Wicked Sexy

Too sexy to resist?

Danielle Andrews was supposed to be on her honeymoon. Instead, she’s back on Discovery Island licking her wounds and running for shelter when she sees Daeg Ross coming her way. Years ago, on this very beach, Dani started something with the special ops aviation rescue swimmer. But she refuses to be tempted by the wickedly hot military hunk again.

Daeg Ross is used to jumping into treacherous waters. But his feelings for relationship-shy Dani are a whole new type of risk. They are volatile—and irresistible. When their lives are threatened by the invading winds and endless rain of a tropical storm, Daeg and Dani are forced to take shelter and ride out a wild night. Together, will they sink…or swim?

Uniformly Hot!

The few, the proud, the sexy as hell!

Can’t resist a sexy military hero?

Then you’ll love our Uniformly Hot! miniseries.

Mills & Boon Blaze’s bestselling miniseries

continues with more irresistible soldiers

from all branches of the armed forces.

Dear Reader

,

When I spotted a little white crocheted bikini in a Victoria’s Secret catalog, I immediately started daydreaming about the kind of woman who could wear that itty-bitty scrap and my first Mills & Boon Blaze book, Wicked Sexy, was born.

When navy rescue swimmer Daeg Ross runs into Dani Andrews, she’s walking along the beach in said bikini. Daeg may dive beneath icebergs and into plane wreckage where sharks circle, but none of those missions yield the adrenaline rush he feels when he is reunited with Dani. Mills & Boon Blaze heroines are strong, independent women who aren’t afraid to strip down, emotionally or otherwise, and go after the hero…and Dani lives up to the bikini I bestowed on her.

I hope you enjoy their story!

Anne Marsh

Wicked Sexy

Anne Marsh

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Marsh writes sexy contemporary and paranormal romances because the world can always enjoy one more alpha male. She started writing romance after getting laid off from her job as a technical writer—and quickly decided happily-ever-afters trumped software manuals. She lives in Northern California with her family and six cats.

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This one’s for Roberta, the agent equivalent of a navy rescue swimmer for writers! Thanks for the advice, the guidance and the ready email ear!

Contents

Dear Reader

,

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Extract

1

THE WOMAN IN the white bikini needed rescuing.

Daeg Ross pulled his Harley into an empty spot along the strip of sand and killed the motor. The parking job put him close enough to make out the white crocheted pattern of the tiny top she sported. Her face was turned away, lost in a sheet of honey-colored hair, but the fabric of her suit cupped her breasts, creating an illusion of bare skin that had him wanting to get closer.

Real close.

He was rotten for noticing, but she was so sexy standing there on the beach. Besides, he wasn’t dead—yet—which was pure luck given how his last tour of duty had ended, so he’d looked. Twice. Sue him.

She wasn’t glancing his way, anyhow. She had her feet planted in the sand and her eyes on the ocean. The water started crystal clear, but picked up color as the bottom dropped away beneath the surface, though he didn’t think she’d stopped to admire the view. The set of her shoulders made her seem somehow lost. Unsure. Like she had no idea how she’d ended up on a beach or what she should do now that she was here, despite the swimsuit.

No more rushing to the rescue. Remember?

Parking beside him, Tag Johnson whistled. He pulled off his helmet and switched off the engine of his own Harley. “Now, there’s a sight a man doesn’t see every day.”

Cal Brennan, the third in today’s unofficial club, clearly didn’t disagree. “Real pretty, Johnson.” A fellow former rescue swimmer, Cal Brennan didn’t miss much, but right now, his focus was all horizon. Daeg’s gaze followed Cal’s out to sea.

The latest storm kicking up over the Pacific was still working her way toward shore, but the sky was already overcast with dark clouds moving in. The flight ceiling was dropping by the second. The weather boys hadn’t announced the arrival of the first tropical storm of the summer yet, but Daeg could read the signs. A storm was blowing in, fast and hard.

That storm was all business.

Their business.

All three of them—Daeg, Tag and Cal—were former spec ops, the heart and soul of a combat rescue team stationed in San Diego, California, that had seen more than its share of missions. After they’d survived the navy’s BUD/S training and Hell Week, they’d been each other’s eyes and ears. They’d fought together and swum together, always on the alert and ready to roll out with a mere moment’s notice. After that last tour, though, Cal had cashed out and returned to Discovery Island, the small hideaway off Northern California where he’d been born and raised. Cal might not be in the business of search and rescue for Uncle Sam anymore, but he’d started Deep Dive, an elite private company specializing in just that. The business also brought in divers from around the world for advanced training. So when Cal had accidentally overbooked, Daeg hadn’t had to think too long or too hard about the request to pitch in.

