In Too Deep (19 page)

“
You never used to like things
being predictable.”

Yep, once she’d been the wild one.
The impulsive, crazy girl always up for a dare, taking any
opportunity to prove she was fit to be part of her brother’s older,
all male posse. And West? Well, West slipped easily into the role
of an easy-going pal, patient and secretly protective of Ben’s
little sister. The sensible, practical one.

Her gaze dropped to the soft knit
of his white tee shirt, soaked through now, transparent as it clung
to the slight swell of his pecs and the jut of his small male
nipples. Certain erogenous zones on her body started cranking out
heat, unhampered by the cold rain.

“
Sometimes predictable is safer.
And regarding the weather,
which is what we’re talking
about,
predictable is preferable.”

He ran a palm over his face and
slicked back his dripping hair. “So if I kissed you now, would that
make me predictable or
unpredictable?
”

“
You’re not kissing me at all. Not
unless you want me to do some serious dental damage to your
pretty-boy smile.”

West stepped closer, she stepped
back, but another flash of that pretty-boy smile stopped her from
retreating any further. He was teasing, toying with her emotions
again. Their inexplicable attraction to each other was just a big
joke. Well, har-de-har-har. She didn’t feel like playing, but she
wasn’t going to run either.

“
You want me to kiss you again. I
know you do.” His gaze purposely dropped and his grin expanded
exponentially. “The evidence is right there, front and center,
Officer Harland.”

Goddamn misbehaving body parts.
But she wouldn’t draw more attention to them by folding her
arms.

“
In case it’s escaped your amazing
powers of observation,” she raised her voice above the roar of the
rain, “it’s pissing down and about fifty-five degrees. I’m
cold.”

“
Cold
and
a little turned
on?” Once again he evaporated the distance between them, this time
standing so close those wayward nipples of hers threatened to poke
holes in his chest. “I bet you watched
The Notebook
and
sighed dreamily when Ryan Gosling sucked face with Rachel McAdams
in the rain.”

“
At least I didn’t cry at the end
of
The Lion King
.” She shoved at West’s large hand which
sneakily landed on her hip. “You big baby.”

“
Hey! We were kids.”

His other hand grazed her arm and
she slapped it away. “Well, we’re not kids now, West,
so stop
it
.”

The playful grin dropped off his
face. His eyes went flinty, even as her breath hitched in her
chest, like breathing air from a tank about to run dry.

“
Go on, boy, plant one on her
while you’ve got the chance!” husband number three’s voice
fog-horned from behind.

They jerked apart and looked at
the three dripping wet couples splashing toward them. All three
couples wore identical amused expressions.

Before she could react, West
grabbed her, tipping her backward into a dramatic dip. Cool, firm
lips pressed to hers for a count of two, but his eyes were the grey
of gathering storm clouds, devoid of warmth. He levered her back to
her feet, with the applause of their audience echoing
around.

“
Smile for the guests,
darling
,” he gritted out.

After performing a mocking bow, he
walked away.

***

West linked his hands behind his
neck and wondered if counting back from a thousand in sevens would
make his erection disappear. The mattress beneath him was as
flexible as a wooden plank and the bunk itself certainly wasn’t
designed for a six-foot horny-as-hell male.

Please don’t let her come out of
the bathroom in those minuscule cartoon pajamas or I might
embarrass myself here.

West groaned and shut his eyes
against the blaze of moonlight shining through the cabin window.
Piper could come out in sackcloth and ashes and he’d still want to
strip her naked.

After their impromptu
entertainment in front of their six guests earlier, all sorts of
unwanted advice and innuendos bombarded them since their return to
The Mollymawk. Unfortunately, the couples hadn’t wanted to stay up
late but instead retired to their separate cabins. Bugger for him
and Piper once they ran out of chores—it meant they either had to
make conversation or hit the sack. The oblivion of sleep sounded
perfect, but he found himself offering Piper the use of the
bathroom first.

The door clicked open and he
couldn’t resist a peek. Piper scurried through the doorway in long,
loose pajama pants and a baggy, black tee shirt. The outfit, he
assumed, her idea of non-sexy sleep attire. But he was a guy with a
photographic memory of what curves hid under the loose fabric of
her sleepwear.

“
It’s all yours.” She slithered
into her sleeping bag with a rustle—followed seconds later by the
fzzzzt of the zipper being hauled up, all the way up.

Not taking any chances that I’ll
slide into it with you, are you, babe?

And the thought of trying to,
really,
really
didn’t help ease the ache of his cock pressed
insistently against his jeans. Pathetic. Panting after her like
Donny after one of the island’s few unneutered bitches. He all but
fell off the bunk bed in his haste to get into the
bathroom.

Shoving his toothbrush into his
mouth, West scrubbed at his teeth with enough force to scrape off
enamel. This whole situation got crazier by the day. Bad enough to
want Piper like he did, but the weird sense of intimacy, the jolt
of
rightness
, that sucker punched him when he’d wrapped her
in a bear hug—that was plain wrong.
Crazy
wrong.

He spat and rinsed. Not going
there again. Not going there
ever
again. But, damn if he
didn’t want to storm back in the cabin all Neanderthal-like, peel
that sleeping bag off her, and do her till she screamed his
name.

West unbuttoned his jeans and
prepared to wait until his hard-on went down enough to
pee.

“
C’mon, c’mon. You’re not getting
any action tonight,” he muttered.

But unable to help himself, with
thoughts of Piper’s nipples jutting against the soft fabric of her
tee shirt, he wrapped his fist around his throbbing
cock.

Chapter 10

West’s head
dropped back as his fist moved along himself in slow, achingly slow
strokes.

