Summer at the Shore (Seashell Bay Book 2) (8 page)

But this was totally different. He and Morgan were both free agents. No one else would get hurt if they gave in to all the explosive chemistry that had been building between them.

Aiden glanced at him, giving him a wry, understanding smile. Then he got up and went to stand behind Lily, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck as she steered the boat. Morgan stepped away, taking the chair next to the captain’s seat. But Ryan didn’t think he was imagining the melancholy on her face as she stared straight ahead into the night.

What was she thinking? Did she envy her friends? Because Ryan had to admit he was feeling that way. Lily and Aiden were so obviously in love and so physically hot for each other that it was like they had some kind of weird aura surrounding them. They were about to start married life in the place they wanted to be, doing what they wanted to do.

Still, it wasn’t the life
he
wanted, and he was damn sure about that.

As he studied Morgan’s expressive features, he also felt pretty damn sure that she
did
want that life—white picket fence and all.

Too bad he wasn’t the guy to give it to her.

M
organ pushed her way through the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room, a pot of Earl Grey tea balanced on a small tray. Though Ryan had been helping to serve guests this morning while she made breakfast, he hadn’t come back to the kitchen after dropping off the tea order. She spotted him now sitting with the Stringers, deep in conversation with gray-haired Charley while Lydia, Charley’s wife, fiddled with her cell phone.

Despite Ryan’s reluctance to share personal details, he clearly had no trouble chatting up the guests.

Normally, Morgan handled breakfast by herself on Wednesday mornings because Sabrina had her weekly appointment with a psychologist in Portland. Sabrina had been seeing the counselor once or twice a month for several years. But after their dad died, the psychologist had told Morgan that Sabrina needed more frequent support. The cost was a killer, but Morgan didn’t begrudge one cent of it. Other things could be sacrificed. Her sister’s well-being was not going to be one of them.

She set the white Belleek teapot, cheerful with its pale green shamrocks, in the middle of the table. “Charley, Lydia, can I get you anything else? It’s last call for the kitchen.”

“We’re good, sweetheart,” Charley said with a smile. “I was just telling Ryan about my time in Korea. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir.”

“Charley was with the Fifth Marines,” Ryan said, his tone admiring. “They were outnumbered and fought their way out of a Chinese trap in brutally heavy fighting. Charley’s company was called the Chosin Few.”

Morgan raised her eyebrows. “So you two fellas have a lot in common, I’m guessing.”

“Damn right,” Charley said. “Although Ryan served longer than I did. Sometimes I wonder about young folks these days, Morgan. And then I meet a guy like Ryan and get my faith back.”

Ryan looked slightly sheepish at the praise. “I’d have been proud to serve alongside you, sir. But I’m falling down on the job, and I don’t want the boss to get mad at me. It was great talking to you, Charley.” He smiled at Lydia. “You too, ma’am.”

“Hope you folks have a great day,” Morgan said to her guests before following Ryan into the kitchen.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get into a big discussion out there.” Ryan started to load the dishwasher.

She was happy he’d been able to share stories with a fellow vet. “You were entertaining our guests, which is a big part of an innkeeper’s job. Dad wanted people to feel like this place was a second home. Heck, I just might offer you a job in the kitchen and dining room once you get finished with the repairs.”

“
If
I get finished with the repairs, you mean,” Ryan said wryly.

It had rained for three days straight since their night at the ballpark, making it impossible for him to work on the roof. All the materials were now on-site, including the ladder lift, nail gun, and compressor that Ryan had rented from a Portland supplier. He’d told her that Aiden would join him on Saturday, and in the meantime, he’d work on repairing the water damage in one of the guest rooms and replacing insulation in the attic.

Though the poor weather had frustrated Ryan’s kayaking plans too, he’d been easy and good-natured.

But distant. When he wasn’t working or visiting with his parents, he was usually tucked up in his room in the main building. Only once had he shared dinner with her and Sabrina. The other nights, he’d headed to the Pot and come back to Golden Sunset late.

And not once since that night at the ballpark had he touched her.

Morgan didn’t think Ryan was angry with her for being so cool that night. He’d been friendly enough whenever their paths crossed. She just figured he’d probably absorbed the unspoken message that she wasn’t up for some no-strings-attached sex.

Though she should have felt relieved, his cool approach had only made her feel worse and made her want him even more. By the second night, she practically had to handcuff herself to her bed to make sure she didn’t creep up the stairs and slip into his bedroom. Poor Charley and Lydia were in the room next door to his, and the walls were pretty thin. The thought of that dignified old couple hearing her and Ryan go at it like sex-starved bunnies was horrifying to contemplate.

