Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island 2)

“Not yum! I don’t want him.”

Sky chuckled. “You mean you don’t want to want him.”

Remembering the sizzle of awareness when their eyes had met, Brittany bit her lip. “Why did this have to happen? Why did he have to pick this moment to come back here?”

“It’s fate.”

“I hate it when you say that.”

“Finish the story. You saw the spider, screamed and then he appeared. And you weren’t wearing anything at all. Not even a teeny tiny thong?”

“I was wearing a teeny tiny thong fifteen minutes before he arrived. It was on the floor.” She heard a sound and frowned. “Are you laughing?”

“I might be. Look, maybe he didn’t notice.”

“He noticed. He smacked his head into the door frame.”

“Oh, poor him. That must have hurt. I always said that door was too low. I can’t walk into that bathroom in heels.”

Brittany gave a murmur of exasperation. “Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, of course, but I do sympathize that he banged his head and I’m not going to be angry with him for looking out for you. So he saw you naked—then what?”

“He threw me a towel and got rid of the spider.” With those big, calloused hands that could break down a door or the defenses of a woman with equal ease.

“Well, there you go. The actions of a perfect gentleman.”

“It was a hand towel. And I can think of lots of different ways of describing Zachary Flynn, but ‘perfect gentleman’ isn’t one of them.”

“Did he, or did he not, get rid of the spider?”

“He did, but—”

“And he came back to check you were okay?”

“Yes, but—”

“It wasn’t his fault the closest thing was a hand towel. So then what? You stood there looking at each other and all you were wearing was a plaster cast. That must have been awkward.”

“It was a little more than awkward.” And hadn’t been made less so by the fact the incident had played out on the same stage as their intense affair. They’d had sex in that bathroom. They’d had sex in almost every room of the house.

“Just awkward? Not sexy? He didn’t push you up against the wall and press his heated body against yours?”

“No! And you need to rein in your imagination.” And she needed to rein in hers.

“Can’t do that, I need it for my job.”

“So keep it for your art and don’t get creative with my sex life, especially not where Zach is concerned.”

“I always thought he’d be the kind of guy to take what he wanted without asking permission.”

“I think we’ve already established he didn’t want me.” And it shouldn’t bother her. It really shouldn’t bother her.

“It must have been hard for him to commit to someone, given he’d been alone all his life.”

“You sound as if you’d like to adopt him.”

“Now you mention it, he’s like one of those stray dogs who have been badly treated and no one ever wants to give a home to because they’re afraid of being bitten.”