Page 35 of Beach Cottage Kisses

Would handle.

A man had to know how to keep it in his pants. Just part of the responsibility of being an adult. He’d been good with that one since he’d first figured out the power he had down there.

“Note taken,” he told Iris, lest she think he had a problem with what she’d said. And for good measure, added, “And ditto.”

She took a sip.

He did.

They’d toasted on it.

And Scott’s next sip…a toast to himself.

Come hell or high water, he’d find a way to quell this sexual burning inside him for the woman he did not want to have sex with, but wanted in his life for as long as he could have her.

He was a man who put determination behind his choices.

One for whom failure was akin to death.

With one woman’s emotional damage already on his soul.

There would not be another.

* * *

Iris was pretty good at engaging her shutoff valve. During the first couple of years of emotional recovery, she’d vacillated between being completely shut down, or in agony. But as she started college, took the reins of her life in hand, she’d found her permanent vibe.

One that was suddenly being challenged.

Why Sage’s wedding had somehow upset her apple cart she had no idea.But she was determined not to let the matter continue any further.

She’d had sex with her friend’s brother and was struggling to wrap her mind around that one. To rationalize the bizarre behavior.

Three years of nothing in that area where Scott Martin was concerned, and then, overnight, she’s hot for him?

Made no sense.

And so, as the second week after the wedding progressed, Iris made a point of shutting down every time she was out on the beach. Whether Scott was there or not. She wasn’t taking any chances on herself until she had a better understanding of what was going on.

No way she was going to lose herself again.

She’d barely made her way out the first time.

One of the counselors she’d seen had helped her practice shutting off the overwhelming swells of emotion that had threatened to strangle her alive. Had given her tools.

Distraction for one.

Putting herself in a public space, rather than living in a private one, when things got to be too much. People tended to put up walls in public.

She’d gotten really good at it.

And it seemed to be working around Scott, too. By Friday, she didn’t even hesitate to head out early for a long walk with Angel on the beach. Down toward Gray’s new place at the end of Ocean Breeze and turning to walk over a mile toward the opposite end. She’d been at home editing all day. Had sent off final content to three different clients, including the San Diego Zoo. And had been offered a much more lucrative contract with the zoo as part of their ongoing crusade to end extinction.

As early as she was, she’d headed out for a talk with Ivy.She’d sprinkled Ivy’s ashes in the waves offshore from Ocean Breeze the day she’d moved in. And those particular waves had been a source of calm and comfort to her ever since. Of course the water wasn’t the same as it had been three years before. But sediment lowered. Her heart knew there would always be pieces of her other half on that beach.

But as she got out to the sand—close enough to the water to see shells that it brought in, but far enough away that there was no risk of Angel getting swept up in it—she took one glance outward, and had to shake it off.

The intensity that had rolled up within her during that glance wasn’t something she could allow. Not with the prospect of seeing people.