Follow the Sun by Deborah Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

control console and removed his sunglasses, then lifted his hand to her own sunglasses, huge lenses with tortoiseshell frames.
    He carefully tugged them off her face, laid them beside his tea glass, then cupped her chin with his fingers.
    “Well, here we are,” he said pleasantly, as if it were an ordinary thing.
    Tess’s heart thudded roughly. “If you don’t drop your anchor it will be
there we go
,” she warned.
    “Hmmm. Right.” He led her downstairs to the main deck, kissed her lightly on the mouth, then went about anchoring the yacht.
    The sun was setting behind him, and the sky framed him in deep shades of gold and magenta. Sunlight made a halo around his hair and outlined his body. He was still wearing his polo shirt and khaki trousers, but the outline couldn’t have been more enticing had he been naked.
    Tess watched him solemnly, her hands clasped behind her back, her knees weak. Privacy—that was what his suggestion to move the yacht had concerned. Neither of them had voiced such a thought, but it had lain between them, nonetheless. It wouldn’t have done to stay at the marina, where curious tourists sometimes climbed aboard the boats.
    She felt a languid loosening between her thighs, and looked around with breathless amusement for a place to sit.
    “I don’t know what kind of show I’m putting on, but I’m glad you like it,” he called.
    Tess looked at him quickly, and realized that she was smiling.
    “You drop anchor very well, Sundance.”
    “You should see how I cook.”
    “Is it a dramatic performance?”
    “It’s been known to draw applause.”
    Much like your other performances, I’ll bet, she thought rakishly. She wondered about his past women. Oddly enough, he didn’t act the part of a flirt, except with her. She didn’t get the impression that he went around bedàing just any woman who looked at him.
    Good heavens, if he did that he’d have no time for eating or sleeping. Watching other women gape at Jeopard would have provoked her jealousy except that he never noticed their attention, much less returned it.
    Her first impression about his vanity had been entirely wrong. He was the least vain person she’d ever known; she even sensed a certain embarrassment on his part, as if he wished he were more average-looking.
    A grand
no way
to that, my boy, she told him mentally.
    He came toward her, pulling his blue polo shirt off as he did. He tossed it on the deck and spread his arms wide, eyes gleaming with invitation, the sunset making him look like an earthbound angel walking out of heaven. Her heart in her throat, Tess ran to him, and he put his arms around her snugly.
    Tess looked up at him with devotion. His eyes became very serious, and he lifted her against him slightly, so that she stood on tiptoe.
    “I think you wouldn’t mind falling in love with me, Tess.” He touched his lips to the tip of her nose and whispered hoarsely, “Even though we don’t know each other very well. Tell me you’re falling in love with me.”
    She gasped softly at his desire for this new and very important intimacy. Tess curled her fingers into his chest hair and bent her forehead to his shoulder while she took deep, shuddering breaths.
    Finally she tilted her head back and looked at him.“I am. I don’t care if we’ve just met. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
    “Good.” Again, he gave her a perfect, tender smile. “Not even for your husband?”
    Tears rose in her eyes. Jeopard seemed to want to extract a commitment out of her in the most painful way possible. But then, she reasoned, it was only because it meant so much to him.
    “I did love Royce,” she murmured. “We had a beautiful relationship. But it was a mentor-student relationship in some ways—there was no way we could have a typical romance, not with the difference in our ages.”
    “And he was sick. Physically, he—”
    “Jeopard.” She grasped his shoulders firmly and looked up at him with pain shimmering