Nerd in Shining Armor (Nerds, #1)(29)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Matt hesitated.

"Then you don’t believe it." She hadn’t really expected him to, so she shouldn’t be so disappointed.

"At this point, I don’t know what to believe," Matt said. "And I’m—"

"Just playing along?"

He sighed. "No. I have a feeling you wouldn’t allow me do that."

"You’ve got that right, mister."

"I’m trying to keep an open mind, is what I’m doing. Can you live with that?"

"I don’t have much choice, now, do I? I can’t very well climb into your head and shine a light into your brain, can I?"

"You know, Annabelle, sometimes I think that’s exactly what you’ve done. When I look at you, it’s like somebody turned a floodlight on in my head."

"That sounds downright unpleasant." It was a long way from saying you light up my life, and she’d always wished a man would tell her that. She thought it sounded so romantic, and it was one of her all-time favorite songs. Telling her that she caused a floodlight to go on in his brain wasn’t the same.

"That’s the best way for me to explain it," Matt said. "You make me look at things differently, like when

I was talking to you about Theresa, I finally figured out that I’d just never loved her enough to be a good husband."

"Well, I guess that could explain why Genevieve’s daddy and Lincoln’s daddy both took off so quick. Maybe they just plumb ran out of love. And here I thought they were irresponsible, selfish good-for-nothings."

"They were." Matt said it with such feeling that it warmed her heart. "And I was selfish, too, hanging on to a woman and not giving her the love she needed. But leaving you with a baby … I would never do something like that."

"I believe you. You didn’t have to rent this boat, and now that I know you’re not rich, I can see it was even more of an imposition. And I’m going to pay you back, if it takes me—"

"No, you are not."

"Oh, yes, I surely am."

"I don’t want the money. But there is something I do want from you."

Annabelle’s heart started thumping faster. She lowered her voice. "If you want sex, then I take back all the nice things I’ve ever said about you."

Matt leaned closer, his breath tickling her ear. "Annabelle, if I didn’t want sex, there would be something seriously wrong with me. But I respect your reasons for not getting involved. So I’m wondering if we can be friends, you, me, and Lincoln. After this is over and we’ve found Genevieve, I don’t want to go our separate ways."

Annabelle didn’t want that, either, but she had her rules, and Matt was too good looking to be only a friend. "You want to come over for supper and gin rummy? Is that what you’re thinking about?"

"I’d love to. I’d also like to take a boat out for the fun of it again, and I’d like you and Lincoln to go along. You could practice driving."

No fair. He’d picked the one thing that she couldn’t do on her own. He was the only person she knew who could teach her all about boats. "Why should I care about driving a boat? I have as much chance of owning one as a mule has of winning the Kentucky Derby."

"You don’t know that. You don’t know what the future has in store for you. And you love being at the wheel of this boat. You might as well admit it, because it’s written all over your face."

"I do love it," she said softly. "I didn’t expect I would. I only took the wheel so Lincoln would get back to concentrating on Genevieve, but. . . there’s something about being out here on the ocean, like we’re dancing over the waves."

"I feel that way, too. Let me give you a chance to really enjoy it."

She hesitated. "Are we still talking about driving the boat?"

"Why?" There was laughter in his voice. "What else could we be talking about?"

Annabelle lifted her chin. "I may be a hillbilly, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I know all about those double meanings."

"I’m sure you do." He cleared his throat. "I was talking about driving the boat. Let me teach you."

"I’ll think about it."

"Good. That’s a start. Now I’ll go talk to Lincoln about our heading for the next few hours."

* * *

"I hate to see you ripping up your clothes," Jack said.

"I don’t. This is about survival." Perched cross-legged on the South Park beach towel next to Jack, Genevieve opened a side seam on her dress with the hibiscus pattern on it and tore the dress apart without a single regret. Back in the Hollow she’d never worried about clothes. After this, she wouldn’t let herself worry about them again. She had a whole new perspective on things.

