Suspicious Ways by Lexxie Couper Page A

Suspicious Ways as it sluiced through the chop. It seemed Jack had spent time in Florida racing solo. He was far more aggressive than she remembered, pelting across the water under full sail, forcing her into the cursed tacking duel she hadn’t expected. As good as he was, however, he was still cautious. And that gave her the edge she so desperately needed. Just.
    Hauling on the gybe, she angled for more wind, urging Wind Seeker to move faster. Another gust smacked against her yacht, grabbing the sails and lurching it forward. She braced her legs apart and yanked farther towards the gushing summer breeze. There was no real time to think, but in a short-course harbor race there rarely was. It all came down to instincts, and Ali prided herself on hers being finely honed. So much depended on the outcome that she focused every fiber of her being on manipulating the southerly to drive her faster.
    The dangerous move paid off and Wind Seeker blurred forward, screaming across the water like a bone-white bullet.
    Past Suspicious Ways .
    “Yes.” Her joyous cry was whipped away in the wind, the roar of her sails like thunder as she streaked past Jack. She had him. Another nautical mile and she’d cross the finish line. Just one nautical mile.
    Gripping the helm tight, Ali kept her yacht on direction, despite the growing southerly battling to wrench control from her. She risked another hasty glance over her shoulder, grinning at the sight that greeted her. Jack was falling behind, the voluminous deep blue spinnaker of the superb yacht flapping as he lost the wind he’d been riding.
    Ha.
    The grin spread wider across her face and, in an act of sheer devilment, Ali took one wet hand from the helm and tipped him a quick wave. The ever-familiar scowl swiftly fell over his features, making Ali laugh before she returned her attention to the race, the swirling wind and the rapidly approaching finish line.
    And then, whipping past the marker-buoy half a yacht length before Suspicious Ways , she was over it. Just like that.
    “I did it. I did it.” Her laughter rose above the sound of the wind and the thrumming sails. The wetness on her cheeks was no longer just the splashing spray of the harbor. “I beat Jackson McKenzie.”
     
    “Have you come to gloat?”
    Jack’s low voice stopped Ali at the edge of the jetty and her pulse pounded at the ambiguous calm of each word. She looked at him over the bow of his yacht, unable to stop her lips twitching with a smile. It had taken her a record fifteen minutes to tie-down Wind Seeker . Fifteen minutes reliving her win over and over in her mind. “Yes,” she answered truthfully. “Why else would I be here?”
    Jack removed his sunglass and a shiver ran down Ali’s spine, sending her skin into a mass of goose flesh and making her nipples pucker to hard tips. Why else would she be there indeed? To feel his gaze on her body again perhaps? To drown in his devouring green eyes?
    Jack’s mouth curled into that familiar smug grin. “Congratulations, Ali. You sailed a great race today. I’d forgotten just how…vicious…you are on the water.”
    “Thank you,” she replied, giving him a small sideward smirk. “I think.”
    “Looks like you have another month.”
    “Yes, it does.”
    Emerald fire roamed over her and a knot tightened in Ali’s stomach. She was all too aware of the traitorous part of her that wished she had lost, that longed for Jack’s strong arms to wrap around her again as his lips burned a trail over her bare flesh. It kept her standing there, staring into eyes that consumed her, when she should have turned and run as far away from the man as possible.
    He cocked a dark blond eyebrow. “Looks like I’m showering alone.”
    “Yes, it does,” Ali repeated, her heart pounding in her ears. God, he unnerved her.
    “Pity,” he said, before climbing out of the cockpit onto the wooden jetty. In two steps, he was before her, the heat from his body wrapping around her like