Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,29
Audra said brightly and swallowed the bit she’d been about to tack on the end about whether they’d bothered to mention to the well-built creep that they were seventeen. If she embarrassed them, they’d never forgive her. But come on. This guy was at least twenty-five and had that player vibe that she could sniff out a mile away.
After all, Jared had been drenched with it. Which made it all the more confusing as to why he’d been such a rock for her when she’d needed him.
“This is Jace,” Hannah said. “He was just offering to take us parasailing on his boat.”
“Oh, he was, was he?” Audra offered her hand to the Adonis she was liking less and less the longer she stood here. “Where is this boat?”
Mythical, likely. An excuse to get unsuspecting girls away from the resort so he could take advantage of their innocence. He probably thought he’d hit the lottery when he’d stumbled over her naïve sisters.
The guy shook her hand with a firm grip that said his muscles weren’t just for show. “Around the corner. I run the excursion company that services the resort.”
Of course he did. Which meant he was one of the five ex-SEALs Charlie had brought with him when he came back to Duchess Island. The guy’s physique took on a whole different significance once you knew it had been built by the military.
Biting back the curse that had automatically formed, Audra snatched her hand back. “Aqueous Adventures. Right?”
“Not exactly.” Charlie’s voice slid down Audra’s spine as he spoke from behind her. “This is Dr. Reed. You might be familiar with her work on a report about an island and some dolphins?”
Jace’s face did a comical fish-mouth thing—or what would have been comical if anything about this situation approached funny. “No way. You’re Dr. Reed? For some reason, I had the impression from how Charlie talked about you that you were old. Like forty.”
Hannah and Carly both laughed, capturing Jace’s attention again, which Audra really needed to nip in the bud like yesterday, but Charlie’s heat burned across her skin as he joined her in the seventh level of hell.
But had she really expected to never see him? Charlie worked at the resort, and the odds of not running into him were slim unless she’d stayed in her room. Obviously that’s what she should have done, but it was too late now.
The last time she’d seen him, he’d spread her out and tongued her to a climax that had completely blown away the crick in her neck that she’d gotten by falling asleep at her desk. She never should have let him do that; it had opened up far too many desires she had no business entertaining. To say that had left things awkward between them was an understatement.
“Audra is old,” Carly piped up. “She’s almost thirty.”
“Speaking of ages,” Charlie said casually to Jace as if they were all here for a lovely chat. “Dr. Reed’s sisters are jailbait. Find some other tourists to hit on.”
God, would he just stop being so on top of everything? It was not fair that he was standing there with his spiky blond hair blowing in the sea breeze and mirrored sunglasses like he wasn’t even affected by her presence. Didn’t he remember this was the beach where he’d kissed her for the first time? Because she sure did. It was doing funny things to her already-unsettled stomach.
Obviously all the awkwardness was on her side. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to care that there was still so much unsaid between them. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to want everything to be magically fixed so they could really pick up where they’d left off, right here, right now.
Jace’s brows came together. “I was just drumming up business. Jeez.”
“Uh, huh.” Charlie crossed his arms over his Aqueous Adventures T-shirt, totally unconcerned about the malevolent vibes Carly and Hannah were shooting in his direction.
Perfect. They could be mad at Charlie for ruining their flirt-fest with a man who was not only too old for them but a former SEAL, which judging by the mouth on Charlie, most likely meant he had stamina and prowess in a department better suited for grown-up women.
“Nice to meet you, Jace,” Audra said with a small smile that was almost genuine. She liked him a whole lot better when he gave her a two-fingered salute and told the girls he’d see them around, then loped off.