Crazy for You (15 page)

Andrew closed his eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you heading back to the room?” he
asked.

Shaking her head, she returned, “No, actually
I was heading down the hill to the volleyball court.” She reached
into her pocket, pulled out her room key and handed it to him. “But
here. Go get your stuff and put it in my room. Keep the key. I’ll
get another one at the desk.”

She turned and started walking away, sensing
Andrew watching her.

“Where did you say you are going?” he asked
again.

“Volleyball,” she tossed over her shoulder
and kept walking.

****

Volleyball.

Andrew watched her walk away. Then he glanced
to his right at the signs pointing out the directions to several of
the activity areas. Then he did a double take.

“Hey! Come back here!”

She stopped and turned to look at him.

“You’re going the wrong way,” he told
her.

Tasha looked back down the hill, then up to
him again. “No, I’m going the right way.”

“No, I’m sure you’re not. That’s the nude
volleyball court.”

Tasha grinned. Wickedly. “Precisely.” Then
she turned and headed back down the hill.

Whoa, Andrew. Stop. Don’t go there. It’s
none of your business.

He tried to control himself. Tried like hell
to control himself. But he couldn’t.

“Wanna join me?” he heard then and looked to
see Tasha motioning to him. Smiling. Wickedly.

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you, silly. Come on!”

For one second, he almost contemplated it. He
almost seriously considered it. He even took a half-step
forward.

Then his throat constricted, his stomach did
a wallop, and his chest beat out some strange sort of tattoo.

“No. Sorry. Can’t do it.”

Tasha shrugged. “Okay, no biggie. I guess I
can’t force you.”

“That’s right.”

“But it sure doesn’t mean I can’t do it.” She
unzipped her shorts.

Andrew stared at her. “Wh-what are you
doing?”

“I’m going nude.”

She slid her hands down inside the waistband
of her shorts and hitched them down over her hips. “If you don’t
want to participate in the activities, then fine. Don’t. But I came
here for my vacation and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna spend it
cooped up in my hotel room. I have my own agenda this week and
obviously it doesn’t match yours. Go back to the room, Andrew. I’m
off to play volleyball.” She tossed her shorts at him, hitting him
dead-center in the chest.

Appalled, Andrew’s jaw dropped. “You
can’t.”

“Watch me.” Off came her panties, hitting him
square in the face. Following that, she undid her bikini top and
tossed it his way, too.

He grabbed them and crushed them into the
palm of his hand. “But people will—”

“See me nude? Yeah, that’s the idea. Here I
am. I’m nude. Look at me.” She pirouetted once before him, then
kicked off her canvas tennis shoes.

Look at you? How can I do anything but?

“Tasha—”

“What?”

“But…”

“But? But? You don’t have a damn thing to say
about it Buster.”

She sashayed off down the path.

“Tasha!” he called out after her. “Wait!
Don’t.” Suddenly, the notion of her parading around naked in front
of strangers didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t mind, of course,
if she wanted to parade around in front of him, that was another
thing altogether, but strangers?

She stopped in her tracks and threw a look
over her shoulder. “What do you want? There’s a volleyball game
down there that I intend to get in on.”

He stood there, silently clutching her
underthings, watching her standing there among the trees and
plants—naked. Like she belonged there. Like Eve. She was tempting
him, yes, like Eve. Could he play Adam to her Eve? She was an
incredible creature. Like she belonged there. A wood nymph. An
overgrown one, at best, but a wood nymph just the same. She
belonged there.

He didn’t.

“I don’t want you to do this,” he whispered,
surprised he’d even said the words.

He watched her body jerk a bit and he thought
she was going to step forward and come to him, but she didn’t.
After a moment, she backed up half a step. “Sorry,” she whispered
back, “but I make my own decisions. And I don’t go back on
them.”

She turned and sauntered off down the path
and Andrew’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach.

****

Laying on the roll-away, the sheet draped
over his waist, Andrew twirled the silky pair of panties around on
his forefinger. He was thinking—thinking about this damn
predicament he’d gotten himself into. Less than a week ago, he
reminded himself, he was making his rounds, keeping up his quota,
riding around in his suit and his air-conditioned car.

