Seduce Me

'Was your uncle good to you?'

'As good as he knew how to be.' Kicking free, she retreated and took the next wave. When she showed up again, she drifted close, but not close enough to touch.

'Sam… I can't even imagine.'

Again, she lifted a bare, glistening shoulder. 'I had it okay. Got to go through high school without anyone telling me what I could or couldn't do, or that I was being stupid, or that I wasn't trying hard enough…'

'I had a family,' he said quietly. 'And no one ever told me any of that.'

'No? Then you're lucky, too.'

Comparing her life to his boggled his mind. 'Your parents left you enough money to get by?'

'Some, but their estate was sued, and lost.'

His heart broke for her.

She splashed him. 'Get that pity off of your face and take the next swell, or I will.'

'That's not pity on my face, it's empathy.' He tugged her close. 'Can't you let anyone be sensitive to what you've been through?'

She thought about that. 'No.'

Well, she was going to start, he decided. She was squirming a little, probably trying to calculate how to outswim him and vanish. Couldn't have that. And not just because he had her bare breasts against his chest.

But she slipped out of his arms and beneath the surface of the water, and came up five feet away. She took the next wave and the next. When she finally returned, he asked, 'Is bodysurfing naked by moonlight a hobby?'

'I'm not naked, I'm wearing my bikini bottoms.'

'Ah. Well then… do you always go on dates in your bikini bottoms?'

'I usually wear my top, too, but Lorissa made me take it off because apparently it ruined the line of the dress.'

He silently blessed Lorissa.

'And if I'd known you were going to spy on me here tonight, I'd have pulled it out of my purse and put it back on before I got in the water.'

'You… have your bathing suit in your purse.'

'When it's not on me, yes. I spend a lot of time in the water.'

'Bodysurfing in the middle of the night.'

'And in the early mornings, and swimming in the afternoons when I can fit it in. Jack, why are you here?'

'Maybe I like the water, too.' He'd never really cared one way or another, but Sam had changed his mind tonight.

'You should go home.'

'Why?' He drifted toward her. 'Am I getting too close?'

She splashed him again, and this time she wasn't smiling.

Look at that, he thought with some amusement, the surfer girl has a temper. 'Okay, you're right.'

'About…'

'I should open up to you before making you open up to me.'

'I didn't say that.'

'No, but you should have. Want to hear a deep dark secret?'

'Jack-'

'I don't miss basketball. Everyone thinks I do, but I don't. Not anymore.'

'You really don't?'

'I miss playing but I don't miss being a celebrity.'

'You're still a celebrity.'

'But I don't want to be.'

She stared at him for a longtime, then laughed. 'That I believe.'

'Now you.'

'Now me what?'

'Now you tell me a secret about you.'

Another wave passed and neither of them took it. 'I'm tired,' she said. 'I'm going in.'

'Liar,' he chided softly.

She was already a few strokes into her swim back but she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. 'Maybe my secret is worse than yours.'

'Tell me.'

'I'm…' She rolled her eyes. 'You might have already guessed.'

'Say it anyway.'

'I'm a commitment-phobe. Okay?'

'Very okay.' He swam toward her. 'Since we share in that trait.'

'You're an unusual man, Jack Knight.'

'Thank you. I think.' They started swimming toward shore again, riding a few big swells in, rolling into each other, laughing. By the time they hit the sand they were entangled in each other's arms.

The water retreated, and Jack looked down at the half-naked woman against him. Her body was long and lean, chilled and yet somehow warm and soft, so wonderfully soft. Her bare breasts were perfect handfuls-or perfect mouthfuls-and his mouth watered at the thought.

Their bodies brushed together, her nipples hardening against his pecs, making him want to die of pleasure. Her legs entwined with his, and he looked down at her glorious body, wet and radiant beneath the night. His laughter had long ago faded, replaced by a burst of white-hot, gut-wrenching lust.

A look that was mirrored in Sam's eyes, thank God.

'I meant what I said,' he murmured hoarsely, keeping his eyes on hers. 'I'm no more into promises than you are. But you should know, I find you so attractive and sexy, I can hardly breathe when I look at you.'

She lifted her hands and slid her fingers into his hair. 'So it's all surface attraction only, just skin-deep. Right?'

Surface attraction, skin-deep. Yeah, right up his alley. But somehow, this time, with this woman, the description seemed a little… cold. 'Sam-'

'Skin-deep is all I do, Jack. Know that right now. I'm not being coy or playing a game. It's the way I am.'

'Yeah.' How many times had he said the same thing? He looked down at her body interlocked with his and felt the ball of fire in his gut stoke into flame. Shifting a hand up her hip and over her belly, his thumb skimmed her breast.

Her breath hitched. Goose bumps rose over her skin. He wanted to haul her close and smooth each one away, but she shifted out of his arms.

'Hey, even a beach bum like me doesn't do skin-deep on the first date.' Bending, she scooped up her discarded dress. Stepping into it, she pulled it up, covering that body he knew he'd be dreaming about tonight. She struggled with the zipper.

With a sigh and a groan for the quick flash of pain in his knee, he rose to his feet and came up behind her. Gently, he set her hands aside and zipped her wet, beautiful skin into the dress.

She turned to face him and smiled, her earlier wariness gone. 'Thanks.'

'My pleasure.'

She looked down at his feet.

'Ten toes, notice,' he pointed out.

'I can see that.' She smiled. 'And they're not ugly.'

'I'm glad you approve.'

'Tonight really was nice, Jack.'

She seemed so surprised. He cupped her face, stepped closer. 'I'm glad for that, too.'

'I guess I didn't expect it to be.'

'Me neither,' he said quite honestly.

'Yeah…' She took a step backwards, then turned from the waves. Jack grabbed his clothes and they began walking up the bluffs. Sam felt incredibly aware of Jack's big body sheltering hers from the light breeze. She'd enjoyed how he looked stripped down to shorts, all streaming wet flesh over hard sinew. She had to admit, tonight