Susan Mallery - In Bed With The Devil

“You didn’t kill Hunter,” Meri told him. “It’s not your fault.”

Jack stood. “I’m done here.”

She moved fast and blocked the door. She was small enough that he could have easily pushed past her, but for some reason he didn’t.

“You didn’t kill him,” she repeated. “I know that’s what you think. I know you feel guilty. So what’s the deal? Are you lost in the past? Are you afraid to fall for someone because you don’t want to lose another person you love? Or do you think you’re cursed or something?”

Both, he thought. And so much more. He wasn’t allowed to love or care. It was the price he had to pay for what he’d done. Or, rather, what he hadn’t done.

“I’m not having this conversation with you,” he said.

“Wanna bet?”

She probably thought she looked tough, but she was small and girlie and he could take her in half a second. Or a nanosecond, to talk like her.

“Get out of my way,” he growled.

She raised her chin. “Make me.”

She was like a kitten spitting at a wolf. Entertaining and with no idea of the danger she was in.

“You don’t scare me,” he told her.

“Right back at you.” Then she smiled. “But you probably want to kiss me now, huh?”

She was impossible. And, damn her, he did want to kiss her. He wanted to do a lot of things to her, some of which, if they stayed out here on the balcony, would violate the town’s decency code.

So instead of acting, he went for the distraction. “Andrew seems nice.”

“Oh, please. You hate him.”

“Hate would require me thinking about him. I don’t.”

“So macho. What was up with the I-know-Meri-better game?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, even though he did. Establishing dominance early on was the best way to win.

“And they say women are complicated,” she murmured.

Meri came downstairs and found Andrew waiting for her in the living room and her team hard at work in the dining room. The choice should be simple. Work or the man who had traveled so far to see her.

She debated, then ducked into the kitchen, found the phone book in the pantry and made a couple of quick calls.

“We’re taking the afternoon off,” she announced as she walked in on her team.

“Oh, good,” Andrew said, coming up behind her and putting his hand on her shoulder. “Alone at last.”

“Not exactly,” she said with a grin. “Everyone, the shuttle will be here shortly to take you back to your hotel. I want you to put on bathing suits and beach clothes. Plenty of sunscreen.”

Donny grimaced. “You’re going to make us be outdoors again, aren’t you?”

“Uh-huh.”

There was a collection of grumbles, but everyone knew better than to argue.

“At least we’ll get it over with,” someone said. “Then we can work.”

“You’re taking them to the lake?” Andrew asked when the team had left. “Are you sure about this?”

“They can swim,” she told him. “They might not be great at it, but they can. It’s not healthy for us to sit in this room day after day. Being outside clears the mind. Physical activity is good for them.”

He pulled her close. “You’re good for me. Haven’t you missed me, Meredith?”

“Yes, but maybe not as much as I should have,” she told him honestly.

His blue gaze never wavered. “So I left you alone for too long. I knew I shouldn’t have listened to you when you said you wanted to take a break.”

“I had some things I had to do.” Things she wasn’t comfortable thinking about with an actual boyfriend in the wings.

She braced herself for his temper or at least a serious hissy fit. Instead he touched her cheek. “I guess I’m going to have to win you back.”

Words that should have melted her heart-emotionally if not physically. Because the temperature required to melt a body part would cook it first, and that was gross, even for her twisted mind. So what was wrong with her? Why wasn’t Andrew getting to her?

A question that seriously needed an answer.

An hour later they were down at the edge of the lake. Meri counted heads to make sure no one had ducked out of what she had planned and was surprised to see Jack had joined them.

“Colin told me I wouldn’t want to miss it,” he said when she approached.

“He’s right.” She had a little trouble speaking, which was weird but possibly explained by how great Jack looked in swim trunks and a T-shirt. He was tanned-mostly all over, she remembered from the previous night.

Bad memory, she told herself. Don’t think about making love with Jack. Think about Andrew and how sweet he is. Although sweet Andrew had chosen not to show up for her afternoon of fun on the lake.

“So what are we doing?” Betina asked. She wore shorts and a bikini top.

Meri was momentarily distracted by amazing curves a couple of hours of surgery hadn’t begun to give her. And Betina’s assets were all natural.

“Um, that.” Meri pointed out to the water, where four guys rode toward them on Jet Skis.

“Nerds on water,” Colin muttered. “What were you thinking?”

“That you’ll have fun.”

“I’ll get a sunburn.”

Jack moved close. “I like it,” he said. “Will they give them lessons?”

“Yes. And make them wear life jackets. It will be fun.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Do you always bully them into some physical activity?”

“Pretty much. I’m not athletically gifted either, but I try. We can’t spend out whole lives inside. It makes us pasty. This is better.”

“Last year she made us ski,” Colin said absently as he eyed the Jet Ski. “Norman broke his leg.”

“It’s true,” Betina said. “To this day, the man walks with a limp.”

Meri put her hands on her hips. “But he had fun. He still talks about that day, okay? We’re doing this. Don’t argue with me.”

Jack liked the way she stood up to everyone and how they reluctantly agreed. Meri was an unlikely leader, but she was in charge.

“So where’s Allen?” he asked.

“Andrew,” she corrected. “He doesn’t like group sports.”

“Not a team player?”

“He plays tennis.”

“I see.”

She glared at him. “What does that mean?”

He held up both hands. “Nothing. I’m sure he has a great backhand.”

“He belongs to a country club. He nearly went pro.”

“Afraid of messing up his hair?”

