Crazy for Love (8 page)

Oh, God, she was kissing a gorgeous man who was nearly a stranger. Chloe, who'd always been a good girl. Who should've been on her honeymoon this very week. She was rubbing her tongue
into
this man as he deepened the kiss and pulled her closer.

There was nowhere to put her arms but around his neck. And nothing to do with her hands but slide them into his hair.

And suddenly, despite everything, the night was perfect. The ocean rushed gently behind her, the wind danced over them, and they both held on tightly as they kissed and tasted and licked. If he was faking his interest, he was doing a damn good job of it. His hands moved restlessly against her back. He pulled her closer, until their bodies lined up. My God, he felt like one solid wall of muscle against her.

She was so focused on his chest and hips and thighs, Chloe hardly noticed the downward path of his hand. It felt cozy and right when he touched the small of her back, then a bit more exciting when his palm slid over her hip. She kissed him harder, caught up in the excitement of exploring hands and big shoulders.

But when he ventured farther south, his fingers
curved over her ass, and Chloe remembered that she wasn't wearing pants.

“Oh!” she gasped as she turned her head to the side. She meant to slow things down. She really did. But then Max's lips touched her neck. His mouth closed over the very sensitive, secret spot just below her ear. And he sucked.

“God,” she groaned, knees shaking to uselessness. He'd found the chink in her lust armor. His teeth scraped the skin and he pulled her hips more tightly against his.

No, he definitely wasn't faking. And she still wasn't wearing pants.

“Max, I… Oh, that feels good. We should… Oh, I think we should…”

“Yeah,” he murmured, as if she'd said something intelligible. “Yeah, we should.”

Before she could ask what he meant, Chloe found herself being lowered to the sand. “You don't like the sand!” she gasped, trying to decide if she was excited or panicked.

“I do now,” he murmured just before his mouth took hers again.

This was better. Way better. Now he was snug against her side, controlling the kiss, one knee resting atop her bare thigh, and Chloe decided it wasn't panic welling up inside her. It was sweet, hot lust pooling beneath her skin like a fever.

Max kissed her, his hand framing her jaw with gentle fingers. He kissed her again as his fingertips trailed down her neck before he turned her face to the side and sucked beneath her ear, already confident she'd like it. She did.

A minute before, she'd been thinking she should stop him. But now his body pressed heavy against her side and filled her up with recklessness. Her fingers curled into his arm as his mouth licked at her pulse.

“Max,” she breathed, the sound of his name giving her a thrill. Two days ago, she hadn't known him, now she was holding her breath as his hand inched lower.

“God, you taste good,” he whispered, his words slipping over her skin. “You
feel
good,” she said, running her hand all the way up his solid biceps. The muscles flexed beneath the skin, rewarding her for her exploration. “So good.”

His leg slid more snugly between hers and Max kissed her again. Finally, his hand slid down and cupped her breast. Despite her anticipation, Chloe shivered in surprise.

This was like high school all over again. She felt just as excited and scared and uncertain. Goose bumps spread over every inch of her skin as his
thumb brushed her nipple. Her hand shook against his wrist, as if this were her first time.

But it wasn't her first time, and she knew exactly how rare it was to feel such sweet, heavy heat flowing through her veins. Max might be a virtual stranger, but the chemistry between them was unbelievably hot.

Chloe angled her mouth to take his tongue deeper. She rubbed her leg against his and moaned at the tightening of his fingers. Max made a low sound in response, and a subtle shift of his body made her suddenly aware of the press of his arousal against her hip. All the nerves in her body flared to brighter life.

He was excited. For her. For
her.

Yes, this was like high school, when male attention had been unexpected and flattering to an average girl. The insistent, impressive length of his cock was a hot brand against her hip, and there was hardly any barrier between them. His baggy swim trunks and the paper-thin material of her bikini. They were practically naked.

“Max.” She sighed, curling both her hands into his hair to drag his mouth back down to her neck. In a move she would later admire for its smoothness, he kissed his way to the other side of her neck, requiring a slow shift of his body in order to reach her favorite spot. A few breaths later, Max was sucking
just where she liked and his body fully covered hers, all their parts lining up perfectly.

So
perfectly that Chloe groaned in sharp pleasure.

“Jesus,” Max whispered, rocking against her. Balancing his weight on his elbows, he slipped his hands into her hair to hold her head, then he began a leisurely exploration of all the sensitive spots on her neck.

