Truly Madly Yours by Rachel Gibson

going to do if I don’t? Squirt wine all over me?”
    He smiled, slow and sensual. “Yes.”
    She didn’t doubt him for a moment. The second her mouth opened, wine shot between her parted lips. She watched helpless as Lisa and Louie walked away. She would have followed if she hadn’t been forced to stand very still. Then the stream of wine was gone without leaving so much as a drop anywhere. She swallowed and licked the corner of her mouth. She didn’t say a word.
    “You’re welcome.”
    The breeze carried the scent of his skin and tossed strands of his thick dark hair about his bare shoulders. He smelled like clean mountain air and dark sensual man. “I didn’t ask for your help.”
    “No, but you need a lot of txakoli to kill that bug up your butt.” He leaned back slightly and raised the bota. A red arc filled his mouth, and his throat worked as he swallowed. Fine black hair shadowed his armpit, and for the first time, Delaney noticed the tattoo circling his right biceps. It was a thin wreath of thorns, and the twists and barbs of black ink looked remarkably real against his smooth tan skin. He lowered the bag and sucked a bead of wine from his lower lip. “Were you going to run me over the other day, wild thing?”
    She tried not to react. “Don’t call me that, please.”
    “What? Wild thing?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I don’t like it.”
    Nick didn’t give a damn what she liked. She’d tried to run him over, no doubt about it. He slid his gaze down the curves of her body as he screwed the cap onto the spout of the bota. “I guess that’s too bad.” The second he’d stepped foot on the deck, he’d noticed her, and not just because she wore a turtleneck and green leather vest when everyone else had dressed for summer. It was her hair. The setting sun caught all those different shades of red and set them ablaze.
    “Then I guess the next time I see you in a crosswalk, I won’t put on the brake.”
    Nick stepped forward until she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. His gaze moved over her flawless porcelain cheeks to her pink lips. The last time he’d been this close to her, she’d been naked. “Give it your best shot.” White and pink. That’s what he remembered about her most. Soft pink mouth and tongue. Firm white breasts and tight pink nipples. Silky white thighs.
    She opened her mouth to say something, but whatever she meant to say was silenced by Gail’s approach.
    “There you are,” Gail said as she wove her arm through Nick’s. “Let’s hurry and get a place on the beach before the show starts.”
    Nick stared into Delaney’s big brown eyes and felt a tightening in his groin that had nothing to do with the willing woman by his side. He stepped back and turned his attention to Gail. “If you’re in a hurry, go ahead without me.”
    “No, I’ll wait.” Gail turned her gaze from Nick to Delaney. Her grip on his arm tightened. “Hello, Delaney. I hear you’ve moved back.”
    “For a while.”
    “The last time I talked to your mother, she told me you were a flight attendant with United.”
    A slight frown wrinkled Delaney’s brow and she glanced around as if she were desperately looking for a reason to escape. “That was five years ago, and I was a baggage handler, not a flight attendant,” she said and took a step backward. “Well, it was nice to see you again, Gail. I’ve got to go. I told Lisa I’d help her... ah ... do something.” Without a glance in Nick’s direction, she turned and walked away.
    “What’s going on between the two of you?” Gail asked.
    “Nothing.” He didn’t want to talk about Delaney, especially not with Gail. He didn’t even want to think about her. She was trouble for him. She always had been. Since the first time he’d looked into her big brown eyes.
    “When I walked up it certainly looked like something.”
    “Drop it.” He shook free of Gail’s grasp and moved into the house. Earlier, when he’d gone