He let out a groan. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“I’m just trying another alternative to solving your problem.” She shifted until his hard flesh met her moist heat, the swimsuit barriers practically nonexistent. “I’ve heard the French call it a ‘little death.’” A seductive gleam twinkled in her blue eyes.
He titled his head back, and staring at the night sky with its array of stars he grasped for control. “I would have to pick an educated smart-aleck woman.”
She laughed lightly and snuggled more intimately astride him. “It’s part of my charm.”
He could think of many other attributes she possessed although right now he found it hard to think about anything else besides her body.
“And for the record, counselor, I believe I picked you first.”
“I didn’t know we were keeping track,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck and letting his damp lips trail a blazing path on her soft skin.
She let out a soft exhale. “Liar. You were too keeping track or we wouldn’t be here right now.” Her back arched.
He caressed her neck and chest with laps of his tongue, tasting salt water and soft skin. It took some maneuvering, but he managed to ease her onto the towel, so she lay on her back and he sat on top, finally gaining control of the situation. Or so he thought until she parted her legs and allowed her thighs to cradle his erection in a cocoon of damp heat.
Complete access but no penetration, Jack thought and knew he was lost. His hips jerked forward. Mallory moaned aloud, but suddenly the sound of voices and laughter intruded on his passion-fogged brain.
He forced himself to focus. “We’re not alone anymore.”
Her long lashes fluttered against her pale skin. “That’s probably for the best.”
She was right but he disliked hearing it, especially coming from her well-kissed lips. He was the one usually pulling back from a woman and he damned well didn’t enjoy being on the receiving end. Especially when the woman was Mallory.
Even in the darkness of the night, with the beach lit only by background hotel lighting, he could see where his razor stubble had chafed her flesh.
He swung his leg around and rolled off her. She raised a hand, covering her forehead and eyes from view, but she said nothing more. Her breathing was as labored and rough as his.
Long after the laughter had faded down the long stretch of beach, he lay by her side in silence. Surprisingly comfortable silence for two people still strung tight with arousal, caught in an awkward and potentially compromising situation.
He extended his arm and reached for her hand and she enclosed her fingers around his. Against the backdrop of the ocean roar, Jack realized he had accomplished his goal. He’d issued an invitation of his own and proved she was just as attracted, equally as affected by him as he was by her.
Alone, with no rules or interruptions, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
They’d even begun to exchange memories—something completely foreign to him, yet utterly enjoyable.
But the score was even now. He had no excuse to challenge her again and the disappointment was strong, lingering and beyond anything he understood.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JACK WAS STILL WIRED after he said good-night to Mallory. His cold shower had done even less for his disposition than his state of arousal and sleep was impossible. He couldn’t think of a damn thing except Mallory tossing and turning in the bed across the hall from his. Just because they had both agreed to part company before things went any further he didn’t have to like it. He tossed off the covers and climbed out of bed.
Edgy and frustrated, he figured he might as well put his restless energy to use and get some work done. Hanging out at the bar and making small talk with the bartender might give him some insight into Paul Lederman. The elusive client. He pulled on a pair of jeans and an old University of Michigan sweatshirt, then took the elevator downstairs.
Jack glanced at his watch and was surprised at how late it actually was. At a summer resort the bar would normally be hopping, but last call had been half an hour ago and the place had emptied out. As he made his way inside the room, he realized he hadn’t been the only one who couldn’t sleep. His associate had the same idea of hanging out with the bartender, only Mallory had cozied up to him in a way Jack never could.
Apparently playing the helpless woman at the pool table had gotten her close to the surly guy. Close in a way Jack didn’t like at all. He clenched his hands into fists as he watched Mallory, dressed in form-fitting jeans, lean over the pool table so the bartender, a blond-haired surfer type, could press up behind her and correct her form.
She tossed her hair back and laughed at something the bartender whispered in her ear. Jack’s gut clenched with jealousy. A foreign emotion for him when it came to women. A shocking one when it came to Mallory. He’d been with attractive women before, eager women, women he’d actually had sex with, but he’d always been able to cut them loose with no regrets or second thoughts.
So why with this woman? The one he worked with, who could jeopardize his career with one whisper. Perhaps it was the forbidden that attracted him, since their rendezvous could only be conducted in secret. Maybe it was the excitement of the chase, the challenge she posed that intrigued him so. As his body, still strung tight, reminded him, it could also be the lack of closure to the relationship that tugged at his gut.
He couldn’t put her behind him. Not yet, anyway. It was time he stepped up the challenge.
He strode forward into the light surrounding the pool table. “Mind if I join the game?”
At the sound of his voice, Mallory groaned while the bartender turned his head to acknowledge the intrusion. “Bar’s closed,” he said.