Eyes open, Chloe stared at the swirl of stars above her. Pleasure spun through her body. His mouth trailed heat while his cock pressed her clit. Chloe couldn't stop herself from moaning his name.

He whispered her name back to her. As if she were desirable in ways she'd forgotten she could be. In ways she'd never been with Thomas. That thought scared her, so she pushed it away and edged her knee higher up on Max's thigh.

His weight lifted, and she was just about to whimper in disappointment when one of his hands touched her waist before sliding to her belly. His fingers were shockingly hot on her bare skin.

Oh, God, he was about to slide his hand into her bikini bottoms and feel how wet he'd made her.

Her nerves sang with anxiety…and desperate arousal.

“Can I…?” he murmured, but his hand was al
ready slipping beneath the delicate fabric, feathering over sensitive skin.

Chloe could barely breathe. She arched her neck, twisting her head to the side to draw cooler air than the heat that shimmered off his skin.

“Chloe,” he said again, just as he touched her.

“Oh,” she breathed, not quite registering the flash of pale yellow that moved across the sand a few feet away.

His fingertip circled her, and she whimpered with lust, just as another flash of yellow shifted in front of her.

She blinked, drawn away from her focus on Max and his hand. A crab? She would've been scared if she'd had room for that in her head, but she was too full of what Max was doing, now sliding two fingers up and down just where she needed them. “Oh, God, yes,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Max answered.

But the crab sidled into view again, clear and bright as if… Oh, no. Light flashed in her eyes.

“Chloe?” Jenn called out of the darkness.

“Ack!” she yelped. She moved to knock Max's hand away, but he'd already slid it free. He had just enough time to shift his weight to the side before the light found a steady home on Chloe's face.

“Chloe!” Jenn called out happily. Her footsteps
hurried closer before they came to an abrupt stop about ten feet away. “Oh. I…”

Chloe closed her eyes in mortification, but she clearly heard her friend's loud swallow.

“I'm sorry!” Jenn said.

Chloe shook her head. “No, it's fine, we were just…um…”

“Your mom called, and it sounded important, and Elliott had a flashlight, so…”

Opening one eye, she saw the dark shape of a man next to Jenn. “Oh, hi, Elliott.”

Max's muffled curse reminded her that while this was embarrassing, it was also a little bit funny. “Maybe,” she whispered, “we should get up.”

“I was hoping for a minute,” he muttered back.

“A full minute?”

“Ideally, yes.”

She was still laughing when he pushed himself to his knees.

Elliott cleared his throat. “Maybe we should just—”

Chloe shook her head and took the hand Max offered once he got to his feet. “What did my mom want?” Walking toward Jenn, she swiped sand off the backs of her legs, then looked up to find two sets of eyes focused low on her body.

Still no pants. Right. “Uh… We were swimming.” Jenn's gaze rose to Chloe's shirt, which was clearly
not wet. “I, um, found my shirt, but… So about the phone call?”

“Oh.” Jenn cleared her throat and cut her eyes toward Max. “She was calling about something to do with your cousin Tiffany.”

“Is she okay?” Chloe asked, even as Jenn's reluctant tone finally registered in Chloe's brain. Reluctant, because she obviously didn't want to discuss it in front of the men. Which meant it had something to do with Thomas and the scandal.

The scandal Chloe had completely forgotten about during her walk with Max. Wow. “I'll call when we get back to the cabin,” she blurted out, trying to cover up Jenn's awkward silence.

“Yes!” Jenn said.

Max's hand touched her back. “I hope everything's all right.”

“I'm sure it's fine.” She forced a smile at his doubtful look. “My cousin is always up to something.”

“Oh, I see. I hope it's nothing then.”

Elliott cleared his throat for the third time. “We'll head back.” When his hand touched Jenn's arm, she jumped and he jerked away.

“Sorry. Yes, let's head back.” The two of them took off as if they'd just accidentally stepped into an extraordinarily uncomfortable situation.

“Uh, okay,” Chloe called. “I'll be there in a minute!” Her friend disappeared into the darkness, and Chloe quietly added, “after I find my pants.”

O
KAY, SO THE CELIBACY THING
wasn't working out so well.

Max's heart was still pounding and didn't seem interested in slowing its pace, overwhelmed as it was with three strong emotions. Lust, for a good start, and shock at having been discovered rolling around in the sand, and then there was the anxiety of having his secrets revealed.

He watched Chloe's dark profile as she stared in the direction of the bobbing flashlight, and his pulse didn't slow at all. “We'd better go,” he said. “You need to call your mom back.”

