Summer Mahogany Read Free

relationship the man was to Rhyder. At times she thought he might be an employee, a deckhand or something. Other times they seemed like the best of friends.
    Yet Pete didn't strike Gina as the outdoor sailing type, so if he was a friend, she couldn't imagine him volunteering to have a sailing vacation. He was more at home with books than he was with anything to do with the yacht.
    Rhyder was lying on his back, arms raised to rest his head on his hands. He shifted slightly to allow his alert gaze to sweep over her, taking in the jutting firmness of her breasts beneath the one-piece bathing suit of canary yellow.
    "How old are you, Gina?" One corner of his mouth lifted in a gesture of mocking amusement.
    "Seventeen. I'll be eighteen in August," she had lied, advancing her age by a year.
    The lines around his mouth had deepened. "Sometimes you barely look sixteen."
    "'Sweet sixteen and never been kissed?'" Gina had laughed throatily. "That's hardly true."
    "You look amazingly untouched by all your experiences," Rhyder had replied with deliberate mockery.
    Gina's heart had beat faster. She knew Rhyder was beyond her experience. There was an exhilarating sensation of danger in the way she was flirting with him.
    "I never said anyone had taken me into the bushes." She had met his gaze levelly, her eyes as clear and as bright as the unplummeted, green ocean depths. "I was only talking about kissing," she had retorted, implying that he had referred to more worldly things of which he knew a great deal more than she did firsthand.
    "You've done a lot of kissing?" He had made it a question, a dancing light moving over his face.
    Gina had leaned back on her hands, a smug half smile curving her mouth as she lifted her face to the sun. "Oh, once or twice at least."
    "Are you good at it?" There was suggestion of amusement in his low voice.
    "I'm learning." She had darted him a laughing glance, fielding his teasing questions with lighthearted abandon.
    She was enjoying this conversation with its stimulating undertones. She had never traded words like this before, not about making love. It made her feel daring and gloriously wicked.
    "Why don't you come over here and show me what you've learned?" Rhyder hadn't shifted from his position—flat on his back, hands under his head, only the blue of his gaze turned to her.
    Gina's breath had caught in her throat at the suggestion. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to find out what it would be like to have Rhyder kiss her. Luckily, before she submitted to his invitation, she had realized that he was only making fun of her. It had hurt, but not as much as it might have if she had childishly taken him seriously.
    She had laughed, a forced sound, not quite natural, but she didn't think he had noticed. "No, thank you, Rhyder."
    She had rolled gracefully to her feet, holding an end of the beach towel in her hand and letting part of it trail in the sand. She had shaken her head and smiled, her refusal very adult.
    "What's the matter? Are you afraid?" The taunt had been gentle and not really argumentative.
    "I'm wary." There had been a great deal of truth in that statement. "That's how I've managed to stay out of the bushes." Her hand had flicked blue black hair away from her cheek. "I'd better be getting back so I can start supper for gramps."
    To get to the path leading from the beach, Gina had too walk past Rhyder. He had levered himself onto one elbow at her last remark. As she had walked past him, his hand had reached out and caught the trailing end of the towel. He had made a pretense of using it to pull himself to his feet. Once upright, though, he hadn't released the towel.
    Something elemental had seemed to hover in the air, charging it with an unknown tension. Absently, Gina had been aware of the pulse beating wildly along her neck, but she hadn't been able to move.
    The laughing glint had left his blue eyes as they darkened with purpose. The strong angles of his face had