Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
With a groan, he yanked me even closer as he held my face in his hand, kissing so hard his stubble left a whiskery burn.
My mind spun wild with images. Pictures of this night turning into something else. Kisses under the stars. Hips, legs, lips moving together. Him wrapping me tighter in his caress, whispering all the sweet, dirty things he wanted to do to me. In the heat of his kiss, in the urgency of his touch, I had the raw materials to feed my imagination.
My heart raced. My blood pumped. I craved this stranger fiercely. We had no history. We had no past. We only had the same agenda.
To spend the night together.
He backed me up against the wall next to the dartboard, my spine hitting the wood with a thump. The sound of it was like a door shutting. Like the moment when a kiss turns from we’re trying this on for size to this kiss won’t stop at kissing. He cupped the back of my neck, and his other hand clasped my hip, yanking me against him, so I could feel him.
All of him.
Lust skyrocketed and I was ready to go somewhere, anywhere, and—
His phone rang.
A Taylor Swift song.
Instantly, he broke the kiss and sighed deeply as he grabbed his phone from his pocket. The name Kylie flashed on the screen.
Shit.
Was Kylie his girlfriend?
He swiped his thumb across the phone. “Kylie, give me five seconds,” he said into the phone, then covered the screen.
Jake quickly scanned the bar, on the hunt for something, it seemed. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, and I was still punch-drunk on that kiss, but also on guard at the same time. He shot out his arm, grabbed a napkin from the bar next to us, and handed it to me.
“Give me your number. So I can call you later,” he said.
But did I want to give him my number? Maybe this was best left at kissing.
A sob sounded from the phone. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not.
I pointed toward the bar. “I’ll leave it with Maris. I have somewhere I need to be now anyway. But you can reach me later, I guess.” The words tumbled out, like a car sputtering to turn on.
“I’ll be back,” he said, then he walked out in a rush.
I stared at the empty space where he’d been and replayed the last few minutes.
On the one hand, he’d asked for my number.
But on the other hand, he was…gone.
Was that an innocent phone call from a friend? Family? Perhaps a date Mayday call? Or a lie from someone who was cheating? Absently, I raised my fingers to my lips. They still tingled. I ran the pad of a finger over my bottom lip. I hoped his excuse was legit because…that kiss. Wow.
“Ruby!”
I swiveled around, spotting Maris behind the bar. “I thought you said you wanted to chat when I was free,” Maris said, then flashed me a naughty look. “Seems instead you’ve been getting to know Jake the Fisherman.”
At least Maris knew him. But pressing her for details on who he was felt…desperate. I’d have to ask him who Kylie was if I heard from him again. Because, dammit, I wanted another kiss like that. I wanted more. But I needed to get to the bottom of his situation first.
“Do me a favor, Maris?” I snagged a pen from the register and wrote a few words on a napkin. No number for him just yet. If Jake wanted to see me, he was going to have to follow my trail. And answer some questions.
“Of course.”
“Actually, two favors. Tell Kalila I can’t wait to see her.”
Maris nodded. “She’s camping. Should be back in a few days.”
“She’d better call me while I’m here. Then give this to the hot fisherman if he comes back in here. But don’t tell him my real name, okay?”
Maris rubbed her hands together and winked. “Ooh, lover games. And I get to be the messenger. Count me in.”
I handed Maris the note, then took off for my first stop on my self-appointed job—to visit an old friend.
5
MY FIRST CLUE
Jake
Pacing the street with my phone pressed to my ear, I used my most soothing big-brother voice to try to calm Kylie. “Everything is going to be fine. We’ll figure it out, I promise.”
Kylie gulped between hyperventilating sobs. “I don’t know what to do. I barely understand a word the physics professor says. It’s like he’s speaking a foreign language. I don’t know how on earth I’m going to finish school without this science requirement. I suck at science. I can’t do this, Jake. I can’t do this at all.”
“You’re going to be fine. If you don’t understand the subject matter, we’ll get you a tutor,” I said as I walked past a surf shop.