Under the Boardwalk: A Dazzling Collection of All New Summertime Love Stories (57 page)

"What risk…" she managed to ask before his mouth, ever so gently, reached her own.

It was more caress than kiss, more a gesture of longing than fulfillment, but beneath its tenderness there was a promise of something more, something deep and powerful and
total
. Jody wondered how long she would have to wait before its promise would be kept.

"I can't remember when I had more fun," Jody laughed as she unlocked the door to her motel room. "But, oh, man, that roller coaster is a demon! I thought I was going to pass out."

"That's why they call it the Jersey Devil," Jeremy closed the door behind them.

"Oh, but the worst was the Serpent! Who ever dreamed up that ride should be tortured unmercifully!"

"I could tell you hated it," he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him. "That's why you had to go on it four times."

Jody's face was still flushed from that last roller coaster ride, her eyes still sparkling from the excitement of that last downhill spiral, her lips still touched with the last bit of pale pink cotton candy. Jeremy could not resist the urge to remove that trace of spun sugar from the corner or her mouth. He licked at it with his tongue, until she turned her head just slightly and parted her lips to meet his tongue with her own and to invite him to taste deeper and deeper.

Jody's arms had found their way to his chest, then to his shoulders, then to the sides of his face. His hands slid down her body, then back again, sending warming waves of keen sensation to ripple through her. Everywhere

Jeremy touched her, she seemed to melt, skin and bones. When his mouth moved to her throat and traced a hot sweet line to her shoulder, the warmth shot straight to her belly and lower. She drew his mouth back to her own and drank him in. Jeremy's hands sought and found the soft swells of her breasts and grazed them once, twice, three times, each successive passing lingering a little longer to tantalize her eager flesh. She took one slow step backwards, then another, then another, until she felt the edge of the bed behind her. His hands slid down to her hips, drawing her body tightly against his own, his mouth possessing hers.

"Jody…" he whispered into her neck. "Jody…" "Don't stop, Jeremy." She pulled him onto the bed with her. "Please don't even think about stopping…" In a heartbeat, he was everywhere, his mouth was everywhere, his hands were everywhere, and Jody was lost on a turbulent sea that spun her around and around and turned her inside out. She shed her clothes, item by item, and Jeremy hungrily devoured every inch of newly exposed flesh. Every bit of her ached with wanting him, every fiber of her body craved him. A soft moan escaped her lips, and she arched her back, demanding yet still more of him, more of the hot sweet rhythm that spurred her on. When his mouth found her breasts, she all but screamed. When finally, he slid inside her, she took him in eagerly. When he began to rock inside her, she urged him on impatiently. And when he had shattered inside her, she wanted him all over again. Jeremy, being a gentleman, did not make her wait.

The alarm on Jeremy's watch went off at four-thirty. A sleepy hand slapped at the top of the bedside table, seeking the source of the irritating sound.

"What time is it?" Jody muttered, her eyes still closed.

"Four-thirty," he told her.

"Didn't we just go to sleep?" She grumbled.

"About an hour and a half ago," Jeremy laughed.

A few minutes later, she asked, "Why?"

"Why what?" His hand stroked her arm gently.

"Why did the alarm go off at four-thirty?" She snuggled into his arms, completely at home there.

"Because I have to run back to my room and change my clothes, then get myself to the marina before five. I have a date with Captain Helmet." He kissed the tip of her ear. "It isn't too late, you know. You can still come with us."

"Captain Helmet," she muttered. "Oh. The deep-sea thing. No, no, thank you. I'll just relax on the beach while you and Ahab chase the giant white tuna or whatever's running this week."

He passed a loving hand over her thigh as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"I should be back by early this afternoon," he told her as he stood up and stretched.

"If you catch fish, what will you do with them?" She sat up and opened her eyes. "Keep them in ice in the bathroom sink?"

"Helmet will have your catch cleaned, frozen, and packed in ice when you're ready to go home. That's part of his service."

"That Helmet thinks of everything." She flopped back on the pillow, her hand reaching out to the warm spot next to her where he had been.

In the dark he pulled on his jeans, and in the faint light from the balcony she could see him sliding on the shirt he'd worn the night before.

"Be careful," she said softly. "Don't fall overboard."

"Not a chance." He leaned down and kissed her solidly. "I'm just beginning to really enjoy this vacation."

"Me too."

"Good." He kissed her again. "I'll see you later."

When Jody awoke several hours later, she was humming. She rolled over, a smile on her face, and ran her hand across the pillow where Jeremy had laid his head. The smile widened as she thought back to the night before.

Endless kisses, endless pleasure, endless joy.

Had that really been her, Jody Beckett, behaving in so mindlessly wanton a fashion, doing things she'd once blushed to merely read about? What in the world had come over her?

Jeremy.

Sweet, gentle Jeremy, who had made love as much with his heart as with his body.

