THREE
An hour later, Kelly pulled her car into the parking lot of the marina and stared out at the boats lined at the end of the docks. The Nauti Boys were all there. The Nauti Buoy, Nauti Dawg, and Nauti Dreams. She could see Rowdy on the upper deck, dressed in cutoffs, bare chested and looking like a sun god as he straightened and stared out at the parking lot.
She had to talk to him.
She laid her head on the steering wheel and closed her eyes as she felt her heart thumping erratically in her chest. Fear or excitement? Both, she admitted to herself.
The knowledge that he was back sent heat rushing through her even as fear shadowed the arousal. She was a virgin, but she wasn’t ignorant. She knew what the tension between her thighs was, and it was stronger than it had ever been. She grabbed her purse before opening the door and stepping out onto the parking lot. She looked around, feeling the snaking fear that always followed her when she left the house. Squaring her shoulders, Kelly turned and headed toward the docks. Her head lifted as her gaze locked on Rowdy. He was watching her, standing beneath the rays of a sun that lovingly painted his hard, muscular body. He made her breathing hard, made her mouth water and her hands shake with nerves.
Pulling her gaze away, she moved onto the floating walkway, heading for the back edge of the docks. There were half a dozen rows of docking slots on this quarter of the marina. They were the least expensive slots, and the farthest away from the marina’s office.
Rowdy’s, Dawg’s, and Natches’s boats were in the last three slots, and incidentally where the majority of the ducks tended to congregate. Dawg was notorious for feeding them throughout the day.
As she neared the Nauti Buoy, the sliding deck door opened and Rowdy stepped out. Dark gold flesh gleamed with sweat as he leaned against the doorway, his thumbs tucked into the pockets of his ragged cutoffs as he watched her.
“Permission to come aboard?” A nervous smile trembled on her lips.
“Always.” His deep voice raced across her nerve endings, sending frissons of heat to lick at her flesh.
He moved back into the interior of the houseboat, his lashes lowering over his brilliant eyes as he watched her.
Kelly stepped onto the small deck, trying to ignore the shaking in her knees as she crossed it and entered the main section of the craft.
She had known for four years that when he came home for good, he would claim her once and for all. She had waited for him like an immature child, weaving dreams and fantasies of what would happen when he came home at last. Somehow she had known that would be his last tour, despite his threats to reenlist. A year ago, she had felt it. Something had changed in him, the way he watched her, the tension that emanated from him whenever they were together.
As it was now. She could feel it tightening in and around her body, reminding her of all the desires and explicit fantasies that had tormented her through the years.
“Thirsty?” He moved to the low fridge, opening it to pull out a beer and lift it to her in invitation.
“No.” She shook her head as she pushed her hair from her shoulder and faced him awkwardly.
God, she had no idea what to say to him.
He continued to stare back at her intently.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed; she didn’t know what else to say. “It was my fault Ray didn’t tell you what happened.”
His lips quirked as he lowered his head, hiding the hurt she knew he must have been feeling.
He finally shrugged as he lifted his gaze. “Why didn’t you let him?”
She blinked furiously at the tears that threatened to fill her eyes.
“You couldn’t do anything.” She shrugged heavily. “You were a world away, Rowdy. You weren’t free. I didn’t want you to worry.”
He snorted at that. “I would have come home, Kelly. I could have come home without repercussion.”
And that was what had scared here.
She breathed in roughly. “I’m doing okay. I’ve been seeing a therapist and she’s really helped. It’s just, sometimes, I still get scared.” She shrugged helplessly. “I feel like such a wimp.”
And she felt watched. Stalked. Not that she had told Ray or her mother how she felt. Her therapist assured her it was normal, under the circumstances. But it eroded her confidence, kept her awake long into the night. His eyes darkened as he moved slowly toward her.
She stepped back instinctively.
“You’re scared to death of me,” he said softly.
She could hear the dark torment in his voice, see it in his eyes.
“I’m not scared of you.” She fought the trembling of her lips as she stared up at him, fought to stand in place rather than running as she wanted to.
“Then what are you scared of?” He reached out, his fingers running down a long curl that fell over her shoulder. “Why are you trembling, Kelly?”
