Almost A Bride (Montana Born Brides) (11 page)

She grinned as he hit the water with an almighty splash. Her amusement faded when Reid didn
’t surface immediately, and she leaned forward to peer into the water. His board was in the way, however, and the water was too murky at this depth.

“
Reid?” she called out, panic hitting her. What if he’d hit his head on his board on the way down and she hadn’t noticed, or there was a submerged log he’d gotten caught on.. .?

She was about to throw her paddle aside and dive in when her board tilted ever-so-slightly to the rear. She glance
d over her shoulder to see Reid gripping the tail, a fiendishly evil grin on his face.

“
No.”
“I’m afraid so, cupcake.”

He pushed down, the board went up, and she went in, arms flailing. He was laughing once again when she resurfaced.

“Okay. I may have deserved that,” she conceded.

“
You think?”

This time around she didn
’t have the benefit of sun-warmed skin to keep her warm and she could feel the chill seeping into her limbs.

“
Maybe we should call a truce before we both turn into icicles,” she said.

“
Sounds like a plan.” He swam toward her, offering her his hand.

She eyed it mistrustfully.

“What’s wrong? You think I’m going to dunk you?” he asked, looking as mischievous as a little boy.

“
I know you are, so don’t play all innocent with me.”

He took her hand anyway, but the smile quickly left his mouth as he grasped it.

“You’re freezing.”

“
Amazing powers of perception you have there.”

“
Get back on your board,” he ordered, his eyebrows knitting into a frown.

“
What a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

She reached for her board, once again bellying her way onto it and shuffling around until she was lengthwise rather than across it.
Reid, she noted sourly, managed to somehow almost vault out of the water onto his, the big showoff.

She stayed on her knees when she was done, shivering as the wind hit her already cold skin.

“Let’s head for shore,” Reid said. “We should probably think about going home, anyway.”

He wasn
’t going to get any argument from her. Suddenly the jeans and sweater she’d left in the truck seemed like her idea of heaven.

She stayed on her knees as she paddled back to shore, slipping off in the shallows and dragging the board up onto the bank. Her towel was warm from the sun when she wrapped it around her shoulders and buried her face in it, inhaling the smell of warm terry
cloth and detergent.

“
Oh, that is so nice.”

“
You should take that wet T-shirt off,” Reid said.

She lifted her face from the warmth of the towel to find him standing there dripping all over the blanket.

“Probably a good idea,” she conceded.

She let her towel drop, reaching for the hem of her
T-shirt and dragging it up her body. It wasn’t until she let it slip to the ground that she glanced down and realized her nipples were hard from the cold, creating two very noticeable points in her aqua blue bikini top. She bent down to collect the towel, carefully tucking it around her torso and securing the end beneath her armpit before looking at Reid.

He was busy toweling himself off, and she told herself he probably hadn
’t even noticed. Anyway, she was cold. Nipples did the sticking-out thing when people were cold. His were a little puckered, too, she noticed.

Then he glanced across and caught her checking out his nipples and heat rocketed up her chest and into her face.

“I should take the cooler up to the car,” she said, turning away to go fetch her sneakers.

She made sure her feet were thoroughly dry before pulling on her socks and shoes, the small task giving her ample opportunity to avoid looking at Reid. Then she grabbed the
cooler and lugged it up the slope. Reid passed her on the way back down, one of the boards under his arm.

“
Leave the other board for me,” he ordered before continuing up the bank.

She considered disobeying him, but she was fully aware that going up the slope was going to be a lot harder than coming down, and the board was big and cumbersome. Instead, she folded the picnic blanket and collected her wet T-shirt and Reid
’s tank top and headed for the car.

“
Good girl,” Reid said when he saw she’d listened to him.

“
Don’t push your luck.”

He was smiling as he walked down the hill.

She collected her clothes from the front seat, then glanced around, trying to work out where she could change. There were plenty of pine trees, but not much underbrush, and none of the tree trunks were wide enough to act as a makeshift screen.

Reid appeared, slinging the board into the
bed of the truck.

“
You take one side, I take the other, and we both pretend we’re gentlemen,” he said, somehow reading her mind.

“
That’s going to be a stretch for one of us,” she said.

He laughed.
“I surely do hope so.”

She reali
zed what she’d said then, and couldn’t help laughing, too. He moved to the other side of the truck, and she turned her back and pulled her underwear from the backpack. She tried to keep the towel tucked beneath her armpits as she shimmied out of her wet swimsuit, but it kept slipping and in the end she let it drop in the interests of simply getting her underwear on sooner rather than later. The warm cotton felt better than silk against her skin, and soon she was pulling on her jeans and sweater.

“
That feels better,” she said.

“
Does that mean you’re decent?”

“
No, I’m standing here in my birthday suit, dancing a jig.”

“
I’ve never seen you dance.”

Reid walked around the front of the truck, his eyes alight with amusement. She couldn
’t stop her gaze from dropping to his chest. Now that she knew what was beneath his clothes, she would probably never be truly comfortable in his presence again.

A rather alarming thought, given they worked with each other.

Not for long, remember? He’s heading to Chicago soon.

