Wild And Willing. Joanne Rock
needed. Hadn’t she been hiding from taking chances for too long already? No way was she going back to Twin Palms without the assurance that she could take a few risks now and then.
“But that’s exactly where I want to go.” She’d signed on for adventure, damn it. She’d never find it if they stuck to Seth’s predetermined plan of tourist fun for the day.
Her mother wouldn’t settle for that if she was looking for adventure. This week, neither would Mia. She flashed him her best flirtatious smile and beckoned him closer.
“Why don’t you show me the rest of your boat?” SHE MIGHT as well have asked to see his etchings. Seth knew exactly where she was headed with this “show-me-your-boat” business, and he wasn’t so sure he should go there.
He barely knew Mia. And although he’d dated plenty of women, he’d never dated a woman he didn’t know well. Maybe some he’d only known a brief time chronologically, but he always understood their type—sophisticated, fast-track, know-the-score women who were as upwardly mobile and ambitious as him.
Mia didn’t fit into any type he recognized. A self-confessed sensualist artist who didn’t hesitate to kidnap a pirate and cause a big scene. Yet she balked at the idea of being on television, even if it might help her career.
And, God help him, she could come undone in his arms with just a kiss. He was still battling the surge of lust he’d felt at seeing her fly apart.
But no matter how overtly enticing she might be, or how much she might say she just wanted a little adventure in her life, Seth had the feeling sex with Mia wouldn’t be the kind of thing he could just walk away from. He’d known her for a couple of hours and already he felt mesmerized by those big green eyes of hers. The contradiction of her sensual nature and her forward way of speaking proved an appealing puzzle.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to see the rest of the boat.” He reached for the ignition but Mia shifted her hip in his path.
He drew his hand back, knowing if he touched her once more, he wouldn’t be able to stop touching her.
“Why not?” She peered around the deck until her gaze landed on the stairs leading to the berth.
“Because there’s a bed down there, Mia. A big bed in a tiny cabin.” Was he the dumbest guy on earth to forsake a chance at having this sexiest-of-all female in that bed? Or was he being smart to save himself messy complications with a woman he’d probably never understand?
He plowed ahead, hoping he fell into the latter category. “And I don’t think it’s such a good idea to go traipsing down there next to that big bed when we’re both already thinking about orgasms and sex and…undulation.”
A breeze tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, sending the silky strands to wave, flaglike, behind her. She smiled, a small upturn of her lips that called to mind illicit kisses and all the things a sensualist sort of woman might do with her mouth.
“You make it sound like a dirty word,” she chastened.
“No, you make it sound like a sexy-as-hell word when it shouldn’t be.” He’d probably get an erection for the rest of his life when he heard someone say “undulate.” Lucky for him, it wasn’t the kind of thing apt to surface in daily conversation, right?
She edged by him, her gaze focused on the stairs behind the helm.
“Wait a minute.” He scrambled after her, her floral skirt flapping in the breeze and teasing him with glimpses of thigh. “Where are you going?”
“I just want to look around. You don’t need to come with me.” Mia gripped the handrail at the head of the stairs and started down, puckering her lips at him to pantomime an exaggerated kiss before she totally disappeared. “Although you might have fun if you let yourself.”
No other man with even a flicker of a pulse would ignore such a blatant invitation. But damn it, he didn’t get involved in relationships lightly. Never had. Never would.
His father’s lack of commitment to his family had taught Seth from an early age to be responsible, to take care of everyone around him, and most of all, not to get involved with any woman on the spur of the moment to assuage some temporary hunger.
Seth had only just taken his boat out of storage last weekend, and he sure as hell didn’t have any condoms lying around for protection’s sake. No way was he getting into a situation he couldn’t control, even if the woman in question had him wound so tight he couldn’t see straight.
“Wow! You call this tiny?” Mia enthused from downstairs, her thin sandals padding around the hardwood floors below deck. “This is huge!”
Her compliment nudged him closer to the stairwell.
He’d always loved this dang boat. The cruiser had been his first totally selfish purchase once he’d had enough money to do as he pleased. Now he could afford a boat that would make this one look like an afterthought, but Seth would sooner part with his corner office with a Bay view or his fifty-yard line season tickets for Buccaneers games before he traded in his boat.
How could he not go downstairs to sing its praises when Mia was so obviously interested? He could take ten minutes to show her the boat and then they’d be on their way to a routine tourist trek to Egmont Key.
Besides, it wasn’t like Mia was going to jump him, right?
He took the stairs two at a time and realized by the time he got to the bottom that his body seemed to be in charge here and his rational mind was in danger of being utterly ignored. Knowing that didn’t stop his feet from finding their way to Mia.
She stood in the salon, turning her head every which way and running her palm across the surface of an interior wall.
When she noticed him, she pointed toward the porthole. “The light is great in here. See how that last little bit of sunset casts a pinkish glow on this wall? You need a strip of mural right here to soak up the colors.”
He envisioned a painting of a big fish on the wall. “How about a guy wrestling an oversize dolphin fish?”
She frowned. “I was seeing more of a quiet tropical island, but I guess that would work.”
“You want the tour?”
Nodding, she joined him, taking his arm so he could lead her through the cabin areas. He started with the master stateroom so he could get it over with first. The double bed seemed much bigger than that in the small space. A navy comforter and white pillows made the room inviting, and Seth braced himself to be enticed by Carmen the Temptress.
“Nice,” Mia commented, taking it all in before she backed into another room. “And this is the kitchen?”
“Galley,” he corrected automatically, surprised at the twinge of disappointment he experienced at not being wrestled onto the bed. He reached into the chest of drawers in his stateroom and found a T-shirt to wear, then joined her in the kitchen. “I’m not much of a chef, but then, it doesn’t take much talent to make fresh fish taste good.”
“So this boat belongs to you, not the bank?” Mia ran her fingers over the countertops, clicking out a quick rhythm with her nails on the laminated surface.
Of course, she thought he worked for Gulf Coast. Part-time pirate and full-time gopher. How the hell could he have ever afforded a toy like this on a pirate’s wages?
“Yeah. I bought it a few years ago with some money I’d been saving.” Not an outright lie. Still, he hustled to redirect her as he pulled his T-shirt over his head. “But I spend a lot of time on the water, so it seemed worth it. You probably don’t think twice about how much you spend on paints and canvas.”
She followed him toward the guest stateroom, a cabin rich with red woods and burgundy linens. “Painting is a lot cheaper than sculpting at least. Clay is reasonable, but if you want to work in stone, you can go into debt in no time. Especially if you mess up and need to start over again.”
Drifting