Out Of The Blue

CHAPTER 2

SO BONE-WEARY he could hardly climb the stairs, Zach shouldered his duffel bag and headed toward the room Hannah had just given him.

Hannah.

It’d been ten years since he’d set sight on her, a very long time given she’d been fourteen when he’d left. Fourteen and gangly and awkward, terribly self-conscious in a way that to his own nineteen years had seemed...well, very young.

Still, whenever he’d thought of Avila, a small part of him had always wondered if she’d kept that sweet smile, if she still had freckles dancing across her nose, if she’d ever grown into her long, skinny legs.

If he wasn’t so tired, he might have acknowledged that he now had the answers to those burning questions.

Yes, she still had that sweet, contagious smile, the one that made her green eyes shine like jade.

Yes, she still had a scattering of freckles dancing across her nose.

And most definitely yes, she’d grown into those long, long legs—legs that now could be registered as a lethal weapon, for she’d nearly stopped him in his tracks when he’d stumbled across her in the kitchen.

If he hadn’t been about to fall asleep on his feet, he might have been able to fully appreciate those unexpected, and delightful, changes.

He might have even enjoyed the décor of the lodge, knowing his sister and her friends were far more talented than he could have imagined. He might have wondered who Hannah had kicked out of the clearly full lodge in order to give him a place to crash.

But his mind had gone fuzzy, and amazing as it seemed for a man who hadn’t been with a woman for far too long, he couldn’t even think about it.

He needed sleep.

Beyond that, he probably needed some good food, too, and some serious brain rest, but if he didn’t take care of the sleep first, he was going to fall down on the spot.

Again, his job’s fault. Portraying someone else for an entire year on the undercover sting, then living on the edge for that long, always on guard and never being able to relax, was incredibly hard on the body.

Oh yes, and being shot.

That hadn’t helped, either.

He’d assumed he’d fully recuperate, but suddenly he had his doubts, and it scared him.

His job was his life. He hadn’t set out for it to be so, but he’d always wanted to be the best, and to do that, sacrifices had been made. His personal life, for one. He’d been so busy being a cop, being a good cop, he’d lost a part of himself. Strange how he’d been perfectly happy that way, until he couldn’t do his job.

Now, that life seemed...empty. No, that wasn’t right.

Maybe it was just exhaustion.

On the second-floor landing he came to a small sitting area. There was a fireplace, and several couches were nicely arranged for easy gathering.

Seated there was an older couple sharing a pot of tea. Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz, they were all too happy to tell him, when he made the mistake of pausing one second too long and they introduced themselves.

Mr. Schwartz gave him a sly smile. “You’re here to pick up babes, I bet. Saw a bunch on the beach today.”

Mrs. Schwartz turned on him. “You said you didn’t notice!”

“Only helping out the young man, dear.”

“Did he ask you for help? No!” Mrs. Schwartz took her husband’s cup of tea right out of his hands and placed it on the tray in front of them. “Always butting in, you are. I’m sure this nice young man doesn’t need any help finding a woman to keep his bed warm at night, especially from you. Isn’t that right?”

She looked at Zach questioningly, and under different circumstances, such as when he wasn’t literally ready to fall on his face, he might have laughed. “I’m just here to rest,” he said, earning a smirk from the older man.

“Well, just ‘rest’ on the east end,” Mr. Schwartz suggested. “That beach is a hot spot. A regular babe magnet.”

Mrs. Schwartz smacked her husband.

“Uh...thanks.” Zach backed away just in time to see the older man lay the charm on his wife, who cackled her surrender and kissed him.

Shaking his head at the mysteries of a relationship that old, yet still together no matter how rocky, Zach kept walking. His room was at the very far end, down a hallway and away from any activity.

A Good Thing.

He let himself in. Without bothering to turn on the lights, he dropped his bag to the floor and kicked off his shoes. Hannah had told him there was one bedroom, a bathroom and a small sitting room. All he needed at the moment was the bed, so that’s where he headed.

The bedroom windows were open to the night air and moon. He’d showered in his condo in Los Angeles before he’d started the drive, so he simply pulled off his shirt, kicked off his jeans, sighed deeply, and slid under the covers.

Before his head settled on the pillow—which held an oddly arousing scent of some sort of flower he couldn’t quite place—he was fast and deeply asleep.

* * *

HANNAH COULDN’T CONCENTRATE on work, and was it any wonder? Zach was here. Here.

It had to be Fate.

Now all she had to do was get him to want to sleep with her. Maybe not a problem for most women, but Hannah knew it would be a task. Never in her life had she been able to make a man want to sleep with her, so she had no idea what made her think she could do it now, but she was up for the challenge.