He was. And if it wasn
’t Chicago, it would be somewhere else. So maybe it was okay for her to let herself admire him in his hip- and thigh-hugging jeans that were faded in all the right places.

“
Your nose is a little pink,” he said.

“
That’ll happen.”

He grabbed her backpack and stowed it in the back of the truck while she liberated a couple of apples from
the cooler, tossing one to him when he’d finished. They were both biting into crisp sweetness as he began the bone-jangling trip back to the freeway.

“
Can I ask you something?” he said.

“
You can.”

“
That stuff about your dad... have you ever talked to your mom or sister about that?”

“
No. And I don’t plan to.” She frowned at him, not sure what he was thinking. Her mom would hate her if she found out what had happened that afternoon. Tara knew it with every bone in her body. Tammy Buck would work on that single piece of information in her mind until she’d turned it into a missed opportunity, and Tara didn’t want to upset her when her mother was already grappling to come to terms with her Parkinson’s disease.

“
Your decision. It just occurred to me that it might be good to talk it over with your sister. Scare a few ghosts out of the closet.”

“
That ghost is an old one. I’m happy to leave it where it is, thanks.”

“
Like I said, your call.”

She made an effort to shift the conversation then, asking him about his second job interview in Chicago and ragging on him about wearing a suit.

“I can’t imagine you all gussied up,” she said.

“
Like a bear in a tuxedo, you think?”

“
Yeah. Exactly like that.”

“
I have it on good authority that I scrub up okay.”

“
Pretty sure your mom doesn’t count, Reid.”

That earned her a smile.

“I have other people willing to vouch for me.”

“
I bet.”

They stopped for dinner in Livingstone on the way through, both of them having worked up an appetite, and they rolled into Marietta just as dusk began to blur the world and the street lights were flickering on.

Tara felt an odd sense of disappointment as Reid turned into her driveway and cruised toward her townhouse. It had been such a great day, she’d felt so good, enjoyed Reid so much...

She didn
’t want it to end.

The knowledge burned in her belly as he came to a halt in front of her single
-car garage, slipping the car into neutral.

“
Fair warning, you might have sore legs and feet tomorrow from all the work counterbalancing on the board,” he said.

“
Noted. I’ll be sure to remember you fondly as I hobble around.”

“
You do that.”

She twisted to face him, her gaze going over his mussed hair and his beard-shadowed cheeks. He
’d given her a much-needed circuit break today, taking her away from all the crap she’d been marinating in and blowing fresh air into her head. He’d also listened and let her vent without judging or trying to solve anything.

“
Thank you,” she said. “I think you might have just saved my ass today.”

“
Only your ass? I’ll have to lift my game.” His smile was small and slightly self-conscious.

Typical Reid, bold in everything except accepting heartfelt appreciation.

“You’ve been a good friend to me, Reid Dalton. I’m going to miss you like hell when you abandon us and head to Chicago.”

“
Might not get the job yet. Don’t go counting your chickens.”

“
They’d be crazy not to take you.”

She scooted across her seat a little and leaned in to kiss his cheek. They didn
’t normally kiss and hug or do any of that touch-feely stuff, but it felt right for today. It felt necessary.

Her hand landed on his shoulder, and she inhaled the good, fresh scent of him as she pressed her lips to his cheek. She must have surprised him, because he shifted a little and his stubble rasped across her lips, the lightest of abrasions.

She pulled away, instinctively licking her lips to soothe them. Reid’s gaze followed the movement, and she was close enough to see his pupils dilate and his nostrils flare.

She went very still. And then she did something she
’d been wanting to do for a very long time: she leaned close and kissed him, properly this time.

His mouth was warm, and she could taste the sweetness of the lemon meringue pie he
’d had for dessert. She waited for him to respond, to do something, but he seemed to be waiting for something else. Something more.

Well,
might as well go for it. Feeling bolder than bold, she ran her tongue along the closed seam of his lips, asking for entry. There was the smallest of pauses, then some of the tension went out of him as he opened to her, his tongue stroking hers, his mouth starting to move at last. His hands found her waist, his fingers gripping her warmly as his kiss became more demanding, more urgent.

God, yes. Urgent was how she felt, and she
’d never been greedier, more ready, more eager in her life. Her heart was already racing, her body flooding with heat, the need for more, more, more a drumbeat in the back of her head.

She made a small encouraging sound as his hand left her hip and smoothed its way up her torso. If he touched her breasts, she was pretty sure she could almost come on the spot.

Suddenly he stilled, pulling back slightly so he could look her in the eye.

“
Tara... this is a bad idea.”

“
No, it isn’t.” It was the best idea she’d had in a long time. “You’ll be going soon. I know that. But I want to know before you go, Reid. I need to know.”

A whole year they
’d been sitting side by side in that damned patrol car, denying the pull of desire between them.

She was sick of denying it. She was sick of playing it safe.

His gaze searched her face, and whatever it was he saw seemed to satisfy him, because the next thing she knew he was kissing her as though his life depended on it.

Fierce and demanding, taking no prisoners. She gripped his shoulders as his hand slid onto her breast, the friction of his thumb gliding over her nipple making her shudder with need.