Jim refused to back down. He waited. He knew he could out-wait damn near anyone.
“Usually, I like to kiss a man first,” she said. “BeforeI flash him.”
It was meant to be a joke, but he was not in the mood. “Great,” he said. “Let’s do this, then.”
And he lifted her chin, leaned down, and covered her mouth with his.
Her lips were soft and warm and he could practically taste her surprise—although maybe that was his, because holy Jesus not only was he kissing her, but after that initial moment ofWhoa, she was kissing him back.
Soft turned to something else—which wasn’t to say that her lips weren’t still deliciously soft, but they were suddenly something more, too. Something that matched the way her arms went up around his neck and the way her body was suddenly pressed against his. That was all her, not him, although it was a damn good idea, and he immediately responded in complete freaking agreement and wrapped his arms around her, too.
He knew—from his earlier manhandling—that her strong runner’s legs led to an equally strong torso and core. But the fact that she was a perfect mix of soft and solid against him was still a surprise, as was her hunger for more.
Thatwas what he was feeling—hunger—from her lips and her arms…
But just as suddenly as she’d started kissing him back, she stopped. She pushed herself away from him, and Jim quickly let her go.
“No,” she said, although the word didn’t match the glaze of desire in her eyes. Except she shook her head, and said it again. “No.”
“Sorry.” That was her word, and he winced because it was no less pathetic coming out of his mouth.
“No,” she said again and this time she seemed to be disagreeing with hisSorry, but he wasn’t sure because his entire world was still on a rather drastic tilt. “We have to hurry. Change, and then head back toward the mess. I’ll catch up to you after I find Kenneth’s phone.”
“Won’t you need help?” Jim asked. Clark had said that the camper he and Kenneth were sharing was a mess as he’d given them the keypad code, and he wasn’t sure where Kenneth kept his phone. “Searching through the rubble…?”
But Ashley was already sprinting toward her own RV. “No, I’m going to use my phone to call his phone when I’m in there.”
“Brilliant,” Jim called after her as he made his way to his own trailer door. “And Iamsorry. I don’t really knowwhatthat was…”
But she was already inside, the screen door slapping closed behind her.
Jim left his pants outside his own door and went in to quickly change into his cargo shorts.
***
The drive into Sarasota was awkward.
Ashley had been counting on having a full thirty minutes alone with Jim to discuss that mind-blowing kiss. Instead, there was no chance to talk, because the SUV’s backseat was filled with three campers who were heading to the airport.Something had come up at work—AKA, they were quitting the session. Dunk hadn’t been kidding about SEAL World’s high dropout rate.
The three men—all CEOs in their late forties, two named Peter and one named Bruce—were completely packed and ready to go. Ash knew that if they hadn’t been ready, Jim wouldn’t have waited for them. As it was, he made it very clear that he was going straight to the hospital—they would have to find their way to the airport from there.
He, too, was annoyed by their presence—and Ashley wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign. Although it was generally her experience that a person didn’t apologize immediately after a kiss if they liked it and wanted to do it again.
Although, to be fair,shewas the genius who’d shoutedNoin his face when what she’d really meant wasWow, that was lovely but super distracting, so let’s not plan to do that again until some time way out in the future, because right now we really have to get to the hospital ASAP to be there for both Kenneth and Clark.
So it was possible that Jim’s current annoyance was also aimed at Ashley—or maybe it was just from the fact that his knees were hurting him.
He’d brought along ice for them—except he hadn’t, not really. It turned out the ice was for her—so she could soothe the welts from those paintball pellets. He didn’t ask to see them again, no doubt only due to the full backseat. He just assumed they were there—which they were.
Ashley had gotten a quick look when she’d changed her paint-splattered clothes. She had a mix of marks—the worst was a purple-red bruise right below her collarbone—but most of the others were already starting to fade. It was obvious that the extra layer of her running bra had protected her—the marks on her chest were far less severe.
As she’d finally surrendered and slipped the wrapped bag of ice up under her shirt, Jim had shot her both a look and a quick little wry smile.
That was promising.
But before she could murmur,We need to talk later, the SUV’s Bluetooth screen lit up with a call to Jim’s cell fromTK—which turned out to be Thomas King.
“It’s definitely Kenneth’s appendix,” the young lieutenant announced over the car’s speaker phone. “But it hasn’t yet burst, which is great news. It means they’ll go in laparoscopically, which is far less invasive. He’s being prepped for that surgery right now.”
