Long Gone Girl (2 page)

And to make matters worse, he was only
wearing bathing trunks as well.
Do not look down. Do not look
down. Just look at his face.

She swallowed, then somehow scraped together
a voice that was passably clear if not confident. “Yes, but it’s
Williams. Ginny Williams now…”
Keep it together, Ginny
.
You’ve seen thousands of men wearing a lot less.
She thrust
out her hand. “It’s nice to see you again, Jett.” Well, that was a
big fat lame lie. And he knew it.

He smiled slowly, and even though he was
wearing aviator sunglasses, she knew the smile mustn’t have reached
his bluer-than-the-sky eyes. But he took her hand and shook it
anyway. “Same.”

Dear God, what an idiot she must look,
shaking hands with Adonis personified at the beach. She pulled her
hand from his firm grasp, desperately trying to ignore the searing
heat that had shot from her fingers straight to the apex of her
thighs, making her want to squirm.

Stop it, Williams. You’re all grown up now,
remember? A hardened field-surgical nurse.

Jett’s grin broadened, as if he was reading
her mind. “You’re looking well.” Even though she couldn’t see his
eyes behind the lenses of his sunglasses, she felt his gaze
drifting over her polka-dot bikini clad body.

“So are you.” Which was an understatement to
say the least. Despite her determination not to notice anything
about Jett Kelly’s physique, she’d have to be dead not to. Wide
shoulders, sleek golden skin over well-defined muscles—she could
name every one—lean hips… She stalwartly resisted the urge to
glance lower at the front of his trunks and dragged her gaze back
to his annoyingly, too handsome face. “So…”

“Do you mind if I pull up a pew?” He
gestured at the sand beside her.

Yes!
“I was just thinking of leaving
actually,” she said through a tight smile. “A girl shouldn’t get
too much sun. You know, fair skin and all.” The audacity of the
man. She’d all but told him she was married, but here he was, about
to make himself at home on her quiet patch of beach. The man was
unbelievable! He hadn’t changed one iota since high school.

He grinned. “I could help you with that
lotion you’ve got there.”

Once a jerk, always a jerk
apparently.
“I don’t think so.” Ginny grabbed her floppy hat,
shoved it onto her head then stuffed her Bain du Soliel sun lotion
and novel into her calico beach bag. She stood, snagging her beach
towel up as she rose. “Well, it was nice—”

He touched her arm. “Don’t go.”

Ginny jumped as though she’d been scalded
and dropped her gaze to where his hand lay on her forearm. His long
fingers were tanned against her own pale skin. She half suspected
there were burn marks underneath.

He took off his aviators. Mesmerizing blue
eyes, bluer than she remembered, trapped her gaze. “Don’t go on my
account,” he repeated softly, his voice as rich and deep as the
purr of the car he drove. “I’m just here to go for a swim anyway.
You won’t even know I’m here.”

Ginny opened her mouth to speak but not a
sound came out. The speech center of her brain had apparently
ceased to function, and her heart was pounding so fast she knew her
blood pressure must be through the roof. And all because of that
one simple touch. She felt like she was back at the Ridgewood High
gymnasium when Jett had first touched her.
Kissed her…

Jett didn’t seem to notice how struck dumb
she was though. Clearly touching her meant nothing to him, just as
it had back then. Obviously taking her silence as acquiescence, he
tossed his towel and sunglasses onto the sand.

“You should come too,” he called over one
impossibly broad shoulder as he strode toward the surf. “I bet the
water’s great.”

The sea did indeed look inviting, a perfect
deep azure blue with white capped waves rolling onto the smooth
white sands. But there was no way on earth that Ginny was going to
join Jett. The annoying thing was, she had actually only been at
the beach for half an hour before he had crashed into her quiet
solitude. So why should she go scurrying back to the Driftwood
Boarding House to hide? She’d come to Point Pleasant to unwind, not
stay cooped up in a tiny bedroom with only Mrs. Fingle—the
proprietress of the boarding house—and her old tabby cat for
company. Tamping down her roiling resentment of Jett and all he
represented, she shook out her towel again and resumed her seat on
the beach—albeit a few feet farther away from where he’d deposited
his things. With any luck, he’d only come for a brief sojourn—a
swim, some sun-bathing and nothing more.

She wouldn’t let him—or her nearly a decade
old memory of him—spoil her day.

***

Jett struck out through the deep, blue Atlantic
waters beyond the line of surf, keeping a course parallel with the
beach. He focused on his stroke technique and the feel and taste of
the cool, briny ocean slapping into his face and over him—anything
to keep his mind off Ginny and how silver-screen gorgeous she was.
And how much she clearly despised him, even after all these
years.

Goddammit!
He could have been knocked
over with a feather when he’d first spied her lying there right
before him on the sand. He’d recognize that amazing strawberry
blonde hair anywhere.

But then—like history repeating itself—he’d
acted like a first-class jerk. Her brush-off spoke volumes. He
really couldn’t blame her for not wanting to have anything to do
with him, especially after he’d offered to help her apply sun
lotion.
Talk about being a jackass, Kelly.

But the way she looked, in her black and
pink polka-dot swimsuit, all long legs, smooth pale skin and
perfect, full breasts…and lips. Sweet Jesus, what kissable lips she
had. Even the smattering of freckles across her nose was adorable.
He’d clearly never gotten over his high school crush. In fact, part
of his reason for dashing off into the sea was to shock his body
out of growing an erection before Ginny’s very eyes.

He couldn’t explain why he wanted her so
badly, back in high school…and now. He’d dated his fair share of
beautiful women over the years. In fact, he was supposed to be on a
date right now with one—a certain Dana Whitney—but when the
pernickety society miss had heard his plan to take her to the beach
this morning, she’d cried off.

