Alec said. “It’s a safety hazard.”
“Right.” Steve set both feet on the dock, wringing out his shirt and shaking the water from his hair, not unlike a dog.
I almost giggled, but managed to hold it in, turning toward Alec. His hand was still on my arm, and with the gentle pressure of his rough fingertips, he led me away. I half expected Steve to call some kind of childish threat after us, but he didn’t.
“Wow,” I said, when we had made a few more turns and were safely out of earshot. “That was really something.”
Alec only grunted and picked up the pace a little.
“Is there a history there?”
“He has a history of cheating on his wife, bringing women out on his boat. And I hate cheaters. So, yeah. I guess you could say that.”
Well, this afternoon sure got intense quickly. And not just whatever happened back there with Steve. My skin was hot where Alec’s hand touched me, sending out flares that reached all the way to the center of my body. Too soon, though, we’d arrived at a boat that was much smaller than what I’d been imagining in my head. I didn’t know much about boats, but it was smallish and white with the name Molly along the front. Was that called the bow? I’d read just enough books involving sea voyages to know names of things, but not what they referred to. Anchor—I knew that one. And life raft.
Speaking of … “Do I need a life jacket?”
Alec had stepped onto the boat ahead of me and was holding out his hand. The look on his face could be described as utterly baffled. “Do you need what?”
My face was instantly hot. And not from the sun, which was barely peeking through puffy white clouds. “A life jacket.” It wasn’t a dumb question. It wasn’t.
Okay, maybe it was.
“Can you swim?” Alec asked slowly.
“Yes. But how am I supposed to know if you’re planning to push me in?”
He made a low sound in his throat, somewhere between a chuckle and a growl. “Just get on the boat, Clem.”
I slid my palm into his and stepped onto the boat. I wasn’t exactly prepared for the way it shifted with the addition of my weight. It pitched slightly, sending me straight into Alec. A little oof sound came out of my mouth as my chest slammed against his, but he didn’t move, absorbing the impact like he caught women this way on a daily basis.
For all I knew, he did. Women like Molly.
He still clasped my hand, and his other hand came around my back, steadying me as the boat leveled out.
“Maybe you do need a life jacket,” Alec said, looking down at me with eyes that were a bit brighter this close up, the clear, dark green-blue of the ocean on a sunny day.
“Shut up. It was a fair question. Especially if you plan to sail off with me or something.”
“Sail off with you?”
I realized how stupid that sounded. I’d come to pick up papers, not go for some kind of sailing rendezvous. But before I could backpedal or just demand that he give me the plans so I could go, Alec’s lip twitched. The movement distracted me, making me zero in on his mouth. Which was the last thing I should have been focusing on when we were pressed together like this. It was a handsome mouth from a distance. Up close, it was devastating. And much too tempting.
“Clementine, have you ever been on a boat?”
“Of course, I—”
My mouth snapped shut. I’d grown up coming here, spending weeks at a time around the ocean. I’d gone to camp as a girl, mostly in the mountains of North Carolina though, not on lakes or beaches. Had I ever actually been on a boat?
“I’m only asking because you mentioned sailing, and this is not a sailboat. And you’re asking about a life jacket, when we’re at the dock.”
“Accidents happen,” I said weakly. “Safety first.”
Alec laughed then, a sound that vibrated through his chest to mine, reminding me exactly how close we were still standing. With a last squeeze of my hand though, Alec stepped back, tugging me onto the main area of the deck before letting me go. Lifting up one of the white cushioned seats, he tossed me a bright orange life jacket. I stared at it, then at his smirking mouth, and tossed it back.
His brows lifted. “What happened to safety first?”
I just glared, and he laughed again, stowing the