All He Ever Wanted by Emily McKay

Author:Emily McKay
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

Ten

It took nearly an hour just to get out of Galveston Bay, but once they’d passed Galveston he turned the boat northeast and headed up the coast to his favorite stretch near the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge. Gradually, the coastal homes gave way to lush, green wetlands. The pelicans and seagulls that swarmed the bay gradually thinned out and were replaced by the more exotic birds of the refuge. Bitterns and egrets dotted the shoreline as white geese swooped low over the water in graceful flocks. Out here, on the ocean, with no one else around except other boats dotting the water in the distance and the seabirds or the occasional bottlenose dolphin, this was one of the few places he truly felt free to relax.

Normally, he felt his cares slip away as soon as he stepped onto the dock. Today was different—not nerves, not even tension. More…awareness.

Laney, he’d noticed, wasn’t exactly at ease on his boat. Despite her claims that she knew how to swim, he wondered if maybe that wasn’t the problem. However, Laney was the kind of woman who didn’t back down from a challenge. If it had been a matter as simple as a fear of water, she’d have faced it head-on. No, this was something else. This was something personal. Her tension didn’t let up on the open water, and so when he spotted his favorite little cove near the nature preserve, he slowed the boat to a stop, turned off the motor and dropped anchor there in the shallows.

Then he turned to Laney, propped himself against the boat’s dash and raised his sunglasses. She’d kicked off her shoes at some point and had her feet tucked up on the bench. She’d twisted to drape one arm along the back of the seat so she could stare out the windshield at the open water. Now, she raised her own sunglasses to the top of her head and met his gaze.

She feigned calm so well, she looked the very picture of relaxation. If he didn’t know her better, he’d think she did this every day—or posed as a model for boat catalogs at least.

But he could see how tightly she was reining herself in. See how hard she had to work to appear relaxed. Her toes tapped out a silent rhythm against the leather. The label of her empty beer bottle had been peeled off. While steering the boat, he’d watched from the corner of his eye as she’d shredded the paper into tiny strips and then balled it into a condensation-dampened mess.

Now, as he studied her, he wondered if he’d made a mistake bringing her out here. Back on the dock, he’d seen straight through her bravado. He was old friends with her bluster and bristle. He’d known, of course, that it hid some other emotion that she didn’t want him to see. Some vulnerability that she kept close to her chest, which was where she kept everything she thought might make her appear weak.

He’d

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