Anything Goes...

She looked at Ginger and laughed, hysteria bubbling up inside her. Worried? She was terrified.

2

“THIS ISN’T GOING to work, girlfriend,” Ginger said around a yawn as she crawled into bed.

Carly had already snuggled into her own queen-size bed. She’d brushed her teeth but hadn’t washed her face. She’d regret it in the morning, but right now she didn’t have the energy. It had been one heck of a long night.

“I give up,” she said, her eyes closed and the covers up to her chin. she felt too tired to guess what her friend was talking about. “What isn’t going to work?”

“This vacation. The whole idea of doing whatever you damn well please. You were so nervous tonight I thought I’d have to pour a couple of dozen mai tais down your throat.”

“Maybe you should have,” Carly murmured. It was true. After seeing Rick, she had spent a good deal of time looking over her shoulder. Jumping at the sound of every male voice that got too close.

“What are you going to do about it?” Ginger turned off the lamp at her bedside.

Welcome darkness washed over Carly. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe you should talk to him. You know, level with him about what you’re doing here.”

Carly started to laugh and then rolled over onto her side before she choked. “Yeah, right.”

“I didn’t mean you should tell him everything. Just that your being here isn’t something you’d like broadcast.”

“I don’t have to worry about that. He has no reason to go to Oroville or to talk with anyone there. It’s just hard knowing he could be watching me move in on some guy.”

Ginger laughed. “I’d like to see that myself.”

“Go ahead and joke. Your vacation hasn’t been ruined.”

“Oh, God, Carly, I’m sorry. I know how long you’ve waited for this week. There’s got to be something we can do.”

It wasn’t as if Carly hadn’t been thinking about a solution nonstop. Inevitably she’d feel self-conscious just knowing he was at the resort. Always wondering if he was watching her. Wondering if he was disappointed in her. Sure, he’d stayed in Oroville for two summers but he didn’t understand the mentality of the residents. Or how it felt to be under a microscope as the town pastor’s daughter.

“Carly, you still awake?”

“Yep.”

“Did you and Rick ever sleep together?”

“Good grief, no. I was only thirteen the last time I saw him. I think I still believed the stork delivered me.”

“Bet you had a crush on him.”

“Well, yeah. He was the mysterious older man.”

They both laughed, and then Ginger asked, “So what are you going to do?”

“Excellent question.” Sighing, she took her frustration out by punching her pillow into shape, and then went back to staring at the ceiling. “Maybe I ought to seduce him.”

“There you go.”

“I was kidding.”

“Why? He’s hot.”

Carly groaned. “He knows my parents.”

“So? You just said he has no reason to go to Oroville or talk with anyone there.”

“But he could.”

“That’s lame.”

Carly rolled back over and glared into the darkness toward Ginger. “Would you? If a guy popped up who knew you and your parents and where you went to church and shopped for groceries, would you go for it?”

After a lengthy silence, she said, “Well, I might skip the anything goes approach…”

“Then your answer is basically no.”

“I see your point.”

“Thank you,” Carly said tightly, so wide-awake it was pathetic.

“Carly?”

“Yeah?”

“Since you’re not interested, do you mind if I have a go at him?”

Carly’s eyes widened. Why should she care? Yet she had a sudden urge to pull every one of Ginger’s red hairs out one by one.

WET SAND squished between Carly’s toes and the sun beat down on her shoulders. She’d applied a copious amount of sun block all over her body but it wasn’t really the sun’s harmful rays she was worried about. Parts of her that would be exposed once she removed the sarong should never see the light of day.

“I can’t do it,” she said, and came to a dead stop.

Ginger took a couple of extra steps and then turned to glare at her. “Do what?”

“You know what.”

“Are you still fretting over that swimsuit?”

“It’s not a swimsuit. It’s dental floss and two cotton balls.”

Ginger groaned. “For God’s sake, it’s not like everyone on the island isn’t wearing them.”

Carly slid a sideways glance at two young women, both blondes, out of the bottle was Carly’s guess, sprawled on hot-pink beach blankets only a couple of yards from the water. One lay on her stomach, and the other on her side. They both had perfect butts. Round and firm-looking, as if they worked out daily. On them the dental floss looked good.

