Seaside Nights Part 2

"You know Moon?" Blue asked.

"I have a thing for poetry," Sawyer said. "What about you? Are you a fan of his work?"

Blue held his hands up and shook his head. "No. Never read it, but I have the pleasure of watching Sky bury her nose in his books almost every day."

"If I don't get swamped," Sky interjected, "I think I can close around seven."

"Great. Why don't I swing by then?"

Sky knew she was grinning like a fool and didn't care. "Sounds great."

"Well, so much for a bonfire tonight," Blue said.

"I'm sorry, Blue," Sky said, although she wasn't at all sorry about accepting a date with Sawyer. "Is that why you came by?"

"Yeah, but no biggie. You guys have fun."

"Why don't you ask Lizzie?" she asked hopefully.

Blue shook his head. "I'll call you later." He turned his attention back to Sawyer and said, "Nice to meet you. Have fun tracking down Moon's muse, and take good care of my girl."

"Your girl?" Sky's jaw dropped open. Blue had never said anything like that before.

Blue smirked. "My friend. You know what I mean."

"Don't worry," Sawyer said. "I wouldn't dream of letting anything happen to her."

Blue turned to leave, glancing quickly over his shoulder one last time before heading out the front door as a group of twentysomethings came in. They were laughing and talking as they looked over the sample tattoos hanging on the front walls.

"You sure there's nothing between you two?" Sawyer asked. "I don't want to come between you guys. You seem pretty close."

"Of course not. We're friends. He's just being weirdly protective." Although she had no idea why.

"I guess I'm like that with my friends' sisters. I get it."

"I'm glad, because I couldn't go out with a guy who didn't understand my relations.h.i.+p with Blue. He's a good friend, and I'd never want to mess that up." She smiled at the people milling about in the reception area. "Can I help you guys with something?"

"We want to get inked, but we need to decide who's getting what," said a tall blond guy wearing yellow board shorts, a tight tank, and a shoulder full of colorful ink.

"Okay, just let me know when you're ready."

Sawyer held up the paper he'd brought with him. "Trash?"

She took the paper and placed it in the basket with the others.

"You keep the tats you do?"

"Just the ones that speak to me. Besides C. J. Moon and ice cream, I guess I harbor a little word obsession of my own," she admitted.

The sensual look in his eyes had returned. "That makes you even s.e.xier. Should I pick you up here?"

"Sure," she said, or at least she thought she did. She was having trouble thinking past his compliment.

Chapter Three.

FOR A WHILE Sky had made Sawyer forget about the warning from his doctor, but when he'd arrived back home and seen the renovations he was making to accommodate his father's cane-and one day his wheelchair-the thunder rolled back in. He worked out on his heavy bag, and when that didn't calm the storm in his mind, he'd gone down to the beach to do yoga. He didn't have time for storms or doctors' warnings. He was going to win this t.i.tle fight. His father's future depended on it.

The combination of working out and yoga helped. Two hours later Sawyer drove into Provincetown no longer thinking of anything but Sky. Honesty was right up there with loyalty in his book, and he hated to mislead her and her friend Blue about his knowing C. J. Moon, but his father had protected his pen name ever since he'd first published, and it wasn't Sawyer's place to reveal his true ident.i.ty. Not even for beautiful Sky Lacroux.

He'd never dated a woman who was interested in poetry or songwriting before. Neither of which were topics that came up when he was boxing or on the rare occasion that he was out at a club-unless you're Sky, who reads poetry in a bar on open mic night.

He smiled as the image of Sky reading in the club sailed through his mind. She'd looked so at ease reading while everyone around her was immersed in conversation. He wanted to get to know her better, see what went on in that beautiful head of hers.

He parked at the pier and walked through town toward Sky's shop. He hadn't known that she worked at Inky Skies when he'd gone looking for a tattoo shop. He'd simply had the urge to get inked, and Inky Skies had been the closest place around. And he was d.a.m.n glad he'd wandered in, after thoughts of Sky had kept him up all night penning a song. Verse after verse had formed and s.h.i.+fted in his mind, making his fingers twitch until he'd dragged himself from bed to the third-story room that overlooked the bay and penned more of the song he'd started writing at the bar-and was now running through his mind.

She moved like the wind. Every gust a melody. Eyes of umber, heart of gold. Who was she, but a little lost soul. And now the song had a name, "Sweet Summer Sky."

