Slow Summer Burn: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (6 page)

“Thanks for telling me,” Cameron said. “I appreciate you keeping me in the loop.”

“Not a problem,” Lexie replied, returning to a normal tone of voice. “I have to get back to the kitchen, but I want to catch up with you more. Maybe dinner later in the week?”

“That’d be nice,” Cameron said, as Lexie dashed off.

Her food came out fast. She ate quickly, trying to savor her lunch but knowing she had mounds of work waiting for her back at her boutique. Within twenty minutes, she’d eaten and had paid her bill.

“Thanks,” she said to Kiki, as she stood up.

“Oh, dear,” Kiki said, looking out the window. “It’s started to rain. You didn’t bring an umbrella with you, did you?”

“No, but I’ll be fine. It’s just a summer shower, and besides, it’s only a few blocks.”

Kiki looked doubtful. “All right.”

“ ’Bye.”

Cameron stepped out of the door and stood under the small awning over the door frame for a moment as she figured out her plan of attack. Then she moved. Quickly, she walked from awning to awning, hugging the sides of the buildings as she went. The last block would be the worst. No awnings, and no overhangs. She was prepared to get a little bit wet, but just as she reached the edge of the last awning right outside Luke Bedwin’s hardware shop, the skies opened up, sending rain crashing down in buckets.

Cameron sighed and held her ground. She could justify getting drizzled on, but getting caught in a downpour would just be a waste of time if she needed to change afterward. As she anxiously waited for the rain to stop so she could get back to her boutique, the door to the hardware store opened. When she turned and saw who it was, her breath caught in her throat.

It was Val Grayson.

Only, he seemed … different. One black lock of hair hung over his forehead. He hadn’t bothered to shave, and there was a slight shadow on his jaw. He wore a canvas barn jacket over a shirt that seemed to fit him like a second skin, worn jeans that emphasized his long, lean legs, and a pair of scuffed work boots. But it was his hands that got her … big, rugged, and so utterly masculine that for a too-long moment, she wondered how they’d feel on her body and kind of forgot to breathe. Then he made a little noise in his throat and she realized she’d been staring at them for just a few seconds too long. When she looked up at him, his lip curled at one corner, as if he knew exactly what she’d been thinking. He regarded her evenly with deep blue eyes.

“Trapped.”

“Excuse me?” she said, her heart rate kicking up.

Val gestured at the sky. “No umbrella. You’re trapped.” Trapped.
With him
. They weren’t friends—not by a long shot. They were barely acquaintances. She was still uncertain as to how to respond to him.
When in doubt, go for polite civility
.

“It’s just water,” she said, shrugging.

“Yeah? Then why don’t you make a run for it?”

“Because I don’t want to have to change.” No need to explain the astronomically high dry-cleaning bill if she ruined the expensive garments she was wearing.

“Ah.” His eyes warmed a bit. “So you brought spare clothes.”

“I have a place here. But I have a lot of work to get through at the boutique, and I don’t want to have to waste time getting changed and then going back to the store.”

He looked at her for a long minute. “Hang on. I’ll be right back,” Val said, before disappearing into the hardware store.

Cameron sighed and peered out from under the awning. The rain was still coming down in droves. Thunder rumbled, followed a few seconds later by a sharp crack of lightning. As if on cue, the rain began to come down even harder. Her store was only a block away, but it might as well be across Buzzard’s Bay the way it was pouring. Dampness on her ankles quickly made her realize that the bottoms of her crepe-de-chine pants were getting soaked.
Darn it!
She took a step back. Directly into a man’s hard chest. She didn’t need to look to know it was Val.

She whirled around fast and started to apologize for bumping him when she lost her balance. Just before she teetered out from under the awning, Val caught her upper arms and
pulled her back, so close that her breasts were touching his chest. Her apology died on her lips as she watched him watching her, a strange expression on his face. Instead of pushing him away, as she surely
should
do, she simply stood still, enjoying the delicious way his warm hands curled around her. That same warmth she’d experienced while dancing with him the other night hit her full force. Never breaking his gaze from her face, he slowly, very slowly, slid one hand up her arm to her shoulder.

