“Not too bad. You’re the one who’s probably chilly, since you’re blocking the wind.
Almost without thinking, he’d shifted to shield her. With only the faint light from the stars and rising moon to guide his eyes, he studied the planes of her face...her slender neck, collarbone, enticing breasts, one of them pressed against arm.
“Why didn’t you wish on a shooting star?” he asked.
“I could wish for keeping my kids safe and happy, but that’s more like my daily prayer. What was your wish, or should I ask?” she said in a dry tone.
He chuckled. “My wish was immediate, basic and very graphic. And I got it.”
“You didn’t need to wish. You knew what would happen when I agreed to stay for a swim.”
True, he’d known she’d desired him as much as he had wanted her in return. But his wish... He frowned. Had his wish been granted? He had an odd sense that he’d missed something, though the sex had been spectacular.
In the house he could hear the clock chiming and reluctantly sat up.
“I hate to mention this,” he said, “but if your grandparents don’t see you soon, they may get suspicious.”
* * *
“I KNOW.” GETTING UP, Kayla hurried into the pool house and dressed swiftly. Outside she found Jackson with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“You are going to clean up the evidence, right?” she asked.
“I’ll make sure everything is shipshape.”
“Don’t forget my suit. It’s somewhere in the pool.”
“I’ll get that, too,” he promised.
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow when I pick up the kids.”
“Sleep well.”
“The same to you.”
It was all very polite and civilized, as if nothing had happened. And maybe, to him, nothing significant had happened. He enjoyed discreet liaisons, although they might not be as discreet as he imagined, since the people in town knew he had an active sex life.
Kayla settled behind the wheel of the Volvo and started the engine. She was disgusted by her lack of restraint, but it wasn’t Jackson’s fault that she was an idiot.
Perhaps if an attractive guy had come along at the right moment back in Seattle, the same sort of thing might have happened. Of course, in her normal environment she probably wouldn’t have succumbed so easily. A number of her single friends claimed vacations were hell on self-control when it came to the opposite sex. That had to be the explanation. It was like the perfect storm, with every condition falling into place and tipping over the balance of her life.
So it actually had little to do with Jackson, other than an echo of the old teenage affection that had tugged at her. But now she was an adult and so was he. They’d changed. She still believed real love was out there, at least for some people, while he doubted it even existed, and certainly not for him.
In a few days she would return home. Thankfully, after that, her occasional contacts with Jackson would be insignificant.
* * *
JACKSON TRIED TO locate Kayla’s swimsuit in the dark, but without luck; the black fabric faded into the shadows too well. So he turned on the pool lights, dived down to get it and hung it up. Outside he scoured the pool area for anything having to do with condoms.
Jackson glanced at the large, empty house. He ought to be exhausted, but instead he burned with energy.
He dived into the water and swam lap after lap, pushing for more speed, heart beating, living over and over again the feel of Kayla against him and the pleasure of making love to her. Curiously, it was a sensation that had both satisfied him and left him hungry for more. Finally, with muscles aching, he stepped from the pool, his lungs sucking oxygen from the warm night air, his heart rhythm gradually returning to normal.
He looked up at the sky.
The eclipse was beginning, and he felt curiously lonely that no one was there to watch it with him.
Still, he should feel good. Things were getting sorted out with Morgan and though he didn’t imagine everything would be easy from now on, at least they’d made a start. And a terrific thing had happened—he and Alex had actually talked. Not a brief word here or there. Not a sentence on the way to someone else. Not with a glance over his shoulder to see how soon he could get away from his inconvenient birth father. Alex had looked him in the eye and shared a conversation.
Jackson knew he had Kayla to thank for that. She’d done her best to keep him from coming on too strong with Alex, urging him to let things happen naturally.
It had been risky asking Alex to talk to his mother; he could easily have blown up and told him to butt out. And since his son had seemed interested in hearing and seeing some of the McGregor family history, it had been doubly perilous to introduce the issue. Regardless, it had been the right thing to do as a parent.