Jill Shalvis - Instant Temptation

Lani sighed in disappointment.

Good Lord, they would actually believe that the big, edgy, obviously testosterone-ridden TJ was gay rather than believe that he’d be in a relationship with her.

Finally Kitty shook her head. “No. There’s no way he’s gay.” She narrowed her eyes at Harley. “If you wanted him for yourself, all you had to do was say so. But honestly, I don’t see him reciprocating. You’re not his type.”

The other three looked at Harley in grave disappointment, as if she’d broken some sacred sorority trust. She didn’t care, as long as she did her job, which, as TJ had pointed out with utter seriousness, was to protect him.

What can she say? She’d tried.

They all got back on the river, and an hour later came to a sharp turn where suddenly the water moved faster than half a mile an hour. Like one mile an hour.

Still, the coeds shrieked and screamed as if they’d come to the edge of the world. TJ called out directions, his voice filled with quiet but unequivocal command, which in turn forced the girls to shut up if they wanted to hear how to save themselves. He was calm and utterly authoritative, and they leapt to do his bidding, as if pleasing him was all that mattered.

When Harley found herself doing the same, she had to laugh at herself, then let out a surprised squeak when TJ let the girls pass them and snagged her by the back of her life vest, holding her and her kayak next to his. “You’re grinning like a Cheshire cat,” he murmured, pushing his sunglasses to the top of his head to study her. “Explain.”

She looked into his face, then snapped a picture of him, glancing down at her LED screen as the picture flashed there. His eyes readily revealed his intelligence, a sharp wit, and also an inner strength that never failed to give her a flutter. He had a strong face, a beautiful face, though he’d hate that assessment. Did she care to share that he turned her on like no other man ever had? Hell, no. “Inside joke,” she murmured.

He eyed the girls’ retreating backs, then Harley again. “You know sound carries over water, right?”

Oh, God. What part had he heard, that he was gay, or that she wanted him for herself? She looked into his eyes, but couldn’t see anything but the gleam of promised retribution.

Definitely the gay part. “One of us has to catch up with them.”

“Yes.” He let go of her. “I’ll do it. And I’ll catch up with you later.”

Oh boy.

When they stopped for lunch, TJ handled the kayaks and Harley dealt out lunch, serving the girls Annie’s pre-made sandwiches beneath the shade of a grove of two-hundred-year-old, towering pines.

Harley took herself off to the side, giving the coeds their privacy. Or, more accurately, giving Harley her privacy. TJ ambled over when he was done. “Well, that went well,” she said, handing him a big, thick turkey and cheese sandwich.

With an answer that was more of a grunt than affirmation, he plopped down next to her and dug in.

“Hungry?” she asked, amused at his single-minded purpose of devouring the sandwich.

“Even gay men get hungry.”

Oh, yeah. She’d almost forgotten. “If it helps, they didn’t believe me.”

“I wish they had. I’d rather be gay than the boy toy of the month. You should have just told them that we were together. That would have worked.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. And then went on the defensive rather than figure out why his easy solution irritated her. “Must be exhausting to fend off four beautiful young women’s advances.”

Fend them off he had, with more calm, impassive pleasantry than she could have managed. “I mean sure, they want to eat you up,” she said. “You might have gotten groped a few times getting in and out of the water, but overall, it’s been easy enough to handle, right?”

He just looked at her as he swallowed the last of his sandwich.

She grinned. “How many times did you get groped, anyway?”

“I don’t know, but I’m bruised. You’re supposed to be watching my back.”

Yes, but she’d been very busy watching his ass. “You really don’t feel anything when they come on to you like that?”

He eyed the uneaten portion of her sandwich. “I feel the urge to wrap my fingers around Cam’s and Stone’s neck.”

She laughed again and handed him the rest of her sandwich.

His eyes warmed. His lips curved as he took her in. “I love it when you laugh,” he said simply.

Damn if that didn’t make her go all soft and mushy. “You do know they think you’re God’s gift, that they each hope you’ll go alpha and domineering on them in their sleeping bags tonight?”

“How about you? Do you want me to go alpha and domineering in your sleeping bag tonight?” he asked, his voice low and husky.

Heat slashed through her, and her gaze ran over his body, all sprawled out and gorgeous. He hadn’t put on another shirt. All he wore were those board shorts and a smile. The smile revealed a wicked intent. The board shorts, low and loose on his lean hips, revealed the fact that he could absolutely follow through with that wicked intent.

“See anything you want?” he murmured.

“No. Absolutely not.” She turned her back to him and hugged her knees to her chest, watching the river, letting out a low, shaky breath when she knew he could no longer see her face.

“Okay, let’s recap.” He ran a finger over her shoulder. “You don’t want me-”

“As a boyfriend,” she clarified. Because she did want him. She wanted him bad. She just didn’t want to keep him. She couldn’t. He was a walking, talking, breathing heartbreak. “I don’t want you as a boyfriend.”

“Because…?”

“Because you don’t want to be a boyfriend. Plus, you read my list, you saw-”

“Right. I’m not…what did you call Nolan? Sweet, steady, and stable.”

She closed her eyes. “Yeah.” But the truth was, in spite of the rough-and-tumble readiness, the jagged edges to him, he was those things. Sweet. Steady. Stable.

Which meant that she was another S altogether-screwed.

After lunch, they headed down a relatively easy section of the river, floating so slowly Harley could have gotten out and pushed faster. There were no waves, no tumbling rapids, nothing. The water was so flat that the tip of the kayak didn’t even rise and fall.

