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Caribbean Christmas Page 7


  Maybe he’d been alone in what he felt in the stateroom. Making love to Sass had been just that, making love. At first he’d been completely ruled by his cock, but as their bodies joined, a fit so perfect he’d never thought to dream it, something had shifted. Like a vase that fell from a shelf and shattered in a million pieces, he knew he’d never be the same again.

  He’d known there was something different about her, instinct warning him that she could upend his life. And she just might, because as he gripped the wheel, he realized why he’d struggled to keep his distance. It had little to do with her being Dutch’s daughter and everything to do with the way he could lose himself in her.

  Where he was hard and invasive, she was soft and accommodating. What she wanted to do, he wanted to join in with. Where she wanted to go, he wanted to follow. Even to New York. He kept his mouth shut on that front, choosing to hold on to what little self-preservation he had left.

  “How long do you think we have until we arrive?” She lifted her crocheted white suit from the bench, checking it for dryness before draping it over one arm.

  “We’re sailing faster than the wind, maybe ten minutes.”

  “Damn, I don’t think we can do it that fast.”

  He raised a brow in question, which only served to dissolve her into a pile of giggles. He wasn’t sure what to make of her or her comment, so he changed the subject. “You should put your suit back on before we get to town.”

  “Why?” She settled her yellow shorts lower on her hips and tied the crocheted purple tee to one side, baring the smooth skin of her toned belly. Her belly ring glinted in the sun.

  “Because your shirt is like lace and I’m not okay with other people seeing your tits.”

  She looked down at her chest and back up at him, her face the picture of innocence. “I look fine.”

  “You look more than fine, and you know it.” He reached out a finger and teased the material around her nipple until the ring started to show through her shirt.

  “You really do have sex on the brain, don’t you?” She stepped away and tugged her top until her secrets were hidden again. “No one is going to do that.”

  He sighed in relief as she went below deck. He really didn’t think he’d be able to handle himself if he caught someone staring a bit too hard at her. A passing level of appreciation he expected, but he knew how guys thought, especially on this island.

  After lowering the sails to slow the boat, he fired up the motor to make maneuvering into the dock easier. He expected Sass to come back up top to tease him about using the crutch, but she stayed below as he guided Lola into her berth.

  He was even more careful than usual, not wanting to hear it if he happened to bump the dock too hard. In fact, the only thing he wanted to do was finish the rest of her shopping list so he could get her home and in his bed. She’d been able to take a short nap after their bout on the mattress, but he’d had to climb the stairs with leaden legs to get the boat moving again.

  “Hannes!” his brother’s voice bellowed. “Hannes, where the hell did you go, man?” His elder brother jumped onto the boat without waiting for an invitation. “What is this about Sassy? Why didn’t you tell me Dutch’s brat decided to drop in unannounced? What the hell does she want?”

  “Mannus, I don’t have to tell you my every move.” He knew his boat well enough to know Saskia heard every word Harm said. He willed her to stay below deck until he could get rid of his brother, and hoped he could do it without revealing anything that would be better she heard from her father.

  “The island is buzzing with it. Everyone wants to know why she’s back. Am I supposed to tell them it’s to get money for her mother? I don’t want to embarrass Dutch, but we both know it’s no coincidence the kid shows up a few weeks after he had to tell her no.”

  “Let Dutch explain why she’s here. It’s not our place.”

  “Like hell. He’s our family. If you won’t ask the troublemaker what she’s up to, I will. Would have already, but I can’t find her.” Harm scratched at the dark stubble on his face. “And I couldn’t find you all day either.”

  “How did you know where to find me?”

  “You know anyone else using the Netherlands flag for a sail? I saw the red, white and blue stripes and came over. Come on now, what’s going on? I made friends with a little lovely vacationing with her friend. I know how you like blondes, so I said we’d take them out to see the sunset.”

  “You’ll have to handle them yourself.” He killed the engine and finished tying up the boat. Harm’s gaze felt heavy on his back as he made the rounds.

  “Since when do you turn down tourist pussy? I’m serving it up to you on a silver platter here. Why are you being so fucking shady?”

  Joe turned just as Sassy ascended the stairs. She hadn’t put on the suit beneath her top, damn it.

  “Harmannus, classy as ever I see.” Her hair was done up in an elaborate bun made from braids and there was a pink tinge to her skin. “You really ought to do something about that hair, unless you are trying to look like a gigolo.”

  Harm pounded a fist on the edge of the boat. “You’re hiding the brat? What the hell, man?”

  “You should have put on more sunscreen,” he told her, the wicked look in her honey-blue gaze worrying him. If she started in on Harm, he’d wind up giving it right back to her, and with more information than she needed to hear.

  “Or kept my clothes on.” She winked, her naughty smile growing wider.

  “Dude!” Harm held up both hands. “What the fuck? She’s like twelve.”

  “Twenty-four.” Joe wrinkled his brow, not liking at all where Harm was going with this. Or that Saskia had just revealed something he’d been hoping to keep between them. The fewer people that knew, the fewer that would think he was a fool when she left.

