Sunset Point: A Shelter Bay Novel (24 page)

Tess’s frustrated breath ruffled her curly bangs. “I’ll see your five and raise you five more,” she declared recklessly, increasing the pile of wooden matches in the center of the table. “I assume my grandmother was in jail because of one of her protests. What were you doing there?”

“I’d been invited to the White House for dinner. It seems the president reads my books,” he added at her disbelieving look.

“Color me duly impressed,” she murmured, studying her hand once again with barely repressed anticipation. “Are you going to play or fold?”

Nate’s eyes held a glimmer of amusement as they swept over her face. “You’re not bluffing,” he determined aloud. “The question is whether you’ve got enough guts to act on your convictions.” Then he increased the pot by twenty matches.

“I usually do,” she said firmly. She met his call, held, then groaned with heartfelt aggravation as she eyed his royal flush. “Damn.
You
weren’t bluffing.”

“I seldom do,” he said amiably as he gathered the matches. “Want to play another hand?”

Her frustrated gaze drifted toward the rain-streaked window. “We may as well. It’s still raining.”

“I can think of a few other indoor games,” he suggested with a slow grin that fanned an elemental warmth inside her. “I know one in particular where we’re both guaranteed to win.”

“We’re going to be grown-ups,” she reminded him. “And before you can point out that grown-ups have sex, may I point out that you’re the one who decided to be friends. So, just shuffle the cards and tell me what you were doing in jail with my grandmother.”

“Sometimes I get really stupid ideas,” he said as he fanned the cards. “To finish the story, there were a bunch of people outside the White House gates, protesting the arms race. The police arrived about the same time I was leaving, and things were just starting to get a little hectic when I spotted your grandmother in the middle of the crowd. Since I didn’t know her at the time, I mistakenly assumed she was some little old lady who needed help.”

“So you rushed to her rescue.”

“I was a Boy Scout. We’re supposed to help little old ladies across streets, and, although it wasn’t in the manual, rescue them from melees. The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back in the gutter. Who would have suspected that a five-foot elderly woman who probably weighed ninety pounds soaking wet knew judo?”

“Aikido,” Tess murmured absently, intrigued by the rapid movement of his hands as they manipulated the cards. “She’s studied it for years. In fact, she’s got a black belt.”

“So I discovered, to my chagrin. I was black and blue for a week.” He chuckled at the memory. “Well, that got a riot started, and pretty soon Rosa and I were in the hoosegow, sharing a holding cell.”

“Where she taught you all her tricks.”

Nate’s hands stopped in mid-shuffle. “Are you by any chance accusing me of cheating?”

Tess thought about that for a moment. “No,” she said. “I suppose not.”

Nate nodded. “Good. Because the only time I ever cheated in my life was when I palmed an ace that afternoon.”

“You cheated in order to beat a little old lady?”

“Hey, in the first place, as we’ve already determined, Rosa Lombardi is not your typical little old lady,” Nate protested. “Besides, I only did it to protect my virtue. As you said, she cheats, so I didn’t have any choice if I wanted to win that hand. And believe me, sweetheart, I couldn’t afford to lose.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask what that means.”

“There were two guards working that day,” Nate explained. “A man and a woman. Your grandmother decided that whichever one of us lost the next hand of gin rummy would seduce one of those guards into helping us escape.”

“Oh, Lord,” Tess groaned. “The worst part of that story is that I believe you.”

“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” he answered simply. He handed her the cards to cut. “If it’ll make you feel any better, you can deal,” he offered expansively.

“It won’t make any difference. I’ve just figured something out.”

“What’s that?” he asked conversationally as he dealt the cards.

Tess stifled a groan as she looked at her hand. “Instead of remaining frustrated all these years by Gram’s criminal talents, I should have asked her to teach me how to cheat.”

Nate’s answer was a low chuckle. “Just be glad we’re not playing strip poker, Tess, my sweet. You’d be down to that lacy feminine frippery you’ve got on under that sweatshirt and jeans.”

“So now we’re moving to the friends with benefits stage?”

His eyes moved over her with an air of languid sensuality that stimulated a now familiar yearning. “What would you say if I suggested that there should be a limit to time-outs.” His voice was deep and roughened with desire.