TJ was out in front, his kayak gliding sure and smooth. Behind him, the four girls laughed and giggled and talked about whatever flitted through their heads. Taking up the rear, Harley could see and hear all, not that the girls were trying to keep their voices down.

“Look at his arms,” Kitty whispered across the water with a dreamy sigh.

No doubt. TJ had the best arms Harley had ever seen. She’d been taking some pictures and found her lens focused in on them, taut, tanned, and glistening.

“I know!” Kitty said. “Someone rip my top off. That’ll get his attention.”

“No!” Harley said quickly, and all four girls craned around to look at her. “No nudity on the river,” she said. No nudity on the river? Jesus, she needed to think faster on her feet.

From ahead, TJ glanced around and gave them a long look, probably trying to figure out if he needed to be in on the conversation or if he should be thinking about running for the border. Harley gave him a little finger wave. She could handle it.

Probably.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Shelly murmured. “Watch this. Help!” she suddenly shrieked, and flailed in her kayak until she managed to tip it over. “TJ, help me!” she screamed.

TJ was already maneuvering his kayak around. Harley knew it would take him no time at all to get to Shelly and haul her out of the water, where she’d probably crawl over him with her wet, warm, curvy body.

As far as tactics went, it was a good one, Harley conceded. And it might be a lot of fun to watch, except for two things.

One, TJ was paying her to avoid exactly this.

And two, she didn’t want any half-naked wet woman crawling all over him.

Well, unless she was the half-naked wet woman. “Shelly,” she said calmly while holding up a hand to TJ to let him know she had it handled. “Put your feet down and stand up. The water’s only up to your belly button.”

Shelly abruptly stopped screaming and flailing and stood up, sending Harley a pout. “You’re no fun.” She flounced through the water to her kayak. “You just blew my chance for some mouth-to-mouth.”

TJ was wearing his dark sunglasses and his baseball cap, which shaded his face, so it was hard to tell his expression across the fifty feet of water that separated them, but Harley was pretty sure he was amused.

And relieved.

He could thank her later. Maybe with some mouth-to-mouth of their own variety.

They went back to kayaking with no more close encounters of the made-up kind. After awhile, Lani floated up next to Harley and smiled. Harley returned it. “You doing okay?” she asked the coed.

“Yes,” Lani said. “It’s gorgeous out here.”

“It is.”

“You’re so lucky that this is your job. I think this would be the coolest job ever.”

“What are you going to do with your biology degree?”

“I was thinking about teaching, but I know now I want to do something different. I want to do something to help preserve the wildlife.”

Shelly turned back and smiled warmly at her friend. “You can do it, Lani.”

Kitty nodded agreeably. “You can do whatever you want.”

“Easy for you to say,” Lani said quietly. “You’ve both got your daddies’ trust funds.”

“So do you,” Tandy said.

“No.” Lani shook her head. “It was all stock options, which are gone.”

The others looked at each other, horrified. “You’re…broke?”

“Just about,” Lani said quietly.

There was silence for a few minutes as they absorbed this while floating down the river.

“I’ll help you, Lani,” Shelly said softly. “I have plenty of extra-”

“Me too,” Kitty said.

But Lani shook her head. “No. I mean thank you, but I couldn’t take your money.”

“It’s not mine,” Shelly said. “It’s my parents’, and they don’t give a rat’s ass how I spend it. It’s up to me what I do with it. And I give it to you.”

At that exact moment Harley warmed up to the Mountain Barbies.

A few minutes later, they rounded a corner and the water picked up speed. Simultaneously all four girls got into trouble. Lani and Tandy collided and knocked each other into the water, screaming as they went, naturally. TJ went after Tandy, and Harley went after Lani. Just as they got both of them straightened out, the other two girls steered directly into an outcrop of trees sticking out of the water.

And capsized.

There was more screaming, and lots of hair trauma. Then two otters swam right by Shelly, who got her earlier wish about being closer to TJ when she literally crawled up his body to get out of the water and away from the otters. Only she was too terrified to enjoy the experience. Harley explained that the otters were harmless to them, that they were just out looking for beaver dams to adopt, but it still took awhile for everyone to calm down.

When they stopped for the day, the girls sprawled out on the shore in the last of the sun’s warmth while TJ and Harley set up camp. Harley pulled the gear out of the kayaks, noting that the coeds had once again stripped out of their protective gear, down to their skimpy bikinis. She had ten years and ten pounds on them, and it was hard not to feel at least a little inferior.

That’s when she felt a lean hard body press up against her.

TJ’s hand settled on the nape of her neck, causing her entire body to shiver. He’d warned her that his kind of love was temporary. She’d agreed to temporary. So what was she supposed to do with the fact that it seemed like so much more? She was kayaking down Heart Break River without a paddle, but even knowing it, she had no idea how to protect herself. Even worse, she didn’t want to. She kept her gaze on the coeds, as gorgeous as the man behind her, and sighed.

“You’re beautiful, Harley.”

She let out a genuine laugh at that. She was wearing men’s board shorts, a loose T-shirt, a life vest, and completing the picture of loveliness, water booties to protect her feet, which had given her a ridiculous tan line. Her hair was undoubtedly a frizz-ball and she’d forgone her usual mascara and lip gloss in favor of full-protection sunscreen and ChapStick.

He turned her to face him. “Beautiful,” he repeated in a low tone, in his authoritative voice, the one that could make coeds jump to attention, and women the world over want to please him.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, and smiled to lighten the moment.

He didn’t return the smile.

Suddenly she wanted to see his eyes. She reached up, tugged off his reflective sunglasses, and caught her breath. He was being serious. Dead serious. Lifting her hand, she ran a finger over his unsmiling mouth until he took her hand and kissed her palm.