Crossing her arms, she turned toward him. “We didn't finish talking about your problem.”

“I thought we wrapped it up pretty well.”

“No, we just made out instead.”

“Exactly.” The flash of her smile drew him closer, and Max slid his arms around her body and lowered his lips to hers. His heart turned over at the taste of her, but Chloe pulled back.

“Was all that about distraction, Max?”

“You totally distracted me, yes.”

“No, I mean were you trying to distract
me?
”

“Chloe, for God's sake, did it feel like I was playing you?”

When she touched her hand to his chest, it felt like a caress, but he knew it was a sign that he should keep his distance. “You said no one's ever noticed your control issues. Which means that you must be pretty damn good at fooling people, right?”

Fooling people. Tension wound around his stomach and squeezed. Yeah, she was right to be wary. He'd acted his way through countless relationships. “You're right. I'm good at fooling people. Really good at it.”

“What about girlfriends?”

His fingertips felt numb and his jaw close to cracking. “I don't want to talk about that.” It was sick, what he did, taking needy girls home like stray dogs. He was weary and exhausted from the constant vigilance.

“Why don't you want to talk about it?”

“Because it's ridiculous and it's over. I haven't dated in months. I decided to…” Oh, shit. That wasn't something you blurted out to a woman on a first date, even if the date had been based on fear of sharks and drowning. “What?”

“Don't you want to call your mom back?”

He couldn't see her roll her eyes, but he was pretty sure it was happening. “Avoidance much, Max? All right, I'll let you off the hook. Let's go.”

He'd wanted to stop the conversation, but he also didn't want this little bubble of peace to be gone, so Max reached for her elbow before she could step away. “That wasn't an act and I wasn't trying to do anything but kiss you, Chloe. I swear. I've been thinking about doing that since the moment I saw you.”

“Sure fooled me.”

“You said yourself that I'm really screwed up.”

“True.”

“Come here.”

She turned easily, swaying into his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck. Kissing her pushed away some of the awful tightness in Max's chest. Whatever he'd done before, whatever lies he'd told, what he wanted from Chloe was real and good.
She
was real and good.

So he kissed her and held her and let himself forget the mess he'd made of his life. For just a few more minutes.

 

C
HLOE SQUINTED AGAINST
the brightness of the cabin lights, caught for a moment in the doorway like a deer facing imminent death.

“Did you two take the long way home?” Jenn asked.

A blush flared to hot life on her cheeks. “I had to find my pants.”

“Uh-huh. You sure are bad at coming up with excuses. The explanation is supposed to make you look more innocent. Not less.”

“Shut up.”

“So…?”

Chloe grinned nervously. She couldn't help it.

Jenn gasped, “You did it?”

“No! I mean we did something, but not
it.
”

“And?” She made a hurry-up gesture.

“And what?”

Jenn grabbed an empty water bottle and aimed it threateningly at Chloe's stomach. “Don't hold out on me. You're the only link I have to the world of real sex. Is he as delicious as he looks?”

Chloe sauntered over to the couch and dropped into it. “Elliott is pretty delicious-looking, too. Why don't you find out for yourself?”

“Don't tease me,” she groaned. “You know I can't.”

“Why?”

“He's a serious guy, Chloe. I'm sure he dates serious women. And I'm…not.”

Chloe twisted around to glare at her friend.
“You're an accountant. It doesn't get much more serious than that.”

“You know what I mean.” She waved a dismissive hand.

Chloe would never understand this about Jenn. She was beautiful and smart and funny…and she had no self-confidence whatsoever when it came to men. “He was seriously interested in your body.”

Jenn dropped onto the couch beside Chloe. “You think I should?”

“Should what? Get it on with Elliott Sullivan? Yes! Are you thinking about it?”

“I don't know.” Jenn began to nibble on her thumbnail, a sure sign of nervousness. She was definitely thinking about getting it on with Elliott.

Chloe let her think for a good long while before she interrupted. “So my mom?”

Jenn's nose wrinkled. “Your cousin did another interview.”

“Crap.”

“It's going to air tomorrow, but your mom watched it online tonight.”

Chloe picked up her cell phone and looked at the bars. Two bars tonight. Just her luck.

“Hi, Chloe,” her mom said before the first ring had finished. Her voice was heavy with sympathy.

“Hey, Mom. So Tiffany is talking to the press again.”

“I'm so sorry, baby. I don't know what's wrong with that girl.”