Jack worked on the seams of his shirt. "Maybe we should have brought driftwood up to build a fire, instead."

"Oh, sure. I barely got you up here, let alone a bunch of driftwood."

"See, you think I’m a wuss."

"I do not. I think you’re an idiot for not telling me you were scared of heights. You could have stayed on the beach and I would have come up here to make the X." She demolished the dress’s other side seam.

"I couldn’t let you do that."

"Why not?"

"I don’t know—there could have been something dangerous up here."

"Like what?" She sneaked a glance at him. His protective urges were so cute.

"Well, isn’t an albatross kind of big?"

She bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Pretty big. Almost a seven-foot wingspan."

"Holy shit!" He looked up in the sky as if afraid one could be dive-bombing them at this very moment. Then he shuddered. "See what I mean? If some bird the size of a Learjet came swooping at you—"

"I don’t think there’s ever been a report of an albatross attack."

"That doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. You could have a rogue albatross. Damn, are they really seven feet wide?"

"That’s what I’ve read. I’ve never seen one."

"Well, if there are any hanging around here, it’s good there are two of us. They wouldn’t feel so free to mess with two people." He finished ripping apart his shirt and picked up the jacket to her dress. "I don’t see any point in tearing this. It’s as big as it’s going to get."

"I suppose you’re right." She knew their situation was a little uncertain, and she should probably be more worried than she was. But it was hard not to feel optimistic sitting here beside Jack, a most excellent lover, and enjoying an outstanding 360-degree view.

"I really liked this dress."

"Me, too, but I don’t care about it now. We have to be practical. We want the X to be as big as possible, so—"

"Bigger than a freaking albatross," he muttered.

"Jack, you really don’t have to worry about those birds."

"Oh, yeah? What do they eat?"

"Fish."

"My point exactly. Meat eaters. For all we know, a herd of hungry albatrosses, or albatrossi, or whatever, could be headed this way. And we are a whole lot more accessible up here than fish swimming underwater. There’s this old Hitchcock movie about—"

"Now, stop it. I saw that movie on TV and it made me mad. Birds aren’t like that."

"Says you."

"When it comes to birds, I am the expert on this island." She pulled her pale green skirt out of the suitcase.

"You’re going to ruin that, too?"

"Yep." She cut through the waistband. "So what? ifou’ve already sacrificed your shirt and the bottom half of four pants."

Jack laughed. "Yeah, but I think we’ve established that’s 10 big loss."

"True." She grinned at him. "Except now I’m getting and of sentimental about your style of dress. It’s you, after ill."

"Don’t get too attached to that look. I’m going for all black when we get home."

"I’ll probably barely recognize you." And wearing all black, he’d start attracting women. That’s what she’d hoped for, of course. She reached into her suitcase and handed him her blue panties. "Tear these along the side, okay?"

"Okay."

She pulled the skirt apart. "I wonder if you really will buy an all-black wardrobe. You might get back to civilization, start thinking about computer programs, and forget all about your clothes and what we talked about. Right now you don’t have your computer stuff to distract you."

When he didn’t answer, she looked over to find him sitting like a statue while he stared at her panties. "Can you rip those by yourself, or do you need me to start you off by snipping some of the threads? The stitching’s small. Do you want the glasses?"

He glanced at her, as if coming out of a trance. "No, I can do this without the glasses. Actually, I was thinking how much more fun it would be to rip them off you."

She gulped. Just like that, what had been a friendly discussion exploded like a cherry bomb. To think that thoughts of hav**g s*x with her had sent him into a trance. Now, that was exciting. "You . . . you know what ripping panties off of me would lead to."

"I know," he said in a cocky, very-sure-of-himself way.

