Will's Rockie Way
WILL’S ROCKIE WAY
by
Peggy Hunter
Like fine wine and hot sex, it just gets better with age…TORRID BOOKS CLASSICS, reissues of great erotic romance books from the vaults of Torrid Books, for your intimate reading pleasure.
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An Imprint of Whiskey Creek Press LLC
Whiskey Creek Press
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Copyright
Ó
2006, 2014 by
Peggy Hunter
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN 1-
59374
-701-5
Credits
Cover Artist: Gemini Judson
Editor: Chere Gruver
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
For Jane. You’ve always been so much more than a sister.
Chapter 1
“Rockie?”
Roxanne Way frowned as she cast her gaze over the sea. Never mind that she hadn’t been called Rockie since college; she’d know that deep, gravelly voice anywhere.
Ignore it.
Yes, that’s the answer. Pretend she’d never heard the voice; pretend Will Sheridan was not on the same Florida beach she was on. After all, she’d done very well at pretending she hadn’t been completely humiliated at her graduation from teacher’s college six years ago.
“Rockie?” This time, the voice was closer.
Roxanne idly swept a few grains of sand off her beach towel and kept her eyes trained on the twenty-two grade ten students in her charge. She certainly lucked out when the principal suggested she travel with the kids on spring break this year. She smiled as the other two chaperones, a husband and wife team, frolicked in the waves with the teens.
Roxanne took a deep breath as the warm, salt-filled air coasted over her body. Yes, she needed the break and the kids were fabulous. Now if she could just get the all-too familiar sexy voice out of her head.
When a tall shadow cast over her and her senses filled with his rich musky scent, Roxanne knew it was going to become harder and harder to pretend he wasn’t there. She slowly turned her head and shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up at him.
“Mind if I join you?” Will Sheridan said as he slowly folded his body and sank down in the sand beside her.
“It seems you’re going to join me whether I want you to or not,” she said, her voice clipped and sharp.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you,” he said. He bent one knee up and rested his elbow on it as he gazed down at her. Rich brown eyes swept over her bikini-clad body. “You look great. Hard to believe it’s been six years.”
Hard to believe?
Who the fuck did he think he was talking to? For the past six years, Roxanne counted the days since graduation. Each new morning took her one day further away from the jeers and laughter, the mortification she’d felt when she realized the man she’d been so crazy about all through college had set her up for a horrendous prank.
Hard to believe it had been six years? She wished it was twenty-six years. She wished he was old and wrinkled, with a pecker the size of a pea!
Unfortunately, Will Sheridan was sexy as ever. A few years had done him proud, filled him out more. Dressed only in bright red swim trunks, she could see his rippling, hair-matted chest and his long, muscled legs. God, even his toes looked sexy as hell! And his face, oh Lord! The cleft in his chin, the firm line of his jaw, the high cheek bones and those incredibly expressive coffee-colored eyes; he was as sexy and alluring as ever.
Roxanne forced a smile as she turned her gaze back to the sea. “Imagine seeing you after all this time?” she said lightly. “And so far from home, too.”
“Toronto hasn’t been my home since college,” Will supplied. “I take it you still live there?”
“Yes,” Roxanne replied.
“I got a job teaching high school in Calgary right after graduation,” Will said. “I’m here with a couple other teachers chaperoning my grade eleven history class.”
“I heard you’d gone out west,” she said. “I’m sure you remember Blake Harden. He’s here with Joanne, acting as chaperones as well.”
Roxanne wasn’t certain if the bright sun was getting into her eyes, or if she’d actually seen Will wince. “Pig’s here, is he?” he asked, he voice low as he referred to Blake by his college nickname. Will had dubbed his roommate
Pig
for obvious reasons…he’d been a pig to live with.
Will’s gaze slid to the shore. His hand went to his chin. “Rockie, did you ever find out what happened that night?”
Roxanne’s heart hammered. “I know what happened,” she said. “You asked me to meet you in your bedroom and then...” Her voice shook, she couldn’t go on. The humiliation was something she simply did not want to relive—not six years later, not sixty years later!
“Rockie, I understand why you were upset but there’s something you didn’t know and you never gave me the chance to explain…”
“Wiley Will?” Blake’s booming voice split through the gentle spring breeze. “Holy shit, man! So damn good to see you!”
Thank God!
Roxanne was grateful for the interruption. She rose as Blake bounded toward them. She gasped when Will grabbed her arm. “At least give me a chance to explain my side of it,” he said softly.
Roxanne rifled through her purse and pulled out a pen. She scribbled on a piece of paper and pressed it into Will’s hand. “Here’s my email address.”
