broad and solid, so much more than she would have guessed a week ago. With a deep inward sigh, she relaxed her hand and dragged her palm over the contour of chest muscle beneath the green tennis shirt.
“Ah, Mia,” he murmured against her warm skin.
There were still people using the lookout, cars whizzing past them on the highway. Did he even remember where they were? Did she care? How could she? This was David. This was what she wanted.
Her lips parted, and he pushed his tongue inside, kissing her with a sweeping thoroughness that made her forget everything.
They broke apart only when a noisy minivan full of children pulled off the highway and parked not far from their rental. David straightened and finger combed his hair. Feeling like a guilty teenager who’d been caught making out, Mia tugged at the hem of her shorts and adjusted the front of her blue tank top. It didn’t seem to matter that she wore a bra. Her nipples were tight and hard and testing the elasticity of the fabric.
“We should go,” she said, averting her eyes so that she didn’t have to meet with the white-haired van driver’s disapproval.
“Just a minute,” he said, concentrating on something on the horizon.
She swung her gaze toward the open sea. “Another whale?”
David noisily cleared his throat, sounding as if he were trying not to laugh.
“Oh.” She spotted the problem. They really were going to have to do something about that swelling.
They waited until the gang was clear of the van and headed for the lookout before David used the remote to unlock the BMW’s doors.
“Where to next?” she asked breathlessly.
He stuck the key into the ignition. “You have a swimsuit under that?”
“I do.” She had on bottoms, anyway.
“Good.” He exhaled a long breath. “Maybe we can find someplace to cool off.”
SO MUCH FOR STAYING in public to prevent him from stripping off her clothes and kissing every inch of her. David mentally shook his head as he guided the car onto the highway. He hadn’t checked the GPS but he already knew that as long as he stayed on the coastal road they wouldn’t get lost.
He was acting like a damn kid, unable to curb his libido. Hell, he had more pride and self-control than to put himself—or Mia—on display. In fact, he took pride in his self-control. How messed up was that? And acting the way he had in front of a carload of children? He wasn’t himself. He was never reckless. It didn’t matter that no one here knew him. That wasn’t the point. He knew. Worse, Mia knew.
“Why are you scowling?”
He tossed her a glance, noticed the gaping neckline of her top, and gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I’m sorry about back there.”
“I’m not.”
He shook his head. “That was inappropriate.”
“Wait,” she said. “I want to be clear. Do you feel that way because somebody saw us, or because it’s me you were making out with?”
He cringed at the term. “Both.”
She made a low growling sound. “You do not get to say that. Not after that kiss last night, or for that matter, after what you whispered to me earlier.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry for all of it.”
“First, I’m pretty sure you’re speeding,” she said, and he checked. She was right.
He eased his foot off the accelerator, even more irritated now. The highway was starting to wind, and he had no business being distracted from his driving. Having Mia sitting beside him was dangerous enough.
“Second, you’re here in Hawaii, not at work. You’ve already shown your hand. You can’t run hot and cold on me. It’s not fair.”
He smirked at that. She was inarguably right. Her impeccable logic was part of what made her a good lawyer. “I didn’t think I should jump your bones without taking you out on a date first.”
Mia chuckled. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” She sighed. “For God’s sake, I hope today qualifies as a date.”
He cocked a brow at her. “This is an interesting new side to you.”
She laid a hand on his thigh, close to his crotch. “Back at you.”
He hissed in a breath. If she was waiting for a comeback, she’d be disappointed. She hadn’t actually put her hand where he’d like it, but his body reacted anyway. “Um, for the sake of our well-being, I think you might want to keep all your body parts on your side of the car while I’m driving.”
“So, pull over.” She chuckled again, sounding completely satisfied with herself as she tucked her hand into her lap, wiggled around—more to drive him crazy, he suspected, than to get comfortable—and laid her head back against the headrest. “I’m ready for a swim.”
“So am I,” he muttered, and steered them off onto a turnout. “So am I.”
She quickly straightened, her lips parting in surprise, her eyebrows arching above her sunglasses as she stared at him through the dark lenses. Good. She thought he’d called her bluff.
Ignoring her and trying to quash a smile, he consulted the GPS.
“Are we lost?” she asked.
“Nope. I think there’s a beach nearby where it’s not too rocky to swim.” He turned on the GPS’s audio, and they listened to the voice pronounce the odd-sounding Hawaiian street names. “Did you get that?” he asked.
Mia started laughing. “If you’re counting on me, we’re never going to get back to Waikiki.”
Her cheeks and nose were pink, and although he’d applied sunscreen earlier, he figured he probably had gotten too much sun himself. He reached over to the glove box, his arm grazing her breasts in the tight confines of the car. Hearing her sharp intake of breath, he smiled to himself.
“Here.” He tossed her the tube. “You can use some on your face and shoulders.”
She squirted the white cream onto her palm, then removed her glasses and slathered the sunscreen on her face, shoulders and arms. Looking over at him, the sun shining in her face, her green eyes so beautiful, they sparkled like emeralds, robbing him of oxygen. “You, too,” she said, her gaze lowering to his mouth and lingering. “Take off your sunglasses.”
She waited for him to do as she asked, then squeezed more sunscreen into her palm. Using her fingertips, she smoothed the cream across his chin, dabbed it over his cheeks and down to the tip of his nose.
“Thanks.” He rubbed in the leftover white spot on her chin.
“I’m not done with you,” she said in a throaty voice that got to him in a not so surprising way. “Look down.”
He frowned, automatically glanced at his fly, then smiled to himself when she applied the sunscreen to his exposed nape. When she was finished, he asked, “Done with me now?”
“Not even a little.”
He looked up. Their unguarded eyes met. Something so primal stirred inside him that he didn’t know what to do.
She was wrong about one thing. He hadn’t shown his entire hand. He hadn’t told her the firm wanted her back, and that he’d been ordered to do anything to make that happen.
But he’d been wrong, as well. Wrong not to tell her up front. He knew what he had to do. He didn’t like it, and didn’t much like himself for agreeing to do it. But his feelings changed nothing. The firm needed her.