She sniffed. “No. He wanted to do something else with his life.”

“Oh. He couldn’t make the tour.”

“He came really close.”

“I’m sure that brings him comfort.”

“Look,” she said, poking her finger at his chest. “We can’t all be physically perfect.”

He liked baiting her and allowed himself a slight smile. “You think I’m perfect.”

“You’re annoying. And you’re not all that.”

“Yes, I am.”

She turned her back on him. He liked getting to her almost as much as he didn’t like Andrew. Jack was still waiting on Bobbi Sue’s report on the man. His gut told him it wasn’t going to be good news. Would Meri listen when he told her the truth?

He refused to consider that Andrew might be an okay guy.

The instructors rode their Jet Skis to the shore. “We’re looking for Meri,” the tallest, tannest and blondest one said.

“I’m here.” She waved. “This is my team. They’re really smart but not superathletic. Sort of like me.”

She grinned and the guy smiled back. He looked her up and down, then whipped off his sunglasses and moved toward her.

Jack stepped between them. He put his hand on the other guy’s shoulder. “Not so fast.”

Surfer dude nodded and took a step back. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s fine.”

Meri raised her eyebrows. “You’re protecting me from a guy on a Jet Ski. It’s almost romantic.”

“I was impressed,” Betina said. “He could have carried you off to the other side of the lake. We might never have seen you again.”

He eyed them both, not sure of their point.

“You overreacted,” Betina said in a loud whisper. “She could have handled him herself.”

“Just doing my job.”

“Sure you were,” Betina told him with a wink. “You’re not subtle. I’ll give you that.”

“Didn’t know I was supposed to be.”

Meri sighed. “While this is lovely, let’s get on with the activity. You’ll take people out with you and make sure they know what they’re doing before setting them loose with the moving equivalent of a power tool, right?”

“Sure thing,” surfer dude said.

Jack grabbed Meri by the hand and led her over to one of the Jet Skis. “You can go with me.”

“Are you being all macho and take-charge? It’s unexpected-but fun.”

Now she was baiting him. Which was fair, he thought as he put on a life jacket, pushed the Jet Ski back into the lake, then straddled it. If she had been anyone else, he would have thought they were a good team. But he wasn’t interested in being on a team, nor was he interested in Meri. Not that way.

She stepped into the lake and shrieked. “It’s cold.”

“Snow runoff and a mile deep. What did you expect?”

“Eighty degrees. I’ll freeze.”

He gunned the Jet Ski. “You’ll be fine. Hop on.”

She slid behind him, put her feet on the running board and wrapped her arms around his waist.

When she was settled, he twisted the accelerator and they took off across the water.

They bounced through the wake of a boat, then settled onto smoother water. Meri leaned against him, her thighs nestling him. The image of her naked, hungry and ready filled his mind. For once, he didn’t push it away. He let it stay there, arousing him, making him want to pull into shallow waters and make the fantasy real.

He didn’t. Instead he headed back to the beach, where her friends were being shown the right way to board a Jet Ski.

There was also a new addition to the group. A dinghy had been pulled up on the beach, and Andrew stood slightly to the side, staring at Meri.

“How about something with a little more power?” he said, pointing to the twenty-five-foot boat anchored offshore.

She climbed off the Jet Ski and pulled off her life jacket.

“I need to stay here,” she told him. “This was my idea.”

Andrew glanced around. “The nerd brigade will be fine.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

Jack wanted to step between them the way he had with surfer dude. But this was different. This was the guy Meri thought she wanted to marry. And until he, Jack, had proof that Andrew was only in it for her money, he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop her.

“Go ahead,” he told her, consciously unclenching his jaw. “I’ll take care of them.”

“We don’t need taking care of,” Colin protested, then shrugged. “Okay. Maybe we do.”

Meri looked at Jack. “Are you sure?”

“Go. We’ll be fine.”

She nodded slowly, helped Andrew push the dinghy back into the water, then climbed on board. Andrew started the engine and then they were gone.

Colin stared after them. “I hate it when he takes her away. It’s never the same without her.”

Jack hated that he wanted to agree.

Meri scraped the dishes into the garbage disposal, then stacked them on the counter by the sink. She was pleasantly full from the Mexican food they’d brought in for dinner and just slightly buzzed from the margarita. Hmm, her team had had liquor twice in a week. If she wasn’t careful, they were going to get wild on her.

She smiled at the idea, then caught her breath as someone came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Her first thought was that it was Jack, who’d mostly ignored her all afternoon. But then she inhaled the scent and felt the pressure of the body behind her and knew it wasn’t.

“Andrew,” she said as she sidestepped his embrace. “Come to help me with the dishes?”

“No. You don’t need to do that. Let someone else clean up.”

“I don’t mind. I was gone all afternoon.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. Didn’t you have fun with me?”

“Sure.”

They’d taken the boat to the middle of the lake, dropped anchor and enjoyed a light lunch in the sun, then stretched out for some sunbathing. What was there not to like?

She would ignore the fact that she’d kept watching the shore to see what was going on there. To make sure her friends were all right, she reminded herself. She hadn’t been looking to see if Jack stuck around. Even though he had.

“Too bad about the cabin onboard,” Andrew said.

“Uh-huh.”

It had been small and cramped, and when Andrew had tried to take her down below, she’d nearly thrown up. The combination of confined spaces, movement on water and her tummy wasn’t a happy one.

“Let’s go have more fun,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Back at my hotel.”

She sidestepped him. “I need to stay here.”

“Why?”