Perfect for the Beach (18 page)

Sara knew the storm was building outside, probably only getting worse as the afternoon passed, and that she should head home, but she didn’t care. She was snuggled up against Kyle’s chest, back in his T-shirt to guard against the cold, a nice dull ache between her thighs.

Kyle was quiet, breathing steadily, staring up at the ceiling. She thought he was simply recovering like she was until he said gruffly, “I’m sorry.”

That didn’t sound promising. She forced herself to say lightly, “For what?”

He threw his arm up and gestured around. “For doing this here… like this. You must think I’m a total jerk.”

“You didn’t do it alone. I had something to do with it, too, you know.” Even though her part had mostly involved lying there and exercising her vocal cords.

Kyle kissed the corner of her eye, tickling her. “Yeah, but you deserve more. Better.”

So the floor was hard and there a lingering smell like her brother’s gym shoes back in high school. It had still made her feel like a woman again. Desired.

“It was impulsive and wild and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Not even for candles and champagne and chocolate truffles. It was incredible.” She had no regrets, and she sure didn’t want him to have any.

“That’s true. It was damn incredible.”

Sara wasn’t sure what was going to happen when they left this room, and she wasn’t going to look too far ahead. Instead she was going to savor the moment while it lasted.

She ran her fingers across his rock-solid abdomen. “Wash-board stomach.” Goose bumps rose under her touch. “Are you cold, Kyle? I can give you your shirt back.”

“Nah, I’m not cold. Besides, then what would you wear? You can’t exactly drive home wearing nothing but bathing suit bottoms.” Kyle tugged on the bottom of the T-shirt she was wearing. “You know, there’s probably some dolphin out there wearing your bikini top, thinking she’s hot stuff.”

Sara laughed. “Well, I hope she gets good use out of it, it cost eighty bucks.”

“Eighty bucks? For a piece of nylon smaller than my thumb?” He pushed her gently into a sitting position and reached for his trunks. “These cost nine ninety-nine.”

Sara watched him slip his bathing suit back on and remove her beach bag from behind them. He handed it to her, and she took it with a sigh.

“It’s time to go, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He cupped her cheek with his hand and studied her, caressing his thumb along her bottom lip. “Remember, you said you like dating me. So this isn’t over here.”

That’s what she had said, but she had also been nearly comatose from fabulous sex. She wasn’t responsible for what she said under the influence of orgasms.

Sara wasn’t sure she wanted to ruin this day, this moment, by seeing Kyle again. What if they went out on a real date and it was awful, or boring, or they had sex again and it was bad? Like yawning, off-rhythm, gee-is-he-done-yet sex? She really didn’t want to learn the art of faking a climax.

Trust her to stumble across the only man in Acadia Inlet who didn’t just want a roll in the sand with a beach bunny.

“Sara?” Kyle dug into her hair and shook her just a little. “I’m not leaving until I get your number. And I’m going to take you out on a date, then I’m going to make love to you in my bed all night long, with soft sheets and music. You want that, don’t you?”

Lord, but he was a nice guy.

She nodded as he brushed across her nipple. No, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to do this again. And again. She’d take the risk of it turning out bad because she wanted to see if this could go anywhere with Kyle. And truthfully, she didn’t believe for one second that sex with Kyle would ever be anything less than phenomenal.

It was fear holding her back, plain and simple, fear that he would lose interest in the real Sara. But she owed it to herself and Kyle to take the chance.

“I’ll give you my business card.” Sara reached over to where Kyle had neatly piled everything from her bag. She found her wallet and pulled out a card, fingering it a moment before giving it to Kyle.

She bit her lip nervously as he took it, surprise on his face.

So long Sexy Sara.

Kyle didn’t know what he expected to see on the thick ivory business card Sara handed to him.

He certainly didn’t expect it to read: Premier Pediatrics, Sara Davis, MD.

“You’re a
doctor?”
he blurted out in disbelief. He had made wild love on the concrete floor with a
pediatrician?

“Yes.” Sara watched him, straightening her shoulders, like she’d expected his shock.

He’d thought she might be a nurse, but hell, a doctor? He immediately felt like a giant jackass. Sara must be smart, a hell of a lot smarter than him in order to be a doctor. What was she doing screwing him in the lifeguard hut?

His thoughts were so scattered that he said nothing. Sara turned and crawled across the floor on her knees and retrieved her bottoms. The flash of golden thigh brought him back to his senses.

“Wow,” he said to her backside. “I’m impressed.”

She sat down, and drew the briefs on over her feet, grimacing at their dampness. When she drew them up past her knees, Kyle went hard. He could see her cheeks pressing into the ground and a flash of dark blond curls before the suit covered them.

“Not what you expected, huh?” Sara stood up and went over to her bag, pulling it off the ground and rummaging around putting things back in it.

“Actually I thought you might be a nurse.”

“Really? Why?” She looked genuinely surprised.

“When I … twisted things.” He winced just at the memory. “You didn’t panic. You were calm, you took charge.”

“Oh.” She pulled some rubbery looking tieback out of her bag and twisted her hair up into a big pile and secured it. Then she popped black-framed glasses on her face.

Kyle stared at her, stunned. Glasses? She wore glasses?

“That’s better,” she said with a sigh. “I was starting to get a headache without my glasses on.”

