Slow Hand (3 page)

Jared focused on the woman leaning with her back to the bow. She was watching him as closely as he watched her. The show she’d put on with the lotion had him iron hard, and if it weren’t for the words of warning in his head, he’d have been on her faster than a shark on bait.

Static, that’s all it had been. Hell, he’d felt sharper jolts crossing a carpet and touching a television. His father and brother were crazy wrong.

Women didn’t spark like live wires and take a man down. They just didn’t. And even if there was a woman out there who was going to grab his heart and not let go it wouldn’t be this one.

He’d already had an edgy, tightly wound spitfire in his life and he sure as hell didn’t want another one. Too much maintenance. Too demanding. Too much energy.

But, Teri was hot and made it plain she knew what she wanted. Another plus was that she was a tourist with a life to go back to. A different life than she’d expected, but if she was the live wire he thought she was, she’d be antsy to get back on track with her career. A runaway groom would only be a minor setback.

Hot sex with a woman who knew what she wanted and how, was a helluva temptation, in spite of his crazy brother and father.

So, to do her or not to do her?
That was the question.

She turned sideways, giving him her profile and caught her hair at the back of her head to hold it back. His heart stalled in his chest.

She was perfect. Round where he wanted round, full where he wanted full, and smiling at him as if she knew it.

“Want dinner?” he asked because it was time to let her know he wouldn’t be teased into responding too soon. No, the whole week would be better for them both if she knew who was in charge right from the start.

He was the captain, after all. Sparks be damned.

“Yes. I’m starving,” she spoke as if surprised, and palmed her perfect belly.

He cut the throttle and slowed to a stop. The engine cut out, while the boat rocked on small swells. This was the first quiet bay out of Kingston, a spot where he normally served dinner. So far, the trip was right on schedule.

The smile on her face, the heat in her gaze and his rock hard cock told him this would be the last time anything happened according to schedule.

He anchored and headed down to the galley.

She followed and sat on a bar stool to watch. “I’d help but it’s so small I’d just get in the way.”

“You’re the client, besides, everything’s ready to be heated and I’m used to doing this alone.” He turned and opened the fridge, mentally tallying everything he needed.

“Do you cook all the meals?”

“I have a chef from one of the hotels cater for me. It was the last detail I had to arrange before starting up.” He lifted the container of duck out of the fridge and turned to face her.

“They’re blue,” he said, startled by the simple beauty of her face without the sunglasses. For a moment he forgot he was holding the roasting pan and stared. “Really blue, like flowers, or
–” He cut off the next word, sure she’d think he was ogling more than her eyes.

She smiled and stared right back at him.
“My eyes? Yes, they’re blue.” She looked down at the counter top. Tapped her fingers in a nervous tattoo. “Look, Jared, when I called to book the week I was brusque with you. I’m sorry. Things were pretty hectic at that point.” She frowned. “Are you sure you don’t want any help?”

“I’m not a natural cook, but I’ve got it covered.” He slit the cover on the pan the way the chef had shown him. “Weddings make people cranky.”

She looked thoughtful.

“Seems simple enough,” he said. “You get two people ready to promise the rest of their lives to each other, a minister willing to hear them and some family and friends to celebrate afterward. But things are never that easy.” 

“You can say that again. My mother’s a tank when she gets going and his mother’s a perfectionist of the highest degree. It was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Have you spoken to him?”

“No.”

He decided against using the fine china. They’d picnic on deck instead. “
Al fresco
all right?”

“Perfect.” She set her chin in her hand, blew out a breath that made her breasts rise and fall. And her nipples looked like pearls tucked into her top.

He looked away, opened the microwave and slid the duck inside. “A lot of men would feel squeezed under those circumstances. Was he refereeing, got fed up?”

“No, I played referee. It wasn’t the stress of the wedding plans. Hell, the only thing I asked him to do was call you and he refused. But he made sure I had his list of demands.”

Jared didn’t know what to say.

“So, no, it wasn’t the wedding itself. It was the affair he’d been having with my maid of honor.”

“What?” He stopped midpoint between setting the power level and the time on the microwave control panel.

