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“I come here to decompress,” he said as if I hadn’t spoken. “I rarely see guests at night.”
My feet touched the sand, but I squatted to avoid exposing myself, keeping my breasts just below the water’s surface. I gazed up at the cavernous space, the trees and cliffs and the stars overhead. “It’s truly stunning,” I said, the residual anger and embarrassment fading away.
“This place suits you,” he said.
“Why?” I didn’t know what else to say.
“That it’s beautiful isn’t enough?”
“That sounds like a line.”
Jason smiled and I thought he might be making fun of me. I don’t know why it bothered me so much. I’d already decided that no matter how attracted I was to the man, I wasn’t going to choose him for a fling.
“Not a line,” he said. “This is the most beautiful spot on the island, but it’s also mysterious, with trails no one knows about even though they’re practically in plain sight. Everything isopen, asking to be enjoyed, to be appreciated... but it’s also a lonely place.”
My stomach twisted in knots as I viewed the hidden cove as Jason saw it. For a brief moment, I felt he understood me.
When I looked back toward him, I watched him pick up my bra from the rock.
“Are these your clothes?”
“Put that down!”
He was grinning. “Definitely a wild streak. Maybe I should join you. It’s a good night for a swim.”
“No!” A flush of fresh embarrassment washed over me. “I need you to leave, Jason.”
He sat on the rock, still holding my bra. A playful gleam in his expression told me he had no intention of leaving. I imagined him throwing off his shirt and pants and joining me in the water.
Fine. I stood, walked out of the water and up the beach, right over to him. He was still smiling, looking right at me, his green eyes sparkling. In humor? Appreciation? I had no idea.
Jason Mallory was still too gorgeous for words. He wore swim trunks and a tank top, as if he’d planned to do exactly what I had done. But with his risky behavior, he’d probably scale the cliffs and dive headfirst into the rock-strewn cove.
I hoped it was too dark for him to see my red face, raw from embarrassment as I snatched my bra from his hand. He didn’t look away. I wanted to run behind a tree and dress, but I didn’t. I stood in front of him, put on my bra, then pulled my shirt over my head. I was wet; now my shirt was wet. This night was getting better and better.
With humor, he asked, “You didn’t bring a towel?”
“I wasn’t planning on going swimming.”
“A spontaneous streak, too.”
“Argh!”
He was impossible. Why oh why had I gone skinny dipping? I was smarter than this! Yet... it was thrilling that he was here. Amanda and Jane wouldn’t believe that I’d jumped naked into a lagoon or that the hottest guy on the island watched me dress.
I wished he’d shown up sooner, before I decided to channel my inner Grams. It might have been nice, sitting on the small beach, looking at the stars with someone who—even though he was absolutely not my type, and I wouldn’t in a million years have sex with him—seemed smart and fun and probably knew everything about the island and the people on it.
“Goodbye,” I said.
“You’re going to walk back to the resort like that?”
I knew how hard it would be to pull on jeans over wet skin. “Do you have a problem?”
“Nope. No problem at all.”
I waved one hand at the formerly blissful cavern and grabbed my jeans with the other. “It’s all yours.”
“Stay.”