The Maverick Who Ruled Her Heart. Susan Carlisle
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since my mother caught me stealing money out of her purse when I was a kid. So, Ms. Davis, you can give it a rest.”
He turned, jerked the door open and was gone before Kelsey could form a parting word. She scowled at the closed door.
Jordon drove home down Bay Road toward the house he’d rented in a “snowbird” deal. He would live there through the winter months while he looked for a place to buy. As a kid, his house had been a part of a subdivision located further inland. He’d always envied his friends at school who lived on the water so that was where he planned to get a place. When he’d returned to town he’d decided against one of the large condos on the ocean side and had opted for a place on the bay.
Pulling the SUV into the white crushed-shell drive and beside the one-floor bungalow, he turned the engine off and looked out at the water beyond. The sea grass waved gently in the wind. Yes, he’d done the right thing by coming back here. Not all the memories were great but the ones before his parents’ divorce outnumbered those afterwards.
Hardy, his chocolate Labrador, barked his welcome as he climbed out. The dog already had a stick in his mouth, waiting for Jordon to play.
“Hey, boy.” He leaned down and gave the dog a good pat on the side. “Let me change and we’ll go to the water.”
Opening the door to the house, he stepped straight into the kitchen area. The place had been built in the sixties and little had changed. Dark paneling, overstuffed furniture with wooden armrests and laminated floors in an unappealing green didn’t deviate from the traditional décor of the times. The house wasn’t attractive but it was clean and functional. The only concession made to change was the large TV on a stand in the corner. Jordon didn’t plan to miss a single Washington Redskins’ football game if he could help it.
He pulled his knit shirt over his head as he went down the hall to the larger of the two bedrooms. Throwing his shirt in the corner, he pulled on a well-worn T-shirt. It was nice not to have to wear a dress shirt and tie to work. The causal, more laid-back coastal lifestyle suited him just fine. Best of all, no white lab coat was required. Shucking his tan slacks and stepping into his favorite jeans, he pulled them into place, zipped and buttoned them.
Not bothering with shoes, he’d take his chance on not getting sand spears in his feet just to feel grass between his toes. He walked across the cool floor back to the kitchen to pour himself glass of tea. He’d always like sugar sweet tea and that was something he couldn’t get north of the Mason-Dixon line. Back in the Deep South, if he asked for tea, it came sweet. One more perk about moving home, and that was just what he’d done—come home. He didn’t plan to ever move again.
With glass in hand he called, “Come on, boy, let’s go play fetch.”
Despite it being late September, the weather was still plenty warm. Hardy pranced at Jordon’s heels as he strolled to the dock where an Adirondack chair waited. Sitting facing west with a sigh of pleasure, he waited for the sun to set. Hardy dropped his stick to the wooden planks of the pier beside the chair and whimpered.
“Okay, boy. I’ll play with you if you promise to watch the sunset with me.” Jordon threw the stick out into the water. In a flash, Hardy sprang off the dock. Paddling, he reached the stick, grasped it in his mouth and headed back. Once on shore again, he shook himself and came running back to Jordon.
“Good boy.” He patted the wet, wiggling dog and willingly took the shower of water when the dog shook himself again.
Hardy barked and Jordon sent the wood out over the water again. Hardy didn’t hesitate before jumping from the dock and swimming toward his stick. A blaze of color caught Jordon’s eye, pulling his attention away from the dog. A woman in a large pink-brimmed hat on her head strolled out onto a pier a couple of doors away. Jordon forgot the sunset and Hardy as he watched the woman pull off her cover-up and let the mesh jacket drop to the planks.
Yes, undeniably he was going to enjoy living here.
The hand with his drink in it stopped in midair as he studied her. She had smooth curves in all the right places. The tiny blue bikini she wore accented them perfectly. As she turned, then bent to adjust the lounge downward, he caught a glimpse of her face.
Kelsey Davis. How had he not recognized those curves from earlier? Maybe he’d been distracted by all that golden skin.
Did she live two doors down? Surely she was just visiting a friend.
As if she’d become aware of someone watching her, she glanced around. Her body stiffened the second she realized his gaze was on her. She hurriedly sat in the chair.
To his horror, Hardy came out of the water and didn’t look right or left before making a beeline toward Kelsey’s pier. As if in slow motion, Jordon stood and started moving as Hardy ran the length of the dock, dropped the stick beside Kelsey and shook himself. Water droplets filled the air, glistening in the early evening sunlight, to fall over Kelsey like rain.
Jordon ran and called Hardy, to no avail. He had made it to the entrance of her dock in time to hear Kelsey squeal then yelped when Hardy’s wet tail ran across her thigh and up over her belly. In her effort to roll away from the dog, she toppled the lounge and fell to the pier. By the time he’d sprinted to the end of her dock, Kelsey lay on her side on the rough planks, pushing Hardy away, while the dog tried to poke his nose in her face.
“Hardy,” he snapped.
The dog looked at him as if to say, Get your own girl.
Jordon chuckled.
“Are you laughing at me?” Kelsey’s eyes had turned cavern dark in her anger. That emotion was familiar. He seemed to elicit it from her with little trouble.
“No, I’m just laughing at the picture you two make.” Jordon grabbed Hardy’s collar.
“It figures this monster would be yours.”
He looked pointedly at her. “You don’t like dogs?”
“I like dogs fine. I’m just not wild about showers given by them or sloppy kisses.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Her eyes grew wide. Why had he said something so suggestive? He had no intention of sharing a shower with her, much less kissing her. She wasn’t his type. Even if she had been, the sting of betrayal still smarted. It was best she remain on her dock and he on his.
Kelsey started to rise.
Jordon offered her a hand. “Here, let me help you.”
After a second she took it and he tugged her upwards.
He sucked in a breath. As amazing as she’d looked from his dock, she was breathtaking up close. The bikini showed off most of her body but he still wanted to see more. Her breasts were full and high. His fingers itched to stroke them, just once.
“Can’t you handle your dog?” Her eyes snapped as she glared at him.
“I guess he appreciates a pretty woman as well as the next male.”
She squared her shoulders, which thrust her barely covered breasts upward. He couldn’t help but stare.
“Surely you aren’t flirting with me?”
Jordon couldn’t pull his gaze away from the beauty before him. “What if I was?” he muttered. What had made him ask that? A half-naked woman had never made him lose his mind before. For heaven’s sake, he was a doctor. Was his thirty-seconds-ago vow to keep his distance already going by the wayside?
Kelsey picked up the cover-up from the dock, giving him a fine view of her behind before she pulled the jacket on and tied it. “Don’t.”
Hardy bumped her leg. She leaned down and took his face in her hands. “So what’s this guy’s name?”
Jordon had to give her points for being a good sport. No other woman he’d known in the past or present would’ve taken Hardy’s antics so well. “Hardy. As in Laurel and Hardy.