Mistletoe in Paradise (Wildstone #5.5) - Jill Shalvis Page 0,17
up behind her. Turning, she met James’s gaze, warm with concern.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
Embarrassed without really understanding why, she nodded.
James looked up at her dad. “How about you come down before you hurt anyone else?”
“What are you talking about? I’d never hurt my boat.”
“Yeah, I was talking about your daughter. Come on.” And then, without waiting for Harry to agree, James moved close enough to reach up and take ahold of the back of Harry’s shirt. “Slowly.”
Harry sighed. “I’m not an invalid.” But as he backed down the ladder, he missed the second-to-last rung and would’ve fallen if James hadn’t been standing there to steady him.
On the deck, Harry scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’ve made a mess of this.”
James set a hand on her dad’s shoulder. “Go sleep it off.”
Harry nodded, then paused. “Thanks, James.”
James looked surprised as he met Harry’s gaze, probably because in all these years, she didn’t think her dad had ever called James by his given name. He had always referred to him as WK. She’d always figured that was her dad’s way of reminding James that he still thought of him as a kid.
Harry nodded at them both and walked off.
James stepped closer and tilted her face up to his. “I’m going to ask you again. You okay?”
“Yeah. That was just Harry being Harry.”
“He’d been drinking.”
“Yes, which makes him even more stubborn than usual,” she said. “Don’t worry, Vacation Harry is much nicer and easier to deal with. He’ll show up when your parents do.”
“Hannah . . . you deserve Vacation Harry as Everyday Harry.”
She shrugged and moved to walk off, but he caught her hand and slowly, almost gently, reeled her in, entangling their fingers together. “About today . . .”
“What about it?”
“I know we’re two very different people,” he said, carrying on their earlier conversation like no time had gone by. “But we’ve got the important stuff in common.”
She stared into his Caribbean eyes and saw the depth of his emotions there. He was letting her in, letting her see everything: his hopes, his dreams, his pain, even the truth about how he felt for her. It all made her heart squeeze hard. “James, how we feel about each other has never been the problem.”
He gave a small smile and brought her hand up to his mouth, brushing a kiss across her palm. “No, it hasn’t.”
Slowly, regretfully, she pulled free. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“When are you going to tell your dad about the divorce?”
The nerves in her belly took flight again. “I was going to do it tonight, but obviously that didn’t work out. I need to do it before the day we dock in Puerto Rico and meet up with your parents.”
He nodded slowly. “Do you want company when you tell him?”
“You’d be with me?”
“Always.”
It wasn’t just the word, but the way he said it, voice low and serious. He had her back in a way no one else ever had.
“Let’s have breakfast in the morning,” he said. “We’ll figure out the best way to tell him.”
She nodded, and he climbed the ladder, hanging the lights with no problem, his T-shirt stretched tight over his shoulders and biceps as he moved, his long legs affording him an easy reach. His body was a finely honed machine that spoke of long days of rowing, climbing, or pursuing his latest adventure, those board shorts of his lovingly cupping a world-class—
“You’re staring at my ass,” he said, voice laced with amusement.
“Figured it was only fair.”
He laughed softly as he climbed back down the ladder. And then he suddenly turned, putting them toe to toe, thigh to thigh. Chest to chest . . .
His hands came up and cupped her face as he slowly drew her mouth to his, giving her plenty of time to back away if she wanted.
She didn’t. In fact she leaned in breathlessly as he kissed her, softly at first, teasing her a little before gently taking her bottom lip between his teeth. She moaned and clutched for purchase in a spinning world, twining her arms around his neck as he fisted his hands in her hair, kissing her hungrily now. When they finally broke apart for air, she stared at him. “Why does that just get better and better?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “One of life’s little mysteries, I guess.”
She stared at him, knowing she needed to walk away now or she wasn’t going to walk away at all. “I should probably go get some