Barbara Dunlop – Dan All Over Again: Dan All Over Again / The Mountie Steals A Wife (страница 9)

“I’m starting to remember.”

She snatched up the angler’s magazine and chewed the rest of her candy.

“What’s that magazine you have there?” he asked, taking it from her.

He kicked off his shoes and sat on the edge of the boat, flipping open the magazine. “Oops.” The magazine fell into the water with a dull splash.

“Hey!” She leaned over the side and reached for it. Almost. Her fingers were a hair’s breadth too short. The magazine floated farther away. Just a little more, a tiny, little more…uh-oh. She couldn’t feel the floor of the boat anymore. She started to tip forward. She scrambled backward, her feet kicking in the air.

“I’ve got you.” His arms went around her waist. Unfortunately, he overcompensated a bit. And lost his balance. She supposed she could have helped, but she was distracted by the way his body pressed against hers. Because of that, and the way her body reacted in a flash of heat, she probably, very likely, twisted the wrong way. For a moment, he teetered on the edge, his legs and arms scrabbling for purchase.

She was fighting her own battle for balance, in more ways than one. If he grabbed her, he could easily send her over. Instead he pushed her backward…and tumbled right over the side of the boat. He landed in the water with a splash not very unlike the pelican she’d observed earlier.

“Oops,” she said when he came to the surface, water streaming over his hair and face.

“Oops? Is that all you can say? Oops?”

“While you’re in there, can you grab my magazine?”

Laughter from a nearby boat brought their attention to a young man holding his stomach. “Whatcha doing, Dan, trying to teach your sweetie how to fish by pretending to be one?”

“Hah, hah, hah,” Dan muttered, turning to face her. “Okay, sweetie, I saved your magazine.” He held up the sopping thing. “I hope my humiliation was worth it.”

Laughter began creeping into her voice. “My hero.” The more she fought the laughter, the harder it pressed against her sensibility until she was in a full-out gale. Oh, my, it felt good to laugh, so good, she wondered how long it had been since she had laughed like this. Even Sammy started yipping, running over to where she leaned against the side of the boat. She opened her notepad and added, Laughing at least once a day to her life goals list.

Dan swam toward the back of the boat and climbed up the ladder. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be distracting.”

She raised her eyebrows as he landed on the deck with a thud. “I’m not the one who fell in! I’ve behaved perfectly—you’re the klutz.” She tried hard to hold back any more laughter, turning and picking up the fishing pole he’d readied. “So, you going to let me cast this thing, or what?”

“I…you…argh!” He held out the magazine as though he were going to swat her with it, but tossed it to the bench instead.

“You’re so cute when you’re angry,” she said, remembering Pam’s earlier words.

He stalked up to her and pressed his wet, cool body against hers. If it was so cool, why was heat creeping through the layers of skin and muscle and zinging right into her bloodstream?

“I ought to throw you over my shoulder, take you down to the cabin and show you how cute I am,” he said in a low, husky voice that raised her temperature even more.

She looked up at him, all blustery with water dripping from his mouth. One drop landed on her own mouth, and she licked it off. Salty.

He lowered his head, and another drop landed on her lips. “I ought to kiss that look right off your face.”

The thought of that knocked her off-balance. Instead of the sober look she’d intended, a giggle erupted.

“Think this is funny, do you?”

She took a deep breath. “I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun.” Well, she could, but she wouldn’t, no way, uh-uh. “So, you going to show me how to fish or what, mister fishing god captain manly man?” She tried to pull the fishing rod between them, before she did something impulsive, but it snagged on something.

“I’m trying to decide whether to throw you overboard for shark bait or—”

“Er, Dan?”

“Don’t interrupt me. I’m trying to think up a juicier alternative.”

“But, Dan…”

“I know, I’ll tie you up with dental floss—”

She tugged again. “As much as that thought titillates me, there’s something you should know.”

“And then tickle you with seagull feathers—”

“Oh, Dan,” she said in a singsong voice.

He hovered above her, too close for her own comfort. She ripped her gaze from that mouth that had once kissed every inch of her body, that without words told her he wanted to do it all over again. She blinked, then backed away a few inches, breaking eye contact altogether.

“Give me the pole,” he muttered, yanking it from her grasp. The sound of fabric ripping stopped abruptly as his face contorted in pain. “Ouch!”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you, but do you listen to me, no, you just stand there dripping on me and threatening me with becoming shark food or fulfilling some kinky dental-floss-slash-feather fantasy. I wonder what your dentist would think of that? What I was trying to tell you was the lure was stuck on something, and obviously that something is you, so let me remove it before you spear yourself.”

“Too late. I think you were put on this earth to drive me crazy, you know that?”

“Be quiet so I can operate.” When she traced the fishing line, she found herself giggling again.

“I suppose you find humor in hooking my butt.”

“And ripping a three-inch tear in your shorts.” Another giggle, this one high-pitched. She tried really, really hard to look sober this time. “I can’t help it if I hooked…the wrong fish.”

He slapped his hand over his face. “You really know how to make a guy feel like a—” he narrowed his eyes “—fishing god captain manly man.”

Another giggle erupted. Oh, this was bad, really bad. If she couldn’t control her laughter, how was she going to control the hot, heavy feeling swirling inside her? “It’s a gift, what can I say?”

“Are you going to unhook me, or what?”

“Betcha I win with the biggest catch. Uh-oh, you’re bleeding.” A tiny spot of blood marred his shorts. She started the delicate process of extracting the hook from the fabric. “I’d have thought your underwear would have given you an extra layer of protection.”

He shot her a backward look that reeked of sheepishness.

“You’re not wearing underwear?”

“I’m behind in laundry.” He shrugged like a little boy caught with his finger in the cake icing. “At five in the morning, underwear’s not a big concern.”

“Oh, gawd.”

“And you get to patch me up. Good thing you brought those bandages.” He nodded with boyish satisfaction.

“Oh, no, I’m not putting a bandage there!”

“That duty always falls to the fishing goddess, and that’s you. Besides, I won’t be able to see what I’m doing.” He turned to face her, taking the lure from her hand and hooking it to the fishing pole eye. “Want me to throw you over my shoulder and take you down to the cabin?”

“Uh…no! Okay, okay, I’m going already.” She grabbed up those treacherous bandages and followed him into the cabin. “Dan! What are you doing?”

He was standing there with his shorts dropped to his ankles, glistening back and pale, bare butt facing her. He started to turn around to answer, but she quickly reached out and placed her hands on his wet back.

“Don’t…turn around.”

At a yipping sound, she turned to find both Thornton and Sammy standing in the entranceway watching them with great interest, their tails wagging. “Oh, go away!”

He started to turn around again. “What’d I do?”

“Not you!” She kept him firmly in place. “Where’s your disinfectant?”

“It’s in that little cabinet over the sink.”

After getting the bottle, she took a deep breath and lowered herself to the height of his derriere, cloth in one hand, bandage in the other. The skin was smooth and the white buns perfectly formed. She swallowed a sigh and applied peroxide and then the antibiotic.

“Ouch!”

“There,” she said, slapping on the bandage. “Now put your shorts on.”

He started to turn around again, but she stopped him just in time. “Before you turn around!”

He yanked up his shorts and turned. “What’s the matter? As I recall, my manhood was being called into question earlier. Don’t you want to see evidence to the contrary?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. I’m going up and hook myself a real fish.” With a lift of her eyebrow, she launched herself back to the safety of the open deck.

Dan was tucking in his shirt when he emerged, wearing a different pair of shorts. To her ultimate mortification, she heard cheers and applause. She scanned the boats in the area and saw men raising their arms in victory.

“Way to go, McDermott!”