Suddenly, he stopped, paused for a split second, then jerked his hand away as if he’d been burned. He unwrapped his other hand just as quickly. Before she could even process what had just happened, he pulled something out from under his arm. An umbrella. In a swift move, he popped it open and held it over her head.

“The hardware store … I didn’t even think …”

“Luke has everything,” he said simply. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your place.”

“All right.”

He turned her around, draped an arm over her shoulders, and steered her out from under the awning and down the sidewalk. The sound of the rain hitting the umbrella was almost deafening, and she instinctively moved closer to his body, wrapping her arm around his waist. Tightening his grip, he expertly guided them around every puddle and pothole to The Front Street Boutique.

Once underneath her store’s generous awning, she slipped away from his side while he closed the umbrella and shook it out. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “You keep it.”

“I couldn’t possibly.”

“I insist.”

“Thank you,” she said, dipping her head in acknowledgment of his help. “I’ll have to find some way to return the favor.”

“Have dinner with me on Thursday,” he said abruptly.

Her eyes widened. “I—I don’t …”

“Sure you do.” His voice was seductive. Insistent. Suddenly, the space under the awning felt a whole lot smaller.

“Okay. Yes. Dinner.” Resisting him wasn’t an option. “So we’re … even?”

His lips held the hint of a smile. “Not yet. Just one more thing.” He closed the distance between them and placed his hands on her shoulders, watching her carefully.

Then he bent his head and touched his lips to hers.

Chapter 6

Oh, my, yes
.

His lips were firm, eliciting a light tingling that quickly deepened into a dark insistence she couldn’t ignore. Shock quickly gave way to pleasure, the dark, sweet rush going straight to her head before exploding through her entire body.

This was it. The very thing she’d been missing all her life.
Passion
.

She closed her eyes, determined to finally seize that which had never been within her grasp. She welcomed his arms as they folded around her, holding her captive, and then she felt it—a warm flush spreading across her cheeks, down her neck, and over the swell of her breasts. The flush turned into heat. The heat turned into fire. And the fire crept down her belly, lower, lower …

She gasped, and Val took that as an invitation to open her lips with his own. Willingly, she followed where he led. And she’d thought dancing with him had made her hot! Now, she was officially aflame.

He plundered the wet depths of her mouth as if it were his right, his experience evident with every flick of his warm tongue on hers. She craved more but couldn’t figure out how to tell him. One hand slid up the front of his open jacket and clutched the fabric of his shirt.

Hard muscles rippled under her fingers as he simply pulled her closer, his strong body enveloping hers as the rain fell hard onto the street and the awning—a roar of water echoing the sound of the blood rushing in her ears.

And as she reached for more, opened more fully to let him in, pressed against the length of him, she couldn’t help herself. She barely knew the man, had hardly even spoken to him, let alone considered kissing him. The liberties they were now taking were salacious. Shocking.

Sexy
.

A novel prospect for her. If she’d known this was how she was going to feel, would she have declined his invitation to dance?

Deep in her bones, she knew the answer was no. From the moment she’d seen him—
really
seen him—she’d known he’d be like this.

When he used one of those big hands to gently cup her cheek, her breath hitched again. She was cognizant of his lips moving from her mouth to her neck, just below her ear. When he kissed her there, she shivered.

“You taste just like I thought you would, Cameron. Sweet.”

“Thank you,” she responded automatically, still in a haze.

“Always so polite,” he muttered, slowly pulling away. She opened her eyes. He was watching her with a studied, guarded expression.

“You make that sound like a bad thing. Should I apologize?”

“No. You are who you are.” For a moment, something flashed behind his gaze—regret, perhaps? Then he blinked and it was gone, replaced with his usual hawkish look. “Dinner with me on Thursday night. I’ll pick you up at eight-thirty.”

And then he was gone, back into the rain, his booted feet kicking up a splatter of raindrops as he swiftly ran through the downpour. She watched until he turned the corner. Her lips still tingled from where they’d touched his.