Too good.

“I’m going back to the room and changing.” She got as far as turning around before Ginger snatched hold of her arm.

“No way. That suit you brought is hideous. I’d be embarrassed if you wore it.”

Carly gazed up at the clear blue sky and shook her head. “I can’t believe I just paid eighty bucks for this darn thing to ride up my crack.”

Ginger laughed and pulled Carly along. “You’ll get used to it. I promise.”

“Look, if I decide not to take off the sarong, just shut up. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“Everyone else is in bikinis and you’re going to sit there all covered up?”

Carly glanced down at the brief strip of material tied around her breasts and ending at the top of her thighs. “All covered up? I wear more clothes than this to bed.”

“Yeah, but you usually aren’t looking to get laid.”

Carly’s gaze darted left, then right.

“Nobody heard me. Come on. If the guys left without us, I’ll be pissed.”

“What do you mean left?” Carly dug in her heels. Ginger had talked her into meeting up with the guy she’d been dancing with last night. He apparently had come with two friends, both of whom, according to Ginger, were gorgeous. “I thought we were just meeting them on the beach for a drink.”

“We were thinking we might go water skiing.”

“You know how to water ski?”

“No, that’s why I need you with me. So I won’t look so bad.”

“Thanks,” Carly muttered. She would have been better off hanging around the lobby hoping to catch Rick. She wanted to talk to him one more time before making any rash decisions. Maybe they could work something out…have a little fun.

She was still wildly attracted to him and there was the advantage that she knew he was safe, as far as not being weird or perverted. After a week, he’d probably be just as ready to move on as she would. Him back to his job and fast city life, and her back to Oroville.

As many downsides as there were to small-town life, she truly loved the pace, the familiarity, the safety. So she had to trade off some excitement. Heck, life was a tradeoff, wasn’t it?

“Come on.” Walking backwards as she tried to motion Carly to hurry, Ginger nearly ran into a guy with shoulder-length dark hair and orange swim trunks.

“Hold on there, sweetheart.” The guy grasped Ginger’s shoulders, preventing the collision.

With a startled cry, Ginger spun around. “What the—” Her voice died on the warm salty breeze when she caught sight of the hunk she’d crashed into.

Right beside him in red trunks with a smooth bare chest was Rick.

Carly’s breath caught.

Carly could barely keep her eyes off Rick. She’d seen him without a shirt before, but he’d been sixteen and a little too thin. Not anymore. Holy—

“Hey, Carly.” Rick smiled. “So we meet again.” Without taking his gaze off her, he inclined his head toward the other guy. “This is Tony Marretti, my buddy from college. Carly’s a friend from way back.”

A friend. She sighed to herself. That’s all he’d ever considered her, even when she’d had an impossibly mad crush on him for the entire summer.

“Nice to meet you, Tony. And the bulldozer is my friend Ginger Robbins.”

The guys grinned. Ginger glared at her. But only for a moment and then her attention was directed solely on Tony.

“You two just cruising the beach?” Tony asked, obviously interested in Ginger, as well.

“Yup,” Ginger said at the same time Carly said, “No.”

Seeing Rick in the flesh again brought on waves of second thoughts.

Last night under the covers in the dark it had been easy to believe they could possibly have a harmless little fling. But the way her stomach tensed and knotted just looking at him, maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea.

Ginger gave her the eye—one that said she liked this opportunity better than the one they originally intended to pursue.

“By the way, I’m Rick Baxter,” he said to Ginger. “An old friend of Carly’s.”

“Are you kidding?” Ginger grinned. “I know all about you.”

Carly groaned and took her friend by the arm before she said anything she’d have to kill her for. “We have to go now. We’ll see you guys later.”

“Hey, wait a minute.” Ginger jerked away. And took Carly’s sarong with her.

Carly tried to grab it, hold the fabric in place, but the knot over her breasts untied and the sarong slid to the sand. She stooped to get it but Rick was quicker, and snatched it up. But didn’t hand it over. Instead, he stared. He stared at her breasts, then roved her belly and lingered on her thighs. The look in his eyes was of raw desire and it made her so hot she thought about running for the blue Caribbean water.

