“Because if I’d told you, you would’ve stopped lettin’ me do that thing that makes you squeal like a—”
She slapped a hand over Leo’s mouth. Leo smacked a kiss into the center of her hand and that was all it took to smooth down Olivia’s hackles.
“Sometimes I ask myself why I love you so much,” she grumbled.
Leo leaned away from her hand. “Because I do that thing that makes you squeal like a—”
“Ahhhhh!” She threw up her hands and ran around the stacked furniture toward the kitchen.
“Where you runnin’ off to?” John called teasingly.
“Outside to find a sink hole that’ll swallow me up since none seem likely to appear inside the house!” she yelled over her shoulder.
He chuckled and then shook his head when he caught his nephew watching his wife’s departure with a predatory interest.
“Put your tongue back into your mouth, boy,” he scolded. “Act like you got some raisin’.”
Leo was unfazed by his rebuke. “I know it’s cliché, but I sure do love to watch that woman go.” Growling low in his chest, he took off after his wife.
“My goodness.” Dana fanned her face. “This is my first hurricane. Nobody told me they were aphrodisiacs.”
“Like most things that get the blood pumpin’, I reckon.” John winked at her.
“Well…” She cleared her throat. “From the looks of things, you and I are the only ones who won’t be spending the second half of the storm naked.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “That don’t gotta be the case if you don’t want it to be.”
When she blushed beet red, he worried he’d overstepped.
He could’ve sworn she was as intrigued by him as he was by her. Then again, once they’d returned to his room following the broken window incident, she hadn’t given him any indication she wanted to revisit the kiss they’d almostshared.
Maybe my romance radar is outta whack, he thought uneasily.
He opened his mouth to apologize and admit to being out of practice when it came to wooing women. Not that he’d given up on sex, of course. When he got the itch, he knew how to scratch it. But the women he took to bed— usually tourists on vacation in Key West—suffered no illusions he was offering them more than a good time for a night or two. Before the words could leave his mouth, however, Dana admitted, “I’m not going to lie. I’m tempted by your offer.” Her adorable button nose wrinkled. “But I’m just old-fashioned enough to need at leastoneproper date first.”
Warmth spread through John’s chest. He recognized it as the glow of anticipation. Ofpossibility.
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with bein’ a little old-fashioned,” he assured her. Then he pinned a serious look on her. “Dana Levine, it would be my honor to wine and dine you once this damn storm passes. What’d’ya say to some fried grouper and conch fritters? I know just the place.”
She beamed at him so brightly, he forgot how to breathe. And hedefinitelyforgot what he was supposed to be doing when she caught her lower lip between her teeth and said sincerely, “I’d love that, John.”
In the way of women since the beginning of time, her smile turned coy when she realized she’d flustered him. Hitching her chin toward the radio, she added, “Aren’t you going to try the trawler again?”
“Oh. Right.” He gave his head a shake, hoping to unscramble his brains. “Sure thing.”
Picking up the handset, he put out another call to the fishermen. He released the push-to-talk button and…nothing.Just the hissof white noise.
“Damn it.” A ball of dread replaced the lovely glow Dana had put in the center of his chest. “Reckon I better go have a looksee. Just in case they’re washed ashore or somethin’.”
She was quick to volunteer. “I’ll come with you.”
As much as he’dloveto keep her by his side—and maybe steal a kiss in the eye of a hurricane?—he felt compelled to warn her. “You’ll have to wade through water. Likely knee-high in places.”
The storm surge had abated somewhat. But he’d survived enough hurricanes to know it wouldn’t withdraw completely until Julia moved on.
“If you can manage it, I can manage it,” she assured him.
Her spunk, he thought.That’sanotherthing I like about her.