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. Discarding her losing cards without another glance, Tess rose from the table.

Nate needed no second invitation. Taking her hand, he walked with her up the floating staircase to the master bedroom, where he’d changed sheets this morning because, hey, a guy always had to have hope.

Standing beside the king-sized bed, they finished undressing each other. And in that long, vibrating moment, all Tess could think of was that his arms, washboard torso, and long, muscular legs were very un-writerly. Not only was he gorgeous, the testosterone and pheromones he was exuding had her feeling dizzy as he drew her down onto the mattress.

It should have been so natural. So simple. He wanted her. She wanted him. She wasn’t some trembling young virgin. She’d been married. So why was she suddenly so tense?

An embarrassing fact that did not go unnoticed.

“Despite my earlier claim about certain blue body parts, you are allowed to change your mind,” he said as his hands glided over the knotted, boulder-sized muscles in her shoulders.

“It’s been awhile,” she said. Could this get any more embarrassing? “And I know it’s foolish, but I think I’m a little nervous.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll come back.” His eyes smiled as those talented, practiced hands glided over her body. “We’ve lots of time to kill, and I can’t think of a better way to do it. So, we’ll just take things nice and slow.”

He was patient but thorough, easing Tess’s nerves, soothing her senses with his hands and his lips. Her body felt as if it had turned to liquid, flowing heatedly under his touch, promising untold delights. In turn, her own hands slid over his rock-hard, gorgeous chest, over his stomach, and lower still, drawing forth a moan as she curled her fingers around him.

When Tess wrapped her legs around Nate’s hips, he slid into her with a silky ease. And as he moved inside her, slow and deep, she realized that once again, Nate Breslin was right. There were some things that definitely shouldn’t be rushed.

“Well, that was certainly friendly enough,” Tess murmured sleepily as she snuggled up against him.

As they lay there, arms and legs entwined, Nate realized that, although he hadn’t thought about it before, he’d always kept his work and his women separate.

Tess was the first and only woman he’d ever invited into this home. Or this bed. From the moment they’d walked into the door together, he’d realized how perfectly she fit, not just into his house but his life.

Which was why he’d held back. Because she was special. She was the one.

“I’ve made a decision,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“Since I swore I wasn’t going to rush things, after we make our way through all the socially required stages of courtship, I’m going to marry you.”

She turned her head, her eyes looking directly into his. Finally, after considerable effort, she found her voice.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Nate knew that his words had caught her off guard. Hell, they’d surprised him. But there was no way that he was going to take them back.

“Nope. Not at all.”

“And just when I’d begun to think you weren’t certifiably insane.”

“That’s a step in the right direction.” He leaned over and kissed her. Lightly. Reassuringly. “But don’t worry. You’ll get used to the idea.”

“I doubt it since I’m not sure I’m comfortable living beneath the same roof with a lunatic.” She sat up, yanked the sheet up over her breasts, and tucked it beneath her arms. “Maybe I should have stayed in Portland.”

“Ah, but then you’d be stuck in protective custody. And call me crazy, but being here with me has to be preferable to being locked into a hotel room.”

Nate immediately regretted the words as her remarkable eyes shadowed. “There’s no way you could have known about my phobia.”

Her hand was ice cold as Nate took it between both of his to warm it. “I didn’t. Not for sure. But after seeing how you reacted to Donovan’s suggestion, I put two and two together.”

Tess turned away from the sympathy and understanding she could see in his expression. “It’s bad enough I’m claustrophobic,” she complained. “Being afraid of staying in a hotel room is ridiculous.”

“Hey, you were only a kid. After spending two long and what had to be harrowing weeks locked up in some dark dungeon, it’d be a miracle if you hadn’t emerged with a few phobias…

“You know how Indiana Jones felt about snakes?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I’m that way with spiders. Which is why I wrote my story about Iraq’s camel spiders in the first place.”

“As a way of exorcising the fear?” His thumb, brushing against her palm, was, for once, more soothing than exciting.

“That was the hope.”

“Did it work?”

