Free Going Deep (Coastal Heat #1) by Maggie Wells Page B

the smarts to live up to the standard set by Monsieur Cousteau’s legacy.
    Facing those same ripples and muscles live and in person, Brooke was forced to agree the nickname suited him to perfection. The man was ripped. For a moment, she wondered if he’d been bitten by a radioactive spider. It would be too perfect. She was, after all, a girl reporter itching to talk to him.
    One crazy dance and she’d lain awake long after she’d slipped her trusty vibrator back into her nightstand drawer. Remembering the long lines of his swimmer’s body pressed snug against hers made it difficult to sit across from him at lunch. Watching him lick barbecue sauce from his fingertips left her unable to think about anything else but where and when. Looking at him standing wet and half-naked, she prayed it would happen here and now.
    “Shoes off.”
    She leveled a sharp stare at him and raised her foot. The blood-red shoe popped off her heel, but she didn’t shake it free. Instead, she arched her brows, offered a polite smile and said an overly courteous, “Hello, Brian.”
    Crossing his arms over his chest, he raked her with a long, leisurely inspection, taking his sweet time getting back to her face. “You wear soft-soled shoes aboard a boat. Preferably ones with traction.” He wiped a drip of water from his chin with the back of his hand. “I’m guessing those don’t have much.”
    Brooke flexed her toes and let the shoe drop to the dock with a clatter. She’d never make it onto the boat in those shoes without breaking her neck and they both knew it. But the second her bare foot touched the sizzling aluminum dock, she lost a layer of skin and all her dignity.
    Hopping like a crazed flamingo, she let loose with a flow of creative curse words. It wasn’t until she managed to gasp the word ‘hot’ that her hero finally caught on.
    “Ah, crap.”
    He reached up and snatched her from the scorching-hot dock and she fell willingly into his arms. Brian might have been oblivious to the water streaming from his hair, but she wasn’t. And getting up close and personal with his hard, sun-warmed body was worth a second degree burn or two. The familiar scent of seawater mixed with sunscreen was sexier than any expensive aftershave. Brooke kicked the other shoe aside and curled her toes in the puddle of cool water pooling at his feet. His gaze dropped to her chest, and a shark’s smile stretched his lips.
    She glanced down at the dark, damp spots where her blouse soaked up his water then back up into his eyes. The heat she saw was familiar. It burned low and steady like a pilot light, ready to flare to life at any moment. She fought the urge to cover the wet spots highlighting her breasts as she twisted herself from his hold. He started this, and she refused to shrink from an opportunity to go head-to-head with him. As far as she was concerned, their competition ended in a draw. This time, she wanted them to both come out winners.
    Gathering all the ammunition in her arsenal of ace-reporting, she lobbed her most pressing, hard-hitting, newsworthy question at him. “Why did you kiss me?”
    “Why wouldn’t I?”
    He answered without missing a beat. Seconds too late she recognized her mistake. This was Brian, after all. She needed to be specific if she wanted a real answer.
    “I meant back then. Why did you kiss me like that? In front of everyone.”
    He smiled, and the realization that he’d expected her to ask made her cheeks flame, but the need to take him down a notch burned hotter. She struck back at the one spot she knew might still be touchy for him.
    “Fairly ballsy for a quiet guy like you.”
    The light in his eyes faded, but he kept the familiar smirk in place. The sardonic eyebrow twitch that dogged her all through high school was back, too, but she knew the blow hit home. She’d been high school royalty—popular, pretty, and well-liked—and he’d been the guy who blew the curve on every test.
    His eyes narrowed but