But then he’d see the back of her suit. Or lack thereof. God help her.

“Thank you,” she murmured and held out her hand.

His gaze narrowed as though he didn’t understand, and then comprehension registered and he handed her the lime-green fabric.

“Don’t put that back on,” Ginger said, trying unsuccessfully to grab it. “Doesn’t she look good in that bikini? You’re fretting for nothing.”

That did it. She was going to kill her. Or better yet, tell her how much redder the sun made her hair. Ignoring them all, and keeping her gaze lowered, she retied the sarong over her breasts and then tugged at the hem to cover the tops of her thighs.

Tony noisily cleared his throat. “You two want to go have a beer or something?”

“Sure.” Ginger was all smiles.

Carly sighed. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“Justin. Didn’t you promise we’d meet him?”

Ginger waved a dismissive hand. “It’s too late now. By the time you had to go buy a new swimsuit and all—”

“Fine,” Carly said, cutting her off before she said something Carly didn’t want to hear—and didn’t want the men to hear. “Let’s go have a drink.”

“Great.” Tony took Ginger’s hand. “The pool bar makes awesome pina coladas.”

Rick stared at Carly, a hurt look in his eyes. “Hey, if you don’t want to join us, no problem.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Ginger stopped. “Of course she wants to come. Why wouldn’t she?”

Rick’s gaze stayed on Carly. “Your call.”

Ginger gave her a private wink and then lifted a coy gaze to Tony. “Let’s go find some shade.”

“I agree.” Tony gave both Rick and Carly a puzzled look before steering Ginger toward the hotel.

Carly wanted to run after them. The sudden silence between her and Rick was awkward. “Come on, let’s go join them,” she finally said.

“Nah, I don’t think so.” He threw the towel he was carrying around his neck. “I think I’ll go for a walk. You go do whatever.”

“Rick?” She laid a hand on his arm when he started to turn around. “I know I hesitated. It’s just that I don’t want to intrude on your vacation. Ginger can be a little overbearing at times. Besides, last night I got the feeling you were trying to brush me off.”

“Hell, no.”

“You disappeared so fast. What was I supposed to think?”

“That had nothing to do with you. Anyway, you were acting a little weird yourself. I figured you came with a jealous boyfriend or something.”

“Nope. No boyfriend.” She cleared her throat. “I’m just here to—” Her throat seemed to close, and she breathed in deeply.

His lips curved. “Here to what?”

She briefly closed her eyes. Was she crazy? She couldn’t explain to him why she was really here—to find out what she’d been missing. Her only two sexual experiences had been so dismal…both comedies of errors—and so frustrating that curiosity was eating her alive. Yes, modern women did it all the time. Set their sights on a guy, made their move, but for her this wasn’t easy.

She opened her eyes and summoned all her courage. “This is sort of a last fling for me.”

His brows drew together in a puzzled frown.

“You remember how small Oroville is, and I just finished graduate school so I’ll be going back home soon and, well…” She groaned, the heat starting to invade her face. What the heck had she been thinking? She couldn’t do it. Not with Rick.

She’d just make the best of her vacation—get some sun, eat and drink too much…watch everyone else having a good time. Darn it!

“I see.”

Carly caught the amusement in his eyes and her cheeks flamed with scorching heat. She thought seriously about making a run for her room. She could stay there for the next six days and order chocolate from room service. Lots of chocolate while she watched television and tried not to think about what a dope she was, and how Rick was probably still laughing his butt off at her ineptness.

She swallowed, forcing herself not to look away. “I don’t think you understand…”

“Am I in the running?”

Her heart started to race. “For what?”

One side of his mouth lifted, and she decided it would be better not to let him answer.

“It’s just a vacation.” She fidgeted with the hem of her sarong. “Like at the end of a school year when you want to party and celebrate, except once I get home I’m going to be a working stiff, and so I—What?” she said at his knowing expression.

“You did know that this resort is a notorious pickup spot for singles.”

“Really?” She was the absolute worst liar. Horrible. Even strangers knew when she was lying. “I had no idea.”

Rick laughed.

