Nerd in Shining Armor (Nerds, #1)(26)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

She returned his gaze, and a shiver of sexual excitement ran through her at the look in his eyes. He certainly didn’t look like a nerd today, with his beard glossy black in the sunshine and his hair ruffled by the sea breeze. He’d had a good body to begin with, and now his skin was beginning to turn brown, which set off his muscles to good advantage.

She knew what those muscles felt like, knew what his fingers could do, and his mouth, and his … That part still stood out, proud and free, announcing that he found her irresistible. She was beginning to understand how lucky she was, because ever since they’d splashed down near this beach, his one-track mind had been focused on her.

Staring at a man’s penis wasn’t ladylike. Her mother would have a hissy fit if she had any idea her daughter could do such a thing. But Jack’s penis was a work of art.

"You’re not helping matters," he murmured.

She dragged her attention back to his face. "Sorry. But I keep thinking of you being affected this way, and me never suspecting a thing. You mean, even when we’d happen to meet over by the water cooler, you’d be getting a—"

"We never just happened to meet. I’d do my best to run into you, even though it was torture for me."

She looked into his eyes for a long time. "When we go back. . ."

"I have no idea how that’s going to work." He cleared his throat. "I might have to quit."

"No! Rainbow will have enough problems after what Nick did. If you quit, that could sink the whole company, which means I wouldn’t have a job, anyway."

"Maybe I could find him a replacement."

"Jack, you will do a tom-fool thing like that over my dead body. I’ve heard how they talk about you. You’re a genius. Do you think there’s a genius hiding behind every banyan tree? Hardly. You’re one of a kind, and you belong right where you are, doing whatever it is you do, which I don’t pretend to understand."

"Then maybe I could work at home most of the time. There’s no reason why I have to—"

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Genevieve couldn’t explain why this was upsetting her so, but it was. The idea that he would stay home to avoid her, that their nice little friendship was ruined and now she wouldn’t see him walking around in his mismatched plaids with his hair sticking up, was too much for her. "I like having you in the office, and I’ll bet everybody else does, too."

"Yeah. Comic relief."

"That’s not it! You’re . . . you’re real, Jack." She blinked away the moisture in her eyes. "So many people in this world look like they came right off the assembly line in some people factory. They wear what everybody else wears and they talk like everybody else talks." Like she’d been trying to do herself. The idea shook her. "But not you," she said, wondering if she could learn a thing or two from Jack about being real. "If I thought I was the reason you had to hide in your house and work by some sort of remote control, I would never forgive myself."

"Then I won’t do that," he said gently. "And thank you, Gen. That might be the nicest speech anybody’s ever made about me."

She sniffed. "You’re welcome. But I have to warn you, I can’t quit, either. Mama needs my income until Lincoln graduates, and he has three whole years left."

"Don’t worry." Jack’s expression was tender. "We’ll figure something out."

"I hope so." But she had no idea what. From now on, every time she saw Jack at the office, she’d know he was doing battle with his penis. And knowing that, she’d start thinking about what had happened on this island and get all worked up herself. Maybe she should have considered that before she allowed herself to get so carried away by lust.

At any rate, the depressing conversation had taken care of Jack’s problem for the time being. Now instead of looking like an actor in an X-rated movie, he looked like the statues standing around in fancy museums.

He leaned over and swished the sand-coated energy bar through the water. "Let me wash this off so you can finish it."

"You are going to finish it."

"I’ll eat guavas."

"You hate guavas." She wasn’t too keen on them herself.

She’d tried to pretend they were okay, back before her suitcase had come drifting in with an alternative food source.

"I love guavas now." He held the dripping energy bar out to her. "Take it."

"Nope." She backed up a step.

"Come on, Gen. Your mother packed these for you, not for me. Besides, you need your strength."

"And you don’t?"

"I’m used to going without food. Sometimes when I’m writing code I forget to eat for a day or more. I’m not even that hungry right now."

"Liar."

"Gen, let me do this for you. Please."

"Why? Why not let me do this for you? Sure, my mother packed these in my suitcase, but you’re the one who landed the plane without killing us dead. If you hadn’t done that, nobody would be eating these energy bars. I want you to have half."