Like many of the shops on Commercial Street, the doors to Inky Skies were propped open. But while the other shops were overpowered by scents of patchouli and sage, the scent of jasmine and coconut greeted him at the entrance to Sky's shop. He'd been so surprised to see Sky that everything else he'd seen earlier was blurry. Now he took a moment to look around. The reception area was cozy, with a worn leather couch, two overstuffed chairs, and a coffee table, as if she were hosting a gathering instead of inking people's skin. The walls were covered with pictures of tattoos and a few watercolor paintings that he recognized as locations around Provincetown. He wondered if Sky had painted them. Also hanging from the walls were colorful scarves and a few necklaces with a handwritten sign above them that read, ASK SKY ABOUT ME!

He stood by the register, running his finger over Sky's poetry book, and called into the back room, "h.e.l.lo?"

He walked to the edge of the reception counter and called out again, admiring the iron railing to his right-the kind that belonged on the front porch of a 1970s-style house. It might look out of place anywhere else, but there were gla.s.s beads and tiny lights wound around the railing, giving it a festive glow and somehow making it fit right in with the eclectic little shop. The walls in the work area were painted pastel peach, accented with wine-colored molding. They were faded, as if they hadn't been freshened up in decades.

He'd been so focused on not staring at Sky's full lips and alluring eyes earlier that he'd failed to notice the incredibly detailed sculpture by her work area. A st.u.r.dy steel sculpture of the moon and stars sat atop a counter, with a metal vine wrapped around the moon leading up to the stars. It was a unique sculpture that reminded him of Sky. It was ethereal and beautiful.

Hanging from the ceiling were various wind chimes made of gla.s.s and wood. He'd also somehow missed the artsy screens with scarves hanging over the top in the back of the room. He wondered how many people undressed for their tattoos-which made him wonder about what body parts Sky had tattooed. The idea of her seeing guys undressed and tattooing them in private places made his gut twist.

He reached up and touched a gla.s.s chime, sending a soft serenade into the room, as hanging beads in a doorframe off to the left in the back of the store parted and Sky appeared. She flashed her gorgeous smile. She had changed from the outfit she'd had on earlier. His breath caught in his throat as he took in her oversized green s.h.i.+rt, which she wore open with a cream-colored s.h.i.+rt beneath that hugged her curves and stopped just short of her cutoffs-revealing a sliver of skin that made Sawyer's mouth water. Her chunky amber necklace matched her knee-high suede boots, and as if that outfit alone wasn't enough to send his body into a frenzy, she'd lined her seductive eyes with makeup, which gave her a dark and innocent appearance at once. It took all his efforts to resist taking her in his arms and kissing the innocence out of her right then and there.

He'd been with plenty of women, but never before had the mere sight of someone made his body simmer.

"Hi," she said as she came to his side. "Sorry. I was just locking the back door."

He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Hi. You look stunning."

She glanced down at her outfit, wrinkling her nose adorably. "Really?"

"Stunning doesn't even come close to what I really wanted to say. But I'm pretty sure that telling you those boots make your legs look a mile long, and those skimpy little shorts bring all sorts of t.i.tillating ideas to mind wouldn't be appropriate on a first date."

Where the h.e.l.l did that come from?

Her cheeks flamed, and a sweet laugh escaped her lips. "Jeez, Sawyer. Don't feel like you need to hold back or anything."

He scrubbed a hand down his face, hoping he hadn't just screwed up their date.

"I'm sorry, Sky. I never say stuff like that, and I don't know where it came from. I'm really not a pig. Honestly. I just...You're..." He s.h.i.+fted his eyes away, feeling like he was sixteen again and sticking his foot in his mouth at every turn. He did the only thing he could to save face. He blurted out the truth.

"Those things were true, but don't worry, I'm not going to act on them."

"Way to squash a girl's hopes." The playful look in her eyes told him she was only half kidding.

He reached for her hand. "We should go before I get any antsier and my mouth gives me away."

"I kind of like your antsy mouth," she said as they walked outside. She locked the door behind them and tucked her keys into her purse.

"I have a feeling it's going to get me in trouble if I keep hanging out with you. I'm really not the kind of guy who thinks about s.e.x all the time."

"All guys think about s.e.x all the time," she said casually.

He laughed. "I'm not going to touch that comment. I'm sure I'll only get myself in trouble." He laced his fingers with hers, and they walked across Commercial Street toward the pier. It felt as natural to hold her hand as it had to blurt out his inappropriate thoughts, which was how Sawyer knew that Sky Lacroux was indeed very different from any woman he'd ever dated.

He was lucky she hadn't slapped him and canceled their date on the spot.

Sky waved to a group of men and women standing at the entrance to a nightclub as they pa.s.sed by.

"Hi, sugar. Have fun," a tall man with long dark hair said, and blew her a kiss.

"We will," she called over her shoulder, then turned to Sawyer. "That's my friend Marcus."