“You’ve always made me tremble.” She bit her lip at the admission. “Now…” She stared back at him miserably. “I’m not scared of you, Rowdy, but forgetting…sometimes, I can’t forget.”
His thumb smoothed down her cheek, nearly taking her breath with the latent sensuality of his touch.
“Are you going to keep running, Kelly?” he asked then. “You knew if you told me what happened I’d come home. You knew I would have never stayed away. What couldn’t you handle about that?”
“You couldn’t come home—”
“Bullshit,” he growled. “I would have found a way back to you, you knew it. But you swore my dad to secrecy and, it seems, my cousins as well. You were scared of me.”
“No…” She shook her head again, desperate to make him believe her now.
“You knew what I wanted from you, Kelly.” He turned away, stalking across the room before turning back to her. “You knew I wanted you in my bed. You knew what was going to happen when I came home. Didn’t you?”
“I knew.” She couldn’t deny it.
“Did you think I’d try to take you while you were raw from an attempted rape?” Disgust filled his voice.
“That’s not true.” She couldn’t let him believe that.
Moving across the room, she gripped his arm, holding him in place when he would have moved from her.
“I knew you wouldn’t, Rowdy,” she cried fiercely. “I know you would never, ever hurt me. I can’t help it. You don’t know how long I waited for you to come home, how much I needed you to touch me, and now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to make sense of any of it.”
She stared back at him, desperate for him to understand, on the edge of crying and knowing the tears would do her no good.
“What you made me feel has always scared me,” she finally admitted, her voice trembling. “How much I needed your touch always terrified me. And now, it’s like all the fears are swirling together until I can’t make any sense of any of it.”
His expression twisted into a grimace of raw pain as his arms came around her. Slowly. Powerful, naked, sun-heated, he pulled her against him as her hands clutched at his waist as the scent of him infused her senses.
“Kelly. God, baby, do you have any idea of what it did to me to realize I wasn’t here to protect you?” he whispered against her hair, one big hand holding her head against his chest as the opposite arm wrapped around her back. “If I had been here, I would have been in your bed that night. No one would have touched you.”
“This isn’t your fault,” she snapped, her head lifting, a frown tightening her brow as she glared back at him. “I knew you were going to think that.”
“I don’t think it, I know it,” he growled, holding her tighter, pressing his hips against her lower belly as she felt the breath slam out of her chest.
His erection, impossibly large, hot even through the denim, pressed against her as he stared down at her with heavy-lidded arousal.
“I know, Kelly.” His hands moved to her hips as she felt the familiar weakness sweeping through her body. “There’s not a damned thing that could have kept me away from you. Why the hell do you think I spent so much time in the Marines? I stayed away because I couldn’t keep my hands off you.”
His hands were on her now, clasped at her hips as hers flattened against his bare chest and she stared back at him in shock.
“I want you until I can’t breathe for it,” he whispered then. “But I would never hurt you. And I would never take what you can’t give me, Kelly. Ever.”
“I know that, Rowdy,” she cried, the aching need and shadowed fears that rose inside her clenching in her chest. “I never thought you would.”
“I wanted to hold you this morning.” His hands smoothed over her back, her hips. “I wanted to pull you in my arms and put myself between you and the world to keep anything, everything, from threatening you ever again.”
She shook her head. God, what was she going to do? He wasn’t even concerned with what his father had said, the fact that he had been thrown out of his home. He wasn’t angry with her or with Ray. He was angry with himself for not being there.
Kelly stared back at him, dazed, uncertain. Rowdy’s expression was fierce, arrogant, equal parts frustration and determination mixed with pure, hot lust.
“Rowdy—”
“I want to take all the fear out of your eyes, Kelly,” he whispered, his head lowering, his eyes holding hers. “I want it gone. I want to see all that fire and arousal and need that’s always been there. That I see now.”
She breathed in roughly, fighting to find reality, to make sense of the influx of sensations racing through her body.
“I want to kiss you, Kelly.” Her lips parted.
Beneath her hands, his heart raced, just like hers. A hard, rushing throb that transferred to her veins, her nerve endings, and washed through every cell of her body.