He was all in.

And just in case the teaching got boring, Cal was putting together a volunteer dive-rescue team for the island to handle anything that went bad—diving accidents, boating mishaps, capsizing and the like. Since the nearest dive team was twenty miles away, located on the mainland where a fire department ran a part-time operation, Cal wanted his island to have its own team that would provide a faster, better response. From the looks of that sky, they’d be busy sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m heading back to base.” Brennan kicked the cycle into gear. Base was the dive shop they’d rebuilt into a command center for their training and search-and-rescue business. “Get ready before the storm hits—”

Tag whistled low, still eyeing the dark horizon. “You in, Daeg? We’ll check the gear, go over protocols.”

Tag gripped the handlebars, clearly anticipating some action. Those sure hands knew every inch of the Seahawk he’d put up in the air when an emergency call came in. He’d coax a smooth ride from the chopper, drive her beneath the cloud ceiling like he was taking a walk in the park. He needed the adrenaline rush of the flight, the urgency of pitting himself against the wind and the water every bit as much as Daeg did.

Daeg himself hadn’t been back to Discovery Island since he’d enlisted ten years ago, had told himself he didn’t miss the place, but now he wasn’t ready to leave. Something about that woman teased his memory. His senses.

“Daeg’s got his eye on something—someone—else,” Cal teased. “Man’s on a whole different mission.”

In response, he made a rude gesture, waving off Tag and Cal.

They weren’t wrong.

He slipped off his helmet and steadied the bike. The bike sank slightly into the hot asphalt. The sun had heated the island thoroughly, but even the California summer gave ground when the rays left and the ocean breeze kicked in. Fastening the helmet to the seat, he bent down and started unlacing his boots. Maybe he’d take a walk, see where it led him.

He had at least an hour to burn before the rain came.

And he was in the mood to forget. He wanted to flirt a little. Maybe get to know the pretty beachcomber if she was interested. After the past couple of months, he needed a bit of sweet oblivion.

When he’d been in the navy, storms always meant trouble. Someone, somewhere, would need a rescue, the H-60 would go up and his team would hit the water. No matter how dangerous that water got, he didn’t leave until the rescue happened.

Except once.

Usually, he exhausted himself physically and then sleep followed. But lately the dreams had been getting worse, as if his mind was just plain done forgetting what had happened on that final tour. The pills the doctor had given him weren’t an option as far as he was concerned. Too many good soldiers went that route and never came back. That last mission had messed with his head enough—he didn’t need a chemical assist.

So his options were working his butt off until he dropped—which his injured knee protested vociferously—or finding himself a woman. His gaze slewed right to the woman in the bikini before he could censor that last thought. Behind him the cheerful noise of the island’s boardwalk picked up as the tourists toweled off or suited up for a predinner stroll. There were plenty of women around, checking out the beach, some scantily clad but somewhere, somehow, he’d lost the urge for a mindless, anonymous hookup. Maybe he’d feel different by the end of the summer yet right now, with his R & R stretching out in front of him, he just felt empty.

The ocean kept calling his name like always and he couldn’t imagine staying put. He shuddered at the thought of going all white picket fence with a nine-to-five job.

Good luck with that.

Before he could change his mind, his boots landed beside the bike and he rolled up the jeans. Since his inner stalker was anxious to get better acquainted with Ms. White And Crochet, he’d give in to temptation.

Take the chance.

“That’s a real nice sunset,” he said when he was standing behind her, because apparently, this was the night to trot out every lame line known to mankind. Hell. He was rustier at the social-skills thing than the newest recruit.

Her head shot up and she almost jumped at the sound of his voice, her hands getting a death grip on her canvas tote. As he got his first full-on look at her face, he realized he was in trouble here.

He knew this face, knew this woman. Danielle Andrews. His Dani.

Catching her elbow with his hand, he made sure she didn’t fall.

She was still gorgeous. Even more so than she had been the last time he’d surprised her on the beach. Then, the feel of her skin against his calloused hands had been like satin. She’d been everything that was fine, and he’d known she couldn’t possibly be meant for him.

“You startled me.” She stared at him and, yeah, his body remembered her easily, was already yearning for a second touch from her. Dani’s face was still all-American pretty, with her wide eyes and that shoulder-length, honey-brown hair. She’d parted it down the center into two neat sections, and he got the feeling he could run his hands through those silky strands for hours. If she let him. Her hands eased up on the bag some as recognition and shock played out on her pretty features, so maybe there was a little hope for him. He released her elbow before she got the wrong idea.