Despite the fact that she was still wearing his T-shirt with no bra and those little red bottoms, she looked completely different. Serious eyes blinked at him behind those glasses. He had no trouble picturing her wearing a skirt and a white doctor’s coat.

“I guess we should see if that tree has been cleared.”

Kyle just stared at her, speechless. How could one woman be so sexy and so smart all rolled up in one package? And how could he ever hope to hold her interest? Hell, she must have a dozen guys dying to go out with her every single week. Why would she want him, a lifeguard who was probably responsible for a layer of skin being sloughed off her back from doing it on the fucking floor?

He had forced her to give him her number. She clearly hadn’t wanted to. Apparently all she’d wanted was exactly what they’d done. Sex with a stranger.

“Kyle, are you okay?” He didn’t look so good to Sara. He looked gray beneath his tan.

“Fine,” he said curtly, and bent over to scoop up her sarong. “Here’s your skirt thing.”

Sara felt her cheeks burn. The air between them had changed the second he had read that business card. Gone was the relaxed protectiveness from Kyle. In its place was remoteness.

She took the sarong from his white-knuckled fingers and stuffed it in her bag. Her sandals were tumbling around in the bottom of the bag, covered in sand and a little damp, but not too bad. She pulled them out and stepped into them, hopping on one foot at a time for balance.

Kyle reached out and held her steady.

And when those warm strong hands held her securely, Sara knew she had made a mistake. She should have listened to Kyle and resisted temptation. She should have gone out on a date with this amazing guy and gotten to know him first.

Because while he was an incredible lover, she could see that he would be an even better boyfriend. Thoughtful. Gentle. Loyal.

And he would never be hers.

Which made her want to kick out her feet, throw back her head, and wail like her little patients did when they got a needle stuck in their leg.

Chapter Six

Sara pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building and breathed a sigh of relief. She only lived a couple of miles from the beach, but it had been a rough drive. The wind was treacherous, tossing her car back and forth, and the rain had fallen in torrents, making visibility difficult.

Kyle had insisted on following her in his SUV, to make sure she got home all right, and she had to admit, she was grateful. Just knowing he was behind her helped her stay calm. Now she threw open the door, stuck her beach bag over her head, and ran toward him. He was already getting out of the truck.

“What are you doing?” she yelled, waving him back into his truck. There was no reason they should both get soaked.

“I’m walking you in.” There was a stubborn set to his jaw that she was starting to recognize.

“The door’s right there. You can watch me go in. I’ll be fine.” She had to shout to be heard over the wind, and rain was sluicing down her legs in icy rivulets.

He shook his head and took her by the elbow, starting toward the door. It wasn’t worth it to protest anymore. Besides, she couldn’t see anything through her glasses, since they were covered in raindrops and a misty fog from the cooling temperature.

Her apartment was on the first floor, and a minute later they were dripping on the beige ceramic tile in her foyer. Sara shivered, removing her glasses. “Yuck. Let me get some towels and I’ll start some coffee. It’s freezing.”

The storm had knocked the temperature down into the low seventies, and Sara reached over behind Kyle’s back and turned off her air-conditioning. He didn’t say anything, just stood there and dripped.

It was making her uncomfortable. She wanted him to say something, didn’t want to leave it like this between them. So she tried to joke, sticking her hands on her hips. “Why is it that when I’m with you I always wind up wet?”

Kyle’s lips pressed together, and his eyes went dark right as she realized there could be a different interpretation to that statement. Clearly the one he was making. Her hand clamped over her mouth.

Kyle let go with a grin, enjoying the pink that stained Sara’s cheeks. It reminded him of the Sara who had lain beneath him an hour ago, not the efficient Sara who had waved him off in the parking lot. As if he’d just leave her to fend for herself in this kind of weather.

He said, “The rain, sweetie, that’s why you’re wet. Or did you mean something else?”

“Well.” She licked her lips. Her nipples were hard, plastered against the once again soaked T-shirt.

Holding his breath, he waited. In the truck on the ride over, he had decided that whatever Sara wanted to share with him would have to be enough. If she wanted sex and nothing else, he’d find a way to deal with it and hope eventually she’d want more. He just had to keep seeing her, however she wanted, because he had it bad for her.

“I am wet in that other way, too,” she said in a whisper.

Hot damn. Kyle clenched his fists and forced himself not to attack her in a fit of lust, no matter how sexy she was. His cock went hard, straining against his swim trunks.

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

Sara fisted her hands in her shirt and drew it up a little as she rolled on her heels nervously. “I think it’s because when two people are dating, they like each other. And they … want each other.”

This was good. Kyle took a step toward Sara, shaking his head a little to get a water drop off his eyelash. “I want you. Do you want me?”

Her eyes squeezed shut briefly before she said, “Yes.”

His heart was racing, but he held himself very still, hanging on to control. “Are we dating then, Sara?”

Hands twisting the T-shirt convulsively, she said, “I wear my glasses all the time.”

That statement caught him off guard. Frowning, he said in confusion, “So?”

“I work, I come home … I’m very boring, Kyle.” A long finger reached up and flicked a rolling raindrop off her cheek.

He bent forward and sucked the droplet off her finger, running his tongue down over her knuckle and back to the tip. Sara gasped.

“I don’t find you the least bit boring. And I can’t wait to get to know everything about you.” He hovered over her finger, wanting to see if she’d pull it out of his reach.