LITMIR.BIZ

       Nine

      Tony propped his surfboard against a tree and turned to take Shannon’s. The wariness in her eyes frustrated the hell out of him. He could have sworn she was just as into the moment out there as he was—an amazing moment that had been seconds away from getting even better.

      And then she’d vaulted off the board and into the water.

      Staying well clear of him, she’d said she was ready to return to shore. She hadn’t spoken another word since. Had he blown a whole week’s worth of working past her boundaries only to wreck it in one afternoon? Problem was, he still didn’t know what had set her off.

      She stroked a smudge of sand from his faded yellow board. “Is it all right to leave them here so far from where we started?”

      They’d drifted at least a mile from the SUV. “I’ll buy new ones. I’m a filthy rich prince, remember?”

      Yeah, sexual frustration was making him a little cranky, and he suspected no amount of walking would take the edge off. Worse yet, she didn’t even rise to the bait of his crabby words full of reminders of why they’d broken up in the first place.

      Fine. Who the hell knew what she needed?

      He started west and she glided alongside him. The wind picked up, rustling the trees and sweeping a layer of sand around his ankles.