Now, he was laying on a bed in a hotel room
somewhere in Jamaica, tossing a pair of women’s panties in the air,
thinking about the woman who wore them. Crazy. The whole damn world
had gone crazy.

She was down there. Playing volleyball.
Naked. And he was thinking about that real hard. How she was down
there somewhere, naked, among the masses, them also naked, doing
God-knows-what, naked. He hated it.

Andrew sat up. Inside, his stomach spasmed in
several quick thrusts, tightening and gripping. Nerves, he told
himself. That’s all. He was nervous about this whole situation.
Nervous about her down there. Alone. Naked. With people. Jumping
around playing volleyball. Oh, God.

He jumped up off the bed.

Hell, who was he kidding? He didn’t want her
down there doing God-knows-what. He wanted her here, with him.

Naked.

Doing God-knows-what!

Oh, all right! He’d admit it! He wanted her.
Under him. Over him. He didn’t care. And he didn’t feel like
sharing.

He waited about three minutes more. Then he
left the room. It was all he could stand.

Andrew stomped off down the path toward the
volleyball game. From his hiding place behind a large palm, he
thought he saw her. He’d been thinking about her for the past few
minutes, what she would look like down there playing volleyball. He
could just imagine the little Sybarite, jumping up and down,
anticipating the ball coming to her. Her perfectly shaped breasts
jiggling. Nice and firm, not droopy. And her buns. Nicely shaped,
fully packed, cute little dimples on either side of her backbone
right above them. He’d noticed that when she walked away from him
minutes earlier. The palms of his hands ached. Damn. He wanted to
touch her. He wanted to touch her now.

And he didn’t want anyone else ogling her.
Touching her.

There wasn’t another woman anywhere who could
compare with any of her attributes.

Suddenly, he was reminded that she may be
ogling other men as well.

“Probably getting an eye full, aren’t you
Tasha,” he muttered disgustedly as he caught sight of the game in
progress. “You should be ashamed.”

He stepped a little closer, weaving his way
through the trees. He’d stepped off the beaten path so as not to be
noticed.

A shriek went up and Andrew’s attention was
immediately drawn back to the game. He watched, as a muscled man
beside Tasha jumped up and into her body, knocking her down to the
ground.

“Aw, hell...” Andrew ran down the path.

“Andrew!” He heard his named called out from
behind, startling him. “Where are you going?”

He stopped abruptly and turned. Tasha?
Another screech bounced through the trees. He jerked his head back
toward the volleyball game, now resuming. Or was that Tasha down
there?

“Andrew!” Again he turned abruptly back to
the sound of the voice. Tasha stepped out from behind a tree.

“What are you doing?”

He turned fully to face her, a bit confused.
He parked his fists on his hips. “I thought you were down there
playing volleyball,” he barked back at her.

Tasha angled her gaze at him. “I changed my
mind. Why were you heading that way?”

Andrew started to glance behind him. “I
thought,” he began, and then hesitated. “Hell, I thought you were
down there. I didn’t want you down there. And then I heard this
scream and I thought it was you.”

“So you were going after me?”

“I was gonna drag your butt back up to the
room if I had to.” Andrew clamped his mouth shut and firmed his
stance in front of her. His words surprised even him. Was that what
he was going to do?

Tasha threw back her head and huffed out a
giggle. “Oh, you were, were you? May I ask if you were going to
knock me over the head with a bone and drag me back by my
hair?”

“I was going to tell you to get your little
bottom back up to the hotel where it belonged. In fact, that’s
exactly what I think you should do right now. Do you understand me?
You’re still naked.”

Tasha’s eyes widened. She slanted her gaze at
him. “Come again?”

His hands hit his hips in desperation. “I
said high-tail your fanny back up that hill where you belong.
Now.”

Calmly, Tasha stepped away from him. “I don’t
think so.” She walked straight to him and brushed past him, heading
for the game.

“Tasha!” He rushed up next to her. “You’re
going to hear me out, you understand me? I want you back at the
room, now.”

“Leave me alone.”