* * * *
“Good to see you, you old shithead!” Blake said as he pumped Will’s hand in greeting. He followed Will’s gaze as Rockie quickly walked through the sand toward the waves. “She’s as hot as she was in college, eh?”
She certainly was. He knew he’d see her but hadn’t expected his groin to tighten the moment he laid eyes on her again. Rockie was everything she was in college, maybe even more. The years had been kind to her. Her hips swayed as she walked away, filling Will’s thoughts with unrequited need. God, how he wished he’d known her sexually in college. He’d come damn close if only it hadn’t been for Blake and his stupid prank.
Those deep sapphire eyes had peered back at him with contempt as her long willowy body struggled with the awareness he knew she felt. She’d let her dark blond hair grow; gone was the pixie cut she sported in college. In its place were long tresses with sun-bleached highlights that framed her heart-shaped face.
“She doesn’t know, does she?” Will asked. “No one ever told her the truth.”
Blake didn’t have to ask what he was talking about. “Are you fucking kidding? I’ll carry that secret to my grave. Jesus, Joanne was her roommate and just as upset about it as Rockie was. She’d have dumped me in a minute if she knew the truth.”
Will turned his gaze to his college friend. “Better that Rockie continues to think I set her up.”
Blake chuckled nervously. “Well, yeah, I guess so,” he said. “Besides, you didn’t make much of an effort to set things right with her before you left. You flew off to Calgary a couple days later.”
Will had tried to reach Rockie at her parents’ house a couple times. Her mother insisted she wasn’t home. He supposed he could have gone to her parents’ house; insist that he talk to her.
Still, when he’d tried to explain that night, she’d slapped him and run away. At the time, he was as angry with her for not listening to his explanation as she was at him for the situation she’d been tossed into.
He flew out to Calgary two days later and, as far as he was concerned, never looked back. At least, not until recently. When he reconnected with his old college roommate and discovered Rockie was teaching at the same high school, all kinds of memories, not to mention regrets, dredged to the surface.
An opportunity to make things right arose when Blake told him Rockie was going to accompany her grade ten class on spring break this year. Will quickly made plans to go with his students. He volunteered to make the arrangements and booked the trip based on the itinerary Blake sent him. If Rockie thought their encounter on the beach was by pure chance and by walking away she’d seen the last of him, she was about to find out otherwise.
Will glanced down at the bit of paper Rockie had pressed into his hand.
Will chuckled. The next few days were going to be very interesting.
Chapter 2
“I just about fell over backwards when Blake told me Will’s here with his class from Calgary,” Joanne said as she scooped potato salad onto her plate.
Roxanne peered over her shoulder and saw that all the teenagers under their charge were seated and eating. She turned her attention back to the ranch dressing she was spooning over the lettuce on her plate.
“Tell me about it,” she said. “If I live to be one hundred, I’d have been quite content never to see him again.”
Joanne patted her shoulder. “After what happened, I don’t blame you.” She popped a black olive into her mouth and chewed. “You know, I always thought Will didn’t act alone, that there was at least one more person involved.”
Roxanne shivered. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather just let it go. I really don’t want to rehash it.”
“Right,” Joanne said. “After all, we’re on spring break. We should be enjoying ourselves.” Joanne smiled wickedly as she spied the dessert table. “And, speaking of which, there’s a slice of coconut cream pie with my name on it.”
Roxanne chuckled. “You haven’t even had dinner yet.” But Joanne wasn’t listening as she dashed to the desserts.
She shook her head as she turned her attention to the chickpeas and spooned a few on top of her salad.
“Aren’t you going to have dessert, too?”
Roxanne’s body stiffened as Will took her by surprise again. She whisked around to see him standing behind her, a plate filled with various creamed salads in his hand. “I—” she couldn’t find the words. She tried again, “What—”
Damn it!
“I guess we’re in the same hotel,” Will said smoothly, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “What luck, huh?”
Roxanne’s head swam deliriously. This was the last damn thing she needed! It was bad enough to see him on the beach today but finding out that he was staying in the same hotel? The next seven days would be hell!
“What luck,” she said sarcastically. “And I’ll get something for dessert when I’m ready.”
Will’s eyes glinted devilishly. “Get something with lots of whipped cream.”
Roxanne felt as though the top of her head would explode. “How dare you!” she cried. “You…you…depraved jerk!”
Will held out a hand and took a step back. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” he said.
“You most certainly did,” Roxanne cried. “Someone like you…someone lower than whale shit…would look for a chance to rub it in my face!”