Hot As Blazes. Dani Jace

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СКАЧАТЬ you going to leave without saying hello?” He propped his large paw on her driver’s door.

      Hot need spiked through her traitorous body. She squirmed in her seat trying to ignore her dampening panties before straightening. “Bobby wanted you to have your new fishing reel for the weekend. It’s on the counter. Thought you were busy. I heard the shower running after I ran into big boobs on her way out.”

      He flashed a grin. “Aww come on Jo, I’m an ass man and you know it.”

      Most of his women did tend to have apple butts. Like hers. He’d never commented, but she’d caught him looking on occasion. “How could I have forgotten?”

      “Miss Hooters is a friend of my roommate, Craig.” His grin melted into devilish smile. “I wasn’t invited to that party.” His cynical tone mocked as though he sensed her jealousy.

      “Sounded like she might ask you next time.”

      His blue eyes darkened. “Not my type. Thought you were going to invite me to surf and have a beer.”

      “You know you’re welcome to drop by the house anytime.” She refused to play his flirting game. They weren’t in high school any more. Even if he was truly interested in her, he never kept a woman long. If he broke her heart, she’d never recover. Her foot slipped from the brake. “I gotta go.”

      He stepped onto the running board and held onto the door. “Hold up.”

      His sincere gaze weakened her resolve. Tired of rating as only a surf buddy and Bobby’s little sister, she glared at him. “What?”

      “Nothing’s changed since high school. I still want to bend you over my knee, for being a brat.” He winked.

      He knew how to push her buttons. And the little one between her legs ached to be stroked. “In your dreams—”

      He ducked through the window, cupped her chin, and planted his lips against hers. His chin stubble rasped her skin in a wicked glide. She couldn’t resist and let him have his way.

      His tongue teased her lips and found entry. She answered the mating as his fingers traced along her jaw. He tasted like aroused male and she wanted more. Wanted him to take her to heights she’d never known with a lover, but she’d never settle for being a notch on his headboard.

      “So sweet.” His raspy voice jolted her from a semi-trance.

      She sucked in a breath. “I really have to go.”

      “Dahlin’, you better be at Mike’s party this weekend or I’ll come looking for you. And when I do, it’s going to take more than a kiss to satisfy me.”

      Damned fireman. Now she knew for sure what she was missing.

      Chapter 5

      After her early shift on the Fourth of July, Jo returned home and showered. As she shampooed her hair, Ray’s heated kiss still lingered on her lips and tongue. They’d kissed once before. After her father’s funeral, he’d kept the black hole of grief from swallowing her.

      His recent kiss had held the same hungry desire. A desire she’d previously dismissed as circumstantial. Her body refused to forget his stroking fingers and tongue as she bathed. She slid her soapy hands between her thighs and imagined they were his. Her aching need bloomed under a delicate massage.

      A car horned beeped outside of the cottage.

      She cut the water, jumped from the shower and threw on her suit and shorts. After grabbing her backpack and beach hat, she bounded downstairs.

      Bobby sat behind the wheel of a Mustang convertible with a waving brunette riding shotgun.

      “Jo this is Sarah,” Bobby introduced them as Sarah opened the car door.

      Jo climbed into the backseat. “Nice to meet you.”

      “You too.” Sarah grinned. “So glad you could get off in time for the party.”

      Independence Day traffic crawled on the winding two-lane through the small town of Duck while her brother’s girlfriend chatted her up as if they were best friends. Sadly, she happened to be her only female friend at the moment. A self-made woman from New York, Sarah had fallen in love with the Outer Banks while on vacation. She returned and opened a jewelry business and now lived in a prestigious section of Kitty Hawk.

      Their handholding and lovey-dovey gazes mocked Jo’s current jaded sense of romance, but her heart swelled at her brother’s happiness. The police department had been his life after their father’s death.

      Bobby parked a block away from a three-story mansion secluded in a cluster of dunes dotted with knurly live oak trees. Several pop-up canopies littered the sandy lot, offering small rectangles of shade and hydration in many forms. Two enormous wheeled cookers smoked in the late afternoon heat tempting guests with a variety of protein sustenance from swine and bovine to fowl.

      Mike and his wife greeted them on the patio beneath the elevated beach house. While the guys caught up and the women complimented one another’s outfits, Jo ghosted for the beach. While passing one of the coolers, she stopped and snatched a couple brewskis before trekking to the top of a dune.

      A line of bathing beauties gathered along the sidelines of a volleyball court boasting way too much testosterone. She picked an obscure spot with a view of the ongoing game.

      After unrolling her beach towel, she shed her cutoffs. Her modest black bikini accented her legs, which had been voted best on the west coast surfing circuit. She’d have rather had more in the boobs department.

      Ray stood on the court, shirtless and smoking hot. Tanned and glistening with sweat, she itched to run her fingers along his sculpted abs and lower. His team consisted of firefighters she recalled from the Broncosaurus versus bike incident.

      Had he noticed her? He probably didn’t remember demanding her presence, or had another woman pining for his attention.

      The game reminded her of when she played with Bobby, Ray and their gang. The girls at the net withered against the guys’ hard-core play. After match point, they hit the water. One of the female players swam out with Ray.

      Jo waded beyond the breakers and floated in the building swells. If only she’d brought her surfboard. It’d be easier to talk to him while bobbing in the ocean, if he decided to look for her. Once again, she waited for him. This would be the last time, she swore in California she’d never play the waiting game again. Swimming for shore, she intended on downing the second beer in her bag.

      Ray shaded her as she reached the water’s edge. Muscular shoulders tanned to perfection met sock solid pecs. His torso V’d into a six-pack outfitted in a pair of black trunks. If OBX had a best body calendar, he’d be the perfect cover model.

      The wicked tribal tattoo encircling his brawny bicep begged to be touched.

      “You hiding out?” Pale eyes probed over top his dark glasses as he nodded toward her spot and smiled.

      “And laying low.”

      “Sexy bikini. Sexier body in it.” He winked, slid his hand to the small of her back, and escorted СКАЧАТЬ