Seaside Sunsets Read online

  “Yeah. You know, so I know I won’t hurt you.”

  She furrowed her brow, obviously thinking it over. “What if I hurt you?”

  He laughed. “I somehow doubt that’s going to happen.”

  “What if I tie you up and it’s too tight? Or I do something you don’t like?” She pressed both hands against his chest and smiled playfully up at him.

  “Tie me up? I thought you’d only been with one other guy.”

  “Two. You, remember?” She slipped off her flip-flops and tossed her long hair over her shoulder.

  “And you want to tie me up?” Jamie arched a brow.

  “No. Not now.” Her cheeks pinked up and she turned away.

  He turned her by the shoulders and drew her closer to him. “You can tie me up, tie me down, or ride me to heaven and back, Jess. You don’t need to be embarrassed.”

  She placed her hands softly on his chest again in what he’d come to think of as her spot. “I don’t know what I’ll want to do, but if I need a safe word, then I want you to have one, too.”

  “So this is all about being fair?” The side of his mouth quirked up. “Okay, how about the word red?”

  “Red?”

  “Red.”

  She slid her hands beneath his shirt and pushed it up to his armpits. She pressed her lips to his abs and trailed kisses up to his pecs as her fingers danced over his nipples, making every nerve stand on end.

  “Then if I say green, does that mean go?” she asked.

  He pulled her dress over her head and the air rushed from his lungs.

  “Green. Green. Green,” she whispered.

  MUCH LATER, SATED and a little sore, Jessica lay on her side, spooned against Jamie’s chest, listening to the even cadence of his breathing. As promised, he’d made love to her slowly and sensuously, and after a brief reprieve, he’d made love to her hard, fast, and every way in between. She looked at the chair by the bedroom door, where Jamie’s jeans were hanging over the armrest, his shirt spread across the back. She could get used to falling asleep in his arms, but she knew that until she made a final decision about her career, that was a dangerous thought. He had a business to run and a grandmother to care for. She’d have to travel, and there was no way she’d ask him to give up his time with Vera. It was easy to play house on vacation. She wasn’t so sure it would be as easy back home when she was bunned, busy, and working crazy hours.

  She thought about how good it had felt to play her cello with Vera and the accolades Vera had rained on her afterward. She’d even asked her to play with her quartet Thursday night. And I forgot to mention it to Jamie. She’d even forgotten about checking her cell phone for the call from the new owner of the baseball. She wrapped her hand over Jamie’s, and in his sleep he hugged her closer to him. Before she’d come to the Cape, her life was regimented, her schedule dictated by playing the cello, and now she knew exactly what she’d been missing. Now she knew Jamie.

  I love playing the cello.

  She eyed the case propped against the wall just outside the bedroom and felt her heart squeeze. Was she wrong? Could she maintain a relationship and find a healthy balance between the man she was falling for and the instrument she adored playing? Her eyes drifted upward to the clock on the wall. It was three fifteen in the morning. Should she wake Jamie? Didn’t he need to go home so his grandmother didn’t get upset? Would she? He was a grown man. Maybe she didn’t care. But that generation? Maybe she did.

  Oh God. What was she doing? She needed to wake him and let him decide, but he felt so good, so warm. So safe. She tried to hold back the last thought, but it pressed in close until it nearly suffocated her and she had to get it out.

  So loving.

  She shifted her hips a little and pulled the blanket up over her thighs. She’d never imagined herself being comfortable naked in front of anyone, much less a man she’d known for only a short while, but with Jamie, everything felt natural.

  “Careful moving like that. You’ll wake certain parts of me you might rather leave sleeping.” Jamie’s voice was low and rough against her neck.

  She turned in his arms so they were nose to nose and touched his stubbly cheek with her hand. “Don’t you have to go back home?”

  He opened his eyes and pulled her against him. “Are you kicking me out?”

  “I don’t know. Have you spent the night out before when you were here with Vera?” She lowered her voice to a seductive whisper. “Or will you staying over make me a bad girl?” She felt him get hard as he tightened his grip on her.

