Intent to Seduce & a Glimpse of Fire by Debbi Rawlins, Cara Summers Read Free Book Online

he’d tied his boat. The moment she saw it, anxiety mixed with anticipation. It was her day for firsts, it seemed—her first time sitting in the cockpit of a plane and now her first time on a boat…to be topped off by her first time propositioning a man.
    She glanced at him again. He stood completely at ease, his hands on the wheel, his feet planted apart, totally in control of the engine that roared beneath them. There was no sign now of the predator she’d glimpsed earlier. But it was still there, lurking. And it was touching off something in her. She pressed a hand against her stomach. The warmmelting sensation that seemed to be centered there had nothing to do with the fact that the boat was beginning to bump more frequently into waves.
    “Nervous?” Lucas had to shout the question.
    “A little,” she shouted back. “This is my first time on a boat.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    She shook her head.
    “How old are you?”
    “Twenty-six.”
    “I can’t imagine it. What did your family do on vacations?”
    “They didn’t take me with them.”
    “What about later?” Lucas asked. “You live in D.C. and you never went out on the water?”
    “Too busy, I guess.” She moved toward him then, carefully maintaining her grip on the side of the boat as she did. “Is it easy to steer?”
    “For me it is. I’ve been doing it most of my life.”
    Suddenly, the boat struck a wave that lifted her feet right off the deck. The moment they smacked down, she felt them lift again, her stomach with them. The laugh escaped the moment she felt the boat solidly under her again.
    The sound of Lucas’s laughter mingling with hers had her turning toward him.
    “You have the makings of a good sailor, Doc. Would you like to take a turn behind the wheel?”
    At her nod, he stepped back and she slipped in front of him. Once her hands were on the wheel, he covered them with his. “Feet apart. Hands steady.”
    Lucas continued to talk, words of encouragement, but Mac’s mind couldn’t take it in. Just the sound of his voicein her ear was having the strangest effect on her breathing. And there were other sensations pouring through her. Instead of the salty air, it was Lucas’s scent she inhaled. He smelled like sun and sweat and something else that she couldn’t quite place. She could feel him too. His chest when it brushed against her back was like iron, and the hands trapping hers on the wheel were sure and firm, the palms surprisingly rough. For a moment, she closed her eyes and imagined what it might be like to have those hard hands pressed against other parts of her body.
    Another wave had him shifting closer. His hands tightened on hers, pulling the wheel to the right. An arrow of heat shot through her, and her heart began to beat hard and fast, just as it had when she’d been lying on top of him.
    “I’d better take over.”
    “Yes,” she thought. Oh, yes.
    “Doc, are you all right?”
    Her eyes shot open as he turned her around to face him. “I’m…fine,” she managed to say.
    “You look a little weak in the knees. Why don’t you sit down? You can see the island off there to your right.”
    Very carefully, Mac made it to the cushioned seat that ran along the side of the boat. Just as soon as Lucas wasn’t actually touching her, some of her strength returned. It also helped that she wasn’t looking at him.
    Fascinating, she thought as she focused her attention on a tiny speck some distance away in the water. Her reaction the first time he’d held her hadn’t been an aberration. Lucas Wainright could definitely turn her mind and body to mush.
    And she liked it.
    However, it would add complications to her research.How was she supposed to keep her mind on creating male sexual fantasies if Lucas could scatter her thoughts and melt her into a puddle whenever he touched her?
    Narrowing her eyes, she watched the speck become larger. It was a problem she’d have to solve.

CHAPTER FOUR
    W HEN SHE STEPPED OUT onto