Free Slow Hand by Bonnie Edwards Page A

choice, not his. From now on I plan to be free rather than safe. This time with you has changed the way I see things. When I get home, my life will be different. I will be different.”
    “But you’ll keep the locks?”
    “Of course.” She smiled. “Don’t look so worried. I’m always careful.” She seemed excited about returning to her hectic life, so he bided his time about asking her to stay. She wasn’t ready to think about sharing her life with anyone yet.
    “I appreciate your kindness in allowin g me free use of the galley and, ah, how do I put this so it’ll sound right?” Her hesitation said a lot about the direction of her thoughts.
    He sat up and tugged her to sit in his lap. “You’re not going to thank me for the sex are you?” Her weak smile made him shake his head. “I’m not offering pity sex. I wanted you even before I knew you’d be here alone.”
    “Really?”
    “Don’t know how I would have handled things if you were married. I don’t hustle married women but, I’d have been tempted.”
    She laughed. “Do tell.” She looped her arms around his neck, her weight on his lap feather-light.
    “You had me at first sight, marching down the dock in those ridiculous shoes, with your fine tight ass and the fire blazing in your eyes.”
    She made a face of total disbelief. “You were napping.”
    “Like hell I was. My dick jumped to life and my mouth went dry when you turned around to get your luggage over that rope Jean-Paul left out.”
    Her brows knit. “Oh, you saw me? I thought you were asleep.” She smiled into his chest, the movement of her lips tickling the hair there.
    He smiled too and held her closer, content to sit with this tiny, perfect woman in his arms. “You owe me a nap,” he said.
    “How can a person owe a nap?”
    “I’d just settled in for one when you showed up. I haven’t been able to sleep without you in my arms since.”
    “You slept that first night in your cabin.”
    “No sleep. I tossed and turned.”
    The smile on her face was pure female satisfaction.

Chapter 10
    “Take the free end up through the eye, around the standing part and back where it came from.” Jared watched as Teri’s tongue came out as she concentrated. The things she could do with that tongue amazed him. “There, you did it. A perfect bowline knot. It’ll never slip or jam if you make it right.”
    He grinned at her pleased she was such a willing student. Teri was willing to learn and competent enough to follow through on her own. The past five days had been incredible.
    They were dressed in swimsuits this morning because a sixty-footer had joined them in the cove at sunset the night before. The Sally-Rose dwarfed the SandJack .
    Jared couldn’t take his eyes off her. “She’s got great lines,” he said.
    “She’s very pretty. I like the maroon awnings.” Teri stretched out on a lounge chair with a bowl of fruit and yogurt for breakfast. He’d watched her dip slices of melon into the yogurt and lick the creamy stuff off with that mischievous tongue until he’d wanted to dash the bowl to the deck and take her mouth.
    They’d hailed the Sally-Rose the night before and spoken to the captain, a newcomer to the Caribbean.
    The yacht was for sale and an old urge had come to life as soon as he’d heard. Since leaving the rat race, he’d been content to drift for months at a time, living easy.
    But his bent for profit-and-loss statements had kicked in at first sight of the yacht.
    “What’s going through your mind? You’re distracted this morning.” Teri asked, with a shift of her legs on the lounge chair. He grinned, smoothed a palm from her knee to her groin.
    “Don’t try to change the subject,” she said tartly. “I see you eying the Sally-Rose with the same kind of lust you’ve had for me. What’s up?”
    “The honeymoon charter idea for the SandJack took off like gangbusters. Now that I’ve got a website, I’ve got charters booked solid.”
    Her eyes flared