  “I think you have the whole bad girl thing down pat, but we’ll keep that our little secret.” He kissed her softly and smiled. “I haven’t left Vera overnight while I was at the Cape before, but I’m fairly certain that she knows we’re sleeping together.”

  “Well, yeah, but why throw it in her face?”

  He pulled back. “You are kicking me out.”

  “Not because I want to,” she protested. “Just because I don’t want her looking at me sideways tomorrow. Like I soiled her perfect grandson.” She stroked his cheek.

  He rolled onto his back with a dramatic sigh and arced his arm over his eyes. “You don’t want people seeing me take the walk of shame—that’s what this is about.”

  She draped an arm over his chest and pushed herself up so she was peering down at him. Her hair curtained their faces.

  “Walk of shame? I don’t care who else sees you leaving. I just don’t want to disrespect Vera.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He said it with a serious tone, and although she couldn’t see his eyes beneath his forearm, she had a clear view of his sexy little smile.

  She pressed her lips to his.

  He pulled her on top of him, chest to chest, thigh to thigh, only his hard length between them. Her engine revved up again, and she wondered how she’d gone twenty-seven years without Jamie Reed’s arms around her.

  “Okay, I’ll leave in a minute.” He gathered her hair and draped it over one shoulder, then traced her cheekbone down and around her jaw with his finger. “I’m falling hard for you, Jess.”

  Ohgodohgodohgod. He felt it too. “So you aren’t this loving and sensual with every woman you date?”

  “Not even close.” He searched her eyes and drew his brows together. “Uh-oh. I played my hand too soon, didn’t I?”

  She smiled at that. How could he think that she wasn’t falling head over heels for him? She felt like everything she did screamed it. “Not even close to too soon.”

  In the next breath, he rolled her beneath him and kissed her. His hazel eyes were filled with emotion mirroring her own intense feelings.

  “I’m not falling for you.” She tried to keep a straight face, but when the smile in his eyes faded, she couldn’t play out the ruse. “You’ve swept me away, Jamie, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. You start out soft and magical, and then there’s this intensity that takes my breath away and makes my body ignite into flames, and then there’s the softness again. And just when I think we’re as close as we could get, you surprise me with something as simple as a kiss on my temple—which I love by the way. And…” She realized she was going on and on, and he was smiling down at her like she was all he ever needed.

  “I don’t mean to ramble, but I’m so comfortable with you, like we’ve been together forever, and there’s still so much we don’t know about each other. And that should scare me silly, but it doesn’t.” She breathed deeply.

  “Because you have nothing to fear when you’re with me, Jess.”

  She sensed he was right, but suddenly it wasn’t enough to say she was comfortable with him, because what she felt was so much bigger than comfortable.

  “Did you know that without rosin, the bow slides across the cello strings and makes a faint whispery sound, or no sound at all? It’s the rosin that provides the friction in order to produce sound when it’s pulled across the strings. Before you, Jamie, I was whispering through life. With you, I’m whole. I’m melodious and tuneful.
Pure musicality.” She smiled up at him. “You’re my rosin, Jamie.”

  “Jessie,” he whispered, and touched his forehead to hers.

  He didn’t need to say anything more. She felt his feelings seep through his skin to her very soul, coming together with hers and filling all the lonely, empty spaces she’d always known were there.

  Chapter Thirteen

  JAMIE AND JESSICA spent the next few days enjoying each other, the sun, and their friends. Jamie took his normal morning runs with Caden, Evan, and Kurt, if he was around. Yesterday Pete joined them while Jessica had breakfast with the girls. After worrying about just how much of their relationship Jessica had shared with them, Jamie finally got up the courage to ask her if she was sharing the intimate details of their lovemaking. Jessica had pinked up when she’d said, I didn’t, but not because I’m embarrassed about it. I didn’t tell them because I don’t want them thinking about you in that way. He’d loved the little possessive comment, especially since she didn’t act possessive in any other way. He’d never dated a woman who didn’t watch him when other women were near, but Jessica had a quiet confidence about her. It was like his straying never crossed her mind—which was a good thing, because he was as loyal as a junkyard dog, and he would never hurt her in any way.

