Touch Me (4 page)

“Lord, help me.”

“Hey, Hannah.”

Jack was already in her front yard before she could tear her eyes away from the massive man now leaning over to pull something out of the passenger side.

“Hey, yourself,” she said focusing on him. “Don’t tell me that’s a brother of yours.”

He shook his head. “Nope, a cousin-in-law of sorts. Dante, this is my neighbor and most popular vet of Oceanside, Dr. Hannah Richmond.”

“Well, Jack, you never said you had a goddess living next door.”

She blushed as Jack shook his head. “Watch it, Santini.”

“Another Marine?”

Dante smiled. Lord, two of these men next door to her? God was testing her. He was trying to see if she could resist temptation.

“Of course.”

“How has this week been?”

“Playing catch up after the emergency surgery a few days ago.” Then she heard barking. “Oh, no, he heard you.”

“He?” Dante asked as she went to the porch.

“Hercules, my dog. He loves men, but he’s stuck with me.”

“Well, maybe you could show me around the sights of Oceanside?” Dante asked.

“Uh…”

“That’s enough of that, Santini.” Jack tossed Dante the keys to the house. “Show yourself in. Hannah and I have something we need to talk about.”

Damn, she should have run to the front door.

Once they were alone, he said, “Seriously, don’t look like I’m about to attack you.”

“I don’t.”

Although, the word attack was a good one, it was what she wanted to do right now. Resisting him was hard, but it was next to impossible when he was in his uniform. Lord.

He shook his head. “We need to talk about the other night.”

“Why?”

“Because…well, don’t women talk about those things?”

“That’s stereotyping.”

“You’re avoiding the subject.”

She sighed. “Okay, but not now.”

He leaned forward and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “If I didn’t have to mess with Dante, I would insist on it. Just know we
will
talk about it.”

She nodded then watched as he walked away from her. Just her luck to get a man who wanted to talk about a kiss. She would rather forget about it. It was bad enough that she was dreaming about him every night. And, just today, Mary had caught Hannah daydreaming about the Marine. She really needed to get her head screwed on straight.

*  *  *  *

When Jack made his way back to the kitchen, he found Dante sprawled on one of his kitchen bar stools talking on the phone.

“You’re worse than my mother.”

Jack didn’t know who he was talking to, but decided to get himself a beer. When he pulled the bottle out, he grabbed another one and offered it to Dante. He smiled, nodded and made a twisting move with his hand. Jack did as he requested, giving him an open bottle.

“Aunt Joey, I called my mother last night. I don’t know why I had to call you.” He squeezed his eyes shut and Jack tried not to laugh. When Dante opened his eyes, he gave Jack a look that told him he was in trouble.

“Hey, Aunt Joey, did you know that your son’s brother-in-law gave me a place to bunk for a few days? Yeah. Jack’s really nice. Of course.”

He held out the phone to Jack. “She wants to talk to you.”

Jack accepted the phone. “Hi, Joey.”

“Hi, yourself.  How are things going there in California?”

“Pretty good.”

“I liked Pendleton when were there. I do like the ocean.”

He said nothing for a few seconds.

“So, how’s your neighbor with the dog?”

He was going to kill his sister. That girl could never keep her mouth shut. Damn her.

“She’s fine. We have a truce of sorts.”

“That’s good. I understand you might be seeing your father soon.”

“That’s what MJ says. Kind of making the rounds.”

“There’s something on his mind. Papa and he had a long talk about something, but Papa didn’t tell me what it was.”

Which was odd. Very odd. Joey Santini could get just about any man to do her bidding.

“Is there anything else?”

“No. I know Dante was just throwing the phone at you because he hadn’t called anyone to tell them he had made it to Oceanside. He talked to his mother, but she’s in London and the rest of us didn’t know.”

He laughed. “Do you always know what’s going on?”

“Most of the time. Then again, raising four boys keeps you on your toes. Tell Dante I expect an email from him with his new address or I’ll call his mom and tell her about the sneaking out incident when we were both stationed at Quantico.”