She wasn’t a stranger, but he had no business touching her.

“You’re still here,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. That was the story of his life, though, leap headfirst into danger. Of course, here he’d been too busy feeling sorry for himself and admiring a beautiful woman.

Standing there on the beach, staring up at him, Dani Andrews looked confused, as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to haul off and hit him—or if she’d decided he wasn’t worth the bother. She certainly knew who he was. After all, she’d come over from the mainland and spent every summer at her grandparents’ place for as long as he’d been on the island. She’d worked at the ice cream joint at the end of the boardwalk, making cones, and he’d eaten his weight in ice cream just for the excuse to chat her up some. Those brown eyes of hers looked decidedly less friendly by the minute, her head already shaking back and forth. Or maybe that was the effect of the wind picking up as the storm offshore gathered steam.

“Daeg Ross,” she said and, from the way she pronounced his name, she was still plenty upset about how their last encounter ended ten years ago.

He, meanwhile, still wanted to kiss her, and that was the problem, wasn’t it?

He’d already kissed her—just once—all those years ago, not too far from this very spot. Fresh out of the search-and-rescue training program, he’d had two weeks’ leave before he shipped out to the Middle East. Cal’s family had been the closest thing to family Daeg had—his own father had never been part of the picture and he’d lost his mother in a car accident a few years before. So when his leave came up, returning to Discovery Island had seemed natural.

It had been prom night when he’d last seen Dani, and she’d been seventeen—too young for the likes of him, ice cream aside. He hadn’t been the one to take her to prom—she hadn’t asked and honestly, he didn’t even know if she knew his name, although he’d caught her looking at him a few times. Prom night he’d found her walking alone on the beach. She hadn’t started out the evening alone and they both knew it.

One look at her sad, disappointed face and he’d broken every rule in his book right then and there.

2

SHE STILL WANTED to kiss him.

Daeg Ross had dropped into her lap like a gift from the gods. Dani Andrews snuck a peek at his hard face. The gods of war, maybe. Daeg Ross was a bad boy through and through. He wanted something from her and she didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what that something was. The slow glide of his hot gaze over her made his interest clear, as did the warm smile that lit up his eyes until they were crinkling with amusement. He’d done a number on her seventeen-year-old self, and apparently the experienced soldier could be even more lethal.

He’d let go of her, but that light touch of his fingers still burned against her skin. There was a military tattoo on his wrist, and he seemed tougher and stronger, almost impervious to the growing chill in the air. It was getting more and more dark, and a mean wind was turning the usually flat surface of the bay into tiny whitecaps and raising goose bumps on her arms. It wasn’t bikini weather but this was her vacation, damn it. This was supposed to be her honeymoon.

Her fingers caught the ties on the sides of her bikini bottom and she noticed his gaze dipping to the sight, betraying him. And then he brought his focus back up slowly to her face. For once, her big, tough navy man was showing some emotion. Surprise. He hadn’t expected to find her here of all places.

Too bad.

He’d walked away from her once, breaking her heart in the process, and the irony of it was he hadn’t even known. He’d seen a young girl on a beach and after giving her a kiss she’d never forget, he’d run like hell. Back to the military. Away from her.

She’d gotten over him, moved on. Now he was merely a memory. She swallowed. Unfortunately, he was still too darn sexy. Her older self appreciated what she was seeing, even more than what her younger self had. His face had matured. It was stamped with experience, and those eyes of his were intense and knowing. Confident. He was a man who made things happen, forced the world around him to change. It was all too easy to imagine him diving out of a rescue chopper and into wild, turbulent waters. He’d cut through the churn effortlessly like he had everything else in his path, because she’d never met a man so focused or determined.

She’d grown up, too, though. She’d left the island behind her and earned her finance degree from UCLA. She’d analyzed risks for Fortune 500 companies and then suggested ways to manage those risks, earning her way to the top of the consulting firm she worked for. Right now, however, the biggest risk of all was standing in front of her, and she refused to let him leave her tongue-tied. “Hello, Daeg.”

“Dani.” Her name was a rough growl on his lips. Was that a hint of something deeper in those watchful eyes of his? He was eyeing her, she realized, like she was dangerous.

The sensation was intoxicating.

And infuriating.

She hated how anger and desire competed inside her, leaving her uncertain and wanting. Mostly, she wanted to leave him standing there alone on the beach. Daeg Ross was wicked temptation, but as she reminded herself again, she’d grown up a long time ago. Maybe this meeting was a chance encounter, a handful of seconds soon over. But then his eyes were taking in her body, making her insides clench with need, and that definitely made her mad. How could he just look at her and the years fell away?