“
I want you to be my first,” Piper
said, meeting his gaze with fierce hazel eyes.

I want to be your only. The words
he wanted to say but couldn’t. She’d sprawled on his bed, her
breasts bare, the nipples reddened like tiny strawberries from his
suckling. Losing all imagined sophistication, he helped her out of
her shorts and removed his jeans, nearly tripping over his own feet
in the hurry to bury himself in her warm, tight depths. God, he
wanted her and even the threat of Ben coming home to their flat
early couldn’t deter him from finally, finally making her
his.

Thrusting into her, her slick
wetness wrapped around him like a velvet-lined fist. She dug her
nails into his ass and dragged him closer, even as he tried to pull
away, terrified that he’d hurt her. Her teeth nipped his earlobe,
her hissed-out breath brushing his cheek.

“
Don’t you dare stop now,” she
said.

His mouth found hers in the dark,
claiming her, but cursing him to remember the taste of her
forever.

He groaned through clenched teeth,
his thumb spreading the moisture from the tip lengthwise, the
pressure inside him building to volcanic levels as his palm moved
faster and faster.

“
West?” A soft knock on the
bathroom door behind him. “Are you okay?”

Shit! His hand braced against the
wall slipped and he stumbled toward the toilet bowl, gasping for
breath.

“
Are you sick?” Concern pitched
Piper’s voice higher than normal. “I heard you
groaning.”

Sick. That was it!

“
Uh, yeah.” He exhaled in a
whoosh, his heart a kettle drum pounding in time with the throb of
his cock. “Think I ate too many paua fritters—feel like I’m gonna
hurl.”

“
Oh.”

He caught her doubt in that one
short syllable. How long had he been groaning? And what other
sounds had she heard?

“
You need anything?”

Just you baby, just you.
Christ. He struggled to jam himself back into his
boxers.

“
No, I’m good.” West splashed a
handful of cold water on his face. Contemplated dumping a cup of it
down his shorts to see if it would cool his aching balls
off.

“
Well. Okay. There’s a roll of
Quick-Eze in my bath bag if you need it.”

Indigestion pills? Yeah, they
wouldn’t help—
how about a hand-job instead, babe?
Like that
would happen.

“
Thanks, I’ll be fine. Go back to
bed.”

He waited, hands clamped either
side of the sink to anchor himself in place, listening to Piper’s
soft footsteps and the final fzzzzt of the sleeping bag zipper
sealing her away. Giving her a few more moments to settle, West
cracked open the bathroom door and slunk into his bed.

***

Piper clutched her pillow like a
life preserver, like she was floundering on the surface of a
turbulent ocean. She remained in that stunned position for almost
an hour.

Oh. My. God. West had been jerking
off in the bathroom.

At first she hadn’t been sure, had
reacted out of genuine concern thinking he was sick. But after
hearing the rawness of his voice—lightbulb moment! Did he honestly
think the “I ate too many paua” excuse would cut it? What? Was she
a complete innocent who didn’t know the difference between a guy’s
hanging over the porcelain throne about to puke groan
, and a
guy’s
this feels so good I’m about to come
groan?

Puh-lease.

And the worst of it? She’d stood
outside that bathroom door for a moment with jellified knees and a
growing damp patch in her pajama bottoms, wishing she could kick
the door down and have her wicked way with him. She silenced a
groan of her own by biting down on the fleshy web between her thumb
and index finger. Crazy, sexually-frustrated tart.

Bastard knew she was attracted to
him—okay, had gone beyond attraction and into the
obsessively-craving-his-touch zone—so what was up with the sneaky
bathroom masturbation? Her cotton pajama bottoms whispered together
as she restlessly shifted her legs in the confines of the sleeping
bag.

Hello?
The snide little
bitch inside her head piped up.
Are you for real? You dress in
baggy tee shirts to disguise your teeny-tiny boobs, and combat
boots to show what an ass-kicker you are. It’s only now you wonder
why West jerks off in the other room, imagining some dainty little
thing in do-me heels and a g-string?

Hot tears stung the corner of her
eyes.

He was attracted to her but
big-freaking-deal. She’d been attracted to guys who weren’t her
normal “type,” had even slept with a couple, but she’d no intention
of having a relationship with them. Just like West had no intention
of having a relationship with her.

It’s all about proximity and
availability, kid. Don’t delude yourself thinking it’s anything
more.
And she wasn’t going to change to please him. Been there,
tried that, failed spectacularly.

But did she want a summer fling?
To see if a quickie with West, now that she was a little older and
wiser, would finally shut her yearning body up?

Maybe.

She could handle a fling. She had
no ties, nothing to keep her in Oban once her duty was done.
Nothing and no one.

So why did her family’s faces
float into her mind? Why did she see West in the sunshine with that
half smile and his hair sticking up crazily on one side where he’d
shoved his fingers through it? Why did she feel his arms around her
still? And the burn in her throat as he stroked her hair and rested
his hand briefly on the back of her neck?

She scrubbed away a tear slipping
down her cheek and sucked a surreptitious breath in through her
mouth—one sniff and West would guess what her snotty nose meant.
Burrowing her face into the folds of the sleeping bag, Piper tried
to tune out the soft breathing from the other bunk.

The only thing more humiliating
than her tears would be to acknowledge that once again West had
found a way under her protective armor.

***

Ten hours of frustration later,
West followed Piper off the wharf to a corner table in Erin’s café.
Ben had beaten them and was about to tuck into a late breakfast of
bacon and eggs.

West sat next to him. “How can you
put so much cholesterol into your body day after day and still
live?”

Piper slumped in the chair
opposite.