LITMIR.BIZ

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apartment.

      Alone.

      If Daniel found her tomorrow or in the days ahead and wanted to continue where they left off, maybe she would.

      Maybe she wouldn’t.

      It depended on Chad’s duty schedule and how much free time he had. Ellie planned to spend as much time as possible with her brother, but when Chad was busy, Daniel might be fun to hang out with. He apparently knew the island well.

      Perfect. A vacation flirtation.

      Something to laugh about over coffee with her colleagues when she got home.

      “Ellie.”

      Even knowing this scene for exactly what it was, and knowing that Daniel was getting ready to exercise his best come-on, when he said her name like that, low and a little bit rough, Ellie shivered.

      Make that sizzled.

      “Umm?”

      “I…” He cleared his throat. “Uh, where are you from?”

      Was that shyness she heard? Couldn’t be. Didn’t fit the image.

      “Texas,” she said, and slowly turned her head from her study of the sea so that she could look at him.

      What she saw made her breath catch. “S-San Antonio,” she added in a husky whisper.

      “Ah.” His gaze never left her mouth. “Would you mind if I kissed you?”

      He had to ask? “Please,” Ellie managed to breathe. Her eyes fluttered shut.

      But it wasn’t Daniel’s lips she felt next.

      The stroke of gentle fingers brushing the side of her face took her completely by surprise before their trail down the contours of her jaw lured her into a sensual wonderland.

      Warm, firm, but infinitely light, his thumbs traced the slope of her nose and traveled on to outline the fullness of her lower lip.

      Her lips parted in a silent plea for more.

      “God, you’re beautiful,” Daniel whispered.

      Perhaps he whispered.

      By now his light caress had Ellie’s senses so adrift she didn’t know if he actually spoke. Only her sense of the tactile still operated, working overtime as her body gave birth to nerve endings born singing beneath this man’s hands.

      His fingers whispered that her skull was perfect, her skin flawless, her facial muscles works of art. Ellie knew she was lovely because those fingers said it.

      They twined through her hair, combed slowly through it to its ends, and she understood her hair was a silken glory, a perfection of color and texture.

      When Daniel’s thumbs traced the curve of her ears, brailing their contours, the geography of their hills and valleys and hiding places, she became aware that he’d found paradise.

      Lifting her face to give those magical hands greater access…she felt one of her earrings hit her shoulder.

      Shocked, Ellie opened her eyes. Dear God in Heaven! What was she doing?

      This was no tropical interlude. The man had her emotions zinging in another way completely.

      Daniel, too, looked dazed.

      “Are you out of your mind?” she snapped at him, rearing back. “I said you could kiss me. Not—not t-touch me. Look what you’ve done. You made me l-lose my earring.”

      Frantically, fighting tears she couldn’t explain and angry at herself for being such a sensual pushover, Ellie searched for the silver flower, using her fingers to lightly brush the sand between them, trying not to disturb it overmuch—and trying not to remember another set of fingers that had also lightly brushed, but disturbed very much indeed.

      The hibiscus blossom she’d placed in her hair earlier in the evening dropped to the sand, but she swatted it away.

      Why was she crying, dammit?

      She couldn’t find the earring.

      Had she only imagined it falling? A subconscious warning, perhaps? Reaching up, she touched the lobes of her ears just to make sure it was truly gone. It was. The other was still there, however.

      Taking it out of her ear, Ellie dropped it in the pocket of her skirt so she wouldn’t lose it, too, then slowly, carefully stood, trying not to shift any more sand than she must.

      As she rose, the lost earring tumbled to the sand.

      Snatching it up, she turned to face the man who’d sent her emotions careening out of control.

      How dare he presume to…to do what he did! She’d only given him permission for a little nothing kiss between two strangers, a meaningless acknowledgment brought about by a lovely tropical night, not…not something else altogether.

      Something that made her want to turn her face into Daniel’s broad chest and weep.

      How dare he!

      But before Ellie could utter a single heated word, her tirade died from lack of direction.

      Daniel wasn’t there.

      Like the irresponsible bum he was, when the going got rough, he simply left.

      “Handsome is as handsome does,” she muttered darkly, borrowing Gram’s favorite saying.

      Gathering her sandals, Ellie stomped through the sand to the street and headed for Chad’s apartment.

      Why didn’t I leave when I could? Daniel thought, and groaned silently.

      By now the party was dead; only a few “cousins” remained, picking up paper plates and cups, talking and laughing quietly.

      Watching them from his usual place among the hibiscus, he would have kicked himself if he could. For whatever reason, freedom was within his grasp and he’d traded it for the company of a pretty girl.

      Heck, she wasn’t even that pretty.

      Beautiful, though, when she smiled. And tonight she’d smiled just for him.

      How long had it been since a beautiful woman smiled for his benefit?

      But a thousand pretty women could have smiled at him for years to come if he’d just had the presence of mind to leave the damned cove.

      He’d known the place for what it was, but just like the first time, he’d let it seduce him again.

      Trap him again.

      Daniel sucked in a breath he didn’t actually have.

      Ellie!

      She’d run through the shallow water when he was chasing her. But she’d done it in all innocence. Surely the waters of the cove wouldn’t punish her for that.

      Scanning the garden as far as he could see, Daniel searched for her, wishing he could somehow literally beat the surrounding bushes.

      But though he examined every corner of the yard and beneath every shrub and tree within his field of vision, he saw no trace of a woman with hair the color of moonlight and a smile to rival its glow.

      He wouldn’t even consider that she might be trapped elsewhere. If the force in the cove was just, it kept its curse only for him.

      Yet somehow tonight he’d been released for a while, Daniel thought, a fact offering a glimmer of hope that he would be again.

      And if he was…when he was…he was outta here.

      In the meantime he had something new to think about. What color, he wondered, were Ellie’s eyes when the moon didn’t wash them to silver?

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