You are who you are
. What did that even mean?

He seemed like he’d wanted to kiss her, to touch her, to hold her. He’d even asked—no, demanded—that she go out on a date with him. So why did he seem sorry about it?

Most guys would be thrilled to take her out. Of course, most guys who bothered to ask her out had already been hand-selected by her mother. Cameron sighed deeply. Val was the first man not of her family’s choosing to ask her out in as long as she could remember. But why should he feel remorse about it? He’d been such a gentleman, escorting her back to her shop, and then he’d kissed her with such heat …

Mixed messages didn’t sit well with her, but she didn’t have time to think about that now. She had so much work to do she could barely see straight. With a clear head, she vowed to concentrate on what she needed to do.

And to keep a dangerous man with wary eyes out of her mind.

What the
hell
was he thinking? He’d just kissed Cameron Stahl—taken what he wanted without asking. And she’d been so damned courteous about it, those big violet eyes gazing at him as if he’d done her a favor. He sprinted down Morse Avenue, trying not to overthink what had just happened.

He’d kissed her. And she’d kissed him back. A beautiful, intelligent woman had kissed him back.

Obviously, she liked him, too. So why wasn’t he happier about it?

Maybe because they were all wrong for each other in every possible way.

Val was well aware that women like Cameron Stahl dated men who owned yachts, not houseboats. Men whose hands were smooth, not rough from hand-to-hand combat. Men whose financial worth was in a different stratosphere from his. Sure, he was doing all right. He earned a good salary and had a sizeable nest egg put aside for emergencies, but he was the farthest thing from a trust fund kid.

He was at the boardwalk within a few moments, and a huge rumble of lightning greeted him as he hit the end of Mutterman’s Pier. Instead of running directly to his boat to dry off, something made him stop and turn. Dark, wet sheets of water came down on the harbor. And then he saw it: a crack of brilliant lightning that lit up the sky, another following almost immediately after. It was close, maybe a mile offshore. The storm was magnificent in its splendor.

For a moment, he simply stared. Then, slowly, he walked down to the far end of the pier, his eyes on the water the entire way. Torrents of rain lashed him, running down his neck, seeping into his clothing, and soaking him to the bone, but it felt good. Cleansing.

He’d never leave this little town. No matter where his job took him, he’d always come back here. Star Harbor was thick with memories—of his youth, his brothers and his parents. His dad would have loved this storm. He’d been fearless out of necessity, riding out storm after storm to earn his living fishing, until his luck had finally run out on that fateful Labor Day weekend.

Whenever he thought about his father, Val got introspective. He was fifteen when he lost his dad, and he had to grow up pretty damn fast after that, stepping up wherever and whenever he could. With four rowdy boys to raise, his mom couldn’t do it alone.

His mom. He’d gotten her eyes, along with her disposition. Cool and calm, she’d always tried to help, to make things right up to the day she died.

Exactly like he did.

It was well past the time when he and his brothers should have moved on from their assigned family roles. They’d still been boys back then. Now, they were men. But he was still
doing it. Still approaching everything with caution. Still fixing everyone’s problems. Still focusing on everyone but himself.

When he saw that woman, all soft curves and gentle heat, he hadn’t stopped to think about what problem he needed to fix, or how he could help. All he thought about was how beautiful she was with her hair dampened from the summer rain. And the way she looked up at him with those luminous eyes. A man could get lost in them.

Only Cameron Stahl could look more amazing half-drowned and huddled under a hardware store awning than she could with fancy hair and sparkling diamond earrings at a society awards function. Today, he hadn’t considered her wealth or prestige or how she was way, way out of his league. The only thing running through his mind was how very right she felt in his arms when they danced, and how she felt even better when he kissed her.

He was a hardworking man, but when it came to women, he usually didn’t have to try too hard to get what he wanted. And every cell in his body was screaming that he wanted Cameron. But he still had doubts. He
shouldn’t
want someone like her. She was too rich, too cultured—too everything that he wasn’t. And the way she looked at him? With curiosity and awareness and something more.