“I didn’t. Ginger planned the vacation.” Carly knew her face was a hopeless shade of red. But she lifted her chin and stared him in the eyes.

“Take it easy. I believe you.” He didn’t, of course. That was clear by the way his lips twitched but she could ignore that.

“Well…” She looked around, praying for a distraction, anything that would allow her to escape gracefully. “I really don’t want a drink. You go ahead and join them.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Go for a swim.”

“Sounds good.” He looked out toward the horizon. The water was smooth and crystal clear. “I’ll join you.”

She groaned inwardly. “I’m really more a pool kind of gal. Salt water is bad for my hair and all that.”

He grinned at her feeble excuse. “No problem. The pool is good.”

“But you wanted to have a drink.”

“Not really.”

“Look, Rick, you don’t have to baby-sit me. Ginger is free to go off and—”

Taking her hand, he pulled her close.

She drew back. “What are you doing?”

He slid her arms around his neck, and then lowered his head. Before she knew what hit her, their lips met. His felt so warm and insistent, she didn’t care that they were standing in the middle of the beach with at least a dozen people around them.

He trailed the tip of his tongue across her lower lip and then over the seam, increasing the pressure until she opened to him. He tasted incredibly sweet as if he’d just sucked on a mint. His hands explored her back, followed the outline of her buttocks until he actually cupped her against him. He was already hard, his heat pressing against her belly. She wanted desperately to melt into him.

A catcall brought her to her senses.

She drew back, breathless, reluctant. Horribly embarrassed.

Rick brushed the hair away from her face. “I’ve wanted to do that since I was sixteen.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because, kid…” He touched the tip of her nose. “You were only thirteen.”

“Oh.” She smiled self-consciously. He was right, of course. It didn’t matter that she’d convinced her young heart she loved him. Had he kissed her, she would have run and hidden and not surfaced until he’d left at the end of summer.

“Remember how shy you were when we first met?”

She lowered her arms from around his neck, while half wishing he’d protest. He didn’t. “You were the first boy I really got to know,” she said. “You were totally new territory for me.”

“You had a couple of school friends who hung around at the swimming hole.”

“That didn’t count. I grew up with them. They were just pals.”

“And I wasn’t?” He grinned. “I’ll be damned. You did have a crush on me.”

“You were the older boy from glamorous California. All the girls in town had a crush on you.”

His expression got serious. “What about now?”

Her stomach lurched. “What do you mean?”

He smiled. “Has the attraction faded?”

“Well…no.” She folded her arms across her chest and his gaze immediately went to her breasts. An alarming amount of cleavage showed above the sarong and she casually uncrossed her arms. “This is very weird.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Because we have a past. I know that you hate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate ice cream. And that you didn’t learn how to ride a bike until you were eleven.”

“Shit, how did you remember all that stuff?”

She peered closer. “You still have a scar.”

His hand went to the side of his chin where she’d accidentally clobbered him with the butt of a fishing pole that first summer. “Yeah, you maimed me for life.”

“Excuse me, but if I remember correctly I was defending myself.”

“Right,” he scoffed. “I think it was the other way around.”

“You were trying to throw me in the lake.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Bull.”

His grin was slow and wicked. “Trust me, I wasn’t trying to throw you in the lake.”

“Then what were you doing?”

“Trying to feel you up.”

That startled a laugh out of her. At thirteen she’d just started to develop breasts. “You lie.”

One side of his mouth lifted. “You asked, I admitted. Deal with it.”

“Gee, just as charming as ever.”

His eyes glittered with humor. “We’re getting off track. Why is having a past a problem?”

She sighed, wishing he hadn’t gone back to that subject.

“It makes things sticky.”

“That’s hardly an explanation.” He drew her towards him again, kissing her briefly. She breathed in the pleasant smell of the cocoa butter glistening on his tanned shoulders. “How about we go get that drink and let nature take its course?”

She almost commented on his lack of originality, but all she could think about was how much she wanted him to kiss her again. Judging by the hungry look in his eyes, it wouldn’t take much to coax him.

He released her and then pulled the towel from around his neck and draped it over his arm. But not before she saw the erection he’d been trying to hide.

