Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (78 page)

“Mine, too,” Seth murmured, and his eyes had a faraway look that said he hadn’t forgotten a single detail of their time together.

“You can borrow one of mine,” Tobin chipped in.

She shot him a weak smile, and even Seth flashed a little grin. Seth’s younger brother sure knew how to lighten things up. She’d always figured Tobin was a player — or a playboy — but he came off better now. Maybe the man couldn’t help his own charm and good looks.

Then she caught Seth’s eyes — those caramel yellow-brown eyes — and she got lost all over again. Swimming in them, wanting to plunge in there and let him make everything okay, wanting his hands on more than just her shoulder. They gazed at each other for an eternity until Tobin cleared his throat, startling Seth back into action.

“It’s gonna sting,” Seth said, pushing aside the bikini strap and closing in with antiseptic.

It already stings
. Being this close to the man who’d left her cold — that stung, big-time. The man she’d fallen for in the space of one night, then fallen deeper for over the days that followed. The man she’d tried to hate over the past couple of months.

The man touching her so carefully, so tenderly, that the couple of tears that slipped out of her eyes weren’t from the minor pain of her wound.

He stopped and leaned down until his forehead was resting on hers.

“Jesus, Julie.”

That choke behind the whisper? That was for her. Worry that she could have been much more badly hurt.

One of her hands found his and squeezed. “It’s not so bad.”

“Could have been.”

He swallowed, hard, and she couldn’t resist threading her fingers the rest of the way through his.

“Too damn close,” he finished.

Nothing moved but his chest, rising and falling with every shallow breath. She cupped his face and guided his cheek over to hers. He ran a hand over her good shoulder and the rest of the world fell away — Tobin, puttering around by the chart table; the slight bob and rock of the boat; the distant hiss of waves on the reef. Just the two of them again. God, the man felt good — just the right combination of scruffy and smooth. Smelled good — like the seaside after a storm when everything was fresh and promising. Sounded good — even just the slight rustle of his shirt as he breathed.

Tobin banged the lid on the pot. “So, anyone for dinner?”

Their bodies broke apart, but their eyes remained locked.

“Sure,” Seth said, frozen in place.

“Sure,” Julie whispered, though she’d already forgotten the question.

“Perfect!” Tobin said somewhere behind the rushing sensation in her ears.

Seth pressed a bandage over the wound and left his hand on her shoulder longer than necessary. The bullet had barely grazed her but it was scary all the same. Because it was a bullet that did that. A bullet aimed at her back.

Tobin leaned in to inspect his brother’s work. “Lotta blood for something that shallow,” he sniffed. “So what were those guys after?” he asked, going back to the spaghetti pot.

Seth stiffened, and she could feel his eyes on her. She kept her gaze down, studiously avoiding the direction of her backpack. “I don’t know,” she mumbled.

Even as a whisper, it sounded like a lie.

Seth watched Julie stand stiffly and pick up her bag. Now that his doctoring was over, he could feel the blood drain from his face, his hand start to shake. For all the nights he’d lain awake, wishing for Julie back, Julie with a bullet wound was not what he had in mind.

Didn’t matter, though. She was back now, and this time, he wouldn’t let anything get between them. Not chance, not the weather, not lucky or unlucky breaks. Not even gun-toting gangsters.

“Is there someplace I can change?” she murmured, and this time, her eyes avoided his.

His gaze stuck on her bloodstained bikini for a second before he led her to the front cabin. The corridor was narrow, and he and Julie danced around each other for a moment. He could feel her body yearning for the contact as much as his did, because the need to tango, to samba, to get together and churn and grind always seemed to rear up out of nowhere when she got close. But as much as his body wanted it, his mind threw out a hundred warning signs.
Not yet. Caution. Slow down.

The only part about any of those he liked was the
yet
.

Julie brushed clear of him, into the front cabin. He closed the door behind her then sat down at the chart table. Stared at the instruments, as if that would help him get a grip. That and the postcard of New York a friend had given him in case he missed home. He blinked at it. No, he hadn’t missed his job or his home over the past couple of months. Hadn’t missed the luxuries of life on land.

