“Your place couldn’t get any worse, believe me. And is that really the only reason you’re here? It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that we’ve discovered this mutual attraction-”

“I’ve discovered nothing.”

“Which explains why I had you hot and bothered this morning.”

“I was not-” She let out a loud breath. “I’m absolutely not going to do this with you.” Closing her eyes, she leaned back in the raft, tilted her face to the sun and went still.

Lying there beneath the gorgeous sky, surrounded by the incomparable Sierras on the Truckee River, she looked like a goddess.

It occurred to him that he might be in serious trouble here. She wasn’t leaving his system.

“This is nice,” she admitted quietly, her eyes still closed. “I’ve lived here forever and I’ve never done this.”

“I’ve only been here a year, but I raft as often as I can. Or kayak.”

She opened her eyes and turned her head to study him. “You’ve only been here a year?”

“I moved my father here from Los Angeles. It was too hot for him there, that heat and smog were killing him. After he had his stroke, we came here for his recuperation, and neither of us ever left. He lives in Tahoe City now, in a small senior community, and is happier than he’s ever been.”

“You love him very much.”

“Of course.”

“Of course,” she whispered, once again closing her eyes. “I wouldn’t have moved for my father. Or given up a year of my life to nurse him back to health. What does that say about me?”

“It says you two aren’t close. It happens.”

“I hate his current wife. Does that happen, too?”

“Why do you hate her?”

“Because she looks better in a bikini than I do.”

He ran his gaze down her body, wishing she was in a bikini right now. “I find that hard to believe.”

She smiled and relaxed again. “This really is nice.”

“Better than Denny’s?”

“Definitely.” She cocked an ear. “What’s that sound?”

He listened, and at the unmistakable hissing of air leaving the raft at an alarming speed, he swore.

“Air.”

She went utterly still, except for her eyes, which had turned into two huge saucers. “Air?

As in leaving-the-raft air?”

“Yeah.” He tossed her a life preserver.

“Looks like you’re still date cursed.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“You know how to swim, right?”

“Let me repeat. You’re. Kidding. Me.”

“I’ll kid you later, I promise.”

“Oh, my God.” She slipped into the life vest and eyed the water, which as luck would have it was so deep in this spot they couldn’t see the bottom.

“There are no sharks,” he promised.

“Well, that’s more than I can say about my date with Joshua.”

Tanner checked her life jacket. “I’m sorry I stole your condom.”

That coaxed a smile out of her. “No, you’re not.”

“Okay, I’m not.” He took her hand. “But I am sorry about the raft.”

She eyed the cold water warily. “Don’t worry.

It’s still the best date I’ve had in a while.”

Which wasn’t saying much, he knew. “So you’ll give me another.”

She laughed. “No way.”

“Come on. A second fantasy date.”

“Nope. This was just to get you out of my system. And you’re out. All the way out.”

“I’m going to make you prove that,” he promised softly.

“With another kiss?” She looked hopeful and terrified at the same time. “I’m sure I’ll be utterly unmoved.”

“Hmm.” Scooting closer so they were kneeling facing each other in the slowly sinking raft, he slid one hand to the small of her back, the other beneath her hair, skimming his fingers over her nape.

She shivered. Her eyes were half closed.

“Unmoved, right?” he teased softly.

“Absolutely.” But she leaned toward him.

Between them, her nipples hardened against his chest, making him want to groan. His fingers skimmed the skin at the base of her spine, and she arched under his hand, letting out a soft little sound that raged at his gut and groin. Especially his groin.

Water swirled around their knees, but he couldn’t pay attention to that, not when she’d dropped her head back just a little, pressing her body closer into his, her eyes closed to the warm sun.

She was beautiful, and whether or not the thought gave him hives, she was his.

His.

Bending, he put his mouth to her throat.

She practically purred. Her hands lifted, fisted in his hair, held him to her. “Still unmoved?” he asked, dragging openmouthed kisses down to her collarbone, where he stopped to feast on a fascinating stretch of bare skin.

“Absolutely.” Her fingers tightened painfully in his hair. “But don’t you dare stop.”

“I won’t,” he promised, dipping his mouth down a little farther, to the enticing curve of a breast. “Just getting each other out of our systems, right?”

“Uh-huh. Now shut up and keep that mouth working.”