“Did you miss me, Kelly?” he whispered.
“Yes.” Her vision was filled with his lips. Sensually full, a treat she had dreamed of for too many years, had ached for with everything in her woman’s body.
“No. Keep your eyes open.” He stopped as her lashes drifted closed. “Watch me, baby. See me. It’s just Rowdy. Just my kiss, remember how much you liked my kiss?”
She loved his kiss. Her lips parted in anticipation, but perhaps she hadn’t fully remembered what being kissed by Rowdy meant. Somehow, she must not have remembered just right, exactly how it felt that night on the lake.
Because this was nothing like that brief, hungry kiss four years before. This was seduction. It was coercion on its most basic level. The whisper of his lips against hers as his heavy-lidded eyes stared back into hers, darkening, flaming with need as his mouth possessed hers with devastating sensuality. Rough silk caressed her lips, stroking over them as he denied her the deeper, darker possession she was craving. This wasn’t a hungry consummation, it was a dream washing over her, easing her from the shadows haunting her and pulling her inexorably into a steadily building whirlwind of sensation.
“So beautiful,” he whispered against her lips, sipping at them, making her ache for more. “There you go, just watch me, Kelly. Watch me and feel.”
A whimpering moan tore from her throat as she felt his hands lift the hem of her shirt, felt his hands, calloused and hot against the bare flesh of her back. Curling her fingers against his chest she allowed herself to settle into his body, her head falling back as one hand cupped the nape of her neck and his kiss became deeper.
“Keep your eyes open.”
Her eyes flew open as he pulled back, her breathing becoming jerky at the hunger in his face.
“Watch me, Kelly.”
“I can’t,” she gasped. “It’s too good.”
His eyes dilated at the admission.
“Watch me, or it stops,” he growled firmly. “See who’s touching you, baby. It’s me. You’ve been mine forever, Kelly. We’re just going to ease into it now. Let me show you what I’ve dreamed about for the last eight years.”
She was shaking in his grip, but not from fear. Hunger was consuming her as his lips covered hers again, and she struggled to keep her eyes open, to keep her senses from drowning beneath the full-lipped kiss that threatened to dissolve the strength in her knees.
Twining her arms around his neck, she arched against him, barely retaining enough thought to keep her eyes open. If she closed them, then the incredible pleasure tearing through her would be gone. His lips on hers, his tongue stroking along her lips as hers licked back, desperate for more.
Her hips tilted to him, arching as his knees bent enough to tuck his erection at the notch of her thighs.
Oh, that was good. She whimpered as she twisted against him, feeling the heavy rasp against her clit as he lifted her to him, turning her and bearing her to the counter behind them.
“There. No need to worry.” He stepped between her spread thighs, pressing firmly against her as her back arched and her hands clenched at his shoulders.
“See how good it feels.” His hips moved, dragging a ragged cry from her throat as his lips covered hers again.
Oh yes, it felt good. It felt as though tiny electrical charges were exploding across her flesh, sensitizing her.
His hard, bare chest pressed against her breasts, the lacy material of her bra scraping over her hard nipples, making them ache for a harder, firmer touch. This part of her hunger for Rowdy had always frightened her. The part that refused to accept a gentle touch, that ached, screamed out for more.
Powerful, possessive, Rowdy’s kiss consumed her, but his hands didn’t touch her. They were flat on the counter beside her, despite her need for them on her body.
“Rowdy,” she gasped as his head lifted.
“See how sweet it can be, baby?” he crooned. “So sweet and easy.”
“No.” She shook her head fiercely. “Touch me. I need you to touch me.”
There were no shadows of fear now. The overriding hunger Rowdy filled her with left no room for fear, no room for shadows. There was nothing but the demand for his touch, and that demand was rising by the moment.
“Where?” he whispered the question against her lips. “Where do you want me to touch you, Kelly? Show me, baby.”
His powerful biceps flexed at her side as he held back. She shuddered, realizing the demand in his voice and the fact that whatever she wanted, she was going to have to initiate.
Her lips curled at the corners in amusement.
“You think I won’t do it?” Her body was humming with need now.
