“The drink, of course. I am talking about the drink.” The tall, muscular, freaking Greek-god-looking guy beamed at her. His smile was absolutely killer as it revealed his perfectly even, white teeth, and the aviator glasses he wore hid what she knew to be almost astoundingly blue eyes.
Jinx. He’s here. Right in front of me. This could not be happening.
“It’s sinful. Designed to help you cast your inhibitions aside and just soak up the pure sensual pleasure that waits in the world.”
He didn’t have on a shirt. Just dark swim trunks. Trunks that stretched across his muscular thighs. If possible, he seemed even more muscular than he’d been the last time they’d been together. She wasn’t staring at a six pack. Had to be an eight pack. Maybe a ten? Was that a thing?
Stop staring. Her gaze snapped up to his face. Luckily, she was wearing sunglasses, too, so Ali didn’t think that he’d noticed her gaping at him. Hopefully. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
He lowered his long body into the beach chair beside hers. Two women nearly fell as they peered back at him. They had been jogging down the beach until they caught sight of him. But when Jinx came into view, they did a quick about-face. It looked as if they might even come over for a chat.
Uh, obviously, he’s busy.
Ali shooed the women away with a flick of her hand.
“Why am I here? On the beach, you mean? I’m enjoying the sun. The waves. The beauty of the day.” A shrug of his powerful shoulders. “Same as you.”
No. This could not be happening. Of all the beaches in the world—and there were lots of beaches—what were the odds that her personal kryptonite just happened to be on the same one that she was? “Odin,” she gritted out.
“Hmmm…What about him?” Jinx shifted a bit on the chair, making himself more comfortable.
“Odin said this was a free vacation for me.” Odin Shaw. A guy she’d considered a friend. He’d told her that this trip was his way of paying her back for all of the favors that she’d done for him and War—Warren Channing. War owned Trouble for Hire Private Investigations, a fairly new venture. New and surprisingly successful. The PI biz was growing leaps and bounds for War and Odin. Former special ops guys, they had turned their talents to solving local crimes. And, so far, they’d had their names splashed plenty in the news because they’d helped nab two big killers.
Their names had been splashed in the news. She’d quietly helped on those cases, and because War and Odin knew how much she valued her privacy, they’d kept her in the background. As a thank you for her services, she’d been given an all-expense paid trip to the Emerald Coast of Florida.
At the time, the trip had sounded too good to be true. But she’d needed to get away, so she’d jumped at the opportunity to put her toes in the sand.
No one had mentioned to her that she’d be sharing her beach with Jinx. Jinx!
This could not be happening.
“Did you just growl?” Jinx wanted to know. Then, before she could sputter off a reply, he added, “Sexy.”
“Stop it.” She glared at him as her toes curled into the sand. Only they weren’t curling in some happy way. They were more digging into the sugary white sand of the beach. “I’m supposed to be relaxing. Not having to deal with you.”
He sucked in a pain-filled breath. “That hurts.” His hand went dramatically to his heart. “And here I thought we were friends.”
She shot to her feet. Grabbed her cover up and hauled it over her body. The last thing she felt like doing was parading around in front of him just wearing her bikini.
“The ocean is fucking that way,” Jinx suddenly snapped as he glared at a guy sitting nearby. Some guy in a red shirt with a ball cap pulled over his brows. “Stop looking at my girl’s ass.”
Not happening. She tugged the cover up down to her thighs and immediately moved to scoop up her oversized beach bag. She would go back to the condo. Lock herself inside. And forget about Jinx.
Not like it was the first time she’d had to work this routine.
But before she could race away from the scene, Jinx stood in front of her. “What’s the hurry? Why not sit down and catch up with an old friend on this beautiful day?”
Her lips thinned. With one hand, Ali made a quick, nervous adjustment to her sunglasses. “We are not friends. We worked on a few cases. That’s it. Not like we exchange Christmas cards or anything.”
“Right. I did notice that I’ve never gotten a Christmas card. Wondered about that omission. Thought it had gotten lost in the mail.” Her reflection stared back at her in his glasses. His arms crossed over his chest. “I can buy that we weren’t friends. Fine. But we were lovers.”
“Shhh!” Immediately, she glanced around. It had sounded as if Jinx had just shouted that last bit of info.
He shrugged. “We were. The kind of dirty, hot lovers that like to rip each other’s clothes off and fuck in cheap motel rooms.”
“No.” A hard shake of her head. “I refuse to do this with you. Not now. Not here.” Not on a public beach, for goodness’ sake. Ali sidestepped him and began stomping—or attempting to stomp because walking in the sand was always a major effort—her way past him.
But Jinx followed. “Where would you like to chat?” His voice trailed her just as he did. “Are you inviting me back to your place? Suggesting we take this somewhere nice and private?”
Ali spun toward him. Sand flew in her wake. “Why are you here?”
“Oh, don’t you know?” A wide, too gorgeous smile spread over his lips.
Her body tensed. Quivered. Dammit.
“I live here now,” Jinx casually revealed. Just dropped that bombshell. Boom. “And imagine my surprise when I walked onto my favorite beach in the area and saw…you.”
She sucked in a deep breath.
“The lovely lady who left me high and dry,” Jinx continued, “and holding a giant box of condoms.”
A very loud gasp came from the right. Ali did not even glance that way. Her cheeks burned, a burn that did not come from the sun because she had SPF’d the heck out of her skin. “I left you a note.”
He stepped closer. So close their bodies nearly touched. “And then you never called me when the mission was over.”
He actually sounded angry. And surely, surely that had not been a hint of hurt in his voice. No way, no day. “Not like you were mooning over me. You just found some big-breasted, fake red-haired, tight-jean wearing singer to hook up with and you didn’t look back. So spare me the weird scene, would you? We had a night. Not even a night. More like an hour. It was great. It’s also over. And we have both moved on.” Her chin lifted. “Now, excuse me, but I have to go wash sand out of my bathing suit.” Ali did another fast turn and resumed her sand-stomping routine.
She didn’t get far. Suddenly, Jinx was looming in her path.
She frowned at him. Her frowning reflection glared back at her from his mirrored glasses.
“That was awfully specific.” He’d turned musing.
“What was specific?”
“The big-breasted, fake red-haired, tight-jean wearing singer story.”
Uh, oh. “Was it?” Her voice rose a little too much.