Chloe rubbed her eyes. “She's nineteen and she likes to be on TV. And she's a selfish brat. How bad is it?”

Her mom's deep sigh didn't promise anything good. “She says you wouldn't let her be a bridesmaid because she was too short.”

“That's ridiculous! She's only two inches shorter than me!”

“Tiffany claims you wanted the bridesmaids to ascend evenly from your maid of honor to your tallest friend.”

“Tiffany used the word
ascend?
”

She was glad to hear her mom laugh. “No, she described a stair-step pattern. And then she claimed you tried on over a hundred dresses before making a choice. And that you threw a bouquet at the florist when she made a mistake.”

“As if she'd know. I've hardly talked to Tiffany in the past six months. But I'm sure as hell going to talk to her now.”

“Honey, if you do that, she'll—”

“I know, Mom.” Chloe sighed. “She'd tell the press I was abusive and insane. I get it.”

“I'm sorry, hon. Try not to worry about her, okay?”

Chloe let her head fall back on the couch. “She didn't know about this vacation, did she?”

“No. I didn't say a word to her mother. How's the trip, by the way?”

“Good,” Chloe answered. Then, with more honesty, “Great.”

“You sound much better. Try to have fun and give Jenn my love. I promise I'll call if there's anything else. If you don't hear from me, everything's fine, all right?”

“Got it, Mom. I love you.”

Chloe hung up and tried not to cry. Her poor parents. Retired and living in their small house with its tiny yard, and the press was still stalking them, just because she'd spent a week there before she'd found a place to live. A place that didn't belong to Thomas's mother. The press had trampled her father's rosebushes and driven her mother to wear a head scarf and dark glasses every time she stepped outside.

Chloe slung her arm over her eyes and groaned. “Tell me again that I wasn't a Bridezilla.”

“You know you weren't.”

“I did cry at the dress shop,” Chloe whispered.

“They screwed up the hem, and you got overwhelmed. You weren't a bitch.”

She took a deep breath, but the lump in her throat didn't budge. “I must've been. I must've been a bitch
to Thomas. I must've been an obsessed, type A ice queen with a scary attitude, or none of this makes any sense.”

Jenn's arms wrapped around her waist and she snuggled her head into Chloe's shoulder. “That's not true. You're sweet and kind. And maybe a little bit type A, but just a little. Don't cry.”

But she was already crying. “My life was so normal.”

“I know.”

“What did I do?”

“Aw, Chloe, you didn't do anything wrong. It was Thomas! He… He must have gotten cold feet.”

“When men get cold feet, they don't jump out of a plane and hide out at a beach resort in Florida! I don't know what I did!”

Jenn made soothing noises and rubbed her back until Chloe stopped sniffling. “Thomas was a mama's boy. You knew that. He didn't know how to stand up to his mom, and apparently he didn't know how to stand up to you, either.”

“But I don't even know why he wanted out.”

“Does it matter?”

Did it? Chloe took the tissue Jenn offered and wiped her tears. He'd wanted out. Badly enough to chew off his own foot to escape the trap. How was she supposed to excavate a logical, thoughtful reason
from a mess like that? “Maybe it doesn't matter. I'm sorry I get so weepy.”

“I'm sorry about your cousin.”

“It wasn't that. I think your vacation just worked a little too well. I kind of forgot all that craziness for a while. I let my guard down and it snuck up on me when I talked to my mom about Tiffany. And…and I'm kind of freaked out that I've been able to forget Thomas so easily. When I was making out with Max… How could I enjoy that so much if I was in love with Thomas just a month ago?”

“You don't have to feel bad about that. You don't owe him anything after what he did!”

Chloe crumpled the tissue in her hand. “No, but if I'm already getting over Thomas after a month…then we really shouldn't have been getting married, right? Thomas was right.”

“Thomas wasn't right about
anything.
”

“He—”

“Look, Chloe, I knew him, too. I've known him almost as long as you have, and I've spent time with him and…Thomas was nice and smart and handsome, but he was weak. And he was a
liar.
”

She took a deep breath. And then another. “Yes. He was a liar.”

Jenn's hand touched hers. “So if you're moving on, I'm happy about that and you should be, too.”

“Okay.”

“So tell me about making out with Max Sullivan.”

The tears had taken something dark with them. Chloe felt lighter than she had in a long time. Maybe even months. So she smiled and told Jenn exactly what had happened on the sand. By the time she went to bed, her eyes were swollen, but her sides ached from laughter. Not a bad trade-off, really.