Sunset Thunder (12 page)

He’d been asking himself the same question and was no closer to an answer. Having her around only made it harder to determine. “I have no idea.”

“That makes two of us.”

Ryder stepped away this time, holding his hand out to help her slide off the counter.

Violet took the platter he had prepared and he grabbed the waters.

He followed her up the stairs knowing that he had one answer to the questions going off in his head and that was that his mothers signs had nothing to do with how he felt about Violet. There was lust. There was desire, but there was also something deeper. The way she touched him and his reaction was evidence that he wanted to explore whatever was brewing between them.

He wanted to go on a date with her and he damned well planned on her saying yes before they docked the boat.

DAY TURNED INTO night so quickly that they ended up spending the entire day on Ryder’s boat, even after the kiss under deck.

The wonderfully hot, steamy kiss that Violet couldn’t get out of her head.

The desires were prominent now, more than when she’d first boarded the boat. Tasting those delicious lips again, feeling the way his tongue searched her mouth with the same desire she felt. He had an effect on her that was mind boggling.

Ryder Carlex left Violet Caliendo mind boggled...although she would never tell him that, but she suspected he already knew. 

“Here.” Violet jumped at Ryder’s voice. At first she thought it came from her head, but then her eyes focused on the sweater he was holding out to her.

The night air was chilly and the sight of that sweater sent gracious goose bumps across her skin. That or the fact that darkness cloaked them and just the memory of those lips were creating a foggy haze in her mind.

“Thank you.” She took the black knit sweater and slipped her chilled arms inside, pulling it tightly around her throat and zipping up the front. Chilled on the outside, and scorching hot on the inside.

When she finished zipping it up, Ryder held his hand out to her. “Shhh. Come on.” He nodded his head toward the front of the boat, where she’d envisioned pulling him on top of her only hours earlier.
Very vividly. 

Sophia and Parker were fast asleep, curled up on the day beds.

Violet should have said no instead of slipping her hand into the warmth of Ryder’s, as he led her to the front of the boat. It had been a long day and now as dusk had fallen, Violet felt a sense of wickedness overtake her body...and her good sense. They shouldn’t be alone together.

He’d pulled short-sleeved, button-up white shirt on, however he’d not bothered buttoning up the front. His chest peeked out as they sat down, and without her sunglasses on, she made it a point not to glance down.

“Since we both seem to be full of surprises today, I have a surprise for you,” he said, reaching beside him to grab something. 

A surprise? What kind of surprise?
She hadn’t noticed him carry anything out. 

“You’ve already done so much today.” She could never express how his thoughtfulness to still take her children out for the day meant to her.

“Thank you for inviting us. I know Parker and Sophia had a wonderful time.”

It eased the hurt that Joel cancelled on them. It certainly didn’t replace it. Her kids loved their father and, generally speaking, he was good to his word. Never great and never with effort involved, but he was good. 

“And you?” Ryder asked. 

Her?

Violet stopped thinking about Joel and her kids and instead thought about Ryder’s question.

Did she have fun?

Besides the kiss below deck, which was naughty, hot fun in an entirely different way than he was referring to, she discovered she
had
enjoyed fishing, once she got the hang of it...sort of. She wasn’t going to take up the sport. It was rather mundane, sitting around waiting for a fish to bite. She would rather play tennis, a game where you worked to achieve your goal, not base it on luck.

Violet found she liked Ryder’s company, and not only on a sexual level...although it played its part plenty today. 

“Yes,” she answered truthfully. “I had a lot of fun today.” 

“The fun doesn’t have to end.” Ryder’s husky voice was followed by one of his sexy winks.

Was he going to kiss her again? Kiss me again!

She couldn’t dare, she shouldn’t...why did every part of her want him to kiss her and pull her down onto the flat surface and remove the sweater she was not wearing and then her bathing suit and touch every inch of her skin. Oh, how she wanted to feel his hands on her skin again.

Ryder didn’t make any such move. He held a foil ball in front of them.

“What is that?” she asked, blinking away the vision.

“Dessert. I made enough for the kids, but they fell asleep, so I guess it’s just me and you.”

Ryder passed her a fork before unwrapping the foil ball. Inside was a sliced apple. The smell of baked apple in cinnamon and butter made Violet’s mouth water. 

“This smells delicious,” she said. 

He held it toward her. Automatically her hand went under the foil ball to balance it, as she dug her fork in. The palm of her hand landed on the outside of Ryder’s and she forgot what she was doing. Her skin heated, her lips pursed and her head snapped up to Ryder. Instant desire reflected from his deep blue eyes and chiseled features. He was fighting it. She was fighting it.
Fighting what?

Violet could have kissed him again. Her lips could graze his or press so hard the contact would numb them. Either way she could have done it. She wanted to do it. 

Violet moved the fork to her mouth and chomped almost the entire slice of apple to occupy her wanting lips. She pulled her hand away, breaking the contact.

Ryder looked confused at first.

Violet supposed he was expecting her to kiss him, like she wanted, like they both felt. She had self control for crying out loud. She wasn’t always the woman who took a guy in the washroom. In fact, she was never that woman.

Ryder grinned. He bit a slice of the apple before setting it down between them. He stretched his long, lean legs out in front of him, resting his flat palms on the surface of the boat.

“You want to kiss me again,” he said and there was no mistaking that it wasn’t a question. 

How did this man so easily talk about things that were making her insides melt?

“It’s your turn,” he said. “You initiated the first and I complied. Then I initiated the second and you cut me off...”

He looked at her and she hadn’t realized she was staring at him. Open mouthed, eye brows creased together in complete shock.

Where was this man’s filter?

“Now it’s your turn.” 

