Awestruck, Addie looked up at Derek, looming over her, the two of them within a circle of fire now, like Siegfried and Brünnhilde from Wagner’s Ring cycle, which her parents had dragged her to as a teenager over her violent objections.
You are mine, Addie. You know it as well as I do. We belong together. I felt it the second I met you, and you did, too. Kevin isn’t fit to wash your underwear.
The dream changed and slowed. The fire was gone, the bed, clean and white again, floated on the sea, rocking gently, blue water all around, white clouds overhead, sweet breezes blowing it toward the sunset. What didn’t change was the passionate heat in Derek’s eyes, and the figurative fire in her body.
He moved over her, and kissed her. She spread her legs and he slid inside her, his motion echoing the rocking of the bed and the waves, making love to her in time to nature’s rhythm, back and forth, in and out...
As her arousal grew fierce, Addie began waking up.
No, no. Not yet, not yet!
She kept her eyes shut, keeping out reality, holding on to the feel of Derek’s body on top of hers. Her hand crept between her legs. In her mind she was still with him, out on that bright sea, tasting the salty breeze on his skin, moving her hips in time with his, feeling him moving deep inside her.
Her fingers rubbed faster, then faster. The orgasm hit her hot and hard, alone in the dark.
Derek Bates.
Kevin Ames.
What the hell was she going to do?
8
DEREK LIFTED THE ax high into the air and brought it down with a satisfying thunk. The small birch log split neatly down the middle; he added the pieces to the good-size stack he’d already cut. That morning he’d run twice around the island, done a punishing calisthenics workout, taken a ball-shrinking dip—couldn’t really call it swimming, more like flailing, splashing and gasping—in the icy sea, and was now involved in chopping enough wood for the Bossons to burn for the next twenty summers.
Hey, he was happy to help them out. Less charitable was the fact that every time the ax bit deeply into the wood, he was imagining Kevin Ames’s head.
Thunk.
Last night he’d barely slept after Addie left.
For one thing, he couldn’t erase the feel of her. The softness of her skin, her lips, the gentle swell of her breasts, the warm length of her body under his.
From the first shock of discovering her in his bed, he’d suspected she’d made a mistake. Last night at dinner she’d made it quite clear that she was still determined to go after Kevin. God only knew what kind of Freudian slip brought her to his bed instead, but he didn’t believe for a second it was only an accident. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, Addie had known exactly what she was doing. For that reason Derek had no qualms about trying to prove she was in the right place with the right man.
He’d almost succeeded, too. Together they’d generated serious hunger and heat. But while he wasn’t above a little underhanded persuasion, he wasn’t going to tie her down and force her to stay.
Thunk.
Ha. Derek had thought letting her go was agony. No, he’d tasted true agony when he realized she’d walked out of his door straight into the arms of the man she’d intended to have all along. He’d stood there, incredulous, still smelling her scent on his skin, listening to them talk for a few seconds before he moved away, not interested in hearing anything they were saying, not wanting to think about what might happen next.
Thunk.
Could Addie respond to him the way she had and then jump into bed with Kevin? He’d sure as hell like to think not. Whatever was between Addie and himself, whether it was simple chemistry or something deeper, he’d never experienced anything close to it. And he’d be willing to bet by Addie’s clear struggle between wanting out of his bed and wanting to stay in it, that she’d been surprised and overwhelmed by their passion, as well.
So now what? Spend the next three days watching her throw herself at a drunken jerk who wouldn’t let her finish a sentence or express a thought? A guy Derek had caught the day before flirting outrageously with Carrie, who’d been puppy-dogging after Joe, who was tagging after Sarah, who was still semi subtly presenting herself to Derek, who was going crazy for Addie, who wanted Kevin?