Hearing Rex behind her, she took a deep breath, bracing herself before she turned around. At the house, it had taken all her resources not to simply lock the door, strip and get down to business. She’d craved a man like Rex Houston for so long. Wasn’t that what this trip was all about? Coming to terms with the past? Sure, she wanted to show the town that she wasn’t really the sexpot they’d assumed, but only to better help her claim her sexual self. Her reputation had been hurtful, but she’d worn a brave face, and in doing so, had lost touch with the sensual woman she was meant to be. For so long, she’d felt her unfinished business in Bliss was in the way of moving on….
With her boss, Ryan? That had been her idea hours ago. But now…Yes, tonight maybe she really would let go with this man, enjoy just one night of abandoned sex. One kiss, and she knew he could give her more pleasure than anyone ever had. Just as she turned around, the breeze lifted her dress and she gasped, not catching the hem in time. The dress fluttered, flying nearly over her head, exposing white bikini panties. Embarrassed, she batted down the fabric, pressing it against her thigh, fighting a blush. “Damn,” she mouthed as she looked up—and then felt the breath leave her body, entirely.
“Studs.”
“Did I surprise you, honey?” he said, his dark eyes lascivious. He was wearing tan shorts with a uniform shirt; a gun belt was around his waist, a hand on his weapon.
He knew he had. And it had been intentional. “The name’s Ariel.”
“Who’d know that better than your lover?”
She wasn’t proud of it, but she glanced toward the hill, half hoping she’d see Rex. No such luck. And when she glanced to her right, she realized Studs had come down to the water by a different path, judging by the mountain bike lying on its side a hundred yards from the dock. The word Police was emblazoned across the bike’s top bar.
“Already,” she said, “I can see you haven’t changed a bit.”
“And from what you just showed me, sweet girl,” he countered, “you haven’t, either. Nice panties.”
“Don’t start,” she warned, backing up a fraction, until she hit a pole behind her, so she could use it to steady herself. Why did she let this piece of trash get to her?
“You’re not happy to see me?”
“Hardly.”
He flashed a grin—bright white teeth in a tan as dark as his personality. “Could have fooled me, the way you lifted that skirt.”
She started to say the breeze had lifted it, but that was what he wanted, to push her into defending herself. “So I guess you haven’t been doing anything useful,” she said. “Like your job.”
“I figure I can handle my job just fine.”
“Guess not. Gran called me this morning about the recipe book. She said it was stolen last night, and I just talked to Pappy Pass—”
Now he was moving toward her. “You can’t breeze into town and start questioning my suspects, Ariel.”
“Apparently somebody has to,” she said hotly. “That book’s been in my family for years, and we all want it found. It’s valuable. It could be destroyed.”
He stopped in front of her. In high school, he’d been good-looking, a strapping, dark-haired jock. Quarterback of the high-school football team, as well as prom king with the woman he’d married, Joanie Summers, at his side as queen. But that had been years ago. Joanie had held up better than him. Even after three kids, she’d kept her figure. Studs had put on weight, though, and the broad, once-handsome, wide face that had dazzled schoolgirls was now creased with lines. He had a beer belly and looked ten years older than he really was. The nickname, Studs, was no longer fitting. That was, Ariel decided, at least some small satisfaction.
He was leering at her. “Miss me?”
“You know better.”
Edging closer, he dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Oh, c’mon now, Ariel, when you’re up in the big city, I bet you wonder about me all the time, don’t you? Lying in bed, you still think of me. Admit it. You dream of the good old days.”
“There were no good old days.”
“What did you get, amnesia?”
“If I had, I would have forgotten you.”
“You mean to tell me that you don’t remember how I loved you so good in the back of my daddy’s pickup truck? Why, everybody in town knows what went down in the parking lot of Jack’s Diner, and how we drove to Charleston and got a motel room, so I could watch you getting it on with that woman. I told Joanie I hadn’t wanted to. But then, everybody knows you can be damn persuasive, Ariel. You had it bad for me, didn’t you, Ariel? Everybody in town knew you were my fantasy girl. And it made Joanie so jealous. My, oh my. How she hated you….”
And turned all the other girls against Ariel, out of spite. On the school bus, which had picked her up at the bottom of Mountain Drive, no one had ever talked to her. Thanks to him.
Too much of the past was flooding back. She hated him…just as she hated how she used to fantasize about a father who never came to protect her, and a mother who’d never been able to understand how the teasing was affecting her daughter. “Oh, you’re right, Studs,” she muttered, stepping toward him and offering a shy smile. She put her hands on his waist. “Maybe I did miss you more than I admit. Those stories about you and me got so out of control….” His eyes widened as she traced a pink fingernail down his chest. “But they got me to thinking…”
“They did?”
“But you’re married now….”
“Uh…yeah.”
“But we won’t let Joanie get in the way. Now, will we?” Broadening her smile, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt, then spun. “You sick bastard,” she whispered, then flattened her hand on his chest and pushed hard.
He was facing her when he flew off the dock, and if she hadn’t been so furious, Ariel might have laughed. His eyes were bugging, his arms were flailing, and under the circumstances, even a saint wouldn’t be sorry that the dunking would ruin the fancy, animal-skin cowboy boots on his kicking feet. She leaped back as he hit the water, but not in time. She groaned as a freezing wave of springwater drenched her. “Twice in one day,” she muttered.
“You could stand to lose a few pounds,” she said to Studs. “That splash could have hit Bliss Run Road. In fact,” she added as he came back up, sputtering, “I think it’s started a tidal wave. Whoa! Call in the coast guard!”
Deciding she’d better reach the mobile lab before Studs got out—after all, he was packing a weapon—she whirled, intending to go down the dock, then saw Rex standing in front of her, a small briefcase-style kit in his hand and an uncertain expression on his face.
“Old boyfriend?”
She wanted to die, right then and there. It didn’t help that yet another outfit was soaked, or that it was white and she was braless. Or that Studs was having difficulty hauling himself out of the water. He was going to catapult over the side of the dock any second now, dripping like a creature from the blue lagoon.
She wanted to laugh, but fury was coursing through her. Everything was going wrong. When he’d kissed her, Rex had seemed different. Unconnected to the town, but in under two hours, he’d been roped into her past. If only for a moment, he’d felt like a part of her here-and-now, and maybe even her future.
He raised a hand. “Sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“He’s not an old boyfriend,” she assured.
Disbelief clouded Rex’s eyes.
“You