He laughed again. “You got it.”

When he clicked the phone off, he handed it back to Dante. “New address emailed or something about Quantico.”

He rolled his eyes. “That woman never forgets anything. And I still blame Marco for that one. It was his idea.”

“Marco? The quiet one?”

“Yeah. Quiet, my ass. He would come up with all these great ideas then sit back and let us get caught. Our parents always assumed it was our fault for leading him down the bad boy path. Always watch the quiet ones.”

He nodded as he sipped on his beer.

“So, how many of you in your family?”

“Five boys and one girl.”

“Lord, your family does like to have lots of kids.”

He shook his head. “Two sets of twins. The sister is my twin. All of them are Marines.”

He shook his head. “To family traditions.”

“Oo-rah, Captain. So, want to tell me about that little filly next door?”

“Not really.”

He chuckled. “Hey, just tell me to back off. I’m no poacher.”

“Hungry?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Always.”

“I’ll order us a pizza.”

He nodded and Jack opened up his laptop and pulled up the local pizza shop he ordered from.

“So, gonna tell me why there was so much tension out there?”

“Again, no.”

“Are you dating or not?”

Jack looked at him and realized Dante wasn’t messing with him. “It’s complicated.”

“When is it not,” Dante said with a smile. “Just with her living next door, you might want to make sure she’s worth the complications. If she is, I wouldn’t hesitate because, right now, I could see myself asking her out.”

Dante’s phone rang with a recording from Monty Python screaming about a witch. He made a face. “Sisters.”

He clicked it on and headed back to his room. Jack stood there for a few moments and realized that Dante was right. If the woman was worth the complications, he needed to take a chance.

The welcoming sounds of the Pacific Ocean settled Hannah’s mind. It had been a hectic week and when Mary had convinced her to come to the beach, she had thought it might be a bad idea. With the scent of sunblock and salt water tickling her nose and filling her senses, she could admit she was wrong. Hannah sighed as she settled back against her beach chair.

“Was that a sigh of contentment I heard?” Mary asked as she slathered on her sunblock. Being a redhead, Mary was crazy about protection from the sun. Thanks to her, both of them were wearing big, floppy straw hats.

“Contentment. Very much so.”

“Why is that?”

“Long week and even longer week ahead. I hate summer vacations. People always wait until the last minute to get their pets ready for the kennel.”

Mary nodded as she sat down beside her. “Well, everyone’s busy. Plus, I think a few of them hold out to see if they can afford the trip these days.”

“And you booked how many new folks next week?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know. It’s PCS season.”

For the military, they could move at any time, but there was always a huge number of transfers in the summer. Many of them were going overseas which meant they needed to ensure documentation.

“I do know you need to talk to Mason about being your assistant vet soon. He’s going to get scooped up by someone if you aren’t careful.”

“And this has nothing to do with your attraction to him?”

“I’ve told you, we’re just friends.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. He’s gay.”

For a second, it didn’t compute. She slid her glasses down her nose and looked at Mary. “Wait, what? Mason’s gay? I had no idea.”

“No doubt. You have absolutely no gaydar.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because you don’t.” Then she looked over her shoulder at something. “Don’t look but there are two very hot built guys coming this way.”

Her stomach churned as she kept telling herself there was no way she would run into Jack and Dante at the beach.

She peeked back over her shoulder and felt her heart get a swift, hearty kick of lust. Good Lord, Jack was practically naked. Okay, he was no more naked than everyone else here, but it was the most naked she had ever seen him. And, goodness to all that was holy, the man was built.

He was tanned, but he had never been fair skinned that she knew of. His dark hair was damp from a dip in the ocean, and droplets of water slid down his flesh. He had a thin line of hair that bisected his abs and disappeared beneath the waistband of his trunks.

“Who are they?”

“That’s my neighbor.”

“Which one?”

She realized then that Dante was with him.  He was gorgeous as well, but even though he was walking next to Jack, Hannah hadn’t noticed him.

“The one on the right. The other one is some kind of relation to him. And another Marine.”