Anger welled up inside his chest like a
gurgling spring. He looked down at the fists at his sides,
clenching and unclenching uncontrollably. He still had her panties
in his hand.
Now, there’s a picture
. “I will not leave you
alone. I will not allow you to go down there and play volleyball
with naked people, your breasts jiggling up and down, your little
tush bouncing all over the place. What are you, some kind of
exhibitionist, or something?”

Silence rang out through the woods. Tasha
slowly angled her gaze back to him.

“I think you better leave me alone, Andrew.
You’re walking on thin ice. You have nothing to say about what I do
or where I go. In fact, I think you better go back to the room
now.” She spoke out the side of her mouth.

“Not without you.”

“Why?”

“Because—” Suddenly all the fight went out of
him. “Oh, hell, forget it, Tasha. I don’t know why I’m doing this.
You’re right. It’s your decision. Come back whenever you’re ready.”
Andrew tore his gaze away from her face, tossed her clothes at her
feet, and started walking back up the hill toward the cabin.

“You could take off your clothes and join
me,” she called out after him.

But Andrew ignored her.

“Don’t you walk away from me Andrew Jacob
Powell,” she yelled. “I’m not finished with you yet, you
conservative little jackass.”

****

Tasha burst through the hotel room door, her
gaze riveted at Andrew standing across the room. Of all the
unmitigated gall.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?”

Andrew dragged his hands over his face, then
sat down on the rattan chair. “Tasha, look. I’m sorry. I don’t know
what came over me. It’s just that I didn’t—”

Tasha’s hands flew in the air. “Yeah! That’s
right, you didn’t think. Period.” As she reached him, she planted
her two hands firmly on either arm of Andrew’s chair and looked him
square in the eyes. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Conservative.
It’s my life, my body, my vacation and I’ll do as I damn well
please.” A lone finger snaked out and poked him in the chest,
punctuating each of her last words. “And you better remember
that.”

She kept her gaze locked with his for a
moment, then she watched as he shifted slightly in his seat,
adjusting the direction of his gaze—which was quite a bit lower
than her chin. In fact, he was staring directly at her chest, and
then some. Thank God she’d had the presence to slip back into her
clothes. The look on his face was one of pure...lust.

Or was it? God, she hoped it was lust. She
couldn’t handle anything other than lust, right now. Especially
feelings. Emotions. Lust she could handle. Emotions?

Uh-uh.

Tasha jerked back and stood to her full
height, her hands automatically rested on her hips. Suddenly, she
felt flushed. Her cheeks were hot and she bet if she looked down,
her breasts would be blushing. She didn’t look down. She didn’t
want to know. “Seen enough?” she taunted.

“Yes.” She could tell he was lying.

“Good. ‘Cause until you decide to get naked
also, that’s the last you’re going to see of me.” Tasha turned and
made her way across the room, dodging the crumpled up sheet on the
floor.

“Tasha...” Andrew’s voice was hoarse.

She turned. “What?”

“I didn’t want you to get hurt,” he said
quietly, his gaze touching hers and holding. He still sat in the
chair, unmoving. “I didn’t want you to get in over your head. I
didn’t want anyone else seeing you, watching you...touching you,”
he admitted.

Turning her body fully to him, Tasha stepped
forward one step. “What?” she asked again, quietly this time, her
eyebrows knit in the center.

“I was afraid of what would happen. That
you’d get down there with that...” he swallowed, “with that
drop-dead gorgeous body of yours, and someone...some pervert or
some macho man would sweep you off your feet and carry you away and
I’d never see you again.”

Andrew gritted his teeth. Where was all this
coming from? Why was he telling her this? Was this truly how he
felt, or was he just making all this up to look good in her
eyes?

No, he wasn’t making it all up. Suddenly, his
fears were recognized. And they weren’t fears of his getting naked.
His fears had a whole lot more to do with her body, than his. How
he wanted that body—and not just for the week.

Oh, God, he realized. I care for her. Way too
much.

Tasha took another two steps forward. “And
that would bother you?”

He nodded. “Uh, yeah. It would bother me a
lot.”