Slow Hands

hunger at the curve of her hips, the line of her thighs, the hollow above her groin where the fabric of her bikini ended. Not at all stick-thin, she was just so damned womanly, curvy and soft, made to cushion a man in welcome.
    The woman simply took his breath away.
    “It definitely would have worked,” he finally muttered.
    Maddy reached into the bag, grabbed a grape and popped it into her mouth. Sighing in pleasure at the cool sweetness, she took another one, licking the juice that squirted from it off her lips, then sat in one of the lounge chairs. She stretched out like a cat in a pool of warm sunshine. “I know. But I couldn’t go through with it.”
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her long enough to ask why.
    She explained anyway. “I wanted you to really think about my idea, not be seduced into accepting it.” She offered him an impish smile. “If you’d said no, however, I might just have shanghaied you and tried to change your mind.”
    “If I had said no, I’d have deserved to be struck dead on the spot.” Jake sat on the end of her chair, ignoring his own. “You really thought I’d refuse?”
    “You almost did. Didn’t you.”
    Yeah. He almost had. At least until the whole story had come out and he’d begun to understand why Maddy had been treating him like a gigolo. Then he’d been amused and ready to tell her the truth—that he was a simple paramedic and that being with her for the next thirty days, or thirty years, he’d begun to suspect, would be entirely his pleasure.
    Her bald refusal to even consider letting him close without paying him, however, had quickly squelched that idea. He didn’t entirely understand her reasoning, but he had at least a suspicion about what was driving her.
    Maddy’s self-protective walls had been built brick by brick with the help of her father and her hard-edged sister, not to mention all the jaded people she’d been surrounded with all her life. Then there was whatever secret hurt she’d suffered in a past relationship—he knew there was one. She hadn’t opened up about it yet, but he didn’t doubt she’d been burned. Badly.
    So she was protecting herself. In the only way she knew how. She was hiding behind the wall built of her money and her icy reputation, keeping him on the other side. Not about to genuinely trust anyone enough to try a real relationship—especially not someone she thought was a damned male whore.
    If she set the boundaries, went in expecting no emotion, no true feelings, she couldn’t be hurt.
    God, his heart ached for her. He wanted to take her into his arms and hold her, assure her that not every man was like the ones she’d known before. Let her know she could trust him—that he was not who she thought he was, not by a long shot.
    Part of him suspected she’d be relieved, happy, willing to accept that he was an average guy who was falling for her. Another part of him feared she’d shove him off the boat…and out of her life for good.
    Jake wasn’t about to take that chance. And that was why he’d gone along with the insanity.
    “I didn’t. And I’m here,” he finally said, thrusting away the momentary guilt about not opening up to her. He would…soon. Just as soon as he’d convinced her to give him a shot—a real one—and made sure she knew he would never intentionally hurt her. As someone obviously had.
    “I’m glad.”
    She pulled her sunglasses off as she leaned toward him. Jake met her halfway, brushing his mouth across hers, tasting a bit of the grape juice on her lips. Deepening the kiss, he tasted a bit more, swirling his tongue against hers, falling right back into that deep well of warm, sensual pleasure he’d been missing since Wednesday morning.
    Maddy shifted a little in the lounge chair, but he didn’t realize she’d reached around to untie her bikini top until it fell into her lap. He sat back, watching the sun warm her breasts. She appeared almost pagan, despite the fragile paleness of her skin. “You’re doing more than waving hello to the sun out your window today.”
    “Yes, I am.” She smiled, obviously also remembering their conversation in her office.
    He reached for the bottle of sunscreen they’d both applied earlier. “You’d better let me help you put more lotion on. I couldn’t even imagine you getting sunburned here.”
    “Thank you so much for thinking about my well-being,” she replied sweetly, a hint of wickedness in her eyes.
    Jake squeezed a small handful