Page 15 of Sunset Beach
“What?”
“This,” he said, indicating her prone position on the sand. “You’re the boss’s daughter.”
Drue grabbed the collar of his stupid preppy polo shirt and pulled him down beside her. “Shut up,” she murmured in his ear.
She slid her hands up the back of his shirt and he slowly eased a knee between her legs. He nuzzled her ear, ran his tongue down her jawline, and her neck, and her shoulder, and at the same time, his hands were working their way from her back and under the front of her halter top.
Drue couldn’t remember the last time she’d had sex. She and Trey hadn’t been getting along all that well in the months leading up to her mother’s illness. And after her mother’s diagnosis, she’d spent every free moment she had with Sherri, ignoring Trey’s pointed comments abouthisneeds.
After the kiteboarding accident, sex had been the last thing on her mind. Not anymore, though.
And apparently, Jonah was rapidly overcoming his initial apprehension. He was fumbling for the zipper on her jeans.
“Let’s take this somewhere with less sand,” Drue said, kissing him again, and momentarily forgetting herself.
“You sure?”
“Positive,” she said.
“You’re the boss.” He stood and helped her to her feet.
“Damn straight,” Drue told him, taking his hand and leading him toward the motel.
“You sure this is the right room?” he asked, as they stood in front of a door looking out at the pool.
She whipped the key card from the back pocket of her jeans, slid it into the slot and tried the door handle, which didn’t move.
Drue frowned and took a step backward. “I could swear this was my room. I know it faces the pool.”
“May I?” He took the plastic card, wiped it on the front of his shirt and inserted it into the slot, easily pushing the door open.
“Hey. How’d you do that?”
He smiled. “I’ve got the magic touch.”
She pulled him into the room and turned the deadbolt lock. “We’ll see about that.”
Moonlight shone in through the room’s sheer drapes. Drue dropped her shoes on the floor, unzipped and discarded her jeans, and pulled her top over her head, letting it drop onto the floor. She collapsed naked onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard.
He shrugged and pulled off his polo shirt, dropping it on top of the clothes she’d so readily discarded.
He had a nice body, Drue decided, not as wiry and lean as Trey, who spent all his spare time surfing or kiteboarding, but muscular and toned.
Jonah glanced at the noisy window air conditioner, which barely cooled the room. “Doesn’t it get hot in here?” he asked, kicking off his loafers and unzipping his shorts, letting them fall to the floor.
“Not as hot as it’s gonna get.” She held out her arms, and he smiled and joined her on the bed.
She awoke with a start, her heart racing. Her head throbbed and her mouth tasted like a sewer. She was startled to hear the sound of soft snoring. Slowly, she turned her head. Sunlight seeped through the window and now she saw, sprawled facedown beside her, a sleeping, naked man. She glanced down and realized that she was also naked.
“What the…” She started to sit up, but a jagged lightning strike of pain threatened to split her skull in half.
Drue sank back down onto her pillow. Slowly, the previous evening’s events came back to her. “Come to happy hour,” her father had said. “Meet the team,” he’d said. “Drink up,” he’d urged. She was pretty sure Brice hadn’t meant for her to get shit-faced and literally take one for the team.
“Oh God,” she muttered, as she vaguely remembered how easily she’d shed her inhibitions once she’d willingly guzzled the equivalent of half a bottle of tequila. She looked down at Jonah’s sleeping form. Just how drunk had he been?
She groped around on the floor beside the bed until she found her cell phone, thumbing the home button to bring it back to life, and gasping when she saw the time. Eight o’clock! She had to be showered, dressed and at work, in downtown St. Pete, which was thirty minutes away, in an hour.
Her stomach roiled and she ran for the bathroom, reaching the toilet just in the nick of time. She kicked the door shut, knelt and retched until she felt she might have barfed up her own toenails.