  “I guess you never did learn your maths, did you, Harm? Too busy dipping your stick in everything that held still long enough, I guess.”

  Harm pointed a finger at her. “Listen, you little brat—”

  “Hey, both of you, stop. Sass, don’t poke the bear. Go get your stuff.”

  “Really?” She put her hands on her hips and damn-it-all-to-hell, he could see her nipple rings.

  “I need to talk to my brother.”

  She rolled her eyes, but thankfully went after her bag and the groceries.

  “You talk to her like that again, and we’re going to have trouble.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You cannot be serious about bagging Dutch’s daughter.”

  “That’s one. Get off my boat, Harm.” With everything secured, he took the keys out of the ignition and pocketed them.

  “Oh, no. I’m not going to just stand by and let her do to you what her mother did to Dutch. She’s here because she wants something, probably a load of cash since she heard you—”

  His fist connected with Harm’s jaw, the force shooting up to his shoulder before boomeranging back down to his knuckles as pain. He shook the ache from his fingers and stared down his brother’s dark, brooding gaze.

  Harm rubbed his jaw and spit, right on Lola’s teak deck. “That was your one and only freebie in this lifetime, little brother. And only because you have lost your mind. You’re stupid as fuck if you think this is going to end any other way except badly. You know, I ought to pummel you right now. Because where are you going to escape to when this one blows up in your face? I have too much invested in this place to leave because you let someone use you. Again.”

  The anxiety in his gut twisted and rolled. Harm was right, completely right. And yet it changed nothing. “Get off my boat.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I know you said you didn’t want to talk about it, but I think we should.” Saskia kept her hands busy by putting away the groceries, keeping the new packages at the front of the cupboards so they looked full. Everything was empty, unused. Like no one had actually decided to move back in after the remodel.

  “We’re not going to talk about
it.” He reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer. He set the top of the bottle against the stone countertop and then hit it with his fist. The cap popped off and scattered under the table in the dining room.

  “Well, I’m going to apologize then. Harm has always been so mean it was just natural for me to start in on him. He was being rude to you, and about my mother, and I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. I really didn’t mean to make you two fight.”

  “Forget it. You weren’t what we were fighting about.” He walked out the back door as if the conversation were over.

  Hardly. She followed him outside, finding him in her hammock. Perfect. If they both got in he’d be good as trapped. She faced him, then started to climb in by his feet.

  He gripped the sides, careful not to spill his beer. “What the hell?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle. We’ll both fit if you stay still.”

  “I don’t think we will.” But they did, barely. The strain on the ropes made them cinch tighter, but nothing was going to break.

  “When you fall on your ass getting out of this, I’m going to laugh.” He smiled, then took a long pull from his beer.

  “Likewise. But you can’t get away from me so easily now.”

  “If I was trying to get away from you, I’d be gone.” His pale gaze held an intensity that she hadn’t experienced before. As if somehow, by only looking at her, he could communicate buckets of emotions. Frustration and sadness, anticipation and worry, excitement and fear. She recognized it all because she felt the same.

  It was a twisted feeling of right guy, wrong place, wrong time. She’d never felt so safe, so comfortable with a man, with anyone really. Somehow they fit together like two same-colored pieces in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle sky. If they didn’t stay together, they might never match up again.

  But then, if they truly fit, shouldn’t they be able to find each other at a better time? Maybe when a few more of the pieces around them had been filled in?

  He reached out his free hand and she took it in hers with a smile. He got it, and he would never do anything to hurt her, at least not on purpose. And that included asking her to stay when she couldn’t.

  “I’ll come back.” She spoke quietly, more to herself than to him.

  “I’ll be here.” He squeezed her hand and she squeezed her eyes shut. They ached, suddenly heavy, her chest tight at the thought of being back in Florida. Alone.

  “Neither of us saw this coming, Sass. Not in a million years. Before you stepped onto this island we were just childhood memories to each other, and not very good ones at that.”

  She blinked open her eyes, loving the way his handsome features had softened as he played with her hand. “You were my first crush. You might not remember, but you always saved me. When I fell off my surfboard and hit my head, when Harm trapped me on the roof, when that pelican dove at me thinking I was a fish.”

  The hammock shook as he laughed. “I’d forgotten about the pelican. I thought your mom was going to kill us when I carried you up to her chair. That bird came at you a half dozen times.”

  “I saw you naked once. Or twice.”

  “Okay, what? Are you telling me you were a peeping Tom as a kid?”

  “You were showering, and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. All the girls were twittering on about the Prinsen brothers, so I was curious.”

  “I should feel violated, but I watched you working out this morning and I didn’t have any scientific reason for it.”

  “You also broke my heart.” His hand stilled against hers. “Dad and I were in Holland, and you suggested we go to the Efteling, and then you didn’t come with us.”

  He choked out another laugh. “I was probably the same age you are now. And you were what, twelve? It would have been pretty pervy for me to have seen anything in you but ginger hair and braces back then. An amusement park would have better entertained you than I would.”

  She shrugged her shoulders, the ropes of the hammock pressing at her sun-kissed skin. “I broke up with you that day, just so you know.”