“I think you could make me lose my mind if you wanted to try.” Heavy-lidded eyes, his lips full and sexy, he stared back at her with wicked intent. “But will you?”
The muscles of his chest twitched; the blood pulsed in his neck. A small rivulet of moisture rolled from his neck, drawing her gaze and her hunger. Leaning forward, she moved her tongue against his skin, licking at his flesh and drawing in the salty male taste.
The groan that rumbled from him had a shiver racing up her spine.
“Touch me,” she whispered against his neck, her teeth raking over the hard column.
“Show me where.” His voice was tight, dark with lust. “It’s up to you, baby.”
Up to her. She breathed in deeply.
“I want your lips on my nipples.” Her breathing grew harder as she let him hear the words, words she had only whispered in her dreams. “Then your teeth—”
“Sweet mercy.” The heavy groan tore from his lips. “Oh, baby, the things I’m going to do to those tight, hard little nipples. Lift that shirt for me, baby. Give me those pretty breasts.”
Her hands fell to the hem of her shirt, lifting it as she leaned back to stare into his eyes, wanting to see the lust and need flaming in the green depths.
As the shirt cleared her belly and began edging over her bra, a shockingly familiar voice drawled from the doorway. “The door’s open; does that mean I can join you?”
Laced with amusement, heavy with interest, Natches’s voice had Kelly jerking the shirt down and staring back in shock at the deepened lust in Rowdy’s eyes.
There was no anger that Natches had invaded the moment, there was added arousal, a deepening flush of lust on his hard face.
“Ever been watched?” he whispered, his expression heavy with dark desire.
Breathing heavily, Kelly stared back at him. She wasn’t shocked, she realized. She had heard too much about the Nauti Boys. Too many tales of their sexual excesses, their uninhibited immersion into their sensual games.
She swallowed tightly, staring back at him as the flames between her thighs began to burn with insistent demand.
“Rowdy…” She shook with indecision. She had guessed over the years that the day would come when she would face this choice. That she would run headlong into the hungers the three men shared; she just hadn’t expected it nearly this soon.
“As much as I would love this,” Natches sighed, “and I surely would love it, I just came to let you know Uncle Ray is headed this way. And he has that bulldog look on his face for sure.”
Was it relief or regret that raced through her mind? Whichever it was, there was no doubt her body was howling in protest.
“Well hell.” Rowdy dropped a quick, hard kiss to her lips as he stepped back, his hands gripping her waist as he sat her gently on the floor. “Guess the cavalry is going to rescue you, baby.”
She didn’t need rescuing.
“I’ll talk to him,” she whispered.
“No talking needed, baby.” He shook his head as he sighed wearily and tucked her hair behind her ear, then ran his fingers gently down her cheek. “Go on to the marina. I’ll check in later. Okay?”
“He doesn’t understand.”
“Go, baby.” He shook his head. “Me and Dad don’t have a problem here. He’s just being who he is, that’s all. And who he is means he’s going to worry about the little lamb staying too long with the big bad wolf.” And that was her fault. She had been so hysterical over Rowdy knowing about the attack that she knew Ray was now worrying about her being alone with Rowdy at all.
She had sworn his cousins to secrecy, begging them to hold their silence on the attack, pleading with them not to tell him. Reluctantly, they had agreed. And now Kelly knew why the reluctance had been so thick. They knew Rowdy, and they knew he’d be angry with all of them. And he was. He was hiding it well, but she saw the flash of it in his eyes, mixed with the hurt. Being kept in the dark never had sat well with him. He was the type of man who faced the monsters and fought them back however much it took. He wasn’t a man that appreciated being protected or deliberately left out.
“I better go,” she sighed, glancing at the door. “Will you be at the house tonight for dinner?”
“Tomorrow,” he promised easily, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Wear something pretty for me.”
Something pretty. She hadn’t done that for a year.
“I can do that.” She moved away from him slowly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Count on it, baby.” He leaned against the counter, his gaze heavy lidded, his body hard, aroused as she slid past the doorway.
Her heart was racing in excitement, drumming with latent fear, but for the first time in a year, she felt alive again. Rowdy was home now. A smile edged at her lips. He was home, everything would be fine now.