Instant Temptation (Wilder #3)(69)

“See anything you want?” he murmured.

“No. Absolutely not.” She turned her back to him and hugged her knees to her chest, watching the river, letting out a low, shaky breath when she knew he could no longer see her face.

“Okay, let’s recap.” He ran a finger over her shoulder. “You don’t want me—”

“As a boyfriend,” she clarified. Because she did want him. She wanted him bad. She just didn’t want to keep him. She couldn’t. He was a walking, talking, breathing heartbreak. “I don’t want you as a boyfriend.”

“Because…?”

“Because you don’t want to be a boyfriend. Plus, you read my list, you saw—”

“Right. I’m not…what did you call Nolan? Sweet, steady, and stable.”

She closed her eyes. “Yeah.” But the truth was, in spite of the rough-and-tumble readiness, the jagged edges to him, he was those things. Sweet. Steady. Stable.

Which meant that she was another S altogether—screwed.

After lunch, they headed down a relatively easy section of the river, floating so slowly Harley could have gotten out and pushed faster. There were no waves, no tumbling rapids, nothing. The water was so flat that the tip of the kayak didn’t even rise and fal .

TJ was out in front, his kayak gliding sure and smooth. Behind him, the four girls laughed and giggled and talked about whatever flitted through their heads. Taking up the rear, Harley could see and hear all, not that the girls were trying to keep their voices down.

“Look at his arms,” Kitty whispered across the water with a dreamy sigh.

No doubt. TJ had the best arms Harley had ever seen. She’d been taking some pictures and found her lens focused in on them, taut, tanned, and glistening.

“I know!” Kitty said. “Someone rip my top off. That’ll get his attention.”

“No!” Harley said quickly, and all four girls craned around to look at her. “No nudity on the river,” she said. No nudity on the river? Jesus, she needed to think faster on her feet.

From ahead, TJ glanced around and gave them a long look, probably trying to figure out if he needed to be in on the conversation or if he should be thinking about running for the border. Harley gave him a little finger wave. She could handle it.

Probably.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Shelly murmured. “Watch this. Help!” she suddenly shrieked, and flailed in her kayak until she managed to tip it over. “TJ, help me!” she screamed.

TJ was already maneuvering his kayak around. Harley knew it would take him no time at all to get to Shelly and haul her out of the water, where she’d probably crawl over him with her wet, warm, curvy body.

As far as tactics went, it was a good one, Harley conceded. And it might be a lot of fun to watch, except for two things.

One, TJ was paying her to avoid exactly this.

And two, she didn’t want any half-naked wet woman crawling all over him.

Well, unless she was the half-naked wet woman. “Shelly,” she said calmly while holding up a hand to TJ

to let him know she had it handled. “Put your feet down and stand up. The water’s only up to your belly button.”

Shelly abruptly stopped screaming and flailing and stood up, sending Harley a pout. “You’re no fun.”

She flounced through the water to her kayak. “You just blew my chance for some mouth-to-mouth.”

TJ was wearing his dark sunglasses and his baseball cap, which shaded his face, so it was hard to tell his expression across the fifty feet of water that separated them, but Harley was pretty sure he was amused.

And relieved.

He could thank her later. Maybe with some mouth-to-mouth of their own variety.

They went back to kayaking with no more close encounters of the made-up kind. After awhile, Lani floated up next to Harley and smiled. Harley returned it. “You doing okay?” she asked the coed.

“Yes,” Lani said. “It’s gorgeous out here.”

“It is.”

“You’re so lucky that this is your job. I think this would be the coolest job ever.”

“What are you going to do with your biology degree?”

“I was thinking about teaching, but I know now I want to do something different. I want to do something to help preserve the wildlife.”

Shelly turned back and smiled warmly at her friend. “You can do it, Lani.”

Kitty nodded agreeably. “You can do whatever you want.”

“Easy for you to say,” Lani said quietly. “You’ve both got your daddies’ trust funds.”

“So do you,” Tandy said.

“No.” Lani shook her head. “It was al stock options, which are gone.”

The others looked at each other, horrified. “You’re…broke?”

“Just about,” Lani said quietly.

There was silence for a few minutes as they absorbed this while floating down the river.

“I’ll help you, Lani,” Shelly said softly. “I have plenty of extra—”

“Me too,” Kitty said.

But Lani shook her head. “No. I mean thank you, but I couldn’t take your money.”

“It’s not mine,” Shelly said. “It’s my parents’, and they don’t give a rat’s ass how I spend it. It’s up to me what I do with it. And I give it to you.”