Kate Hoffmann - Declan

He cursed softly. Hell, twenty-four hours ago, she was dousing him with pepper spray. People didn’t fall in love that quickly. “Jaysus, Declan, this isn’t love,” he muttered. “It’s just a real bad case of lust.”

As he laid down in the narrow bunk, Dec’s mind was filled with images of Rachel, her hair brushing his chest, her mouth teasing at his cock, her naked body sitting astride his. It would all happen, and when it did, his feelings would be sorted out. But until then, he’d have to exist in this state of delicious torture-and annoying confusion-for just a little while longer.

RACHEL HAD BEEN UP FOR two hours by the time Dec wandered out of his bedroom. To her relief, he’d decided to put on jeans, rather than wear his boxers all day long. It was difficult enough being around him without having him always walking around half-dressed and completely aroused. Still, he’d neglected to button them up, or put underwear on beneath them, leaving her a tantalizing view of his belly and the dark shadow of hair beneath.

It was odd how they’d managed to be intimate, yet had done it in little fits and starts. She’d seen him naked, but only through the door of the bathroom. He’d seen her naked, but only in the faint light on the porch. She’d touched him intimately, but only with her foot. He’d come, with her help, but they’d both been dressed.

Rachel felt a warm flush color her cheeks at the thought of his hands on her body. He had a way of finding just the right spots on her skin, where the nerves seemed to tingle with anticipation. And when his lips followed his hands, Rachel forgot how to breathe.

“Morning,” she murmured, handing him a mug of coffee.

He set the coffee down and stretched his arms above his head, working the kinks out of his back. Her gaze dropped to his belly and then lower, and she wondered if he’d slept in the nude last night. An image of him, lying in bed, sated from his orgasm, the sheets twisted around his limbs, flashed in her mind. She grabbed her coffee and took a quick swallow.

Dec sighed as he leaned over the counter, bracing his arms on the butcher block top. “Did you sleep well last night?”

She nodded. “How about you?”

“Like the dead,” he said, a crooked grin playing on his lips. “What exactly happened between us last night? I mean, I know what happened in my boxers, but what happened before that?”

“Desire,” Rachel replied.

“I assume you know how that works?”

She nodded and boosted herself up on the counter to sit beside him. “It’s pretty straightforward.”

He reached over and ran a finger down the outside of her bare leg, then up the inside of her thigh. “Tell me. Why did I want you so much? Why did I want you more than I’ve ever wanted any woman in my life? And how was it that I was able to stop?”

“You wanted me because of a combination of factors,” Rachel replied. “It started with the ice cream.”

“How is that?”

“You fed me and I accepted. In the animal world, that’s a cue that I’m willing to accept your advances.”

“I didn’t know that,” Dec said.

“You wouldn’t. It’s hardwired into your brain. Passed down from cavemen. It’s instinct at work. You just did it because it felt right.”

“So, if I meet a woman on the street and feed her ice cream, she’d want to sleep with me?”

“Not if there isn’t desire there in the first place. For us, the timing was right. You probably haven’t had a woman for a while and there was a physical need. And I haven’t been with a man for a long time, so I reciprocated. Then, there are things standing between us-your job, my job, our pasts, and the fact that we don’t really know each other well. Because of that, the need is more acute because it’s improper. There’s some mystery, which adds to the attraction and makes the chase more interesting. We do share some things in common and we’re comfortable with each other, so that adds to it. Finally, we each met the other’s profile for a potential lover. When all that adds up, you get desire.”

“So, if it’s all so cut-and-dried, then how come people make such a mess of it?”

Rachel smiled. “Because desire is blind. We don’t always pay attention to the signs. We feel and act before we think.”

“Isn’t that love? Isn’t love blind?”

“That, too,” Rachel said. A tiny sliver of guilt shot through her. She wasn’t being completely honest with him. In truth, everything he was feeling was based in basic human desire. But what he wasn’t aware of was that his feelings could also be the beginnings of love.

“Last night, we felt with our bodies, but we also thought about what we were doing. That’s why we stopped before we went all the way.”

She was playing a dangerous game. But just because she knew the rules, that didn’t mean that she had to give up her chance at something wonderful. In the past, she’d always let love take its own course and look where it had gotten her. Now, she’d found a man who was handsome and interesting and trustworthy, a man who made her head spin and her heart pound. Why not do what she could to make him fall in love with her? How could it possibly hurt either one of them?

Some of her colleagues might consider it manipulative, but Rachel was doing nothing more than any other woman experienced in the art of desire. In truth, there were women out there who were much better at snagging a man than she could ever be. So there was no reason for guilt.

Dec shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do that again.”

“Maybe you won’t have to,” Rachel replied.

A long silence grew between them as they looked at each other, their gazes locked. Then Dec slowly nodded and Rachel smiled. “So, what are we going to do with ourselves today?” she asked.

He straightened, then slipped his hands around her waist. “We could go into town and get some breakfast and walk around a little. We could spend the day sunning ourselves out on the pier. We could go for a boat ride or go fishing.”

“That all sounds good,” she said.

“And we could start by taking a shower together,” he suggested.

Rachel pushed up on her toes and kissed him. “All right.”

“I was kidding,” Dec said. “If we take a shower together, we’re going to spend the rest of the day in bed.”

“Then we can take a shower later,” she suggested. With that, Rachel turned and walked toward the bedroom, leaving Dec with a confused look on his face.

She grinned. At least she wouldn’t have to guess what was going through his mind for the rest of the day.

DECLAN TURNED HIS face up to the sun, the mid-afternoon heat warming his skin and relaxing his body. He and Rachel had gone into town for breakfast, then spent the morning wandering along the streets and visiting some of the small shops in Boothbay Harbor.

He’d always hated shopping with women, but shopping with Rachel was actually interesting. She kept him entertained with her droll comments and quirky opinions. And she had a keen knack for knowing when he was becoming bored with the shopping experience, leading him out of the store just before he’d had enough. A waterfront restaurant was the perfect spot for lunch before heading back to the cabin for a lazy afternoon.

The sun was high in the sky when they’d returned to the cabin. They’d headed down to the pier and now lay side by side in a pair of plastic chaises.

“You have a really nice body.”

Dec squinted against the sun and looked over to find Rachel watching him. She still wore the skirt she’d worn into town, but now, the skirt was pulled up around her hips. She’d discarded the camisole and was left in just her bra.

“What?”