“Okay, we’ll at least have a drink.” God, she just hoped her legs still worked.

He took her hand, the feeling as natural as if he’d been doing it for a lifetime, and led her toward the hotel.

“I think the pool bar is that way,” she said, pointing in the opposite direction.

Rick squeezed her hand. “We’re not going to the pool. We’re going to my room.”

3

LITTLE, SKINNY, freckle-faced Carly Saunders. Rick shook his head as he got out the miniature bottles of booze from the small refrigerator. This was the last place he would have expected to run into her. Not that he’d given her much thought over the past eleven or twelve years.

Yeah, he’d wanted to kiss her that day they’d gone for a hike and picnic near Little Reservoir, but that had been hormones talking. She’d been far too young for him.

He turned around to look at her sitting on the couch. She sure wasn’t now.

“Either a Bloody Mary or a screwdriver is about all we have the stuff for,” he said. “Or a beer. What’s your pleasure?”

She blinked, and he hoped the same thing crossed her mind as did his. “I’d rather have a soda or water.”

“Even if I promise not to take advantage of you?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Who’s to say I won’t take advantage of you?”

He laughed. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to get me drunk. I’ll do anything you want.”

Carly laughed. “I’ll stick with a soda.”

“Coming right up.” He busied himself filling a glass with ice, coaching himself to ease up. Was she here to get laid like most of the guests? The Carly he remembered wouldn’t be, but of course it had been a long time. People changed.

Amazing how he’d immediately known it was her. Especially since she looked pretty different. Most of the freckles were gone, but she had that clear fair skin that showed every hint of color when she got embarrassed.

“Here you go.” He handed her a cola and sat down on the couch beside her with his beer.

She recrossed her legs so that she angled away from him.

He nudged her with a light elbow to her ribs. “You still think I have cooties?”

“I never accused you of having cooties.”

“Sure you did. The first day I met you in my grandmother’s backyard.”

Her eyes seemed greener than he remembered, more almond-shaped. “Number one, I was only eleven. Number two, you can’t remember back that far.”

“Wanna bet? You climbed the fence to find a softball you’d thrown over the day before.” He took a gulp of beer. “Probably just looking for an excuse to meet me.”

She laughed. “I see you haven’t changed.”

“What?”

“Just as arrogant as ever.”

“Me? No way.” Having two famous parents didn’t inspire confidence or arrogance.

“Please.” She gave him the eye-roll again.

“You really think I was arrogant?”

Carly laughed, her sweet warm breath fanning his chin and shoulder.

“Come on, explain.” Not that he cared. Right now all he could think about was what he’d glimpsed under that sarong. She sure wasn’t that same skinny kid anymore.

“Don’t you remember how you used to drag out all those exotic pictures of you and your parents at different archeological digs?”

“You seemed pretty impressed.”

“I was. Heck, I hadn’t been farther than Salt Lake City and you’d been to places I’d never heard of and couldn’t even pronounce.”

“How does that make me arrogant?”

She took a sip of her cola, and the way she pursed her lips around the rim of the glass had his thoughts heading due south. She’d started to relax and probably didn’t realize that her sarong had puckered open a bit, giving him a great view of her flat belly and the underside of her breasts.

She set the glass aside. “Are you trying to tell me you didn’t think we were all a bunch of hicks living in Oroville.”

“Yeah, I probably did. But come on, I was only a kid myself. Cut me some slack.”

“You asked me to explain.” A smile lifted her rosy-pink lips. They were naturally that color, he seemed to recall, as if she were wearing lipstick all the time.

He took another gulp of beer. “You sure you don’t want a screwdriver or something?”

“Positive. It’ll make me sleepy.”

His gaze went to the bed and his pulse picked up speed. “We get in that bed and it won’t be to sleep.”

She laughed. “Rick.”

“What? You don’t think I had a thing for you, too?”

“I was too young, remember?”

“You were a girl. I liked you. I had hopes.” He let the back of his fingers brush her arm. “And you’re not too young anymore.”

She moistened her lips, and then they parted as if she were going to say something. Only nothing came out.

He smiled. “You have plans for dinner?”