Chapter 27

Following the soldier’s ass swaddled in a sheet that slipped off one butt cheek as he jumped across the debris-strewn landscape was so not a hardship. “You okay? I can clean a path if you want.”

She stepped over the lid of one of the shoot’s storage crates, twisted cruelly and half buried in the sand. “Nah, I’m okay. I’ve got my runners on. Where can I put these?” She’d scooped up their clothing from the cave. “They may as well get dried off.”

“There, beside the palms.”

“Okay,” she said, bending, and spreading them over the sand. “That works.”

But Dare’s gaze was following her every movement. He flicked an impudent look back over his shoulders and his eyes rioted up and down her frame. “I’m liking that tank you’re wearing as a mini-dress, Abs.”

Chuckling, she jumped over a piece of jagged wood, her soiled runners landing in the fine sand with a poof. Of course he liked it. Half of what she owned, showed. “Yeah, only three sizes too big. But who cares…it’s air-conditioned.”

He halted, arousal painted in his expression and waited for her to catch up. “Yeah. Air-conditioned. Right here.” He raked a finger over the roundness of the side of her breast, exposed by the cut of the man’s tank. Shivering, she sucked in a breath.

“Oh yeah?” She retorted. “Just like here.” She reached to his waist, skimmed her fingers beneath the bunch of fabric in the front of him and wiggled her fingers, her knuckles smooth against his belly. “All I have to do is…”

He jumped back, away from her groping hand, and succeeded in putting a few feet between them. Then he fixed an incredulous gaze on her. “Can you please tell me why the hell I did that?”

She giggled. “Nope.” She tapped her index finger against her chin. “Hmm. Looks like you’re protecting something special.”

“Enough of that.” His shocked look gave way to boldness. “How’s this?” He swooshed the sheet away with a flourish, tossing it to the side onto the beach.

Oh, my. She hadn’t seen that in three, long years.

Blinking rapidly, she couldn’t drag her gaze away from it. Nice. Ruddy tone. Smooth. Good length. Nice, uh, circumference. Head, um, nice too.

And saying hi. Standing at attention. Had its own airflow or something.

He grinned at her, his feet planted shoulder-width apart, fingers spread on his hips. Delighted it was front stage and center, getting all the attention. No embarrassment.

Men.

“Um, nice. You think you could get that thing out of my face?”

His eyes twinkled. “No can do, sweets. It’s buffo from here on in. A la carte. And I think you’d be doing the environment a hell of a favor if you lost the tank.”

She allowed a shocked look to raise her brows. “You mean walk around barefoot?” Surveying the scattered debris around them, she wrinkled her nose. “In this?”

He waggled his brow. “You can keep the runners.”

She snorted. “Oh, thanks.” She measured the path to the frothing surf. “Let’s just get to the beach.”

“Righto.” But he grabbed her hand as she scooped up the sheet, and intertwined his fingers with hers as they approached the devastation that used to be McMaster’s headquarters.

The tent was a billowed mess on the edge of the grove of palms that ran in a jagged line down the beach, separating it from the wilder vegetation inland. Equipment rose, helter-skelter, from the sand and was scattered as far as they could see, displaying the sheer power of the storm they’d lived through.

As they passed the evidence, she tightened her grip on Dare’s hand and was gratified at the responding squeeze. With it, she felt her heart clench too. The knowledge that she would’ve been out here, once the tent collapsed, at the mercy of gale force winds was still unfathomable.

And if she ever saw McMaster again…

And suddenly, Dare was off, streaking—very literally—to the edge of the water. “Come on!” he shouted. “Lose the man’s clothing! I dare ya!”

He was daring her?

Okay, he was totally, self-servingly trying to get her in her birthday suit. Out in the open.

What the hell.

Caught up in the moment, she bunched the hem in her fingers, drew the soft fabric upwards, slid it over her head, and tossed it. Stood there.

In the buff. On a tropical beach.

The breeze teased every inch of her flesh as she stood in the heat. Wafting over her skin, it ruffled her hair, sending it dancing over her back. The blazing sun was already heating up her ass cheeks.

It. Was. Glorious.

Definitely an item on her bucket list. One she didn’t know she’d had.

And Dare. Standing like a Grecian statue at the turquoise water’s edge with the brilliant blue sky as his backdrop. Muscled chest, flat belly, and the trail of fine dark hair dusting downwards toward his number one tool, erect, the sun bathing him in its rays.

Anyone with an ounce of appreciation for raw beauty—well, their heart would skip a beat.

But it was something else that snagged on her heartstrings and halted the breath in her lungs.

It was the look of awe on Dare’s face as he looked at her.

Toeing her runners off into the sand, she shimmied across the heated sand toward the man she loved.

Determination coursed through her as she approached him, her heels sinking in the warm, white powder as she made her way to the water’s edge and the crashing surf.

She knew what to do. Whether or not he liked it, she had her game-plan all figured out. Actions, strategies, to-do items. What might give him pleasure, and would most certainly give her pleasure.

But oh, she smirked as she caught him staring at her, trying to figure out what the hell was going on in her mind now. He’d like it.