thought, and it was about time to head back to the inn. Together, they dressed and packed up their towels before donning their life vests again. The sun was coming out of the southern sky now, so Anne pulled her sunglasses on to block the reflection from the water and took off with Ben at her side.
It took a little under an hour to reach the inn. Once they made it back, they turned in their gear and walked back up the path by way of Anne’s parents’ house. Anne thanked him for his company when he walked her to her door. He grinned at her politeness and raised an eyebrow, almost in a challenge. She wanted to kiss him, wanted him to kiss her. A blush began to creep up her skin, and she called herself a coward when she began to turn away to go inside. She stopped when she felt his hand touch her arm. Then he dipped his head down and gave her a quick kiss that stole her breath away.
She waited to see if he would kiss her again.
He didn’t, and she felt disappointed because she wanted more than a quick kiss. But he did watch her closely, too closely, and she felt another blush creep into her face. He tapped the end of her nose with his finger and told her that she had better put some more sunscreen on before he chuckled and walked back up the path to the inn. She did not know just how to interpret that, but his little peck left her wanting much, much more.
Chapter 6
Ben sat at his balcony table eating a BLT and waited until he saw Anne leave for her fill-in job as tour guide before going inside. As he ate, he recounted the day’s events and felt his temperature start to rise. They had eaten a nice breakfast and ride over to the island. Anne had not changed much. She still had that quirky sense of humor that he always liked. It might be tiring after a time if it was not for her intelligence and tendency to veer off on one of her scientific tangents which he always found fascinating. He had learned a lot from her when she would veer off when they were younger. It helped that she would mix something humorous in whatever she was talking about.
Suddenly, she came outside wearing a pair of white Capri pants, a yellow button down short sleeve sheet, and her customary white canvas sneakers. She had her hair clipped behind her head to control the mass. If she didn’t, he could imagine the struggle it would be later to untangle all of that hair after a boat ride. She did not see him and walked around to the little driveway where a white Toyota sat in the shade. He watched her drive away while he continued to admire her from his vantage point on his balcony. Thinking back over the morning again, he remembered how she looked in that red bikini. It was all he could do at the time to not to kiss her then. She was all rounded curves, long limbs, and smooth muscle. The cold water helped him hide his arousal. The little kiss when they returned was just a way to see how she would respond. He had wanted to kiss her again, much more deeply. He was pleased by her sudden breathlessness and the desire he saw in her eyes.
Now that he knew that she was ready for more, he arranged to have dinner alone at the inn. The rest of the family was going into Eastsound to the steakhouse, but he called off claiming that he needed to get some work done. He was counting on Anne eating at the inn again tonight with her parents, and he was sure that he could finagle an invitation to join them. Smiling at his plan, he went to work on the new sales reports. Four hours later he took a break and sat out on his balcony again, drinking some complimentary water from the mini-fridge in his suite and looked out at the water.
He really did like it here. For years he considered either buying or building a vacation home on the island, but he was always too busy to fit in more than a week or two every summer. Now that things were moving along well with the company, he reconsidered the idea. As he watched the water, he