Seaside Embrace (Love in Bloom Read online

  Apparently they’d both deciphered it wrong.

  And why didn’t her body get the message about being over him? Her pulse had been racing from the moment she’d seen the brunette approach him when he’d first arrived. Not only that, but he and his friend had moved to the bar half an hour ago, and they’d been flirting with every woman who walked by. She should be oblivious, not annoyingly hoping for something more.

  “You okay, sis?” Colton gently touched her shoulder as he moved behind her to grab a bottle of liquor from the shelf. He was a year older than Jana and quieter than either Harper or Brock, more thoughtful and less opinionated. He and Jana had always been close. She was the first family member he’d trusted when he came out, and he was the first one she’d trusted with her decision to never have another boyfriend.

  “Yeah. I just need to hit the ladies’ room.” She whipped around the corner to the narrow hallway and was glad to find the restroom empty. She ran her hands under cold water, fixed her hair, and then leaned against the sink and gave herself a pep talk. Hunter Lacroux was just messing with her head tonight. The same way she was messing with his. They were too alike, and that was what was making her head spin.

  She needed to move past him once and for all.

  She drew her shoulders back, lifted her chin, then headed back out the bathroom door—and ran directly into Hunter’s incredibly hard chest. His large hands landed on her arms, sending a shock of electricity straight to her toes.

  “Whoa. Slow down, beautiful.” He gazed down at her with those smoldering dark eyes of his, and her pulse went crazy again. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

  “Some of us are working, not flirting.” Take that.

  “Really?” He squeezed her arms a little tighter. “It sure seemed like you were flirting with Clark.” He leaned in closer, his scruff brushed against her cheek as he said in a low, gravelly voice, “Did you get the silk panties I was kind enough to return?”

  Why did hearing such a big, strong man say the word panties turn her on?

  She pulled her shoulders back and leaned away from the massive dose of masculinity that was slowly stealing her will to remain distant.

  “I did. Thank you. The last thing I want is for you to have anything to hold over my head.”

  His hand slid to her lower back, and he pressed his hips forward, holding her against his impressive erection. She stifled an embarrassing whimper of desire.

  “Baby, I want to do a lot of things with you, but the only things I’m interested in holding over your head are your wrists. Bound in silk. While I bury my face between those glorious thighs of yours.” He ran his tongue over the shell of her ear and whispered, “And I promise you, when that happens, you’ll be thanking me—and begging for more.”

  She had no idea how she managed to remain upright, much less speak, but she pulled a lie right out of thin air and said with a feigned air of confidence, “Been there. Done that.”

  “Yeah?” he snapped gruffly. “Well, not with me.”

  She scoffed, even though the image of Hunter, naked and holding her bound wrists above her head, was making it hard for her to remember exactly why she shouldn’t partake in him just one more time. But some thread of rationality told her that if she didn’t end this now, she’d never gain control over the rampant lust between them, and she actually liked Hunter as a friend, despite his arrogance. She didn’t need to put him in an uncomfortable situation with her brother, or with Sky and Sawyer. And, if she were honest with herself, she didn’t want to lose his friendship, either.

  She clung to those thoughts and managed, “Like that’s anything special?”

  He stepped impossibly closer, trapping her against the wall with his powerful thighs. “Have you already forgotten how good it feels when we’re together?”

  God, no. Not one blessed second of it.

  “Women line up to be with me. I’m successful, in great shape, and”—he reached behind her and gripped her ass, then slid one hand beneath her skirt and brushed his fingers between her legs—“pretty damn good at knowing what you like.”

  She pushed from his grip, teetering on the edge of sanity. “Don’t forget obstinate as the day is long.” She took a step away, intending to get back to work…just as soon as her body cooled down and her legs worked again.

  Hunter lifted his eyes, and she followed his gaze to a couple standing at the edge of the hallway kissing. He lowered his voice and said, “You expect me to believe you don’t want me?” Wrapping his hand gently around her arm, he tugged her in close again. “Because I happen to think you do.”

