It was disconcerting. She had spent months with the fear that she would never be able to enjoy Rowdy’s touch again. That the desires he had filled her with, the needs and fantasies, would be swamped with the fear. The knowledge that they were coming back, perhaps stronger than ever was at once nerve-racking and comforting.
“It’s almost closing time. I thought we’d help you close up. Then we take all that Chinese food I have out in the cycle’s saddlebag and have dinner before we head out on the lake.” He pushed her hair back from her shoulder as he spoke, his fingers lingering on the shell of her ear for long seconds after he finished.
From the corner of her eye she saw Dawg locking the lake-side doors and hanging up the Closed sign.
“Ray will skin you alive.” She shook her head, though she couldn’t still the smile on her lips. “Summer hours are longer now, Rowdy. I still have an hour.”
“I asked Dad first.” He moved back, his expression intent, sexy. “Better yet, Dawg can finish up for you. Come on, Kelly, sneak away with me.”
Sneak away with him? How many times had she dreamed of hearing him say those words? She would have snuck out with him, anytime, any place.
“Go on, Kelly.” Dawg lent his approval to the idea. “I’ll close up shop here and help Ray and your mom outside before I leave.”
As Rowdy’s first cousin, and the oldest by several months, Dawg had usually led the pranks the Nauti Boys had gotten into. The three men had been hell on wheels through their high school years.
She breathed in deeply, her hands sliding from her h*ps to her jeans pockets as she glanced up at Rowdy again.
“You know you want to,” he whispered with a wink. “Come on, I even spent the day airing out the boat and getting her ready.”
The Nauti Buoy was his pride and joy, not to mention his weekend home. He and his friends spent their summers on the water, normally in the houseboats they had acquired over the years. Their title, the Nauti Boys, had come as much from the names of their boats as from their sexual practices.
“Okay.” She gripped her courage with both hands and gave him a short nod. “I haven’t had Chinese in a while.”
She hadn’t eaten out much period, preferring to stay in the house when she was home rather than forcing herself to pretend a security she didn’t feel. It terrified her, not knowing who her attacker was. If he was a friend or a stranger, someone she trusted or would have trusted.
“Good,” he said, his voice warm, approving as she moved past him, tugging at the hem of her oversized shirt before one of his big hands caught one of hers.
Warmth surrounded her fingers, fed into her bloodstream, and sent heat surging through her system. Adrenaline spiked the wave of warmth, fed it into her tightening ni**les, her swollen clit.
“We’ll catch you on the lake later, Dawg.”
“I’ll give you a call before I head out.” Dawg nodded as they moved past him, his eyes narrowed, the brilliant green glittering behind the spiked lashes surrounding them. They held the same teasing warmth and sensual promise that Natches’s had earlier.
“Come on.”
She followed Rowdy as he moved through the main marina office, waving to her mother as he opened the door and escorted her through it. She wondered if she looked as confused as she felt.
Stilling her emotions and her equilibrium after waking up with him that morning had been hard enough. She had been nervous, her fingers shaking, her stomach clenching each time she thought of waking up beside him, feeling him surrounding her, his erection pressing into her rear. That had been the most disconcerting part. She should have been frightened. The psychologist had told her she would likely be frightened the first time she tried intimate relations after the near-rape. That the intimacy of allowing a man to touch her, to hold her, might be difficult to get through.
It hadn’t been. He had made her more aroused than frightened. And in ways, that was more frightening than the fear of his touch. Everyone had told her for months that being touched would be difficult for her, but being touched by Rowdy had been a dream come true.
“You think too much sometimes,” Rowdy announced as he collected the bags of Chinese food from the steel saddlebags mounted to the side of the motorcycle.
“I can walk and chew gum at the same time too.” She rolled her eyes at him, feeling his hand at the small of her back again.
In the past twenty-four hours he had touched her more than he had in the last ten years. Of course he hadn’t been home for the better part of those ten years, but it wasn’t as though the opportunity hadn’t been there.
“Why didn’t you go on to college?” he asked as they moved onto the docks. “I expected you to head off right after high school.”
She shrugged at the question. “I took business classes at the tech school. You might get the marina when Ray and Mom retire, but the store and fuel supply are mine,” she reminded him. “They’ll only grow as the traffic on the lake increases, and I wanted to be prepared for it.”
“You say that as though you think I might want to get rid of you.” They turned along the plank, heading for the Nauti Buoy, the fifty-foot sea green and white houseboat.
“Not get rid of me maybe.” She stepped onto the wide porch, moving back as he slid open the glass sliding doors before heading into the dim, air-conditioned comfort of the living room/kitchen.
The shades were all drawn, the lights out. As he closed the door behind them, he pulled the heavy drapes closed over it, sealing them inside the intimate, cool comfort of his home away from home.
“Then what?” he asked as he moved to the small kitchen. “Do you think I wouldn’t want you around, Kelly?”
The wheel column sat in the corner in front of the large shaded window beside the glass doors. A six-foot burgundy couch sat to her side, two matching chairs on the other side of the room, behind the wheel. The kitchen was equipped with a mini refrigerator, chest-type freezer, and narrow four-burner stove with an overhead microwave and oak cabinets. The double sink was narrow, but efficient. Across from the work area a circular table with four cushioned captain’s chairs sat beneath a stained-glass chandelier. Farther along was a small bathroom and shower, berth bed, and a walkout to the back diving area.
She loved the Nauti Buoy. They had spent the summers on it when she was younger. Upstairs was another larger, opulent bedroom, as well as a master bathroom and deck. Before Ray had given it to Rowdy, there had been two bedrooms downstairs. Now, the second one was a drying/changing area for the back deck with a small washer/dryer combo.