Seduce Me by Jill Shalvis Page B

grinning in the black night as he swam back out to her. “I don’t think anything beats this, bodysurfing at midnight.”
    â€œNo, nothing does.” She swam a little closer, treading water. “I was fourteen,” she said quietly. “They died in a car wreck.”
    He smiled faded. “God. What did you do?”
    She lifted a shoulder. “I was all right. I went to my uncle Red’s. And I had lots of friends so I was never really alone. I’m taking this one.”
    And she vanished on the next breaker, diving into it, flashing him a quick glimpse of her barely covered gorgeous ass.
    When she came back, grinning from ear to ear, he found himself reaching for her, putting his hands on her hips, keeping them both afloat with his legs. The water swirled around her shoulders. “Was your uncle good to you?”
    â€œAs good as he knew how to be.” Kicking free,she retreated and took the next wave. When she showed up again, she drifted close, but not close enough to touch.
    â€œSam…I can’t even imagine.”
    Again, she lifted a bare, glistening shoulder. “I had it okay. Got to go through high school without anyone telling me what I could or couldn’t do, or that I was being stupid, or that I wasn’t trying hard enough…”
    â€œI had a family,” he said quietly. “And no one ever told me any of that.”
    â€œNo? Then you’re lucky, too.”
    Comparing her life to his boggled his mind. “Your parents left you enough money to get by?”
    â€œSome, but their estate was sued, and lost.”
    His heart broke for her.
    She splashed him. “Get that pity off of your face and take the next swell, or I will.”
    â€œThat’s not pity on my face, it’s empathy.” He tugged her close. “Can’t you let anyone be sensitive to what you’ve been through?”
    She thought about that. “No.”
    Well, she was going to start, he decided. She was squirming a little, probably trying to calculate how to outswim him and vanish. Couldn’t have that. And not just because he had her bare breasts against his chest.
    But she slipped out of his arms and beneath thesurface of the water, and came up five feet away. She took the next wave and the next. When she finally returned, he asked, “Is bodysurfing naked by moonlight a hobby?”
    â€œI’m not naked, I’m wearing my bikini bottoms.”
    â€œAh. Well then…do you always go on dates in your bikini bottoms?”
    â€œI usually wear my top, too, but Lorissa made me take it off because apparently it ruined the line of the dress.”
    He silently blessed Lorissa.
    â€œAnd if I’d known you were going to spy on me here tonight, I’d have pulled it out of my purse and put it back on before I got in the water.”
    â€œYou…have your bathing suit in your purse.”
    â€œWhen it’s not on me, yes. I spend a lot of time in the water.”
    â€œBodysurfing in the middle of the night.”
    â€œAnd in the early mornings, and swimming in the afternoons when I can fit it in. Jack, why are you here?”
    â€œMaybe I like the water, too.” He’d never really cared one way or another, but Sam had changed his mind tonight.
    â€œYou should go home.”
    â€œWhy?” He drifted toward her. “Am I getting too close?”
    She splashed him again, and this time she wasn’t smiling.
    Look at that, he thought with some amusement, the surfer girl has a temper. “Okay, you’re right.”
    â€œAbout…”
    â€œI should open up to you before making you open up to me.”
    â€œI didn’t say that.”
    â€œNo, but you should have. Want to hear a deep dark secret?”
    â€œJack—”
    â€œI don’t miss basketball. Everyone thinks I do, but I don’t. Not anymore.”
    â€œYou really don’t?”
    â€œI miss playing but I don’t miss