  God, why did his confidence turn her on so much? “You know, even if I did want to get laid—”

  “Which you do,” he reminded her.

  “Jesus.” He was too much. “See? That assumption is why I don’t want a relationship with any man. Least of all you!” She spun on her heel, and he pulled her against him again.

  “Don’t fool yourself, Jana. You’re just like me. You don’t want a relationship. But you want me.”

  “Dream on,” she said with a smirk. “You wouldn’t know how to romance a girl if your life depended on it.”

  “Is that what you think?” His eyes bored into her.

  She held his stare, hating herself for getting even more turned on by the tightening of his jaw and the determination in his eyes. Knowing he wanted her that badly made her stomach flip and dip like a schoolgirl’s. His pecs brushed against her erect nipples—stupid nipples. And damn it to hell, she loved that, too.

  She’d let Hunter get to her again, and when he lowered his lips to hers—the arrogant bastard—she got lost in the deliciousness of his savory mouth, and forgetting Hunter Lacroux went out the door. He didn’t just kiss her. He claimed her with powerful strokes of his tongue as it slid over hers, laying claim to every inch of her mouth. When his hands encircled her, holding them so close she could barely breathe, he breathed air into her lungs, never breaking their connection. And when his knee slid between her thighs and he backed her up against the wall, she was powerless to deny herself the pleasures she knew he’d give. Her hands glided up his back, over the hard muscle, then down over the curve of his perfect ass, as his lips left hers and he kissed the corner of her mouth. With one final press of his hips to hers, he cupped her face between his hands and she had no choice but to look into his hungry eyes.

  His lips were pink from the intensity of their kiss, and she knew hers were probably worse. She could feel the abrasions from his whiskers.

  “Don’t fool yourself, pretty girl. There’s nothing I can’t do.”

  ***

  HUNTER NEVER BACKED down from a challenge, and Jana Garner was looking up at him with a combination of lust and anger in her eyes—the biggest challenge of all. She felt so good in his arms, and every single thing she said made his insides simmer. It pissed him off to hear her say she didn’t want him when he knew he was her sexual match in every way. Even if they didn’t want a relationship, what harm was there in hooking up again? Why was she fighting the obvious chemistry between them?

  “Neither one of us wants a relationship. I’ll give you that. But you kiss me like you want me.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek, trying not to think about how soft her skin was against his rough hands. “You might not want to admit it, pretty girl, but one day you won’t be able to keep from telling me just how much you want me.”

  She opened her mouth to speak and he pressed his finger over her lips, gently shushing her.

  “Every word out of your mouth either sets my body on fire or pisses me off. How about we play it safe and you keep whatever it is to yourself?” He paused, giving her body time to stop trembling and for the lust to wash away from those beautiful eyes of hers. She had to get back to work. What felt like an hour had in fact been only a matter of minutes, but he didn’t want to keep her from doing her job.

  Okay, maybe he did. He wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her to a bed—any bed—and have his way with
her until she was screaming his name in the throes of passion, like she had last night. But since that couldn’t happen, and he had a friend waiting at the bar whom he had to babysit, he lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of her fingers, then said, “Until next time.”

  As he passed the kissing couple and reentered the bar, he drew his shoulders back, the Prove Jana Wrong Plan already forming in his mind.

  Chapter Four

  JANA HAD CONVINCED herself that Hunter’s goal last night had solely been to mess with her head, but when she’d come out to her car in the morning to go to the dance studio, she’d found a handful of tiger lilies that looked like they’d been picked from the side of the road beneath her windshield wiper with a card from Hunter. She was pretty sure he’d gotten a free card in the mail with those return address labels that were mass-marketed right before the holidays, because it had a picture of a cute white puppy wearing a Santa hat—and it was only June. Inside, he’d written, How’s this for romance? Hunter.

