Forever Buckhorn: Gabe

Gabe almost laughed. Hell, she wasn’t even pretty, not really, and she sure as certain didn’t have the right temperament to lure a man. So why had he reacted so strongly?

“Here.” He handed her the shell, watched her sit back, bemused, to look it over. “It’s just a mussel. The bottom of the lake is littered with them. I dated a girl for a while who used to find live ones and eat them raw.”

Lizzy’s head jerked up, and she dropped the shell. Her lip curled in a way that made her look ready to vomit. No, she looked far from pretty right now.

Gabe laughed out loud. “Gross, huh? I couldn’t quite bring myself to kiss her again after that. I kept thinking of what had been in that mouth. Have you ever seen a live mussel? They’re sort of slimy and gray.”

She covered her mouth with a hand, swallowed hard, then sat back and glared at him some more. “Are you going to stay in there, or will you get out and answer my question?”

“Answer one for me first, okay?”

Her blue eyes widened, and he had to admit that they, at least, were beautiful. No matter her mood, her eyes were a focal point in her face, vivid and filled with curiosity and intelligence. He liked the color, dark and deep, unlike his faded, washed-out color. With the sun reflecting off the lake, he could see green and black and navy striations in her irises, lending richness to the unique color. As he studied her eyes, her pupils flared, reminding him how quickly she’d gotten aroused with him.

Arousing Little Red was fun, indeed. And from what he could tell, she could use a little fun in her life. Maybe it’d take some of the starch out of her spine and some of the vinegar out of her speech.

He propped his crossed arms over the edge of the dock, facing her and smiling into her stern face. “Where’d you get that suit?”

Bemused, she looked at herself, then at him. She plucked nervously at the material by her waist. “I…well, I hadn’t owned a suit before this. You insisted we needed to swim, so I had to go get one last night. But I couldn’t see spending a lot of money on one when this would likely be the only time I wore it. So I grabbed the cheapest one I could find.”

“The cheapest one-piece?”

Her lips trembled, fascinating him. “I’m not exactly the type to wear a bikini.”

“Why not?” His voice dropped despite his effort to sound dispassionate. “You have an incredible body, Lizzy.” He was serious, but he could tell by the way her eyes darkened and she looked away that she didn’t believe him.

“Lizzy?” She wouldn’t look at him. His heart softened, felt too thick in his chest. Very gently he asked, “When was the last time you looked at yourself naked?”

Her head snapped up, her cheeks hectic with hot color. Her mouth opened twice, but nothing came out. Finally she glared and said with acerbity, “Why do you deliberately try to embarrass me? Is that your idea of fun, to make me feel…feel…”

“Feel what, sugar?” His hand was a scant inch from her small foot, and he caught her ankle, using his thumb to caress her arch. “Shy? You shouldn’t. There’s not a woman on this lake that looks better in her suit than you. Why don’t you know that?”

Her auburn brows snapped down so fiercely, he expected her to get a headache. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Gabriel Kasper, but I’m not blind. I’m well aware of how I look, and if it wasn’t for you and your ridiculous stipulations, I wouldn’t be here now, sitting in this ridiculous suit!”

“You’ve enjoyed yourself,” he felt compelled to remind her, then held on tight when she tried to draw her foot away.

“It was…unexpected.” She looked prim and righteous, and he felt his blood heating in masculine reaction to her silent challenge. “As you’ve already surmised, I haven’t done much kissing in my lifetime. I looked at this as sort of a…a learning experience.”

Gabe grinned, his thumb still brushing sensually over her foot, making her stiffen. “So I’m sort of a class project, huh? Will you write another thesis? What I did over the summer vacation?”

Like a small volcano erupting, she jerked away and scrambled out of his reach. Her hands flattened on the dock to push herself upright, then she squealed and lifted a finger to her mouth.

Gabe watched her antics with curiosity. “What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving,” she grumbled, still looking at her finger. “I realize now that you have no intention of answering my questions, and I can’t afford to waste the time with you otherwise.”

So he was a waste of time? Like hell! He’d make her eat those words. Gabe levered himself onto the dock, and his weight set it off kilter, causing Lizzy to tilt into him. Her attention was still on her finger.

“I’ll answer your damn question, so quit frowning.”

She gave him a skeptical, disbelieving look, then went back to frowning.

“What’s wrong with you? Did you hurt yourself?” He leaned over her shoulder to see her hand, and as usual, she pulled it close to her chest as if protecting it from him.

“I have a splinter, thanks to you.” As an afterthought, she added, “It hurts.”

Gabe wrested her hand away from her body and looked at the injured finger. A jagged piece of wood was imbedded under the pad of her middle finger. “Damn. That sucker is huge.”

She tried to pull her hand free. She did that constantly, he realized, always pulling away from him. Well, not constantly. When he’d been kissing her, she’d strained against him.

“I can get it out.”

“No!” She tugged again, finally gaining her release. “I can take care of it after I get home. If you’re ready to leave?”

Gabe chewed the side of his mouth. “Actually, no, I’m not ready to leave. You have a question for me, and I’ll answer it. But first let me take care of this.”

“Gabe…”

“Stop being such a sissy. I won’t hurt you.”

Her chin firmed, her lips pursed, and then she thrust her hand toward him. “Fine. Do your worst.”

Without hesitation, Gabe lifted her finger to his mouth. He heard Lizzy gasp, felt her tremble. Probing with his tongue, he located the end of the splinter, then carefully, gently closed his teeth around it. It pulled out easily.

He smiled at her, still with her hand close to his mouth. “There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

She had that glazed look in her eyes again, like the one she’d had before the fishing boat had interrupted. Unable to help himself with her looking so flustered and shivering, he held her gaze and kissed her fingertip. Her pupils dilated, her lips parting. Damn, but she was quick to react—which made him react, too.

It was if they were connected by their gazes, an intimate hold that he’d never quite experienced before. Gabe touched the tip of his tongue to her finger and heard her inhalation of breath. Her eyes grew heavy, her lashes dipping down. He drew her finger into his mouth and sucked softly. With a moan, she closed her eyes.

Damn, it was erotic. She was erotic. Moving her finger along his bottom lip, he said, “Being in the water is second nature to me. It never scares me.”

He was shocked by how husky his voice had become, but still, it jarred her enough that her eyes opened. Gabe dipped his tongue between her fingers, licked along the length of one. “I’m as at home in the water as I am on land. Especially this lake. I never once considered there was any danger to me, because there wasn’t, so I wasn’t afraid.”

“Oh.”

He moved to her thumb, drawing it into his mouth and tugging gently, just as he might with a breast. The thought inflamed him.

“After the kids and their mother were out of the way, I didn’t have time to think or be afraid. I just reacted.”

“I…I see.”

Her voice was so low and rough he could barely understand her. She watched him through slitted eyes, her body swaying slightly. “I learned to drive boats when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I started working on boat motors when I was ten, knew more about them than most grown men by the time I was fourteen.”

He licked her palm, then the racing pulse in her wrist.

“Because I knew what I was doing, there was no danger, no reason to be afraid.”

“I see.”