Page 10 of Seized by Love at Seaside
She shouldn’t say yes. She shouldn’t smile. Why was she smiling? Why was she touching his arm?Geez!What was wrong with her? She tried to pull her hand away from his muscular forearm, but his skin was warm, his muscles hard, and his seductive eyes were stealing her ability to think straight again.
Oh, the heck with it.One more outing. As friends. She could do this, couldn’t she?
“Okay.”
Chapter Five
BLUE PACED THE bedroom on the second floor of his cottage on the bluff with his cell phone pressed to his ear and a grimace on his face as he listened to Duke complain about Trish’s newest role. It was late Saturday afternoon, and he’d already finished laying the hardwood floors in the bedrooms. He should be exhausted after staying at Lizzie’s to fix her oven until nearly one o’clock in the morning, then getting up to work at the crack of dawn. But he wasn’t exhausted; he was invigorated.
“I just don’t see what the issue is,” Blue said as he walked down the stairs. “She’s an actress, Duke. What do you want her to do? Turn down the most lucrative roles?”
“Hold on a sec, B.” Blue’s siblings had called him B for as long as he could remember.
While he waited for Duke to return to the line, Blue went into the kitchen and admired the cabinetry he’d built, and his mind drifted back to Lizzie and the kiss they’d shared. Even though he was no longer into meaningless hookups, he’d had his fair share of women over the years. Blue adored the intimacy of kissing. He loved the closeness, the feel of a woman’s breathing going shallow, the pressure of her lips on his, the urgency or languid enjoyment of the kiss. From a single kiss he could tell how deep their connection would go. There were surface kisses—the kind that he doled out to end a date when there wouldn’t be another. Then there were hurried, urgent kisses as a precursor to sex. Hot, steamy, let-me-take-you kisses. He loved those. But the most glorious kiss of all was the very first one. The kiss where both people were testing the waters, feeling for their bodily reactions and sensing those of their partner. Waiting to see if the first few seconds of coming together had the ability to obliterate everything else in the world. Twenty-four hours ago Blue would have sworn that his first kiss with Sarah Jane had been the most intense kiss of his life, but after kissing Lizzie, he realized that every other kiss, every other woman, paled in comparison.
“I’m back. Sorry, dude.” Duke’s voice brought Blue back to their conversation.
Blue pictured his brother running a hand through his thick hair. It was a mannerism all of the Ryder men shared. A frustrated hair rake they’d picked up from their father.
“No worries. Look, Duke, all I was saying about Trish is that she’s an adult. She’s in a competitive field. She’s going to take the best roles that come to her. She’s not a teenager anymore. You can’t control what she does.”
Duke laughed. “No one couldevercontrol Trish. You know that. I just don’t want her to be known forever as that actress who played a role the equivalent of that girl inFifty Shades of Grey.”
Blue walked outside. “Well, get over it. She’s secure in who she is, and things change quickly in Hollywood. A year from now no one will even remember this role.”
“Maybe you’re right. Hey, have you heard from Jake? He left two days ago for that plane crash out in Colorado, and I haven’t heard from him since. I’m getting worried.” Jake was their youngest sibling. He’d followed in their father’s footsteps as a search and rescue professional and traveled often. He always kept in close contact with family, and with Duke in particular. As the eldest, Duke tended to keep closer track of his siblings than the rest of them did, though they were all close.
“No, but they’re still dealing with the aftermath out that way. He’ll get in touch when he can.” Blue made a mental note to text Jake after they got off the phone. He stood back and admired the cottage. “You should see the cottage. Man, does it look great.”
“I can’t wait to see it. Did you decide what you’re going to do with the lighthouse?”
“Not yet. One thing at a time.”
“One thing at a time?” Duke laughed. “B, you’ve been talking about the lighthouse since the day you first saw it. Why the sudden halt?”
“I’ve got something else on my mind right now. Guess who I have a date with tonight?” Blue grinned just thinking about Lizzie. He and Duke had both spotted Lizzie at the same time at the wedding. All of the Ryder men were six three or six four and blessed with athletic builds and smart minds. Blue had to admit that when they’d first met Lizzie, he’d felt a stroke of competition with his older, very successful brother. And it felt awesome to come out on top.
“No kidding? Lizzie finally agreed to go out with you?”
“Yes, although she’s not calling it a date. I hope to change her mind on that point, though.”
“You’ve been courting her for a year. I haven’t heard you sound so sure about a woman sinceyou know who.”
Blue’s family had the decency not to speak of Sarah Jane often, and when they did, it was rarely by name, which he appreciated. “I know. Let’s not bring her up, okay?”
“That was more than a decade ago. That woman’s probably got five kids by five different guys and boobs that sag to the ground by now.”
“Duke.” Blue winced. “No need to slam her like that.”
“You really did get Mom’s genes, didn’t you? I’m telling you, you should have slept with every one of her friends back then. It would have made you feel a heck of a lot better.”
Blue had never been a vengeful person. He’d walked out of Sarah Jane’s apartment without a word after catching her with that jerk, and he’d never looked back or taken revenge.
He and Duke talked for a few more minutes, and when they ended the call, Blue sent a text to Jake, trying to elicit at least a smart-alec response.
Dude, you still alive?
Knowing Jake, he was probably holed up in a hotel room with a woman—his form of stress relief.