  Vera joined them for afternoon outings to the bay and visits to nearby towns, like Chatham and Brewster. Jessica and Vera got along well, and both were excited about Jessica’s joining the quartet tonight. Come evening, Jessica and the girls from Seaside threw together salads and grilled, and they all ate dinners together in the quad. When the stars came out, they fell into Jessica’s bed or the dunes by the ocean, and made love until they were too exhausted to move. Jamie went back to his own cottage in the wee hours of the mornings and tried to catch up on his emails, but after one or two emails, he was just too wiped to focus, and caught a few hours’ sleep instead. All the while, he craved the day he could wake up with Jessica in his arms. For now, they chose not to take advantage of their close living situations to the fullest extent. Vera was kind enough not to make mention of Jamie’s early-morning returns, and although he doubted she’d care if he stayed with Jessica until morning, that didn’t lessen the guilt that he knew he’d feel for doing so. Self-inflicted guilt, of course, but it was what it was.

  Thursday morning he was heading out for a run with Kurt and Caden when his phone rang. He blew out a breath, debated ignoring it, but gave in to responsibility when he saw Mark’s name on the screen. Shit. He’d blown off a few emails from Mark and a number of other employees the last two nights out of sheer exhaustion, and he hadn’t checked them yet this morning.

  “Hey, Mark. How’s it going?” He twisted the mood ring on his finger. Every time he looked at it he thought of Jessica.

  “How’s it going? Really? You knew we had shit going down over here and you’ve completely ignored my emails and my texts.”

  “What? Hold on.” Jamie scrolled through his phone. He didn’t have a single text from Mark. “Mark. I don’t have any texts from you.” He paced the cottage, anxious to get on with his run and hoping Mark was overreacting.

  “My ass, you don’t. I texted you about seven times between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon yesterday. I called, but it went straight to voicemail, and I sent you emails.”

  Fuck. He and Jessica had gone to the beach yesterday. There was no cell phone reception on any of the lower Cape ocean beaches. It was like a time warp. Once someone descended the dune, they were off radar until they headed back up to the parking lot.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Mark demanded. “Are you dodging me for a reason?”

  “Mark, chill a minute. You must have texted while I was on the beach. Texts don’t come through at the ocean here. You know that.” Jamie went outside on the deck. Vera looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at him. He squeezed her shoulder as he passed.

  “Don’t you check your messages?”

  “They don’t come through. It’s all fu—” He glanced at Vera. “Messed up. They don’t even register. What’s going on that’s got you wound so tight?”

  “What’s got me wound so tight? I’ll tell you what’s got me wound. Remember that issue you told me to handle?”

  Jamie ran his hand through his hair, racking his brain. He vaguely remembered something he’d told Mark to handle while he was at the pool, but he’d been distracted by Tony and Jessica. “Remind me.”

  Mark blew out another frustrated breath. Jamie pictured him stalking across his fifteenth-floor office, bushy brows drawn together, dark eyes seething. “I’ll remind you, all right. Search engine bug. Young kids searching for toys, video games, and movies with dragons are getting ads for military equipment and ammo. If the media gets wind of this, we’re screwed. Mothers are already bitching a blue streak.”

  Shit. “All right, so our team tracked it down, right? Get PR on it. Do some damage control, and we’re back in business.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Did you hear what I said? Kids and guns don’t mix. What are you smoking at the Cape, Jamie? Do you hear yourself?” He mocked Jamie. “So, our team tracked it down, right?” He blew out a breath again, a habit he had when he was too mad to form a response.

  “It’s all fucked up. If our team had tracked it down, would I have called you? We’ve got our cyber investigation team on it to see if we were hacked,” Mark explained. “You need to be here. You’ve got to come back and take charge of this situation.”