She tilted her chin up; a gesture he was beginning to understand was defensive.

“He listened to my vows. He watched my face the way most grooms do, then he looked over my shoulder at June. The silence went on and on while I waited. When it seemed like everyone was on the edge of their seats straining to hear the first word, he let go of my hand, reached for June’s, and they raced back down the aisle out the church door.”

The last was said all in a rush. He opened his mouth but he couldn’t think of a damn thing that would take the edge off. “I’m trying like hell to think of something to say, but I’ve got nothing.”

The corner of her mouth tilted upward. “Thanks for trying, but there’s nothing
to
say. The church erupted into this weird kind of chatter and noise and the minister had to hold me up until my Dad got to me. My mother was crying, his mother looked like she’d swallowed vinegar and his sister stood there smirking.”

“And now?” he asked.

“Now I’m here to eat, drink and be merry. Want to help me be merry?”

He looked at her and she looked back, her sultry gaze drawing him in. He zeroed in on her mouth. She licked her bottom lip, leaving it moist. He saw her teeth, even and white and ready to nip at him. Christ, he was losing it over a glance! “I’m here to please,” he said.

“Good. You can pour me more champagne.”

“Happy to.”

She held up her flute for a toast. “To us, the week and all the merrymaking the
SandJack
can provide.”

He nodded. “We’ll do our best.”

“I’m sure you will.”

She coaxed him into sharing more champagne. She didn’t have to try very hard, he was more than ready to let go of his final reservations about having her.

“I’m glad you decided to come on your own,” he said, angry enough at her story that he wanted to punch the guy’s lights out.

She smiled in a mysterious way. “Well, I won’t be doing that again for a while.”

The air between them crackled and shrank, closing them into their game of hide and seek and advance and retreat. The
SandJack
never seemed so small, so tight, so in tune with the hot thoughts they each seemed to have.

The microwave chimed that the meal was ready and they carried everything they needed topside and settled on a blanket on deck. Jared still kept his distance, using the plates as buffers between their hands.

The
SandJack
rocked gently, the stars came out and Teri sat across from him propped against the railing, one foot raised to rest on the cooler of beer he’d brought onboard. He hadn’t opened the ice-filled chest because it was full of a specific brand of beer her ex had requested.

The wind still played with her skirts and with her leg raised he got a better view of the dark mystery that hid behind the small triangle of material between her legs.

She knew he was looking, knew he wanted her, and made it clear she wanted him, too.

The champagne continued to flow and as her words slurred and thoughts got fuzzy, he decided to back off. She didn’t need a drunken lay on the deck. She needed some TLC, which was exactly what she’d get.

Besides, when he had her, he wanted her awake, aware and as hot for him as he was for her. The first time had to be one to remember, because he knew he always would.

When Jared headed below, Teri blew out a breath, sucked in another one and tried to sober up. If she didn’t, she’d blow it for sure.

But then she got a watery image of Philip’s smirking sister and poured herself another glass of champagne. The air had turned early evening calm, so quiet she was able to still her mind to think.

She’d been jilted, sure. Left at the altar, mouth agape as her fiancé ran out the door. But, right now, right here, with the breeze settling to a caress and the stars handing her a spectacular display, she wasn’t as devastated as she ought to be. In fact, she enjoyed the growing sense of relief.

Of freedom.

Of awareness.

It had been six long months. A hell of a dry spell for an engaged woman and Jared MacKay was hot.

When she’d seen him with his long legs up on the deck railing she’d been surprised at how sexy he was. On the phone, when she’d been so frantic to make all the arrangements Philip had demanded, Jared sounded bored and disinterested. She’d wondered if he would show much enthusiasm for taking care of them for these few days.

But now, she suspected he’d been having an off day, because the way he looked at her was anything but bored. Intense and aware, Jared knew what she wanted and was ready to give it to her. It was just a matter of how long they could play the game before they jumped each other. The anticipation made Teri smile and made her even more deliciously aware of the heat between her legs. She shifted and squeezed the tops of her thighs together, feeling herself moisten at the friction. She’d caught him glancing at her there, and knew he’d enjoyed the game she’d played with the sun block lotion.

