Summer Mahogany Read Free Page A

hardened slightly. His grip had tightened on the towel, pulling her toward him. Gina hadn't resisted, drawn by a magnetic force that somehow emanated from him.
    With one hand, Rhyder had kept a hold on the towel while his other hand had settled on the naked curve of her shoulder and arm. Liquid fire had splashed from his touch, golden heat flowing through her veins. As his dark head bent toward hers, she had closed her eyes, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
    At the touch of his mouth, her lips had quivered. In seconds, the exploring expertise of his kiss had coaxed a pliant response from her. He had aroused sensations that boys in her age group had not been able to with their awkward and sometimes demanding kisses.
    Again instinct had taken over, letting her return the kiss with an ability not gained from experience. Her hand had rested on the bare hardness of his trim waist, more for support from the heady sensations erupting within than from a desire to actually caress him.
    When Rhyder had lifted his head, she had been dazed. Her equilibrium had been slow to return under the methodical study of his inscrutable gaze. There had been a faint grimness about his hard features, browned by the sun into vital masculinity.
    "I can't make up my mind about you," Rhyder had muttered beneath his breath, seemingly unaware that he had spoken aloud. Almost immediately there had been a crooked lift of his mouth, a mask of mockery covering his expression. "You'd better run along home, woman-child, and fix that supper for your grandfather."
    He had given her a playful push in the direction of the path and Gina hadn't minded letting it end there. She had wanted to savor the sensations, remember every one in detail. Rhyder had kissed her and it had been wonderful.
    Gina moaned softly at the memory. Why hadn't it ended there with just a romantic dream? If Rhyder had left the following day when his engine had tested out, she wouldn't be going through all this anguish at seeing him again. He would have been just some dark stranger who had captured a young girl's heart and faded into unreality.
    But it hadn't happened that way.
    The trepidation she had felt nine years ago walking down to the harbor the next day came flooding back. It increased when Gina saw Rhyder's sailing yacht, the Sea Witch II , coming in to dock. The engines weren't missing a stroke and she had known the repairs had been successful. There wasn't any reason for Rhyder to remain in this uneventful port.
    Since it could have been the last time she would see him, Gina had stood at the dockside, fighting the lump in her throat as Pete clambered awkwardly from the deck to the dock to make the lines fast. Gina would rather it had been Rhyder.
    "Everything sounded smooth when you came in," she had commented to Pete after he had self-consciously returned her smile. "You must have corrected the problem."
    "Rhyder says so," he had agreed.
    "I guess that means you'll be heading out tomorrow." She had hated saying the words.
    "No, we're going to stay here and explore the Washington County area. It's too crowded farther along the coast," he had concluded, and it had sounded as if he were mouthing Rhyder's sentiments rather than his own.
    But joy had leaped into Gina's heart. If they were staying in the area, that meant she had a good chance of seeing him again.
    "There are a lot of dogfish there," she had agreed, hardly able to contain her excitement.
    "Dogfish?" Pete had stared at her blankly. "Summer complaints."
    "Summer complaints?" Her explanation hadn't helped him at all.
    "You know—tourists," Gina had explained with a wide smile.
    "You call tourists 'summer complaints?'" He, too, had smiled broadly.
    "We don't mean anything bad by it. Actually it's big business along the coast," she had assured him.
    "'Dogfish' is a term for a tourist, too?" Pete shook his head. "But that's a kind of shark. Hardly complimentary."
    "But it isn't meant that way," Gina had protested with a