She had to be. The timing was right, she could feel it. It would help if she knew exactly how to do it, but if she knew what she was doing, then she wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

Seduce him. That’s all.

Zach didn’t have to know all her problems. That she scared men off more quickly than she could blink. That she wanted, needed, to know what she was missing. No, he could remain oblivious.

It was all perfect, Zach was perfect. Yes, he’d been a wild rebel in his day, but he’d turned out okay. He was a cop, for God’s sake. She knew beneath his tough exterior that he was kind. Sensitive.

And as for the passionate part, one look in his eyes and her knees had trembled. That was passion, right? She was fairly certain.

Just do it. The slogan worked for running shoes and it would work here. Which was why she’d taken such drastic measures. She’d actually put him in her room for the night.

Oh, and one minor detail—she hadn’t told him. How else to get him into her bed? How she’d gotten the nerve, she’d never know, but the wheels were in motion now. Zach was in her room, her bed, hopefully exhausted enough to not question it.

To combat the nerves, and to give herself some time to relax, she threw herself into work. She decided to take the late evening shift at the icecream and gift shop, and if she was distracted, it was no wonder.

There was a man in her bed.

“Hey, Boss,” Karrie called out when she walked in.

Karrie was one of their four part-time employees. She had green hair, green eye shadow and matching green fingernails. She had a silver tongue stud and a pierced eyebrow. And she was absolutely great with the guests.

“I came to help with the crowd,” Hannah told her, moving behind the counter.

Karrie looked around her at the nearly empty shop—there was only one young couple in a booth sharing pie—tucked her tongue in her cheek and nodded gamely. “Yeah, I’m pretty overwhelmed here.”

Hannah ignored her and used the excuse of being there to devour a triple-decker chocolate cone.

“Ah, you’ve got man trouble.” Karrie, all of nineteen, nodded again, as if she knew all about such things.

“I do not have man trouble. This...” Hannah gestured to her nearly eaten cone. “This has nothing to do with a man.” Not much anyway. She helped herself to another scoop.

“Whatever you say, boss.”

“It really doesn’t.”

“Uh-huh.” Karrie calmly sponged down the counter. “Is he at least cute?”

Gorgeous. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That means yes.”

Hannah stopped eating and looked at Karrie with renewed interest. Desperate times, desperate measures, she thought. “Do you...know a lot about men?”

That got a good laugh. “I know about as much as it’s possible to know about an alien species.”

“So...you know how to...” Oh, this was ridiculous. Embarrassing. Stupid. “Never mind.”

“You can’t stop there! Do I know how to...what? Snag a guy?”

“No. Um, seduce one.”

Karrie grinned. “That’s simple.”

“It is?”

“Sure. All men are really just one big walking hormone. If they even so much as sense they’re going to get lucky, your job is as good as done.”

It had never worked that way for Hannah before, but then again, maybe she’d never made a man feel lucky. “It can’t be that simple.”

At the giggle behind her, Hannah turned around. The young couple sharing pie were listening with avid curiosity. They were in their midtwenties and were both so pretty they could have walked right out of the pages of Cosmopolitan.

“It’s really that simple,” the young woman said to Hannah.

The young man blushed from chin to roots, and that had his girlfriend giggling again. “Honest.”

Hannah shook her head. “Maybe for you. But I’ve never turned a man into a...hormone before.”

“No, it isn’t about beauty,” the young woman insisted. “It’s about how you make them feel.”

“I can’t believe it’s that simple.”

Karrie looked at her pityingly. “Trust me, it is. Look, flash some skin. Then kiss him, anywhere. Mouth, neck, ear, you pick.”

“Then what?”

“Then flash some more skin. It’s as good as done, guarantee it.”

Hannah turned to the young woman. “Really?”

She nodded emphatically while her boyfriend blushed all the more.

Hmm. It was worth a shot. She grabbed a tablet from the counter and started writing.

Step one: flash skin.

Step two: kiss him. Anywhere.

Step three: more skin.

Sounded easy.

Contemplating her strategy, Hannah spent the rest of the shift working on their stock, even getting her replacement order ready for the following week. She scrubbed the floors. She dusted. Dusted, for God’s sake.

But she drew the line at cleaning the bathroom. It was Tara’s turn. If she failed at this unsingle thing, it would be her turn soon enough.

Flash skin. Kiss. More skin.

How difficult was that? From beneath her nerves came something else, something more base. Her insides tingled, heated. The shock wasn’t her excitement, but that she felt it at all. For years she’d made sure she was too busy for this romance stuff, mostly to save her pride, but also out of a fear of the unknown. She’d stifled and ignored her own sexuality.