The only thing he’d missed at all was her. Julie. The spark of her eyes, the lilt of her voice as she talked. Even better, the way she leaned in to listen as if she wanted to excavate the real him, hidden beneath all the layers piled over the outside.

Something moved at his elbow, and he looked up to find Tobin handing him a glass of wine.

“Want rum instead?” Tobin whispered, the usual humor gone from his voice.

Seth shook his head, tried sipping, not gulping, the wine, and pretended to study the chart while his mind replayed the events of a crazy day.

Julie back in his life. That was good. Great. Serendipitous, even.

Julie in some kind of trouble. Not good.

He glanced at the photograph of his grandfather. “You ever wonder…” he started then trailed off.

“I wonder constantly.” Tobin winked then wiped his eyes with his sleeve and went back to chopping onions.

“I mean…” Seth struggled to find the right words. It wasn’t often he and his brother had a heart-to-heart. Which showed how right their grandfather was to push them into this trip. It had been good for both of them in a dozen different ways. “You ever wonder about serendipity? Luck? All that?”

Tobin gave the door to the front cabin a pointed look and chuckled out loud. “Man, I only wonder that it’s taken you this long to figure it out.” He shook his head. “And you’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“You’re just as smart.”

“I know, I know. Just a little underachieving.” Tobin said it with a smile that smacked of sheer pride. Like it was an accomplishment to achieve as little as he had in life: getting kicked out of two good schools, never settling down to a real job. But then again, coming from their family, maybe that was an achievement. Mom a lawyer, Dad a doctor, paving the way for their sons to do the same. A family name that ensured them good schools, good connections. Seth had followed right along with it, and until this trip, he’d never questioned any of it. But sailing was giving him a different perspective. That there was more to life than insane work hours and the four walls of an office. More than frantic weekdays and all-too-short weekends. More than profits and accounts.

There were sunsets. Chance encounters. The kind of tiredness that comes from time in the sun and fresh air. New faces and the stories that came with each of them.

“Maybe you’re the smart one,” Seth said, looking at his brother. Maybe Tobin hadn’t been wasting his life, the way their mother always complained that he did. Tobin never stressed, never rushed to meetings, never failed to enjoy life.

His younger brother’s eyes sparkled at his comment. “Wish I had a tape recorder for that one.” Then he grew more serious. “Do things happen for a reason? I don’t know. But I do know that when they do, you can’t just go along for the ride. Remember what he used to say?” He pointed the knife toward the photo on the opposite wall.

Seth could hear their grandfather’s gritty voice as if he were sitting across the cabin.
Dream, then go out and do something about it.

Tobin waggled his eyebrows toward the front cabin. “Just sayin’.” Then he went back to work, grabbing a handful of spaghetti and tossing it into the pot.

Dreams. Chance encounters. Serendipity. Seth stared off into the universe in the bottom of his wine glass.

Go out and do something about it.

His gaze wandered to the door separating him from Julie, and he worked his jaw from side to side. Here he was, taking advice from his dead grandfather and his little brother, the ski bum. How messed up was that?

“You’re the expert in wild flings with women you barely know,” he whispered to Tobin. “Why the hell can’t I get over it?”

Tobin laughed. “Doesn’t count as a fling if you fall in love, man.”

Part of him reeled at the thought; the other part sighed in a pathetic, dreamy way. Which probably meant it was love, because what else in life gave a man that mixture of terror and thrill?

He poured himself another swig.

Julie took a good long while, so long that he started to wonder if she needed help. He was halfway to the separating door when it popped open and she stepped out in a clean bikini — the yellow and blue one — and a different pair of khaki shorts. God, she was something. Sports jock mixed with beauty queen mixed with nerdy academic. What other woman combined all three?

“Just in time!” Tobin called. “Who’s for dinner?”

Seth looked Julie up and down, and just like that, his appetite was back.

“Me,” Julie said, looking right into his eyes.

“Me,” he whispered, looking right back.