  At the time she’d laughed it off as him messing with her again, but now, as she had discussed it with Harper over lunch during her break from work, she had to wonder why he’d go to such lengths.

  “Want to know what I think?” Harper asked. They were sitting on the Wellfleet Pier eating lobster rolls from Mac’s Seafood and watching a family with three young boys fish a few feet away. Well, that and checking out the hot guys docking the boat at the end of the pier.

  “Sure.” Jana picked at her lobster roll.

  “I think when you go to the bonfire tonight you should ask him. Right there in front of everyone you should bring it up. Call him out on it.” Harper tucked her long blond hair behind her ear and straightened her red plastic sunglasses. Jana couldn’t see her expression behind the lenses, but she knew her older sister well enough to picture her blue eyes, alert with surety and confidence.

  “Call him out on it?” She shook her head at her sister’s ridiculous suggestion. “This is Hunter we’re talking about, right? Big guy, speaks his mind no matter what? Sky’s brother? Can you imagine what type of comeback he’d have and what Sawyer would do if he knew Hunter was messing with my head?” She laughed, but inside her stomach knotted at the thought. “And Brock? He told me that if Hunter hurt me he’d kill him.”

  Harper rolled her eyes. “Brock is not going to hurt anyone. You know that. Besides, Hunter’s not hurting you. He’s playing with you. Just like you play with him.”

  Jana finished her lunch and pushed to her feet to throw out her trash. Nothing was as relaxing as sitting on the pier with the gentle breeze blowing in off the bay, but she had a class to teach, and she didn’t want to respond to Harper’s comment about her playing with Hunter.

  She shifted her eyes to the hot guys who had docked their boat, hoping for a distraction from Hunter, but they didn’t do anything for her. Not even a tingle of excitement. Not to mention that they were openly ogling Harper, who probably didn’t realize her short summer dress was rising with the breeze.

  “Harp, you’re giving those hotties an eyeful.”

  “Ohmygod.” Harper jumped to her feet, holding down her wayward dress. She turned away from the guys and laughed. “There are benefits to working by the pier, aren’t there?” Harper was a screenplay writer, and last summer she’d been hired to write a racy sitcom for cable. She mainly worked from home or coffee shops.

  “Heck, yeah. Hot guys at every turn, the beach, the theater, and our friends.” Jana sighed. “I just wish my life weren’t so crazy. I feel so scattered these days. Working for Marco is a bear. He was supposed to bring in clients, but since he moved to Plymouth, it’s all on my shoulders.”

  “I thought that was temporary,” Harper said.

  “Yeah, me too.” Jana had taught dance for Marco Luger, the owner of Cape Dance, for the past two years. When she’d first begun working for him, he’d handled the business end while she taught, but now that he was busy opening the other studio, Jana was overloaded. When she’d happily accepted the extra work, it was with the understanding that it would be for only a month or so while he got the other studio up and running. Months later, she was not only still doing the work, but when she’d requested a raise, he’d claimed he couldn’t afford it.

  “You’ve got to ask him for a raise again if he’s going to keep relying on you to grow the business. You know that, Jana. Usually you’re so aggressive. Why are you so careful with him?”

  “Harp, how many dance studios are there on the lower Cape?”

  Harper shrugged. “I don’t know. Two? Three?”

  “Exactly. And I love teaching everything. I want to teach hip-hop to teenagers, ballet to sweet little girls with big dreams, and, well, everything to adults. No other dance studio does it all.”

  “Maybe you need to compromise. Give up some of what you want for what you can get.”

  “You’re always so practical. I don’t want to give up anything. I love it too much, and besides, I’ll lose those skills if I don’t use them.” She needed to change the subject, because they’d just argue about how Jana should try to focus her efforts on one thing at a time. It was a sore subject for Jana, especially since, for the first time in years, she’d had to forgo the theater work she loved so much. But until Marco came back or hired someone else, she couldn’t spare the time.