“Ah.” They stopped just about a foot from where the girls were sitting.

“Hey, Hannah,” Dante said. Jack said nothing but kept staring at her.

“Hey, yourself. Enjoying the beach?”

“Yeah. But as a Marine, we always have a good chance at being stationed at a base with a beach nearby.”

She smiled. “Dante, Jack, this is my assistant Mary. Mary, the guys.”

They exchanged pleasantries but Jack barely took his gaze from her.

“Why don’t y’all have a seat?”

They both did, with Dante sitting next to Mary. They started to talk about the area when she turned to face Jack.

“Are you going to talk or just stare?”

He smiled then. He was wearing a pair of mirrored sunglasses so she couldn’t see his eyes. “Don’t know.”

“You seem to be getting on okay with your house guest.”

He nodded, and kept staring at her. This was starting to get on her nerves.

Leaning closer, she said, “You know, you’re acting weird.”

He leaned even closer, moving so his mouth was near her ear. When he spoke, his breath feathered over her skin.

“I don’t really care.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. ‘Cause all I care about is seeing you in your sexy bathing suit.”

That made her body almost go up in flames. She turned her head to look at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I want to.”

Ohhh, she hated that tone. And loved it. It was that “I’m in charge of the situation,” tone and it should irritate her. While it did, it also made her very, very hot.

She was about to order him to move away—she really was—when she heard a shout from off in the distance. She looked around him and noticed the volleyball net that had been put up.

“Seems like they’re calling for you.”

He turned around, then back to her. “Yeah, they need two more players.”

As he leaned closer, she found herself leaning toward him, but Dante saved her.

“Hey, let’s go, Jack.” He was already on his feet and heading the way of the court.

With an irritated sigh, Jack moved away.  “We will have that talk. And soon.”

With that promise, he nodded toward Mary, then rose to make his way across the sand. Oh, Lord, the man even had sexy legs. All muscle and long…

“You hummed.”

She looked at Mary. “I did not.”

“Yeah, you did. You hummed.” She shook her head. “You’ve been holding out on me boss. Two sexy Marines next door and this one…well he is super hot for you.”

“I don’t think it is very smart to date my neighbor.”

“Every now and then, you need to do something stupid, just to remind yourself you’re still alive.”

Hannah glanced back at the retreating figures. Yeah, she did want to do something stupid, over and over again with Jack. Unfortunately, life wasn’t going to allow for that.

Irritated that it depressed her, she pulled out her ereader and decided to lose herself in a historical romance.

*  *  *  *

“You don’t seem too upset,” Dante said as they were walking away.

He shrugged. Jack couldn’t be too irritated. He had gotten to see Hannah and in a bathing suit. The woman was a dream. The bathing suit she was wearing was black and many people would call it plain. But it was one of those with the top that tied around the back of the neck and while it covered the important bits, it accentuated them even more. It looked like something Marilyn Monroe would have worn. Add in the cat sunglasses and the big floppy hat, and she looked like something out of a bygone era. It was odd because he had never really seen her that way before, but now, he was obsessed with seeing her like that again. Or in nothing at all. That would be good too.

“Earth to Johnson,” Dante said, laughter coloring his voice.

“What?”

“You were off in dreamy land with your bombshell back there.”

“Bombshell. Yeah, that bathing suit was perfect.”

He didn’t usually talk about women with the guys, but with Dante being a Santini, it was like he was family.

“I never really looked at her like that before.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she doesn’t fuss too much, which I like, but that outfit, I’ll be dreaming about it for weeks.”

“And that’s how I know you aren’t a Santini.”

He stopped and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you were a Santini, I would say three days, maybe four tops.”

“Get bent, Santini.”

Dante just laughed as he walked toward the guys Jack worked with. Jack glanced over his shoulder at Hannah. She was reading, or at least, she looked to be reading off a tablet.

Then, she slid her glasses down a fraction and he caught her looking at him from the side of her eye. When she noticed he was looking at her, she quickly turned away. He smiled as he made his way to the sand volleyball court.