  “Mark, you’ve got our teams on it and the cyber investigators. Let them do their jobs.” Before meeting Jessica, Jamie would have packed up and driven back to Boston. But that was then. Now he didn’t want to miss a minute of time with her, and he trusted his team of professionals to handle the issues without him micromanaging.

  “Jamie, if this hits the news, you’re going to have a media shit storm to deal with.”

  Mark was right. If it got that far, they’d have a bigger issue on their hands, but he’d hired the best programmers in the country. His being there wasn’t going to change a damn thing. Or at least that’s how, for the first time in his life, he was rationalizing putting his business second to his personal life.

  Jessica came out of Amy’s cottage wearing a nightshirt without a bra and a pair of cutoffs. She waved to Jamie, her perky nipples poking against the sheer material, and the evening before came rushing back. They’d washed her bedsheets at midnight, after spilling body oil on them, and when they went into the dark laundry room to get them from the dryer, the room was hot, and so were they. They’d ended up making love on top of the warm dryer.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Mark snapped.

  Shit. He’d zoned out. He waved to Jessica as she walked toward her cottage. Jesus, she had a sweet ass.

  “Jamie!” Mark yelled.

  “Yeah, sorry. Listen, I’m not leaving the Cape. Whatever I need to do, I can do from here. Just set up a videoconference. Give me a time.”

  “Bad move, Jamie. You need to be here to light a fire under their asses. I’m telling you, nipping this in the bud is critical.”

  Jamie was sure his being there in person wouldn’t do any more good than a videoconference. He trusted his cyber investigators, and he trusted Mark, but he also knew Mark didn’t like his advice to be ignored. He had to level with Mark or Mark would never let up. He also knew how protective Mark was of him. He practically had the FBI check out every woman he dated, and while it pissed Jamie off at times, he was equally as thankful that Mark had his back.

  “Mark, I met someone. I’m not leaving.”

  Vera raised her eyes and smiled. Jamie knew that Vera understood how serious he was about Jessica, because he rarely shared his personal life with anyone. Especially Mark. But Mark had his ways of finding things out, so one way or another, his attorney and buddy since college would have figured this out without him.

  “You’re blowing off business for a chick? Eight years of a stellar rep that you could
lose over some dipshit hacker…for a chick?”

  “She’s not just a chick.” Anger simmered in Jamie’s gut.

  Mark laughed. “She better have a golden pussy for this risk, my boy.”

  “Mark! Cut the shit.” He wanted to tell him not to ever refer to Jessica that way again, but Mark was already hot under the collar and he needed him to focus on the issues, not on his relationship.

  “Fine. I’ll come there. I can be there this afternoon. We’ll structure a game plan and I’ll take care of it. You’re at Vera’s?”

  Jamie let out a frustrated breath. Mark was a good friend to come all the way there instead of relying on a videoconference, and Jamie appreciated his efforts. He’d gone over and above the call of duty for Jamie many times, and in turn, Jamie paid him well. Not to mention that their friendship ran even deeper than their business relationship. Tonight was Jessica’s performance with Vera’s quartet, and he wanted to be there. His parents’ deaths had taught him how precarious life really was, and he wasn’t about to miss Jessica’s performance, even for Mark.

  “Fine. I have plans at seven thirty, so make it early.”

  “I SAY WE go chunky-dunking tonight,” Bella said as she looked out over the water. The girls were having a late lunch at Mac’s Seafood on the harbor. Pete, Kurt, and Caden were working, and Jamie had a meeting to prepare for with his attorney.

  “What’s chunky-dunking?” Jessica was only half paying attention. She was thinking about Jamie. He’d been so sidetracked that morning when they had coffee with Vera after his run. He’d mentioned how many calls and texts he’d missed from his attorney, and Jessica worried that she was interfering with his work.

  “Skinny-dipping,” Jenna explained. “For normal-sized women.” She glared at Amy. “Pin-thin girl over there can still go skinny-dipping.”

  “Oh, please.” Amy waved a dismissive hand. “You think you’re normal sized? Miss Young Dolly Parton?”