Her turn? Her turn!
Should she kiss him? She wanted to kiss him. What exactly did a kiss mean? Did he want to have sex with her? On the bow of his yacht?

How tempting it all was.

“Are you always this cocky?” Violet tried to ask in strong, rather cocky tone herself, but instead she heard the breathy plea in her tone
. Darn it!

“I guess you’ll have to invite me over for deep fried pickles and find out. And I will wait all night for your turn.”

Violet grinned at him.

Yes, she’d invited him for deep fried pickles. Yes, she wanted him to spend more time with him. Yes, his presence brought out the wild side of her and the real side of her, but he was still Ryder Carlex. Caution bounced around her head, warning her that this man was trouble.

“Don’t hold your breath,” she teased. 

“Hey, I thought I was an amazing fishing instructor.”

She laughed. “You would.”

“And I can bring a killer dessert.”

The idea of a date was so tempting. But could they?
Could she?

“I do like your dessert.” Violet put another piece of the apple from her fork into her mouth, mostly to keep from kissing him. Edible food was not the dessert she was referring to.

“Sweetheart, this is nothing compared to what I can whip up.”

Violet laughed again.

She could get used to smiling and laughing again, after the kids went to bed. Her nights and days, without the kids, had become a long endless pile of work that left no room for entertainment.

“Does that work on the ladies? Do they find that pick up line seductive?”

“I’ve never tried it on anyone else.”

She shook her head at him. “
Don’t
ever try it on anyone else.”

He laughed too. “Thanks for the advice. I guess following that line with suggestions of a can of whipped cream, strawberries and handcuffs are maybe not wise.”

Wild, unthinkable thoughts flew through Violet’s head and it took all her strength not to reach over and kiss Ryder and beg him for whipped cream, strawberries and complete control of the handcuffs.

“Depends what type of woman you’re going after,” she said instead.

Ryder’s tone dropped all its humor, all its tease and instead held raw seduction. “You.”

Violet’s smile dropped and her lower lip slipped between her teeth. They needed to get back to shore before this went somewhere it shouldn’t...again.

Ryder shifted so his hand could touch the side of her face. “I’m not going to kiss you first, Violet. Don’t get me wrong, I want to kiss you. I do. But I want you to want to kiss me.”

Violet wanted to kiss him, but there were warning signals she couldn’t ignore. “Ryder, I can’t.”

His hand didn’t fall away like she hoped and the massaging sensation of his thumb worked the words out of her.

“If I kiss you, it won’t be just a kiss. We both know that.”

One kiss under the deck and she’d landed on top of the counter. If Parker and Sophia hadn’t been just above them, Violet wouldn’t have stopped.

His thumb stroked the side of her jaw. “Do you think I don’t have self control?”

“I can’t guarantee that I have self control. Not with you,” she admitted.

“I’m flattered.”

“I’m scared.” Letting someone else know her fears would have scared the hell out of her, but she was glad he knew. Glad that he understood she wasn’t as prepared for whatever this was between them as she might look.

“And if you start your next sentence with
Violet Caliendo is scared
...”

He smirked. “I was going to say, we don’t have to rush into things...”

“I think it’s a little late for that.”

Was her head moving toward his? Was she going to kiss him?

“I’ve learned that in life it’s never too late.” He dropped his hand back beside him and moved back putting distance between them. “We can start with our date. Deep fried pickles at your place and I will bring dessert. Although I would much rather take you out.”

He was so full of himself.

“I didn’t say I was going on a date with you.”

“You didn’t say you weren’t.”

That was true.

He leaned back and gazed at the stars. “I haven’t been on a date in years. This should be fun.”

Violet could name off six events in the last two years that Ryder had attended with gorgeous beautiful women on his arm. Why was he sitting here telling her it had been years since he dated?
Was he a liar?
Maybe those had all been one night stands and if so, how many women had he been with?

Was this all a mistake?
Who was Ryder Carlex?

“Violet? Where did you go?”

Violet hadn’t noticed she’d followed his stare into the sky and her thoughts were lost among the thousands of stars. Violet had already fallen into a trap with a man who hadn’t loved her and had used her for his own personal gain. Hard lessons in life had presented themselves over ten years ago and she’d vowed to herself that she would never fall down that hole again. Why was she sitting with a man who made her insides come alive under the romantic blanket of stars above them and talking about going on a date?

Because today had been wonderful.

Everything, since Ryder threw her in the water and splashed a dose of happiness back into her mind, appeared different. The life before she boarded the boat seemed so far away, so lonely, and here, life felt incredible, alive, and finally after years of feeling reserved in the presence of other people, she felt vibrant, she felt like herself.

But was that really how Ryder felt?

“How’s your dad?” she asked, changing the topic.

Ryder had a life beyond this boat that she knew nothing about. Except that whenever she saw him at events and galas, it always involved gorgeous women on his arm.

Ryder looked away, and she caught the tension build up in his shrug. She’d never seen a man who tensed up as much as Ryder.

“You know. Working. He’s hired on my aunt’s kids to redesign the stores. So he’s been busy with that.”

“I haven’t seen him in a long time. He usually attends my mother’s galas−”

Ryder cut her off. “I’ve attended on his behalf.”

How could Violet forget?
It was those very galas and the women he didn’t date that were flanking her mind.

“I know. But, he was always a delight to have attend, with his big stories and his loud laughter. Tell him I said hi when you see him.”

“I will.” Ryder lost the friendliness in his tone and Violet wondered why. Then he changed the topic. “I was sorry to hear about your dad last year.”

Violet could have laughed if Ryder’s
not dates
weren’t in her mind. It felt like the
not dates
he wasn’t being honest about wasn’t the only thing Ryder was keeping from her.

People said they were sorry to hear about her father’s death and it was ironic since all those people were either afraid of him or glad he was gone.