Jared returned with a couple of light cotton pullovers. He held one out to her.

“I didn’t think you’d want me to cover up,” she said, reaching for the one he offered. She let the champagne explain, “Don’t pirates want their captives naked?”

“Pirates?” He chuckled.

“That’s what you look like.
All dark and intense. All that curly hair and those great teeth. I’ve even noticed an earring.”

He reached for the bottle of champagne in her hand. She let him take it, but he didn’t pour more for himself. Instead, he set the bottle behind his back where she couldn’t reach it without climbing all over him.

And that idea was beginning to sound pretty damn good.

“You did this,” she waved her hand to indicate the remains of their meal, “
so I wouldn’t have to stare at Philip’s empty chair across from me. I read the brochure, you know. The first night’s dinner is supposed to be formal, with expert service and five star food.”

He grinned and made her breath catch in her throat. The breath quickly turned into a tiny hiccup. “This was better,” he said.

She smiled at him, watching his eyes. They were warm, caring and she liked his thick black lashes.

She sat with her back against the wall of the hot tub, her knees pulled up,
her long skirt demurely over her knees to her feet. Now that she wore the pullover he’d given her she was covered but for her toes.

He kept staring at them as if he couldn’t take his eyes away. Experimentally, she dropped her knees to sit cross-legged, suddenly aware of the tight thong pressing against her clit.

She licked her lips.

His eyes flashed awareness and made her think of hot pools and rising steam. Her nipples tightened.

When Teri changed positions to sit cross-legged Jared nearly choked. What he wouldn’t give to have Teri lift her skirt to her waist to show him that long thin strip of thong. He could pull that strip out with his teeth and fill his mouth with her liquid heat. He could lap at her all he wanted, play all he wanted, kiss and lick and press against her, all he wanted.

In his mind.

The last glass of champagne had obviously taken her past the point of clear decision and he had scruples. Scruples that wouldn’t allow him to take advantage, sparks or no sparks.

“This is his favorite,” she said, indicating the plates that had just been cleared of duck and rice. She tilted her flute of champagne to her lips, but found it empty. She set the glass down slowly and deliberately with no comment.

“He told me we should be celibate before we married,” she went on. “So I agreed. Always agreeable, that was Teri.” She spoke with a wry bitterness and ended on a small chuckle at her own expense.

“Celibate? You?” There was no way a woman like Teri could handle celibacy. Obviously, the fiancé was a wimp and not worth Teri’s tears. He’d been in love with another woman and still going along with a wedding.
Dickhead
.

“He said he wanted to make these first few days of marriage special. It’s known as
revirginating. . . ” she picked up her flute again and peered into it as if expecting to see champagne where there was none a moment ago, “or revirginizing or something like that.”

He snorted.

She laughed. “Exactly.” She sighed long and hard. “I wanted this week to be perfect for him.”

The imperiousness he’d heard had been stress and the desire to please this guy. The loser wouldn’t have appreciated it. But that was something time and distance would teach her, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

For the first time, he saw her lip tremble. “
I
wanted to be perfect.”

“You are,” he said surprised at the huskiness in his own voice.

She turned her face away, but kept her chin up as she stared off to the distance. Then her lip went from tremble to quiver in no time flat. He could see her blinking tears back and he had to admire her grit and honesty.

“June’s twenty pounds overweight and blind as a bat and he chose
her
. So maybe I’m not perfect,” she said, more to herself than to him, “not even close. But I’m honest, you know? And he should have been honest with me.”

“Yes, he should have been.” She was definitely past the point of clear thought. The best thing to do was let her blow off this steam.

She sniffed. “They’ve been boffing each other for the past six months and everyone knew it but me.” Her voice rose at the end and her pain spilled out.

There were no words to comfort her. He lifted his hands in supplication but felt defeated by the glistening in her blue
blue eyes.

“What’s wrong with me?” she asked in a little girl voice that tore at his gut.

“Nothing, there’s nothing wrong with you. I think you’re perfect.” Jared grabbed a beach towel to wrap her in and opened his arms. With a little luck the towel would protect him from the charge he half-believed he imagined.