He gifted her with a slow, sexy smile. “Let’s just say that if we happened to find a spider in the bathtub, I wouldn’t mind letting you dispatch it.”

Even as she laughed, Tess pulled her hand free. “There’s one thing we have to get perfectly clear.” Despite the butterflies flapping around in her stomach, she managed to keep her voice courtroom cool.

“Just name it.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at his instant acquiescence. “Just because the captain turned out to be real doesn’t mean you’re not crazy.”

“About you,” he said agreeably.

She shook her head. “Do you take anything seriously?”

“Of course. I take
you
seriously. I take keeping you safe damn seriously. And I’m absolutely serious about my mission to convince you that we’re going to be the ones to break the curse and spend the rest of our lives making love together.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.”

“Perhaps your dad has never shared the Marine axiom that failure is not an option.”

“My point, and I do have one, is that I’m only staying with you until Vasilyev’s hearing because you happen to be the lesser of two evils.”

Nate grimaced. “Ouch,” he complained, rubbing his chest. “I think that sound you hear is my ego shattering.”

“We’ve already determined your ego is impenetrable,” she countered.

With the air of a man who possessed a goodly amount of ego and was comfortable with it, Nate merely grinned. Then kissed her, a quick, casual kiss that quickly turned deeper and had her body softening.

The unwanted onslaught of emotions had her closing her eyes as he drew her back down to the sheets they’d so throughly rumpled. And even as her mind went blank, her body turned vividly alive. And wet.

“Tess.” He stroked his hand down her throat, his thumb lingering at the hollow where her pulse leaped at his touch, giving her away. “Look at me.” His stroking touch continued over her collarbone, then tugged the top sheet lower. “Please.”

She suspected he was not a man to use that word often. Finding it as impossible to resist as everything else about him, she opened her eyes and met his gaze.

Nate Breslin might be a writer now, but he hadn’t abandoned either the Marine attitude nor the body. Which was hard. Everywhere, she noted with a quick glance at the stiffly tented sheet. The only soft thing about him appeared to be his heart. Which, for some reason, as intelligent as he was, he insisted on giving to her.

“I love you,” he said. “Now, being a dynamite litagator, you can probably come up with a million responses why either I don’t know what I’m feeling or that it’s a very bad, terrible, stupid idea.”

“All of the above,” she whispered.

“Another thing I learned in the Marines, besides the stealthy panther stalking and how to shoot, is that while the Corps may not be the best equipped of the services, that’s a good thing. Because we get really, really good at the weapons we do have.”

He cupped her breasts, watching her eyes blur as he brushed his calloused fingers against her nipples. “And I have every intention of using every weapon I possess to win you over.”

His eyes were hot, his voice rough and gravelly, and as he continued to conquer territory he’d already claimed, Tess felt powerless. Even helpless. And the amazing thing was, that, when Nate was the one wielding the power, she liked it. A lot.

“Give it your best shot,” she said as she lifted her leg over his, offering him access to the good parts.

“Oh, I intend to.” His mouth replaced his stroking touch in a way that had her squirming and wanting more.

She was on the verge of orgasm, but he’d taken complete control, driving the pace, until she was about to throw her objections out the window and beg. Which was when his tongue found the sweet spot. And as she shattered, Tess, who’d never been one to be vocal during sex, heard herself scream his name.

Over the next days, Tess found herself watching Nate, memorizing every gesture, every expression. She was familiar with the lines that bracketed his mouth when he frowned, and she loved the way the corner of his lips quirked when he was amused. And when he laughed, really laughed, the deep, vibrating sound could make a sudden wave of happiness well up in her breast.

Despite her earlier protestations and mostly against her will, Tess had fallen irrevocably, undeniably in love with Nate Breslin.

Desire had come easily. She’d been unwillingly attracted to the man from the beginning. Need, she had discovered to her vast amazement, was simple. But love? Love was illogical, and no one had ever dared to suggest that Tess Lombardi was not logical. Until now, she told herself on the sixth day of her stay on Sunset Point. She’d come here an intelligent, capable woman. This morning, as the time grew closer to Vasilyev’s hearing, she was turning into a confused jumble of emotions.