One summer before the accident—she couldn’t recall which summer, precisely—Colleen had been walking with several of her girlfriends down Elm Street and saw Eric Reyes coming out of the Harbor Town Library, several books in the crook of his arm. He’d paused on the sidewalk, probably struck by the gaggle of suntanned teenage girls. Her friends had grown predictably giddy in the vicinity of a good-looking, older boy, but when Colleen’s eyes met his, she’d given him a smile.
Now they stood face-to-face again, strangers who shared a past. Fifteen years ago, her father had killed his mother in a three-way car crash. The lawsuits against Derry’s estate had drastically altered the Kavanaughs’ economic status. Eric had used his portion of the lawsuit to go to medical school. Now he owned a luxurious Buena Vista beachfront home, and she was the trespasser on the familiar beach.
Now she was the outsider.
Seeing him standing there caused anger to flare hot inside her, the strength of it shocking her a little.
“Are you going to call the police?” she asked him quietly.
“I hadn’t planned on it, no. Why, are you about to do something illegal?”
She had a wild urge to manually remove that little smirk he wore.
“It’s illegal for me to be here. I never saw you at any of the city council meetings, but surely you know about Sunset Beach becoming private.”
“I know about it.”
“Yeah. I thought so.” She unfastened the band at her neck and began to work a comb through her hair. “I can’t imagine you wanting the beach to remain open to the great unwashed.” She glanced at him in annoyance when he chuckled. He raised his dark brows when he noticed her scowl.
“You look pretty clean to me.” His gaze once again flickered down over her bikini-clad body. She stiffened. It didn’t offend her, his glance, or creep her out like some men’s stares had in the past. It did unsettle her.
Bedroom eyes.
The phrase leapt into her brain unbidden. Dark eyes…knowing eyes. It surprised her a little, to feel this strong sexual current emanating from him. How dare he, given their past, look at her with such potent male appreciation? So what if practically every female in Harbor County would have patiently waited in a mile-long line to be on the receiving end of a sultry gaze from single, gorgeous Dr. Eric Reyes? Not every female in Harbor County shared the same messy, tragic history with him that Colleen did.
She stepped closer and tilted her chin in a subtle challenge. “You never did answer me. Did you vote ‘yes’ for the homeowners taking over Sunset Beach, or not?”
“Of course I voted for it. It was an excellent investment. I would have been a fool to turn down the opportunity.”
She gave a soft bark of laughter and stepped away, shoving her things into her bag, her rapid, abrupt movements betraying her swelling agitation. She felt weak…vulnerable…unable to control her reaction. The realization sent her already frothing emotions into a boil. Words poured out of her throat against her will.
“That’s the only thing you thought of when the opportunity arose? What about the townspeople? What about the local kids who take swimming lessons off Sunset? All you thought about was the investment? The money? Don’t you have enough of that, Reyes?”
“You know what they say. You can never have too much.”
Her long hair fell in her face when she jerked her head up and glared at him. The slant of his mouth told her he was angry…maybe as angry as she was. He’d been provoking her.
He’d succeeded.
Never one to back down from a dare, Colleen dropped her bag back on the beach and stepped toward him. “You came out here to taunt me.”
Something flashed in his eyes, an emotion she couldn’t quite identify. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I? You didn’t come out here to throw it in my face? This beach wasn’t just one more thing you can take from a Kavanaugh? This isn’t your victory lap?”
He shook his head slowly. “You really are a little princess.”
Her heart started to pound out a warning in her ears. She stepped closer, her jaw clenched hard. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You didn’t know that’s what the guys used to call you? Little Princess Kavanaugh. Well, I’m real sorry if I knocked off your crown.”
“How dare you say something like that to me,” she breathed out through a constricted throat.
“Seems to me you dare worse, only you don’t seem to mind if your insults are based on ignorance.”
She was so furious—so agitated—her consciousness went hazy. Maybe it was because her heart was charging like an out-of-control locomotive, but the world took on a surreal cast. When she turned jerkily to retrieve her items from the beach, she stumbled and nearly did a face-plant on the sand.
Eric caught her left upper arm, then steadied her further by grasping her right. She tried to jerk out of his hold, made a little wild by boiling emotion.
“Colleen, stop it. Please.”
His voice barely penetrated her chaotic emotions. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. The explosion of feeling had come out of nowhere.
Or maybe it hadn’t.
Maybe it’d been brewing since the night she’d gotten that phone call while she was at camp when she was sixteen years old. Maybe this cyclone of feeling started to coalesce when she’d learned her father was dead, as were three other people he’d crashed into while he’d been driving drunk.
She heaved again, trying desperately to break his hold on her, but he was every bit as strong and fit as he appeared. Instead of releasing her, he cursed beneath his breath and turned her toward him, now holding her securely by her shoulders. Distantly, she realized her cheeks were wet with tears. Humiliation surged through her. She hated that he was staring at her with those concerned, knowing eyes, seeing the evidence of her vulnerability.
“Let go of me,” she grated out.
But as her feet faltered in the soft sand yet again, he brought her closer to his body, attempting to steady both of them at once.
“You’re going to hurt one or both of us. Just calm down,” he said, his voice low, but resonant with emotion.
His warm breath struck her from above, whisking across her right temple. She went still in sudden awareness. His arms were around her, her breasts were plastered against his chest. His heat penetrated though his clothing and emanated into her damp, naked skin. Her eyes widened when she felt his body harden against her, as if he’d become aware of her at the precise moment she’d become aware of him.
“Colleen?”
She blinked. His quiet voice had felt like a caress.
She wanted to look up into his face at that moment…open herself to him…just a crack.