But there was something about Ginny that was
different from all the others… Jett propelled himself through the
swell harder, faster, trying to push away his inexplicable craving
for this girl—correction this woman. A surgical nurse. And a
widow.

He’d only recently found out that she’d been
married and then almost as quickly bereaved during the conflict in
Korea. His mother had gleefully filled him in on all the local
gossip—as she was wont to do—when he’d shared dinner with his
parents last night. Ginny, who had been serving as a nurse with one
of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital units, had apparently wed one
of the surgeons, but then he’d been killed—Jett’s mother hadn’t
heard of the exact circumstances—within a matter of months. And
Ginny had stayed on until the end of the war.

Jett should have at least acknowledged the
fact, even expressed his heartfelt condolences when Ginny had flat
out told him she was now Ginny Williams. But for some reason, he
just hadn’t been able to. Not that he harbored any ill will toward
her former, unlucky bastard of a husband. But if he was honest with
himself, he knew that deep down inside he was the teensiest bit
happy that Ginny was now unattached. Irresistibly available…

Rightly or wrongly, despite her fairly
recent bereavement, he was determined to pursue her.

As if she’d even give you another
chance…

Jett knew that he’d have his task cut out
for him, winning Ginny over—if she was actually still
on
the
beach—even for a single date. But then he had to try. If not today,
then back in Ridgewood. He’d lacked the courage in high school. But
he certainly didn’t now. After surviving Korea, Jett Kelly—fighter
jock—was definitely not faint-hearted or a quitter.

He paused, treading water, and looked back
to the shore. Surprise hit him as surely as the unexpected wave
that subsequently smacked him right between the eyes. Ginny was
still there. Blinking away the stinging, salty water, a warm swell
of hope surged through him. Maybe, just maybe he’d have a chance
with her after all.

Prickly she might be, but Jett knew without
a shadow of a doubt that winning Ginny Williams would be undeniably
worth it. He’d give it a shot. After all, what did he have to
lose?

It took every ounce of
self-control Ginny possessed to stop herself from gaping—or worse,
drooling—when Jett emerged from the surf and strode back up the
beach toward her.

No man had a right to look that good. It was
downright sinful. Ginny’s pulse began to leap erratically all over
again. Jett Kelly, wet and half-naked, was a sight she just
couldn’t ignore. Her gaze inexorably fell to his bathing trunks
this time. The dark blue fabric clung indecently to every line of
his amazing, magnificently proportioned body. Clearly the cold
water hadn’t diminished the size of his impressive ‘assets’ to any
great degree. Lord, how would it feel to have sex with the man?

Mind blowing
. Ginny blushed furiously
at her mind’s unbidden image of Jett claiming her mouth as he
wildly pounded into her. It probably didn’t help that she’d seen
‘From Here to Eternity’ only the week before. A mental picture of
Deborah Kerr rolling about in the surf with Burt Lancaster suddenly
crowded her thoughts. Her flush spread further, all the way down
her neck to the top of her breasts, and her nipples hardened when
she imagined herself and Jett doing the same thing, right now.

But how could she even think about such
things, given part of her heart was still mourning Charlie? It was
wrong and indecent and she should know better. She curled her
fingers around the corners of her book’s cover, suppressing the
urge to cross herself as if she was warding off the devil himself
as Jett approached.

At least her sunglasses hid her blatant
ogling from him to some degree, if not her blush. Not that Jett
seemed to mind she was looking his way, given the megawatt smile he
suddenly flashed at her when he reached her side then grabbed his
towel.

She dropped her gaze back to her novel,
frantically looking for the paragraph she was up to.

“Good book?”

Ginny reluctantly raised her gaze to him
again. He was watching her, still smiling as he roughly toweled
himself off. Charm and raw, masculine good looks all rolled into
one.

Don’t you dare fall for his tricks
again
. Desperately trying to gather her old resentment and
righteous indignation about her, Ginny licked suddenly dry lips.
“Very,” she replied tightly. It
was
actually. Daphne du
Maurier’s skillful writing had drawn her into the intriguing
historical mystery ‘My Cousin Rachel’. Right until Jett had shown
up.

He took a few steps closer and spread his
towel right alongside hers, as if expecting a sure welcome. “You
always were a bookworm if I recall.”

Ginny pressed her lips together and looked
away from him as thorny annoyance prickled inside her. Bookish,
square, Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes Ginny O’Hara. As if she needed
reminding of how he and almost everyone else had seen her at
school.

“Smart as the dickens too.” He threw himself
down on his towel and smiled up at her. Droplets of sea water clung
to his jaw and thick black lashes. Propping himself on one elbow,
his muscular torso twisting toward her, he raked a hand through his
dripping black hair.

Ginny felt like she was being blasted by a
solar flare as intense and wholly unwelcome searing want raced
through her veins to her nether regions at the sight. But beneath
the physical attraction, resentment simmered. It was obvious Jett
was flirting with her, not because he was genuinely attracted to
her, but because he was playing with her. Taunting her.

Like he had at the high school prom. After
everything she’d been through in the last few years, she didn’t
need this.

She drew a shaky breath and marshaled her
best nursing officer’s voice. “You can cut the crap right now, Jett
Kelly. I may have been a pushover when I was seventeen but I’m not
now. Good God, I’ve even told you my last name is now Williams.
Apparently anyone’s fair game to you, even a married woman. Or a
mourning widow. Well, I’m sure there are plenty of other hapless,
unsuspecting females here at Point Pleasant that you can work over
with your…pick-up lines and easy smile. But not me. Got it?”

Jett pushed himself to a sitting position.
He raked a hand through his hair again, clearly taken aback by her
blistering attack. “Now, just wait a minute, Ginny. That was never
and isn’t my intention—“