She wanted more. More memories. She should be the one to leave this time, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He’d upended her whole world ten years ago with a simple kiss, but she still hadn’t learned her lesson.

The fact was, she still wanted Daeg Ross.

* * *

SHE WATCHED DAEG the entire two weeks of his leave, never getting up the nerve to approach him. He was five years older than she was, but decades older in terms of experience. She knew that. She knew there were at least a dozen good reasons why she shouldn’t go near him.

But she hoped.

And when he found her walking on the beach that night, after her prom date ditched her, she was glad. The whispers about his rough past before he’d come to the island didn’t scare her. He was big and sun-darkened, his hair cut close to his scalp with military precision. All the time he’d spent training in the water had given him broad, powerful shoulders, and she wanted to put her hands on those shoulders and hang on, because she knew he could take her with him, take her somewhere special.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Daeg told her, and concern filled his voice. “It’s late, Dani-girl.”

That smoky voice aroused her past a point of no return. “I don’t care.” She didn’t. Tonight was supposed to be magical and yet her date had been a dud, showing more interest in his friends and their bootleg six-pack of beer than in her.

Daeg looked down at her, and she wondered what he saw. “You should.”

“It’s late.” She used his own words on him. “You should walk with me.”

He frowned, but wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. At first, their bare feet splashed through the surf. She’d ditched her heels back where the steps cut down from the road to the sand, but her dress dragged in the water. She’d chosen the dress for its lavender color, the color of crocuses and bubble bath. The yards of tulle and sequins had winked at her from the rack in the store. When she’d tried it on she felt like a princess.

So far, the night had yielded none of that magic.

Later, she wasn’t sure if she’d stopped to check out the stars and everything else had just happened—or if she’d dropped her head back, turned toward him.

He groaned something—her name, she’d decided afterward, replaying the memory of it in her mind—and the arm around her shoulders brought her impossibly closer toward him. She went willingly into his arms, her body pressing into his full-on. He bent his head and his mouth met hers.

This was what she wanted, what she’d been waiting for.

Daeg’s mouth was everything she’d dreamed about and more. Some delicious, new sensation tugged at her.

He took charge of their kiss and her. When the incoming surf caught the backs of her knees, her mouth opened on a gasp and he swept inside. The rough, masculine taste and texture of his lips and tongue sent an unfamiliar pleasure rocketing through her.

He guided her from the water and down onto the sand. Covering her, he cupped her head gently in his hands as he devoured her mouth. Don’t stop, she begged silently, entranced by the feel of him, the weight of his big body pressed against hers.

He kissed her and kissed her and she didn’t know where the kiss might have taken them because she recognized instinctively that he was as lost as she was, but then the surf broke over their feet. The cold water was a shock. She shivered and he cursed, rolling off her.

“This is a bad idea, Dani. Go home.”

Confused, she reached for him, but he shoved to his feet. He held out a hand to help her up. However, he was back to being a stranger.

A stranger she’d kissed on the beach.

She had sand in her hair, on her legs. The sodden weight of the dress pulled at her and she didn’t feel like a princess anymore. The magic abruptly vanished from the night.

“Go home,” he repeated harshly. “You drive here, Dani?”

Mutely, she nodded.

“I’ll follow you home,” he said. “Make sure you get inside okay.”

“And then?” She needed there to be something more. Tonight couldn’t end like this.

He shrugged and then shook his head. “There is nothing more, Dani. This was just a kiss.”

* * *

TEN YEARS LATER, on the same beach, the man of her dreams was watching her again, and he sure didn’t sound as if their parting had done a number on him. Of course, he’d been every bit as eager to get off the island as she’d been to stay. She’d lost count of the number of states she’d lived in growing up. Her father would move them to New York one year for a big real estate deal, followed the next by Florida for a condo development her father had been sure would be the investment of a lifetime. Six months after that, they’d headed to Nevada because the Florida project was bankrupt. Ranches in Wyoming, a ski resort in Vermont... Her father had tried them all, ending, of course, with California because the Golden State had a white-hot real estate market. Summers on Discovery Island had been the one sure, stable thing in her life.

He scrubbed a hand over his short hair. “It’s been a while.”

“Has it?” she asked sweetly, instead of telling him to get lost. Something about Daeg Ross sent her straight back to her younger self. That part of her wanted to tease, to coax or to even hurt him the way he’d hurt her.

The adult part wanted to kiss him again.