“Gladly.” His tongue nudged aside the material of her shirt, and he went for his goal, only to be thwarted by a bigger problem.

The leak had spread. The water weighted down the raft so that more gushed in over the sides.

The raft wobbled. Cami let out a shocked gasp and dropped her grip on his hair to clutch the side of the raft, which started to collapse. “Tanner!”

“One more kiss,” he said, leaning in.

Her mouth was warm and soft and tasted like soda. For an instant she melted to him, kissing him back, but then the water hit high on their thighs, and she pulled away, gasping. “So much for the perfect date.”

It had been perfect to him. “Perfect’s relative,” he told her.

Then the water hit the sensitive-to-cold area directly above and between his thighs. “Now swim!” he said in a voice an octave higher than usual.

9

“GOODNESS,” Cami’s mother said after she’d listened to her daughter repeat the events from the river-rafting date. “What caused the leak?”

“Fate, I’m sure.” Cami was on her cell phone, and as usual, her mother had caught her just as she was pulling into her town house complex. She’d been gone since the day after the rafting incident, traveling to San Francisco on a referral from Dimi, which had actually panned out.

After two days of talking carpets, colors and lines, Cami couldn’t wait to dig in and start.

Also, in spite of herself, she couldn’t wait to see Tanner again.

“What happened?” her mother demanded. “Don’t leave me hanging.”

Cami parked and got out, her cell phone caught between her shoulder and her ear, one arm carrying her overnight bag, the other full of work materials. Juggling everything, she headed toward her town house. “We swam for shore.”

“And then?”

“And then nothing,” she said as casually as she could to the woman who could sniff out a lie within two thousand miles.

“You’re leaving something out,” her mother said slowly, her radar apparently well and working. “I can smell it.”

Cami made it to her front door and set her head against the wood. “Mom.”

“What next?”

“We walked back to where we’d left his truck.”

“It was running, I assume,” her mother said. “Don’t tell me it wouldn’t start and he hitched a ride, deserting you.”

“Oh, it started. The tow truck guy had no problem at all.”

“What?”

Cami had to laugh, it was so ridiculous, and she was so incredibly date cursed. “He’d parked in a duck zone and got towed.”

“A duck what?”

“Zone. No parking allowed because it’s where the ducks gather their little ducklings. Don’t you dare cackle like that, this entire mess is yours and Dad’s fault respectively.”

“Oh, do tell how you figure that!”

“Well, Dad is always dumping his wife for someone better. And then there’s you.”

“Me?”

“You’re always turning men down, waiting for someone better. Do you realize I destroy every potential relationship by sabotaging the date, subliminally of course, so that I don’t have to dump him down the road? Or be dumped, which actually is far more likely.”

“No one would dump you.”

“Yeah, and the moon is made of cheese.” Cami held out her key, but the door was ajar. From the back end of the town house she could hear banging.

Tanner.

Her stomach jittered. Or it could be the five doughnuts she’d consumed, but probably not.

Always, she’d told herself she wanted a man but that there wasn’t one available. Sadly, that wasn’t the truth.

She didn’t allow one to be available. She’d always been told that knowing your problem was more than half the battle, but that wasn’t the case here.

She knew her problem, and it was still a problem.

She was afraid. More afraid than when she’d been sleeping in Ted’s stupid car. More afraid than when she’d been fending off an even more stupid Joshua.

She knew Tanner wouldn’t like it that she feared him, but it was fact. Somehow he’d reached in past her wall of resistance and had taken a hold of her heart.

“Honey, I hesitate to say this-”

“You never hesitate to say anything.”

“Hush. I’m not going to hound you about your laundry.”

Good. Because at this moment Cami was so low on clothes she’d been forced to go commando-no panties. If her mother knew, she’d have a coronary.

“I have this neighbor. He’s young and-” Oh, my God. “Hold it right there.” Cami laughed. She could do little else. “Try Dimi. I happen to know she’s home, probably eating my food, the thief.”

“Your sister is not a thief.”

“Uh-huh, right. Look, I have to go. Love you, though.”

“I love you, too. Now really, he’s-”

“Bye, Mom.” Gently she hung up and shook her head. Some things would never change.

Walking through the living room, she dumped first her phone, then the load in her arms.