“I want to get at that roof tomorrow,” Ryan said. “The delay is really bugging me now.”

“I warned the guests about noise,” Morgan said. “They’re fine as long as you don’t start banging around too early.”

“You’d better define early, then.”

“Ten, I guess. You can’t really blame them for not wanting any hammering until they’ve cleared out for the day. When you did that little repair a few days ago, you can’t believe how loud it sounded all through the house.”

“Sorry, but you can’t drive nails with a foam rubber hammer.”

“Ha, ha, funny guy. I get it, but I can’t afford to shut down for a week either. These guests are helping to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. And we want first-timers like the Stringers to come back.”

“Got it.” Ryan leaned a hip against the island counter and studied her. “So what are you going to be up to for the rest of the day, boss?”

Morgan sighed. “Bookkeeping, shopping, laundry, cleaning silverware. Making dinner with Sabrina. Same old, same old. No rest for the wicked.”

His gaze dropped to her chest for a leisurely moment before flicking back up. “Wicked? I haven’t noticed you being wicked. Not yet, I mean.”

Oh, boy
. The heat in his eyes that had been missing for a few days sparked to life.

She swallowed, flustered by his sudden sexual innuendo. “It was just a figure of speech, Ryan. People say that all the time around here. Irony, get it?”

His gaze narrowed as if he was irritated that she wasn’t going to play along. “All joking aside, you do work too hard. You need to have some fun too.”

Like having crazy-hot sex with you?

She practically clutched her head in frustration. Of course jumping into bed with Ryan would be the first thing that popped into her head when she thought about fun.

“Well, you did say you’d give me some kayak lessons. That sounds like it would be fun,” she said in an insanely cheerful voice, trying to compensate for the lewd images playing through her mind.

Though she wasn’t crazy about the idea of being wedged into a precarious plastic shell, a nice paddle along the eastern shoreline of Seashell Bay might be relaxing. She sure needed to relax.

Sex would be relaxing, Morgan
.

She wished she could tell her damn brain to shut the hell up.

“I’ll be all over that if it ever stops raining.” Ryan moved a little closer, close enough that Morgan had to repress her instinct to take a step back. “But I had another idea. How about I take you and Sabrina out for drinks and dinner tonight at Diamond Cove? You guys have been great to me, so I’d like to do something nice for you.”

Now
that
she hadn’t expected. It was certainly a sweet and generous gesture on Ryan’s part. Including Sabrina was not only kind, it also told her that he didn’t see the dinner as some kind of date. He couldn’t have known that Sabrina would certainly decline the offer.

She struggled for a moment to find a lighthearted response but gave up when all she could come up with sounded stupidly flippant. “That’s sweet of you. I’ll talk to Sabrina as soon as she gets back.”

I’ll sort out my feelings about being alone with you later
.

Morgan couldn’t help noticing that she’d already made up her mind to accept the offer, even though Sabrina wouldn’t be there as a buffer between them.

Her sister hated going out, other than an occasional night at the Pot with Morgan and her closest friends. Whenever Sabrina had to be in a public place off the island for more than a few minutes, she often started to act jittery. She said it made her anxious, and that she couldn’t enjoy the food or the company. Sabrina’s idea of fun had always been to curl up on the cozy love seat in her room with her nose in one of the library’s murder mysteries. She devoured them like chocolate.

“Great,” Ryan said, smiling. He had the best smile. It practically melted the panties right off her body. “I’ll check the ferry connections and make a reservation for seven thirty.”

“Sounds good.”

He took off his server’s apron and hung it up. “And now I’ve got a heavy date with some insulation.”

“Well, you wouldn’t want to disappoint her,” Morgan said. “I hear she can be a real taskmaster.”

Ryan’s smiled turned thoughtful. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

As she watched him leave the kitchen, Morgan thought that there was very little in life that Ryan Butler couldn’t handle.

Including her.

Ryan attacked his sixteen-ounce New York strip with enthusiasm. “Great steak. How’s your tuna?”

Morgan took a small bite, her eyelids fluttering half shut with pleasure. “Mmm, divine,” she purred. When she
let out a happy sigh and licked her lips, Ryan felt it all the way down to his groin.

And she was just eating, for God’s sake. Just imagine if she were really trying to turn him on.