He sighed. "In all my life, I’ve never felt like somebody’s hero before. Yesterday was the first time that I was a …" He flushed. "It sounds dumb."

"A knight in shining armor?"

"Yeah. Something like that. I want to keep that feeling a little bit longer. I know this isn’t much, but it’s something I can do, something heroic. Take the energy bar."

"Okay." She stepped closer and took it, knowing that he must be even hungrier than she was. "Thank you, Jack. You really are a knight in shining armor."

He smiled. "Don’t overdo it."

"But I mean it. You are." As she started to take a bite, she saw the yearning in his eyes. Taking it back out of her mouth was a challenge when she was so ready to devour it, but she managed. "I’ll go somewhere else to eat this."

"No, eat it here. I want to watch you enjoy it."

"But you looked at it with so much longing. Now I feel really bad that I agreed to take it."

"It wasn’t the energy bar I was looking at."

"Oh." She felt warm all over when he said things like that.

"Now eat it."

She bit into the bar, and although it was salty, and sand he hadn’t been able to wash off crunched when she chewed, she’d never eaten anything so wonderful in her life. And she was absolutely certain that no man had ever given up so much for her as Jack had just now, by sacrificing his half of the very last decent thing they had to eat.

* * *

Annabelle felt like the most selfish person in the whole wide world. Matt and Lincoln were getting along great, and Matt had even let Lincoln drive the boat. Lincoln was eating up the attention.

Annabelle had kept herself a little apart, hanging out near the stern of the boat so the men could bond. And they were bonding to beat the band, which made Annabelle feel even worse about her son. Out of fear that she’d pick another loser, she’d deprived Lincoln of a daddy. She’d deprived Genevieve, too, but for a boy it might make more of a difference. Then again, maybe not.

Once they’d arrived in Honolulu all those years ago, she should have gone on a manhunt for a nice, respectable father for them. If she’d made sure that he wasn’t very exciting in bed, then he wouldn’t have been as likely to run out on her.

It was the exciting ones you had to watch out for. The boring ones were grateful to get any woman at all and so they stayed put. She’d just never thought of going after a boring man in order to provide for Genevieve and Lincoln’s development.

Unfortunately, Matt might not qualify in the boring department. Every time Annabelle looked into those big brown eyes, she knew exactly why the cocktail waitress had wanted to take him home to play Count the Bedsprings. The fact that he’d caught the waitress’s attention pretty much put the guaranteed-to-be-exciting label on him. Annabelle had better steer clear of Matt Murphy.

But Lincoln sitting up there driving the boat, proud as could be, was heartwarming, and she’d never forget the sound of Matt laughing at something Lincoln had said to him. She could imagine how that made Lincoln feel, getting a man like Matt to laugh at those one-liners of his. Annabelle tried to be a good audience for him, but she knew he probably craved the sound of male laughter. Shoot, she craved it, too.

Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of things like that, though. Now was the time to concentrate on Genevieve. Much as Annabelle liked knowing that Lincoln was enjoying himself with Matt, she sincerely hoped he wasn’t allowing himself to be distracted. He needed to be concentrating on his sister.

With that thought, she reluctantly decided to interrupt the little rooster party they had going on in the cockpit of this boat. She steadied the binoculars with one hand so they wouldn’t hang loose around her neck by the strap and bang against her br**sts as she climbed the steps to the cockpit.

Matt noticed her first. Even without being able to see his eyes, she could tell he felt guilty about something, too.

"Hi, Annabelle. Listen, I don’t want you to think that I was up here laughing because I’ve forgotten what this trip is all about."

"No, Mom, he wouldn’t forget," Lincoln said quickly. "Like, we were just trying to relieve the tension."

She didn’t know which amazed her more, that Matt was afraid she’d disapprove because he’d been laughing or that Lincoln was sticking up for him. "I never thought for a minute that you were forgetting anything."

"Mom, you should try driving this boat. It’s unbelievable. The guys are gonna be all, You got to drive a boat?"

Matt picked up on the suggestion right away. "Sure. Take a turn, Annabelle."

