Read Online Riptide by Margaret Carroll - Free Book Online Page B

producer’s house for use exclusively by residents of Jonah’s Path.
    “I didn’t want that guy to see me coming here.” Dan’s voice softened. “I didn’t want to make things worse for us—you.” He quickly corrected himself.
    So he knew. And he was thinking of them as a couple.Dan had never told her he loved her, but everything had changed now with Jason’s death. Everything. “Thanks.” Christina’s voice broke.
    Dan reached for a strand of her hair and started twirling it.
    The act of tenderness melted Christina’s insides, made her feel that everything was okay.
    Dan was here now. Her Dan.
    “So I just headed for the dunes,” he said, his voice turning low, sexy.
    Something inside Christina unlaced as Dan sidled over and pulled her close, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I snuck across on the beach and up into your yard.”
    Christina yielded, giddy when he dropped his fingers so they grazed her breasts. She was heating up.
    “Then I let myself in,” he whispered. “I am your backdoor man, after all.”
    It was their old joke. Christina arched her back in response to the small circles Dan was tracing on her nipples.
    It was a short tumble into his arms.
    She wanted more than anything to lose herself in his scent, the sound of his heart beating close to hers, the feel of his arms around her. She fell against him, practically passing out with the rush she got.
    Lately, Christina’s drug of choice was Daniel Cunningham.
    “C’mon, baby.” He used his mouth to urge her on.
    She looked into his eyes, straining for some clue as to where he’d just been and with whom, but he gave nothing away. Despite this, something inside her unlocked like it always did, and Christina swung open, inviting Danny in…
    His breath was hot, moving across her hair, her face, her skin.
    Every square inch of Dan Cunningham’s body was as Christina had remembered it all those hours she’d tossed in that narrow bed in rehab. She rubbed her face against his chest, breathing in the scent of barroom, Old Spice cologne, and pure man, through and through.
    She lost herself in his heat. She felt like she had been cold for a million years. There were no words to describe the rush she felt. She was in the zone, right where she wanted to be.
    Drunk on her drug of choice, Daniel Cunningham.
    A sound escaped Christina’s throat, a bubble of something between elation and desperation. She’d had nothing to eat or drink since a bottle of water on the plane this morning.
    “You okay?” Dan whispered, his lips moving her hair so that Christina felt a trickle of heat, molten and liquid, race down through her stomach and spread along the insides of her legs.
    “Great,” she whispered in reply, shifting onto her side so her body pressed against his.
    The move must have caught Dan off guard because he hesitated a beat or two.
    Possibly out of respect, Christina wondered, for her new status of widow. Daniel Cunningham was not, as a rule, a respectful type of guy.
    And that wasn’t what they were about, anyway.
    She whispered his name, tilting her face toward his in the dark until she caught his lips with hers.
    If Dan had any reservations, they disappeared quickly. He kissed her softly at first, then, when she moaned,faster and deeper, until his mouth was bruising hard on hers.
    He tasted of smoke and the Diet Coke he liked mixed with bourbon.
    Christina sucked hard, savoring every drop.
    If he was self-conscious about tasting of booze, he made no apologies for it now. He knew where she had gone. She’d left a message on his cell on her drive to JFK, saying she’d be in touch when she returned, probably in a month or so. If he questioned how she felt about coming back so soon, he kept that to himself as well. This relationship was not about talking.
    Dan grunted and rolled on top of her.
    This is what they were about.
    Christina moaned, and that was all Dan needed to hear.
    They went at it in a tangle of arms and legs and lips,