His tone gave her delicious goose bumps. If a guy started out talking that way, like he was God’s gift, then everyone knew he was a jerk. But Jack had started out with a low opinion of his sex appeal, and his brand-new self-confidence really turned her on, maybe because she’d helped him get to this point. She was proud of her contribution, and almost ready to suggest changing into those panties.

Then he tore them neatly across the side seam. "And for the record, Gen, I won’t forget a single minute of the time we’ve spent here." He tossed the panties onto the pile of torn clothes and looked her straight in the eye. "The question is, will you?"

"Of course I won’t."

"Then it seems to me we should reminisce together."

His suggestion made her heart hurt. She wished he hadn’t brought up the subject, but maybe they needed to get it out of the way. "It won’t be the same, once we’re back in Honolulu."

"Why? Because you can’t see yourself dating a nerd?"

"That’s not it. Well, that’s sort of the problem, but not what you think." She didn’t suppose he’d understand the astrology obstacle, so she brought up the other important issue. "You need to find somebody who’s willing to play second fiddle to that computer screen you’re so attached to. I’m not."

"Goddammit!" He lurched to his feet and started to pace. Then he winced and stopped. "Goddammit," he said again, softer this time. "I’ve told you I won’t forget a minute of the time we’ve spent together. What makes you think I’ll get involved with my computer and forget about you?""

"Because you’re a genius! And there’s some woman out there ready to make allowances for that, but I know myself, and the first time you forgot about me because you were so fascinated with your beloved computer program, I’d feel like you’d lost interest. I would hate that, Jack."

"I wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen."

"You couldn’t help it."

"I could! I could program my computer with a timer, so it would beep a signal when it was time to see you. Hell, I could program it to shut down completely, and then—"

"Don’t you see?" It was good they were having this talk, because it pointed out exactly the problem she was so worried about. "I don’t want you to have to set a timer. I want a man who’s so crazy about me

he remembers on his own, without being reminded."

"I’m pretty sure I would remember! But just in case, I could have a backup system."

She shook her head. "Pretty sure isn’t good enough." How she wished Jack was a normal guy, with a normal nine-to-five job. But then he wouldn’t be Jack. "What we’ve had on this island has been very intense."

"You’re telling me."

"I think part of that’s the danger, don’t you?"

"I think part of that’s me finally getting you nak*d."

Her cheeks grew warm. "And part of it’s because we have no distractions."

"Personally, I think Rainbow should be worried that I’ll be less productive now that I know what I’ve been missing in life. I think that’s a lot more likely than me ignoring you."

"I just think, after what we’ve had on this island, that anything back home would be a letdown. For both of us. This isn’t exactly your normal date, Jack. I mean, don’t you think going out for pizza and a movie would seem dull after this?”

He gazed down at her. "Not if you consider what we could do when we came home from the movie."

When he talked like that, she got very hot and bothered. Then again, she was still on this island, which felt like being back in the caveman days. She was afraid that four walls and a regular bed wouldn’t give them the same thrill. And she couldn’t stand the idea of a watered-down sexual experience with him. Not after what had happened here.

"I just don’t think it would work," she said at last.

"It won’t if you’re not even willing to try."

She gazed at him in silence.

"Okay, then." He gave her a long look before reaching into the pile of clothes. "I might as well start tying what we have together while you keep tearing things apart."

"Was that some sort of loaded remark?"

His glance flicked over her. "Take it any way you want."

"I think it was a loaded remark. I’m not tearing us apart." She started to take out the seams of her suit jacket. "I’m trying to keep us from ruining the magic."

"Don’t do me any favors, okay?" He tied the end of her bra to her panties. "I think the magic would transfer to Honolulu just fine. It would be like saving it on a disk and putting it into another computer. The files would all still be there."

"You’re wrong." She ripped the sleeve from her jacket. "Stuff would be lost. Or scrambled."

"Now you’re talking about my specialty." He tied a length of her hibiscus dress to her panties. "I’m an expert at retrieving lost files and unscrambling messed-up ones. I could straighten us out in no time."