"I didn’t come up here so that I could—"

"Aw, come on, Mom." Lincoln’s voice turned sing-songy and coaxing, like it did when he’d tried to get her on a roller coaster. "It’s very cool. If you don’t, then later you’ll be all, I wish I’d tried it."

"All right. And while I’m driving, maybe you could put your earphones on again and see if anything

comes to you regarding your sister."

"Uh, sure. Sure, I will." Lincoln sounded eager to please as he started to get up. "Matt, maybe you’d better take the wheel while Mom and me are switching places."

Annabelle noticed that her son was using Mart’s Christian name again, and decided not to bring it up. She’d kept Lincoln from ever being able to call a man Daddy, so maybe she shouldn’t be so particular about what he called his new friend.

"Can I have the binoculars?" Lincoln asked as he slipped out of the captain’s seat.

"You’ll have to ask Mr. Murphy. They belong to him."

"He’s welcome to use them," Matt said. "And I wish both of you would call me Matt. I think the situation puts us all on a first-name basis."

Lincoln gave her a look that said plainly See there?

Annabelle wasn’t in the mood to argue. "I suppose you’re right." She lifted the strap of the binoculars over her head and stood on tiptoe to put it around Lincoln’s neck.

"Mo-om. I can do that."

"I don’t want you to drop them. No doubt they cost a pretty penny."

"I’m sure he’ll be careful," Matt murmured.

Annabelle felt the two males closing ranks on her, which made her feel out of place. She began to wonder if that had been another reason she hadn’t wanted to invite a man into the family. When it was her and Genevieve and Lincoln, the females had the advantage. Well, she hoped she hadn’t been that unsure of herself.

"Go ahead and sit here and take the wheel," Matt said.

"I do believe I will." Annabelle settled into the driver’s seat and immediately felt better. She’d always been one to steer her own course.

* * *

At Gen’s suggestion, Jack sat on the beach towel and soaked his feet in the salt water.

"I’ll pick us some guavas and be back," she said.

Jack watched her go, glad he’d kept the glasses so he could enjoy the free way she walked around this beach without a stitch on. When she reached up to pick guavas off the tree, she could have been Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Yeah, but once Adam had eaten the little treat Eve had brought him, things hadn’t worked out so good. Jack wondered if Adam had enjoyed the kind of amazing sex with Eve that he’d just had with Gen. If so, being booted out of the Garden must have been a real bummer. Jack could relate.

Gen came back toward him holding three guavas in her cupped hands. Her br**sts swayed gently as she trudged through the sand. Jack wondered if this was the picture he’d superimpose over Gen the next time he met her coming from the copy machine with a stack of papers.

She dumped the guavas on the towel beside him. "This time we’ll use my manicure scissors to peel them. I’ll be right back."

"Okay." Turning to watch her walk up to the hideaway would definitely be ogling, so Jack faced the ocean instead.

Some kind of seabirds soared overhead, but he’d never learned their names. He’d bet Gen would know. He loved that she was so tuned in to the natural world.

Sunlight sparkled on the water, but there were no fins. That didn’t mean the shark wasn’t out there like a submerged submarine, though.

Jack shuddered every time he thought of the times he and Gen had tempted Fate by splashing around in that water. Why the shark hadn’t grabbed one of them when they’d swum in from the plane was a puzzle. So far they’d been incredibly lucky. Jack knew from his statistics class that the odds couldn’t keep going in their favor.

He caught Gen’s scent before he heard her steps in the sand behind him. She’d put on some more of that coconut suntan oil. As he turned his head to smile at her, he discovered that wasn’t all she’d put on. She was wearing a light-colored bikini.

"Now I feel underdressed," he said. He wondered if the bathing suit was a signal that they wouldn’t have sex anymore. If so, it wasn’t a very good signal, because those litde scraps of material would come off in no time. He’d always thought that was the idea of a bikini—gift-wrapped sex.

"I put this on for a reason. I have a plan, but first you need some more of this lotion on your back and shoulders. You’re starting to get a little red."

"Okay, thanks." He wasn’t about to object if she wanted to rub her hands all over his back. "What’s the plan?"