Teri crawled into his lap like
a lost puppy needing warmth. Her tight little ass perched on his knee, her arms looped around his neck, her face tucked in under his chin. She smelled like sunblock lotion, woman and sunshine. Feminine and warm, she fit onto his lap as if she belonged there.

He slid his palm to one of his favorite places on a woman: the space below her waist that flared into lush rounded hips. One side of his hand held the bottom of her rib, the other, the top of her hip. The flare on Teri was perfectly proportioned, enticing and brought him to near pain, he wanted her so much. He tested her response with a slight squeeze. She snuggled closer, apparently content to let him explore.

The torture was exquisite. He was touching, but holding back, wanting but controlling it, smelling the scent of her skin and hair, but trying like hell not to.

He couldn’t go any further than to offer a comforting lap and hug. Not when her breathing slowed, her head drooped and her arms felt like dead weight around his neck.

She’d fallen asleep.

Trusting, perfect Teri.

Shit
.

A couple more minutes and he might have dismissed his thoughts of offering only comfort. Might have convinced
himself that fucking a nearly unconscious woman who’d put on a fantastic display of sexual self-love deserved to be taken wherever and whenever he wanted.

Bullshit and he knew it.

He waited until her breathing eased and her head tried to slide out from under his chin. His buzzing chin. The towel had stopped the electric charge, but her head was in direct contact with his chin and throat. The whole area hummed.

Ignoring the sharp reminder, he decided she was asleep enough to be carried without waking. He took her down to the master cabin then stretched her out on top of the bed.

On contact she burrowed for the sheets. He pulled the coverlet over her from the other side of the bed and rubbed her covered shoulder to ease her fretful expression. Her left knee bent, her arms slid under the pillow and she released a soft champagne snore.

He sat at the side of the bed watching to be sure she didn’t waken. So he could look his fill.

Look and think.

Damn
.

This was it.

The men in his family were cursed. No matter how well they hid, no matter where they ran, their women found them.

With no more than a touch, the MacKay men were netted, gutted and filleted by these women. His brother had gone down without
so much as a whimper in three days. His father had succumbed in under a week.

It had taken Jared less than an evening.

He might as well have taken his heart out and put it on her dinner plate with the duck and rice.
Shit
.

He was up against a monster problem though. This fiancé could return, might come to his senses. Not to mention her feelings were still raw and open to persuasion. She must be confused, hurt, and needy for reassurance.

Thank God there were no phones onboard. Unless Teri had her cellphone with her, they would be out of contact with her world for the next seven days.

Was that enough time to convince her to stay and give up her Manhattan existence?

Her lips parted on a breath and he smiled. Heavy sleep turned her into a mouth breather. He smoothed his fingers through the ends of her hair to touch her, to feel her warmth and little taste of the buzz.

The evening was still young, maybe she’d wake up again if the champagne wore off. He had work to do anyway and she may be
creeped out if she knew he watched her sleep. He was still a virtual stranger.

He reluctantly left her side and headed above to clear away the dishes and leftover food before the seagulls swarmed the deck. The cries of the birds would disturb her sleep if not wake her completely.

Teri heard screeches.
Philip’s mother? About the place settings? Or was it the saleslady at the shoe store? “They fit! They fit! Buy! Buy! Bye-bye . . . Philip bye-bye . . . ”

She swept her hair out of her face and sat up. She was still in her bathing suit, still on the
SandJack
, thank God, and still single, an even bigger thank God.

She’d been saved from making the biggest mistake of her life. She giggled, delighted with the cabin, delighted with her freedom, just delighted.

Jared. He must have carried her down here, tucked her in and left. She listened and heard nothing but the sea birds, the source of the screeches. Not Philip’s mother, although she’d always seemed within a breath of screeching. Another wonderful thing. She wouldn’t have that woman in her life.

Count your blessings, Teri.

She tugged off the pullover Jared had given her to wear and undid her bathing suit top. Her breasts fell free. Relief. She rubbed the flesh under each one where the underwire had pressed against her all night. She usually slept nude and wasn’t used to this kind of restriction.

