The Birthday Fantasy (6 page)

They
looked at him and said in unison, “We’re not married.”

U
nshaken by the severity of their response, the man chuckled. “No matter, you will be someday.”

Jamie wanted to set the man straight, but Tate
said, “Thanks. We’ll be back before five this evening.”

The guy waved, turned away with a smirk and muttered to himself.

When Tate set the bag and cooler in the middle of the small boat, it moved erratically on the water. He turned to her and held out his hand. “Princess, your ship awaits.”

She
had to be crazy to let him talk her into this. “Dawson, you better hope you know what you’re doing.”

Taking a deep breath, she
put her hand in his. He leaned down to hold the boat steady with his other hand as she cautiously stepped into the moving vessel. After she was settled, Tate climbed into the boat as if stepping between rattlesnakes. With each step, the boat moved in the water.

He pulled the starter, the engine roared to life, an
d he steered the thing out onto the open lake.

“I’m impressed.” She let go of her death grip on the metal seat. They were making good progress over the calm surface of the lake.

Grinning like a fool, he held the steering wheel and looked over his shoulder at her. “Told you there was nothing to this.”

She sat back and laughed. “Right.”

They were nearing the end of the lake. The waterfall roared as it tumbled down, throwing off white mist and a cool breeze. She relaxed in the astounding beauty, glad Tate had talked her into this little adventure.

But a
bout twenty feet away from the dock, everything went wrong.

The boat
tilted and rocked on the rough water. Jamie gasped and grabbed the sides of the boat and tried to make it stop rocking by moving in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, Tate was using the steering wheel to accomplish the same thing. The over-compensation caused the vessel to rock more.

“
Tate, stop or it’ll tip over!” Jamie gritted her teeth, regretting getting in this floating coffin with him.

“
Stop holding the sides and trying to move it around. You’re making things worse.”

“
I’m not doing anything!” Jamie glared at him.

A
wave hit the boat causing it to capsize. Jamie let out a squeal as she landed in the cool water.

“Jamie!”
Tate came up first. When she emerged a few feet away, he reached for her.

She swiped water from her face and glared at him
as she ignored his hand. “I’m going to kill you!”

“I
’m sorry, princess.” He made a grab for the cooler before it floated away.

Jamie
reached for the bag holding their towels and blanket. Swimming for the sandy beach between the dock and the fall was hard with the tote in one hand and the movement of the water, but she was determined to get to the shore, leaving Tate stranded with the flipped over boat.

Jamie
waded up onto the sand and flopped down. She untangled the sarong from her legs and waist and laid it on the sand to dry. Tate dropped down beside her. The cooler parked at their feet.

“
Well, that sure was fun.” She opened the bag with the wet towels and blankets.

He stood and stripped
off his wet t-shirt. “I told you I’m sorry.”

As she shook the towels out and laid
them on the sand to dry, she couldn’t keep her eyes off the way his muscles bunched and stretched as he tossed the shirt to the sand. “You wouldn’t listen to me. We could have had someone bring us or ridden out here on horseback and not have worried about anything.” She pulled the bottle of sunscreen from the bag, squirted a liberal amount into her palm and slathered the stuff on her arms. “But no. And now how the hell are we going to get back?”

“Damned if I know. I guess if we don’t show up at the boat rental place at five, they’ll send a search party.”
He ran his hand through his wet hair causing curls to stick out all over his head.

He was to
o sexy for his swimming shorts, and yet he looked like a kid. She had to laugh.

“What the hell’s so funny?”

“You and me.” She flopped back on the wet blanket.

He sat beside her and chuckled. “You know
being stranded with you forever like in some of those chick flicks wouldn’t all bad.”

“We’d kill each other.”

“Probably. “ With a grin, he stood and held out his hand. “Let’s go swimming. It’s not like we aren’t already wet.”

She
looked over his lean, muscular body and swallowed hard as she took his hand. “Okay.”

At least i
n the water she wouldn’t be able to see so much of him. He helped her to stand, and she caught him looking her over. When he met her gaze, the fire in his eyes had her heart racing and her belly tumbling. Heat pooled in her core.

God help her, she wanted him.

****

Jamie
ran into the water and all Tate could do was follow her.

She disappeared under the water
, hiding that amazing body from view. As he looked around for her, she came up behind him, wrapped her legs around his and knocked him off his feet. He fell backward into the water with a splash. She laughed when he stood up. “You should have seen your face just now.”

Scowling
at her, he wiped water from his eyes and headed toward her. “That’s the last time you get the jump on me.”

“Yeah, right!” She turned and swam as fast as she could away from him
and toward the deeper water closer to the fall. When she stopped and treaded water, cool mist surrounded her and the cascade of the river provided an amazing backdrop. Tate paused in his pursuit to just take in all the beauty.

Blinking, he smiled and swam toward her. He had to teach his little princess a lesson.

She let out a squeal when he caught her from behind and tickled her sides. With her laughing and kicking, he flipped her over his shoulder into the water.

She sl
iced through water to resurface, and Tate went instantly hard. Her nipples stood erect under the barely there bikini top and all he could think about was pealing the damned thing off her.

“You are g
oing to pay for that one, buddy,” she said and headed straight for him.

With a growl
, he motioned for her and backed away farther into the mist of the fall. They couldn’t get any closer, so he stopped. “Come and get it, sweetheart.”

She caught him, but he wasn’t going down this time
. Jamie wrapped her legs around him as she had before, but when he pulled her against him, she froze.