Everything about her was so delicate, including how she ate. He’d always punched food down fast, no matter how fancy or fussily prepared. And he’d take a good steak over seafood most of the time, even in Maine. He had little enthusiasm for lobster, no doubt because he’d grown up eating it almost every day. When he was in school, he’d sometimes trade his mom’s lobster rolls for PB&Js or, better yet, sandwiches made out of ham from those little round tins. He’d never had a shortage of mainland kids happy to swap.

“I have to say it again, Morgan—you look amazing tonight.”

She wore the proverbial little black dress—nicely short, he was happy to say. It lovingly hugged her slim form and exposed her tanned arms and shoulders. On the ferry, she’d covered up with a black lace shawl, leaving it on in the cool restaurant. A gold pendant with its single pearl nestled in her sweet cleavage, and her gleaming blond hair looked like silk and begged to be touched—preferably while he was buried deep inside her.

It had practically killed him not to draw her tight against him as they sat thigh to thigh on the short crossing from Seashell Bay to Diamond Cove. Though it was a thank-you dinner, not a date, people on the boat had sure looked at them like they were a couple. And no wonder, because the sexual energy between them was almost palpable.

“Tell me as often as you want,” she said with a smile. “By the way, you clean up pretty nicely too.”

Ryan had worn his navy blazer—the one he kept at his parents’ place—along with gray dress slacks, a white shirt, and his Iraq vet tie. “Thanks. I only wear this jacket about once a year, so I don’t even know if it’s in style.”

She rolled her eyes, as if the idea of him caring about style was ridiculous. Which, of course, it was.

He glanced around at the casually upscale restaurant. It was great other than the fact that they had to dine inside instead of on the lawn or expansive deck. Everything outside was still soaked, but the drizzle had finally tapered off and a few muted purple rays from the setting sun colored the picturesque Diamond Cove marina.

“Sabrina doesn’t know what she’s missing,” he said. “It’s too bad she didn’t want to come.”

Morgan scrunched up her nose. “She didn’t mean to seem ungrateful. You know she’s just built a little different from most people.”

“I like her. Always have, even though the feeling wasn’t exactly mutual.”

“She was touched that you wanted her to come.”

“Yeah, she told me that this afternoon.”

Morgan blinked. “She did?”

“She yelled up at me while I was in the attic.” He couldn’t help grinning as he remembered looking down through the access door to see Sabrina at the bottom of the ladder with her hands on her hips, her face all serious and intent. “Before she ran off, she also said she knew I’d have a good time with her sister.”

Morgan’s eyebrows hiked up. “Really? She didn’t mention any of that to me.”

“I thought it was kind of sweet. But maybe you’d better not tell her I mentioned it.”

She made that cute zipping motion across her lips she’d used before.

“Sabrina had it right,” he said. “I am having a good time with her sister. I always have a good time with you.”

Except for that weird night in Portland when you looked like you wished I’d fall into the bay on the way home
.

She blushed and gave him a hesitant smile. “I’m having a good time too.” Then she laughed. Man, he loved her laugh. “It’s hard not to when you’re eating sushi-grade tuna and drinking fine wine. So I must thank you again, Ryan. This is special.”

Then she put her glass down and gave him a mock scowl. “But hey, all we’ve talked about is the B&B and Sabrina and me. Don’t we get to talk about you for a while? Fair is fair after all.”

He mentally flinched. Morgan probably thought this was exactly the sort of setting for sharing secrets. A nice dinner, a couple of glasses of wine, and before you know it, you’re blabbing out your life story. Well, that was never going to happen with him.

Then again, he was happy she was feeling relaxed enough both to ask and to think he would answer. He could afford to share a bit with her.

A bit.

“Just don’t waterboard me for info, okay?” he said drily.

“You are just so funny,” she mocked. “How about you start by being a little more forthcoming about your military career? All anybody seems to know is that you fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. It seems to me that you must have liked army life to have stayed in the service so long.”

Ryan hesitated, weighing his response. He’d have preferred Morgan to pose a specific question or two instead of probing for some kind of bullshit self-analysis of his military career.

“I did two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq,” he said.
Next question, please.

Morgan smiled when he didn’t elaborate. “That’s the way you want to play it, huh?”

Ryan shrugged. “Why don’t you ask another question, and we’ll see how far we get.”

Morgan propped both elbows on the table and rested her chin in her palms. “Some people think you were Special Forces, and that a lot of stuff you did would be classified. Is that why you don’t talk about it?”