  “I’m having breakfast at Seaside with Sky the day after tomorrow. Are you going?” Through Sawyer, Jana and Harper had become good friends with Sky and all of her friends in the Seaside community.

  “I’m not sure,” Harper said. “I have a lot of revisions to do tonight, which is why I’m missing the bonfire, so it’ll depend on how much I get done.”

  Jana walked her back to her car. “What do you really think I should do about Hunter? I mean, why does he care if I think he’s romantic or not? He’s more of a player than I am.”

  Harper lifted her sunglasses and Jana saw the seriousness in her eyes. “Jana, I don’t know. I mean, you two are like oil and water one minute and insatiable with each other the next. You’re at a whole different sexual level than I am when it comes to guys.”

  “Gee, thanks, sis,” she said with a sarcastic lilt to her voice.

  “I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean, you have more experience than me. You enjoy yourself more. You’re freer. I’m not a prude or anything, but you have no qualms about any of it, and I…I’m slower to the finish line, I guess.”

  “That’s okay.” Jana sighed. “I’ll figure it out.”

  Harper hugged her, then climbed into her car. “You always do.”

  Jana wasn’t so sure about that. “Have a great time writing! Make it hot and sexy. Think of me as your character.”

  Harper waved and blew her a kiss as she drove away.

  The dance studio was located around the corner from the harbor. Jana walked along the road thinking about Harper’s suggestion. There was no way she’d call Hunter out in front of everyone, because she might not like his answer. That thought bothered her. She really did like him as a friend, and as a lover. It was just putting the two together that got messy for them, because it couldn’t lead anywhere.

  She gazed at the upper deck of the Pearl Restaurant, where couples were sitting beneath colorful umbrellas. They looked happy, the men and women leaning in close. Jana hadn’t had a real boyfriend since Spencer, and that was five years ago. Relationships petrified her. They made her feel claustrophobic. But it was scenes like these that made her heart flutter longingly and a little voice whisper in the back of her mind about one day…followed by the urge to run in the opposite direction.

  She shifted her gaze to the gallery next door and noticed a man carrying a large metal sculpture of a fish. It was nearly as long as he was. The artist, a handsome man in his midthirties who sometimes sat out front of the gallery while he worked, followed him out. The smile on the artist’s face told of his joy of finding a home for a piece of his artwork, and she wondered if Hunter felt that way when he sold o
ne of his pieces.

  As she neared the studio entrance, she realized how strange of a thought that was, because when it came to Hunter, she usually didn’t think much beyond his looks, his danger zone, and the pigheaded opinions that came out of his big mouth.

  Oh, that mouth.

  No, she wasn’t going to stroll down Hunter Road today. She needed to concentrate on her impending meeting with the Cape Cod Times to solidify marketing space, and then she had three more classes to teach.

  Her cell phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her purse, and her pulse quickened at the sight of DO NOT RESPOND! on the screen. She stared at the screen for a long time, debating whether she should open it. Who was she kidding? She swiped the screen, unable to resist reading Hunter’s text.

  Pick you up at 7 to watch the sunset before the bonfire. Be ready.

  She had to read it twice to believe it. What the hell was he up to, telling her what to do? She wasn’t about to be told to be ready for any man.

  She typed a quick reply—No, thanks—and pressed send, irritated with him for assuming she would want to go anywhere with him. Seconds later her phone vibrated with another text.

  Is that any way to treat a romantic invitation?

  Lord, really? Was he that competitive? She responded with, What do you really want?

  Her phone rang seconds later, stopping her in her tracks. She accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. Before she could say a word, Hunter’s deep voice flooded her ear.

  “The truth.”

  She sighed. “What?”

  “You asked what I wanted. I want you to admit that you want to be with me.”

  “Hunter—”

  “I’m not going to be baited into a fight. Just say you want me, and you’ll feel much better.”

  He said it so confidently that despite her annoyance, it made her smile. “Oh, will I? Well, for your information, I don’t want you.” If she were Pinocchio, her nose would have instantly grown.