  “I understand.”

  “I think that’s why I call you Johannes. Because that is who you still are to me.”

  “You can call me whatever you want. Joe was just easier because I was at an American school.”

  She nodded. “About what Harm said on the boat…”

  He shifted, nearly knocking her off. “You let me worry about my brother. I’ve been doing it all my life.”

  “I didn’t come here for money. And I don’t think my mom meant anything nefarious when she asked my dad for the startup money for the pie shop. He helped her open her cupcake bakery, so I think she thought he’d be behind this as well. They’re very civil. Harm made it sound like they hate each other, and they don’t.”

  “Okay.” He tipped back the beer, his Adam’s apple undulating as he drained it.

  “Just okay?”

  “Your parents’ relationship is none of my concern.”

  “Then why are you so upset? And don’t tell me you aren’t, because I know better. If it’s not that you’re worried my mom is trying to hurt Dutch, then what is it?”

  “Harm was right.”

  “Harmannus has never been right about anything in his whole entitled life.” Saskia wrapped her hand around his thigh, probably sensing he’d rather get out of the hammock than discuss this.

  What was with women and their constant need to talk, talk, talk. “I like you more than I should.”

  “Well, thank heaven for small favors.” She squeezed his thigh and shifted, pushing herself up. Her gaze darted from side to side and he grinned, realizing she was trying to think of a way out. That meant he wouldn’t have to admit that he’d already played this game and lost. That he’d loved someone enough to deliver her the world and let her go chase her dream, only to have her stay in New York. Gah, what was with that damned state?

  Saskia lifted one leg out of the hammock and tried to climb out, but the whole thing flipped, landing them both on the dusty ground. Laughing.

  “I suppose the ground just jumped up at you that time too?” He rose to his feet, then reached down to pull her up.

  “No, that was me trying to seduce you with my awkwardness.” She came up next to him, barely a breath away. “Did it work?”

  “It’s beautiful up here,” Saskia said as she climbed the stairs of her childhood home, amazed it could be the same place. Just like in the living room, the vaulted ceilings made everything feel larger. The landing atop the stairs had been widened, with two armchairs and a circular-patterned rug filling the space in front of a picture window that perfectly framed Blowing Point Harbor.

  She turned and gasped. Both sides of the room had French doors flanked with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, like pyramids of stories. She reached for Joe’s arm and squeezed. “I could read here forever.”

  “I don’t know, most of these are in Dutch. Do you speak it?”

  She shook her head and turned into him. “Only enough to know what you said in bed earlier, unless you were talking to Lola and not me.”

  His pale blue eyes widened in the waning light. “I was a little out of my head.”

  She slid her fingers into the front pockets of his shorts, pressing against the firm muscles of his thighs. “I liked it.”

  “I could tell.” He ran his palms up her body, making her shiver when he cupped her face with one hand and threaded the other into her hair. His lips hovered above hers, their breath blending together as they soon would.

  Probably for the last time, at least for a while. Her father would be home tomorrow. She’d have to leave soon after. She couldn’t think of leaving him, the possibility of what they could be together, without a searing ache in her belly. But dwelling on it would not make it go away, wouldn’t change that she had to go back just as he had to stay.

  He belonged here. Though it wasn’t his native land, he loved it the way her father did. Helping to rebui
ld it had made it a part of him, and taking him away from Anguilla, taking Anguilla from him wouldn’t be fair to anyone.

  As if caught up in a spell, she stared up at him, memorizing the kindness of his blue eyes, the wisdom of the tiny lines the sun and smiling had etched beside them, and the proud set of his determined jaw. He wouldn’t beg her to stay any more than she would beg him to go.

  He leaned in, tasting her lips, the mint of the tea they’d shared after dinner brightening the kiss. She opened for him, wanting as much of him as she could take. He deepened the kiss and her nerves caught fire, her breath chasing her racing pulse until she was barely breathing at all.

  This was what she needed, this kiss, this touch. “More,” she whispered against his mouth.

  He backed her up against the bookshelves, knocking the books together, the shelves pressing onto her back. A few things fell, but nothing sounded breakable. She couldn’t bother to check. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was being as close to him as she could get. If she could have crawled inside him and hid herself there, she would have.

  Raising her arms overhead, she gripped an upper shelf, her fingertips brushing the rough spines of the cloth-covered books. She tested the strength, then stepped a heel back to the bottom shelf and lifted herself up. Not far, just enough so she could lift her free leg and wrap it around his hips, pressing into him there, yes, right there.

  He moaned into her mouth as she rocked her hips. He undid her shorts, but instead of diving in, he pushed her shirt up over her belly, her rib cage, her breasts. The crocheted material caught on one nipple ring, the tug as he freed it sending a ripple of pleasure to her core.

  She let go so he could get the shirt off, nearly toppling them both to the floor. He braced against a shelf and laughed. “You are a dangerous woman, Saskia Vanderbrogen.”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  He shook his head and took a step back. She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could get a word out, he knelt and shucked down her shorts. “I want your ass in my bed. Now.”