Passionate, sexy Jeremy, whose inventiveness and exuberance had kept her up almost all night.

Jeremy, who had stunned her with the intensity of his ardor, captivated her with the depth of his tenderness.

And it had all been so right, so natural.

Well, she grinned as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head, she'd wanted to be swept off her feet, and she had been. Completely. Miraculously.

She glanced back at the dock. Nine-thirty. Jeremy said he expected to be back from his fishing trip by early afternoon. She'd have a leisurely breakfast by the pool, then soak up some sun until he returned. Still humming, she went into the bathroom, wondering if tonight—if any other night—could possibly be as wonderful as last night had been.

The water in the pool had been warmed by a blazing sun until it felt more like bath water, but still, it was wet and much closer than the ocean that lay at the other side of the burning sand. Jody took her second dip of the morning in a futile attempt to cool off, then returned to her lounge to lie on her stomach and read her book. The big clock on the wall that surrounded the pool had told her it was now eleven. Jeremy wouldn't be back for a few more hours.

The next time Jody looked up from her book, the clock said noon. She grabbed a yogurt and a fruit salad from the poolside vendor and tried to resume reading, but the midday heat was stifling. She set the book aside, then walked into the pool again, where she floated aimlessly on her back, her face to the scorching sun. She ducked her head under water several times to cool off a little before she got out of the water and flopped back on her lounge. It wasn't yet one o'clock. She closed her eyes and, lulled by the sun, fell into a deep sleep. Jeremy would wake her when he got back. Which should be soon…

"Hey! Sleepy-head!" The voice seemed to float freely through her dream.

"Jody, wake up."

She opened her eyes to see Jeremy leaning over her.

"Oh." She smiled and stretched languidly. "You're back. Did you catch anything?"

"Big tuna," he grinned and moved her legs to one side of the lounge to make room to sit beside her. "Lots of big tuna. It was an incredible day, Jody. The tuna were running like I've never seen them run before. That's why we're so late coming back in. No one wanted to leave. Helmet said they should all be cleaned and ready to be picked up by tomorrow. I'm thinking we'll ask the chef at the restaurant here"—he gestured to the motel—"if he can bake a piece of it for us tomorrow night. Then maybe we'll take the rest back to the inn. We can share it with Laura and her guests. What do you think? Helmet says I should have about a hundred and twenty pounds after it's cleaned and cut up."

"I think it sounds wonderful." She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "I just happen to have an incredible recipe for tuna."

"Somehow, I knew you would." Jeremy leaned forward to kiss her. "Now, what would you like to do for dinner tonight?"

"Whatever," she took his hand in hers. "Whatever you want to do. We have hours to decide."

"Not so many hours," he told her. "It's almost five."

"Five!" She shot up to a sitting position. "How could it be five?"

"Now, don't tell me that you lazed the day away," he teased.

"I must have slept all afternoon," she said, a touch of confusion in her voice.

"Well, then, you must have needed the sleep." He leaned down and kissed her again. "And my guess is that you'll be up late again tonight, so it's a good thing that you got lots of rest today."

"What about you?" She draped a lazy arm around his neck.

"I'm used to keeping erratic hours in my work, so it doesn't bother me so much. But I think I will go back to my room, take a cat nap and get a quick shower. How 'bout if we plan on six-thirty, seven, for dinner? One of the other guys on the boat today was telling me about a great seafood place a few blocks into town."

"Sounds great. That will give us lots of time to walk off our dinner afterward and maybe still sneak in a roller coaster ride later on."

"Nah, tonight we're taking on Nessie." His eyes twinkled with mischief.

"What's Nessie?"

"A brand-new, state-of-the-art, guaranteed-to-terrify new ride down in Ocean City. I thought maybe we'd take a ride down after dinner and check out their boardwalk."

"I haven't been to Ocean City in a million years. But wait." She grabbed his arm. "Is Nessie one of those rides where you stand up and get strapped into a harness—"

"Yup." He leaned forward and kissed her mouth. "Upside down and backwards."

Jody collapsed back onto the cushion and groaned.

"We'll save Nessie for the end of the night," he laughed, "and you'll have the drive back to the motel to recover."

"I don't think that the human body was intended to hang upside down and spin around at a high rate of speed, Jeremy. At least, I don't think that mine was."

He laughed again and kissed the end of her nose, then stood up to leave. He seemed to stare at her for a long moment, then removed his sunglasses and appeared to take a second look.

"Jody, how long have you been out in the sun today?"

"Since about ten or so."

"Did you use sunscreen?"

"Yes. I put it on before I even came out. Why?"

"How many times during the day did you reapply it?" He leaned closer and touched a finger to her leg.

"I don't know." She shook her head, trying to remember. She had reapplied it after coming out of the pool, hadn't she?

"You look really red, Jody."

She looked down at her chest. She could see white under the top of her bikini, but she
had
been in the sun every day for the past few days.