Which may be the reason she’d woken so early.
Dawn’s light was pearly at the porthole, still pink-tinged. She slid out from under the coverlet and went to the bathroom to shower.

The rest of the
SandJack
was still, soundless. Jared must still be asleep.

She tiptoed into the bathroom, stepped out of her thong and into the shower. The water was hot, but there wouldn’t be an endless supply onboard so she set it to warm and hurried through her routine.

The first morning of her time with the pirate. She pulled out a huge fluffy bath sheet and wrapped herself in it, controlling a small shiver of excitement. A narrow shelf over the toilet held bottles of body lotion, shampoo and conditioner. The scent Jared had chosen was exquisite. Sensual and spicy, the texture of the body lotion was slick.

She filled her palm and massaged the cream into her breasts, bringing her nipples to peak. Jared’s wicked smile filled her vision. She worked quickly on her arms and calves, but when it came to smoothing the cream into her upper thighs, she slowed, imagined Jared’s hands there, at the crease between her
mons and her leg.

She shook herself free of the sensuous fantasy and wrapped the towel around herself again.

There were still no sounds of life aboard. She’d make coffee. Surely the smell would wake him.

She crept out of the bathroom and turned into the kitchen. The coffee maker was timed to start in an hour, which gave her some idea of Jared’s internal clock. But she needed caffeine now, especially after sleeping off all that champagne. She canceled the timer and turned on the coffee.

Just when she’d found the cupboard that held the mugs, Jared appeared in the doorway of his small cabin. He was sleep tousled, in a pair of swim trunks. His chest hair covered each nipple and thinned down to a point just above the waistband of his trunks.

She watched
, fascinated by the hand he used to scrub across his belly. Fresh from sleep, he seemed unaware she was there. His sculpted chest called to her, his arms, both strong and smooth looking had held her last night when she needed holding more than anything.

He could have done so much more and she wouldn’t have fought, wouldn’t even have been capable of protesting. It
warmed her that he’d realized she was beyond consent and that he’d been a gentleman about it. She had deliberately teased him and made him think she was ready, willing, and able. If he had taken what she’d so blatantly offered, she couldn’t have blamed him.

But it pleased her no end that not only did her pirate have heart, he had a good dose of gentlemanly scruples.

His hair, even blacker in the weak light, stuck up in adorable cowlicks around his forehead. He reached for the ceiling and stretched each sinuous muscle and his morning erection was obvious. And spectacular.

“Hello,” she said.

He released the stretch. His gaze caught hers, then ran down her body to her bare legs and feet. “Hi. Sleep well?” He smiled, apparently delighted with what he’d seen.

“Like a drunken sailor.”

He grinned. “You were that.” He cocked an eyebrow at her and she realized she was still wrapped in the bath sheet.

She patted the knot sitting on her chest. “I thought I’d get the coffee on and then get dressed.”

“Don’t have to dress on my account.” His smile widened into pure come-get-me and she very nearly did.

The coffee burbled into the pot while she processed his comment. “No, I don’t suppose I do. You could have undressed me last night, but you didn’t.”

He put up his hands in surrender. “And have you feel awkward this morning? No. You’d have every right to demand to go back to Kingston and I want this time with you.”

Her breath stalled. She couldn’t speak.

Jared moved closer. “I want you to stay, Teri.”

“I’d like that.” She moved toward him, too.

“I want you.” His voice curled around her, drew her near, pulled at her insides.

The sigh of the coffee maker punctuated the intensity of the moment. “I want you, too,” she said, “for all the time I’m here.”

He reached out and she closed her eyes, wanting to be swept into his embrace, wanting, needing the feel of his firm lips and hard arms.

But his touch didn’t come. She opened her eyes to see him pluck a mug out of the cupboard behind her. He offered another to her. He brushed her fingers as she took it. The electric arc that had startled them so badly the first time passed between them again.

“Not so weird this time, eh?” he said as he traced her knuckle, wrapped around the mug handle.

“No, not scary, either.”

He blinked and smiled in a mysterious way that set her heart to race. “I’m glad you’re not frightened, Teri. I would never hurt you.” He poured coffee into their mugs and took a drink.