver.
“Paid in full,” he added cheerfully.
Daeg was another Mr. Wrong, she was sure of it. He was as eager to roam as her father, although Mr.
Wrong had never seemed so sexy. Or so tempting. Still, since she’d already been burned once, she wasn’t looking for a ring from Daeg Ross, but she could have a few nights—or weeks—of really hot sex.
Maybe celibacy wasn’t the answer.
Maybe it was like if she gorged herself on sweet things, her brain—and her stomach—would get the
message. Too much sugar made you sick. Although was it possible to even have too much sex?
Daeg’s presence took up the entire room. Those broad shoulders beneath the faded cotton T-shirt and
powerful forearms did a number on her senses. He was tanned from spending time outdoors—in the water
—and she wanted to explore him inch by inch and see just how far that sun-kissed goodness went.
A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You’re stuck with me, Dani. Face it.”
Being stuck with Daeg Ross was a fantasy come true, she had to admit. He was 100 percent sexual satisfaction and she should refund his money. Instead, she was calculating the odds of sharing some mind-
blowing time with him.
Those were some heated odds.
“Sweet Moon runs the risk of being stuck with you,” she corrected, turning back to her computer to divert her wild imagination back to safer ground. “Very temporarily.”
DANI ANDREWS DIDN’T walk away from him this time.
She was direct. No games. Daeg liked that. He’d know exactly where he stood with her...on his way out
of here, if she had her choice.
He also counted one, two...three laptops in addition to the outdated desktop model, bookended by a
stack of computer manuals half as tall as Dani was. Precisely organized cans of mechanical pencils and
stacks of Post-it notes marched down the right side of her workspace. She’d transformed Sweet Moon’s
front desk into her own command center. Tag would love it. He’d kissed a computer nerd.
A computer nerd who believed she could get rid of him.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes.” She went right back to working on her computer as if their conversation was done. “You are.”
Her index finger hit the return key with a particularly vicious downstroke. “There are multiple other places on Discovery, all with vacancies. Pick one and I’ll transfer your reservation.”
She pushed and he’d pull.
“No.” He leaned in closer. “I have a reservation already. Right here.”
“Canceled.” She pointed toward the door. “Your exit awaits.”
He snorted. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Funny,” she said sweetly. “It’s never been difficult before.”
He wanted to kiss her again. To hold her in his arms and tuck her protectively in place. He wouldn’t
give in to that urge, but it was hard. He liked her fiery, liked the snap in her eyes and the outrage pinking her cheeks. She noticed him when he made her mad and he could do something with that.
“Are you referring to earlier today—or to our last date, ten years ago?”
She didn’t answer his question. Instead, she just hit him with a fact. “That wasn’t a date.”
“Near enough. You, me, a romantic stroll on the beach. Our first kiss.”
That night was a lost opportunity. If he could have, he’d shake himself for letting her get away, even if she’d been so very young and the possibilities had scared him. He was older now. Fear had no place in his life. And he definitely wasn’t letting her get away again.
“I can stand here all afternoon. And let me repeat, you are not getting rid of me that easily.”