There was no hiding the erection
tenting his shorts.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted as her breath came in fast bursts. Her wet, slick body slid against his as she
slid her legs against his to wind around his waist and wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing his mouth down to hers. She brushed her lips over his. It was all the invitation he needed. He licked her upper lip, and she opened under his quest, letting him plunge in to deepen the kiss. She tasted of mint and sugar and passion as he ravaged her mouth.

He broke the kiss just long enough for t
hem to catch their breath and for him to get them out of the deep water, then he wrapped her up and found her lips again. He entangled his fingers in her wet hair, while his other hand caressed over her back to her perfect ass. He groaned as he found only smooth flesh. The tiny bottoms hardly contained enough fabric to cover her. She straddled his hips and pressed her center into his cock.

With a moan, he trailed kisses to her ear. S
he shuddered as he nibbled on her earlobe. “I want you. I need you.”

She pressed herself against him and captured his lips.
He carried her back onto the sandy shore, laid her down on the blanket and stretched out beside her.

As h
e ran his hand over her bare abdomen, she shivered, and he kissed her. She stroked over his chest to the sensitive points of his nipples as she pressed her thigh into his hard-on. He broke the kiss on a groan and trailed kisses down her neck to the edge of her bikini top. He kissed the bare tops of her breasts and flicked his thumbs over her hard nipples, standing to attention under the wet scrap of cloth cqovering them.

She arched her back and moaned. “Tate... I... Oh, God, I want you.”

He didn’t have to be told twice and untied the straps holding on her top, baring her breasts. Her beauty as she lay there on the soft plaid blanket surrounded by sand and sun mesmerized him. He caressed one of the perfect mounds and teased the rosy nipple, then lowered his mouth to suck and nibble. A moan escaped her, she arched her back, her leg again rubbing against his erection, and her hands caressed up his chest to snake around his neck.

He had to have her.

Tate hooked his fingers under the thin straps at the sides of her bottoms and slid them down her legs to reveal her deep auburn patch of curls. His heart raced; his cock ached. He looked up into her face as he slid the panties off and tossed them to the side, then kicked off his shorts and lifted himself over her. As he kissed her, he thrust into her slick, wet heat.

He’d come home.

With his head tossed back, he found a rhythm meant to fuse them together. She tightened around him as her orgasm quaked through her. A shot of fiery bliss blazed through him, and he growled her name as he exploded.

He collapsed on top of her, his breaths coming fast as he processed what had just happened. Holding her, he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him. When he opened his eyes to look into the face of the woman he loved, his heart skittered over a beat and then fell into the pit of his stomach.

Jamie didn’t look like a woman who’d had great sex on the beach.

****

Reality hit Jamie between the eyes as she looked down into Tate’s passion-filled green eyes.

If the kiss on the patio yesterday had made her feel guilt, this filled her with a sense of overwhelming betrayal.

“Oh, God! I cheated on Robbie.” She scampered off Tate and grabbed for a towel to cover herself.

She heard him sit up behind her. “Jamie. Do you really love him?”

“Yes!”
I don’t know.
With her back to him, she found her bottoms and pulled them on, then retied her top back into place. “I can’t believe I let you do this. I’m engaged. How could you seduce me?”

From the sounds and motion behind her,
she guessed Tate was pulling on his shorts. “I seduced you?”

She spun around and faced him. “Yes. You...” She waved at the
incredible scenery around them. “And this place. You hoped all along this would happen. Damn it, Tate, you broke up with me. I spent years trying to figure out what I did wrong, and when I finally found a man, you had to come back into my life and ruin everything.”

Feeling very underdressed in
her skimpy bathing suit she’d bought with the hope of impressing him, she wrapped the damp towel around her. She shivered, but the trigger hadn’t been the cold wetness of the towel against her skin, the sensation came from the realization she still wanted Tate.

He folded his arms over his chest. “
Yes. I hoped you’d come to your senses. Robert Jefferson isn’t right for you.”

“You don’t even know him!”

“I know he’s not here. I know he leaves you to go on trips. Never taking you with him. I know he wants you to leave your home to live in the city. And I know how much that has to kill you. You hate the city.”

The truth of his statement hurt. She’d wanted to go to Vegas with Robbie, but he refused to let her come along, saying she’d be too much of a distraction while he was working, which was his usual excuse.
“He’s a businessman. Of course, he goes on trips. It’s the nature of his business. I don’t expect to go with him. As for living in the city, I’ll adapt. I already have.”

He dropped his arms to his side and turned toward the lake. “I broke it off with you because I thought I wasn’t right for you. I had nothing to offer you. To me
, you were a princess and I was a broken down saddle tramp with no money and no future.”

His quiet voice was almost lost on the soun
d of the waterfall. She sat on the blanket and hugged her knees close to her chest. “I didn’t care what you had or didn’t have, Tate. You broke my heart.”

He settled beside her, but he didn’t look at her. “I broke my own heart that day, too.”

When he looked over his shoulder at her, she almost gave in to the hope mixed with pain swirling in his eyes. She swallowed and fought the burn of tearqs she wouldn’t dare let fall. “I didn’t care you were only a ranch hand. I loved you. But I’ve moved on and now it’s time you do, too.”

Jamie leaned over the railing with Tate’s cell phone pressed against her ear and waited for an answer. The full moon lit up the night and danced over the crests of the waves. Rich scent of flowers, the lake and the mountains mingled to perfume the warm night air. A gentle breeze carried the sounds of insects and the water.