She couldn’t any longer. Fact was, Zach Thomas had turned out pretty darned amazing. And he was in her bed, maybe not waiting for her exactly, but he was there nevertheless.

Studying her notes, she went back to the lodge and climbed the stairs. Anticipation raced through her as each footstep brought her closer.

Men are all one big walking hormone.

She could only hope that was true, though the mental image of that nearly made her laugh out loud.

She let herself into her little suite. No lights. Good. Not being able to see might help her nerves.

Zach was there, in her bed, fast asleep if his even, deep breathing was any indication. In the dark, she moved closer, peering at him. She could see his head, and one bare shoulder as it gleamed in the moonlight.

Her heart raced, and she promptly forgot everything she was supposed to do.

What first? Squinting in the dark, she reread her notes.

Flash some skin.

Okay, easy enough.

She stripped, trying not to think about the actual technicalities of what she was about to do. Blessing the dark, she dropped shoes, pants, blouse...oh darn. She paused, her hands ready to remove the thin camisole she’d worn beneath her blouse.

Laundry.

She’d forgotten to do it—again.

Knowing she had no nightie in her drawer, not even a clean T-shirt thanks to her forgetfulness, she left on the little silk camisole and hoped it looked sexy enough. To ensure that, she removed the bra she’d worn beneath it. Then she drew a deep, very shaky breath and glanced through the dark at her faint reflection in the mirror over her dresser.

She’d never been one to sleep in the nude, she’d never even slept in just a little chemise and panties before. She felt...sexy. She even looked sexy, if the hardly-there reflection told the truth.

She’d always been fairly curvy. Blessed with breasts, as Alexi was fond of saying. But her chestnut-colored hair had always been difficult. Wild at best. At least it fell past her shoulders, which made it easy to pull back when she wanted. For now she left it down, because guys liked long hair.

Or so she’d heard.

Hoping that was true, she attempted to tame it, but it refused to be browbeaten. She couldn’t see her eyes in the faint light, but that only added to the strange allure of standing there half nude staring at herself.

In spite of her hair, she really did look good! It was a horribly embarrassing thing to admit, even to herself, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away.

An achiness filled her, especially in those erogenous spots that had been tingling ever since she’d first seen Zach again. Now goose bumps rose on her skin as well, and she shivered, though she wasn’t cold. The opposite actually.

This was the new millennium. The age of the woman. She was perfectly capable of sleeping with someone, even making the first move if she had to. There certainly didn’t have to be any commitment involved.

She could do this. She wanted to do this. And it had nothing to do with any silly challenge, and everything to do with what she wanted for herself.

Standing there in the dark, she ran her hands down her arms, soothing away the slight tremor that had danced through her with all the racy thoughts. Even that simple touch seemed sensual, and her body tightened. Her nipples puckered.

And she laughed silently at herself. There was a man in her bed; a warm, hard-bodied, sexy man and she was standing here wasting good time.

Zach was utterly still, completely asleep, on his side facing her. So exhausted. A flash of guilt hit her. Should she let him sleep awhile longer?

No. She’d lose her nerve.

It was too dark to see him clearly. Probably a good thing. Dragging in a deep breath of courage, she lifted the covers and slid in. Oh...my, he felt so absolutely wonderful—

All thought deserted her as two large hands caught her, hands which hauled her close, then rolled her, so that she was pinned beneath him and rendered completely immobile.

CHAPTER 3

A GROAN RUMBLED from Zach’s chest, in the region of Hannah’s ear.

“What the—” Towering over her, his hands now flat on either side of her head, the length of him became flush with the length of her. Then one of his hands smoothed back the hair from her face. Bending close, he struggled to see in the dark. “Hannah?”

Oh God, what now? At the first feel of him, her plan had escaped her. Oh yes, flash skin. Thinking she needed to remove her camisole, she started to wiggle, but he held her utterly captive.

One of his hands tipped her face up. “Why are you in my bed?”

“It’s...my bed.”

“No...this is my bed.” He spoke slowly, thickly, as if he wasn’t quite awake. “Or at least the one that you gave me. I think. Am I in the wrong bed?”

No, he was in the exactly right bed. And now that her initial nerves had worn off, Hannah was becoming aware of several things.

One, he smelled good. Really good, like soap and sleepy warm, male skin.

Two, he felt good. Really, really good. All sleek skin and tough muscle.

And oh yeah, as far as she could tell, he was nearly naked. To test, she arched up, just a little, because wow, he felt incredible. She wasn’t really trying to take advantage of him, at least not until he woke all the way up—okay, maybe she was, just a little—and when she did, she encountered...yep, more sleek skin and tough muscle.