Good to know. "I could have picked you up at your place," he said as they followed a group of people around the corner, past a pizza parlor, and across the road toward the parking lot. The scents of the sea swept over the pier.

"You kind of did," she said as he unlocked the door to his old Land Rover.

"You live at the shop?" Sawyer remembered that Blue had mentioned her cat was upstairs.

"I have an apartment above the shop, but I'm renting from my friend Amy at Seaside in Wellfleet while Blue's renovating the apartment and doing a few last-minute renovations to the shop." She climbed into the truck.

He settled into the driver's seat and drove out of the parking lot. "I wouldn't have minded picking you up in Wellfleet. We'll drive right past on the way to Brewster."

"That's okay. I wasn't sure if I'd get swamped at the last minute, so this was easier. And to be honest, I only bought the shop two months ago, so it's still a thrill to be there, knowing it's mine. I'll pick up Merlin after our date and bring him back to Seaside with me."

"Ah, you own the shop."

She smiled, and pride filled her eyes. "I do."

"That's very cool. How do you like running it?"

"It's a dream come true. I know the place still needs work, but you should have seen it before I got my hot little hands on it."

He was trying not to think about her hot little hands.

"I think it looks great. Very artsy." He ran his eyes over her outfit, which was s.e.xy yet casual. She had a unique and appealing style. "Very you."

"Thank you. I worked there for two years before buying it from Harlow Warren, the previous owner. It was pretty unloved when I took it over. But a little elbow grease goes a long way."

As Sawyer drove down Route 6 listening to Sky and watching her facial expressions go from enthusiastic to thoughtful, to pensive, then right back to excited again, the more he liked her. She was easy to be with and not at all like the women he'd dated in the past, who were so worried about every word that left their mouths their conversations felt scripted.

"Since we'll have to hurry to get to our destination before it gets dark, and it might be an hour before we make it to dinner, I thought we should get a snack first. Is that okay?"

Thinking of her ice cream addiction, he pulled into the parking lot of the Brewster Scoop.

"I'll never turn down ice cream," she said as he parked the car.

They headed into the ice cream shop and ordered cones. The Brewster Scoop was located behind the Brewster Store, a general store where little had changed since Sawyer was young. They still sold penny candy and homemade fudge.

"What is our destination, anyway?" she asked as they took their cones out front and sat on the stoop.

"I could tell you, but then it wouldn't be a surprise."

"I love surprises, and so far you're full of them."

SAWYER EARNED BONUS points for taking the edge off Sky's nerves. She had no idea that her daisy dukes would cause her handsome date to say things that made her blush and think about all the things she wanted to do to him. As if thinking about him all afternoon hadn't been torture enough. When Jenna had called to invite her to another bonfire-this one was going to be at their beach house tomorrow night-Sky had nearly burst with excitement telling her about their impending date. Of course Jenna had squealed so loudly that Sky'd had to pull the phone away from her ear and promise to come by the bonfire with him tomorrow if the date went well.

"So, I'm full of surprises, huh?" Sawyer was holding his ice cream toward her with a heated look in his eyes. "Taste?"

If only he knew that she was dying for a taste...of him and that he was the most wonderful surprise of all. She never would have guessed that while she was reading her favorite poem, she'd been listening to the man she'd be spending time with the next night.

She leaned forward and licked his ice cream, and his eyes darkened.

"Thanks," she said, licking the sweetness from her lips.

He watched her mouth intently, and her pulse quickened.

"Want to taste mine?" She tilted her cone toward him.

He leaned in close and gazed into her eyes. "What is it about you that makes me feel like a schoolboy peeking through a locker room window?" He searched her eyes, and the air between them sizzled and popped.

"Probably the same thing that makes me want you to."

A devilish grin curved his lips, and they both leaned in closer. Sky was sure he was going to kiss her-and she wanted that kiss. A taste of his sensuous mouth, to know what the sc.r.a.pe of his thick scruff felt like against her cheeks.

But their lips didn't touch. He placed his hand over hers, holding the ice cream cone. His hand was warm and strong, and when he dragged his tongue over the creamy cap, she practically licked it right along with him.

"Sweet," he said, still holding her gaze.

Sky lifted a trembling finger and wiped a dab of ice cream from his lip. He guided her finger into his mouth, then swirled his tongue around it, sucking the ice cream off. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. He was still holding her hand as her ice cream dripped over her knuckles. His eyes flamed, and she knew he was thinking about licking the ice cream from there, too, but if he did...If she felt that hot mouth of his again anywhere except on her lips, she was going to lose it.

She brought her hand to her mouth and licked the ice cream off, which only made his eyes smolder even more.