Apparently, Julie had an appetite, too. Seth watched her chow right through Tobin’s spiced-up version of spaghetti bolognese, then went through seconds and wiped the bowl clean with a piece of bread. She laughed right through Tobin’s stories and marveled as the stars arched overhead on a perfectly peaceful night. But she didn’t meet Seth’s eyes, not for longer than a second, nor did she move any closer into the narrow strip of space he’d been careful to leave when they sat next to each other. All in all, she was doing a great job avoiding the unavoidable, just as Tobin was doing a great job sticking to harmless topics and offbeat jokes.

No questions about what the hell was going on, no demands. She wasn’t ready for it; both of them could sense it. Even though his brother had every right to ask, he didn’t. Tobin kept the tone light and easy, building up her trust, her confidence.

And here Seth had spent the past thirty-one years of his life thinking his little brother was complete dead weight. Go figure.

“Two surfers are getting ready to paddle out to a break. Know what they say?” Tobin winked at Julie.

“What?”

“The first guy says, ‘Guess what? I got a new longboard for my wife!`”

“And the second guy says…?” she prompted him.

"‘Great trade!’"

As usual, Tobin folded into chuckles at his own joke, but even Seth had to smile when Julie did. Exhaled, actually, when he saw that she didn’t hang too closely on his brother’s every word. No fluttering of eyelashes, no loud giggles. The charm machine that was his brother wasn’t making any headway tonight, just like Tobin hadn’t made any headway the very first time they’d met. It was Seth she fell for. Just like he’d fallen for her.

Hard. Fast. Deep.

Seth blinked at Tobin. The guy who normally went after every girl — any girl — was keeping a careful distance. Entertaining, not seducing, for once in his life. Tobin even had the tact to take the dishes at the end of dinner and disappear into the galley, leaving Seth and Julie alone.

Still, thirty-two feet of boat was a little too little space for all that he and Julie had to discuss.

“Hey,” Seth ventured, nudging her thigh. The first contact they’d made all night, and it made his skin tingle. His heart, too, because she didn’t pull away. “How about we head to shore?”

She looked at the little spit of land, her face showing both temptation and fright. He felt exactly the same way: desperate for time alone with her, terrified where their conversation might lead.

He nudged her again, pulling out his ace. “Come on, it’ll be an adventure.” Then he caught himself and added, “A small, safe one.”

She laughed, and her hand slid across his arm just like he remembered it doing their first time around. “Okay.”

And they were off in the dinghy, slaloming through the shadows that marked coral heads. He cut the engine ten yards off the beach and let the little inflatable coast in.

“Land ho,” he said, very quietly. It was a tiny island, but it felt like a major landfall after all they’d experienced that crazy day.

He stepped into ankle-deep water and Julie followed suit. A born sailor; his grandfather would have approved.

Together, they hauled the dinghy up on shore and considered the little spit of land. One hundred yards of sand, palm, and coconuts wasn’t much space, but in the moonlight, it seemed to go on forever.

“Oooh!” Julie pointed up. “A shooting star!”

Make a wish
, he could practically hear her think. He knew exactly what he wished for, so he did. Sent that wish right up to the stars without even pausing to think what kind of sap this sailing gig was turning him into. Wishing on stars? Getting hung up on a woman? Appreciating his little brother? He wasn’t just thousands of miles from home — he was a different man.

“Julie, we need to talk,” he said, even as she strode away from the dinghy. “Wait…”

Tiny bits of coral crunched underfoot as he followed her. Palm fronds swished overhead, hanging at steep angles. Julie took three more steps then stopped. Her hair fell back as she tipped her chin up, and the set of her shoulders told him she’d rather not talk about any of it. Not about today, not about the past.

He expected a comment about black holes or nebulae or the craters of the moon, but she was quiet. And then he realized why. Why her face was glistening, her eyes squeezed shut. He saw her swipe at the tears, heard her mutter a curse at herself.

“Julie?”

He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her that even tough-as-nails archaeology jocks were allowed to cry. Kiss her ear and promise her that somehow, he’d make everything all right.

“You okay?”

She flapped a hand at the horizon as if she wanted to divert his attention there. “It’s so beautiful.” And it was: the endless ocean, the indigo sky.