No clothes.

At her movement, he’d gone completely still. She could feel him becoming more...awake.

Abruptly, he rolled off her.

Shoot! She hadn’t moved to step two quick enough! Flash skin, then kiss him.

She needed to kiss him in order to render him a walking, talking sex hormone!

But then she was suddenly blinking at the lamp he flipped on.

He was glaring at her. “Hannah?”

Hadn’t they already established that it was indeed her?

She opened her mouth to say yes, it was still her, but then she realized he was holding his side. “Oh God, did I hurt you?” Horrified, and angry that she could have forgotten about his side, even for a second, she rolled toward him.

“No, I just moved wrong,” he said, straightening gingerly, giving her a good look at his scar, which was at least six inches long, red and angry.

Her heart squeezed. “Oh, Zach. I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine,” he said roughly.

Yeah, he was fine. Actually, amazing was a better word. And still nude. The sheet had fallen away from his chest, pooling low in his lap. Those shoulders she’d admired earlier were no longer slightly slumped with exhaustion, they were straight and quite frankly, mighty impressive.

Not that she’d seen many to compare by, but she had a good imagination.

His arms were long, tanned and solid muscle.

But it was his stomach that really grabbed her. Solid as a rock and rippled, all the way down to...

With a low, inarticulate sound, he hauled the sheets closer to himself and frowned at her.

Blushing, she looked away quickly. Nope, she wouldn’t have trouble finding a spot to kiss. If she even got a chance, that is. Seems her bad luck streak hadn’t changed much since high school.

Zach blinked at the clock and let out a soft oath as he ran a hand over his face. “What’s going on here?”

“I’m...” Trying to seduce you, darn it! “Actually, this is my room.”

He was still confused. “Because you were sold out and you didn’t want to turn me away?”

No, because I wanted to jump your bones. “Um...not exactly.”

“The No Vacancy sign was blinking when I drove up, but I didn’t think—” He swore. “I’m sorry.” With a disgusted shake of his head, he rose from the bed.

Hannah, who just a moment ago had been ogling him, squeaked in shock and covered her eyes. He was very naked.

“Hannah?”

She kept her eyes firmly covered as he rustled about. “Yes?”

“It’s safe.”

Oh, some seducer she was. From between her fingers, she stole a peek. Indeed, he’d pulled on his jeans, though he hadn’t snapped them yet. He was standing there, looking rumpled, tired, edgy and deeply annoyed.

Not to mention so stunning she could hardly breathe.

It occurred to her that he was now staring at her, really staring at her, in a way that made her start tingling all over again.

In all the excitement, she’d completely forgotten her own state of undress. He sounded a little unraveled when he said, “You’d better get covered, too.”

Laughing nervously, she grabbed the sheet and wrapped herself in it, wondering if it was too late to get back on task, wondering how to get close enough to kiss him.

“I’ll gather my things,” he said. “I’ll sleep downstairs somewhere until morning.”

“No, that’s—”

“Yes.” His voice was suspiciously husky. His eyes were dark, his mouth grim, and he purposely avoided looking at her. “I’d better go now. Um...Hannah?” He sounded hard pressed for air as she got out of the bed. “The sheet, it’s not quite covering...”

She craned her neck and saw that he was right, she hadn’t managed to cover her backside. She was giving him quite a show of panties, which never seemed to stay in place. “Oh!” Grace under pressure. She had no choice. She jerked the sheet around her and took a step toward the bathroom where she would hopefully disappear into thin air.

But true to form, she tripped and fell flat on her face.

Zach rushed around the bed, and before she could so much as take a breath, she was scooped against that wonderfully hard, sleek chest she’d so admired.

“You okay?”

Aside from being a bumbling idiot...yeah, she was just dandy. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, then.” And he withdrew those arms, though his gaze lingered a bit where the sheet dipped down, revealing the top of her lacy chemise. “I’m sorry about intruding,” he said.

“It’s not your fault.” She stared at his jaw which was almost within reach of her mouth. If she could just lean in and connect...

But he turned his head away so that he was no longer looking at her. “I was really asleep,” he said. “Really out of it.”

She could see that was true, his exhaustion was palpable, and guilt filled her. “I know.” She felt a twinge of shame at her deception, and at not being totally honest with him. “This isn’t the way our guests are usually treated.”

He looked at her then, his gaze filled with all the heat and longing she’d hoped for.

She’d done it!

Then he let her go and stood. “I don’t exactly feel mistreated.” With a tight smile, he walked out of the bedroom.