Her taste in her men was clearly suspect. The guy she’d been engaged to for two years had become Mr. Wrong. And he’d excused his own infidelity by claiming she was terrible in bed. No matter how she looked at it, her love life was either a disaster or a disappointment. Take your pick. She was supposed to be on Discovery Island having hot, raunchy honeymoon sex in Sweet Moon’s finest suite. Instead, she was holding down the fort while her grandparents sailed down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on a cruise to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. They were undoubtedly having hot, raunchy second-honeymoon sex—which she was so not thinking about.

No more men, she insisted. Eventually, when she was ready to put her ex-fiancé behind her and start dating again, men like the soldier facing her wouldn’t make her list. Military men were outrageously built and beautiful, but they’d never be keepers. They shipped out, moved on and did everything but stay.

He peered down at her, and those eyes of his were hard. He’d seen things, done things. Those tours of duty had changed him. Well, she’d changed, too. She wasn’t that innocent girl walking along the beach.

Not anymore.

“Ten years,” he said, as if their timeline—or lack of one—was a challenge he was throwing down. “It’s been ten years, Dani.”

Numbers had always made sense to her. She was an actuary, which meant she turned risks into something you could calculate. In her world, loss was a formula and all you had to do was hold enough assets in reserve to offset those losses. Daeg lived in a different world, by different rules. Where she calculated risks, he took them.

Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know you were counting.”

Counting implied caring, and he’d never cared about her.

* * *

DAEG HADN’T COUNTED. Not every minute. But he thought about her more than he should have. He’d wanted to come back here to Discovery and finish what they’d started. He’d wanted to push that cupcake of a gown down her body. Touch her. Learn every lovely inch of her, inside and out.

She’d been too young.

She was a woman now. No longer a girl. She’d have had lovers. He captured her hand in his, entwining her pale, slim fingers with his. He noticed she didn’t have a ring.

“You’re not married.” Thank God. There were rules even he wouldn’t break. His lovers had been women who were only looking for the same thing he was. Casual, fun affairs featuring hot sex with a side of companionship. He liked waking up next to someone in bed and he wouldn’t rule out settling down eventually. Someday. At some point in the future when his body gave out and he couldn’t make the cut to be a rescue swimmer. But that wasn’t today.

“That’s none of your concern.” Anger flashed in her eyes. She tugged on his hand. “It doesn’t matter.”

For a long beat, he hung on. She was strong, but he was stronger. “It does.”

“To me, maybe.” She shrugged. “But whether or not I’m married doesn’t mean a thing to you, Daeg Ross.”

She was right. Whether she was married or not shouldn’t matter to him. But the lack of a husband, a boyfriend, someone who had claimed her for his own and whose claim she had welcomed—that would mean she was available. His body went on alert, adrenaline pumping through him like it did before he made a jump. She didn’t have to be off-limits. He could pursue her, kiss her, touch her.

He could strip off that cute bikini of hers and bury himself deep inside her.

He could make the biggest mistake of his life.

The words came out of his mouth, anyhow. “You’re back for the summer?”

“I’m out at Sweet Moon.” He knew the place. Her grandparents had run it for years, booking romantic cabins with four-posters and fireplaces. It was the kind of place a man took a special woman.

He’d never spent the night there.

“Important occasion?” He kept his voice deliberately light.

She shook her head. “Not anymore,” she replied, giving him a wry smile. “But my grandparents reserved a cabin for me, so here I am.”

“His loss,” he growled, and her eyes widened as if he was some kind of mind reader, because he’d put two and two together and come up with the correct answer. “Whoever he was, he messed up.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly, making it clear she had no intention of giving him the details about what had brought her here alone to Discovery Island. “It’s over. Water under the bridge. Things happen.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But maybe I can make it up to you? What about ice cream?” he asked. He definitely needed to work on his social skills. “I may not have been back here in years,” he coaxed, “but I still remember how good the ice cream is.”

She eyed him cautiously, her brown eyes examining him. He didn’t know what she saw, but it must have been something good because she nodded and a slow smile lit up her face. “I can let you do that.” She paused, toying with the strap of her tote bag.

He gestured toward the ice cream shack at the far end of the beach and started walking. The muscles in his knee knotted, putting a hitch in his gait.

“You okay?” Dani’s expression was all worry.

“Leg’s fine.” He wasn’t fielding questions, not today, so he returned the conversation, what there was of it, back on her. “We need to worry about you. First thing you do when you hit the beach? You lose the sandals.” Stopping, he pointed at her sandy flip-flops, holding out his hand. “You can’t be comfortable in those things. Let me carry them.”

She hesitated, clearly not sure if she wanted to hand over her shoes or jam them into her bag, sand and all. When she look