She wanted to say much more. Like thanks for understanding she needed him here tonight, just as she'd needed him after the snake attack. For a man who proclaimed himself antisocial, he tapped into her needs well.
Her needs.
Darcy swallowed.>She looped it around her hand but didn't move to secure the craft. "Get your party Tevas on, Doc. Crewdogs are throwing a farewell luau on the base beach. It's sure to be hokey and full of food, just like the 'Brady Bunch Goes to Hawaii' episode."
He wanted to go with her. Too much. "Thanks, but I'll have to pass. Stacks of paperwork."
She perched a hand on her hip. "So don't sleep tonight. Time's awasting, and I'll be leaving soon. There'll be ukulele solos by torchlight. More shish kebabs than you can eat in two lifetimes. You don't even have to talk to us humans if you don't want. God knows, no one can get a word in edgewise around Bronco and Crusty, anyway."
Or around her, either, but damn she was mesmerizing to listen to and watch.
Darcy inched closer. "At least give me a ride over. I'm still too wasted from yesterday's flight to hike back to base," she groused, her body screaming a vitality that mocked her claims of weakness.
He hesitated.
She scrunched her nose. "If you don't come, Bronco's going to pair me up with that new copilot. The big lug is so happily married he thinks everyone should invest in a ring and make a pack of Kodak memories. Pretend to be my date and protect me from that overgrown Cupid."
Protect. The single word reminded him of his need to keep her clear of a lot more than that. "When you put it that way, how can I say no to you?''
"You can't."
No damn kidding.
Darcy stepped onto the nose of his boat and tossed the line back to him. Her water shoes slid along the slick deck. Max steadied her. Hands to her waist, careful to keep a safe distance, he lifted her into the boat, steeling himself to keep his distance. As if the tempting give of womanly flesh under his hands wasn't already tempting him to throw away rational thoughts.
A traitorous wave slapped the boat. Darcy pitched into his arms.
Ah, hell. Warm, wet Darcy molded to him, every inch of him. Every throbbing, too-damn-long-denied, starving inch of him that was fed up with keeping her at arm's length.
He wanted to tangle their bodies together on the floor of the boat, strip away bathing suits and inhibitions. Screw the job. Screw being honorable. Just...screw everything until they both couldn't breathe.
Hell, he couldn't breathe now.
His hands tightened around her waist just as her br**sts tightened against his skin. He wished he'd put on a shirt. He knew it wouldn't have made any difference.
Her full br**sts beaded against his chest. Branded him. Her generous lips parted, lips as generous as the woman. It would be so easy to take from her.
Confusion flickered through her eyes just before she plastered on an overbright smile and stepped back. Damn, it took forever for her to peel herself away.
Okay, maybe five seconds. Might as well have been five hours for all the torture he endured.
"All righty, Doc." Darcy's thready voice drifted along the air as she made her way around a cooler of bottled water. "Let's fire up this boat and hit the beach before Crusty eats all the food." She plopped down in the passenger seat, swiping a strand of hair from her brow.
Her hands shook.
He was an ass. He'd done this, sent her confusing signals until this honest, good—totally hot—woman didn't know how to react. She deserved open emotion, and, hell yes, open desire from a guy who had something more to give her than a dried-up heart and rootless life.
But damned if he would let her find that guy tonight.
Max stepped behind the wheel of the boat and kicked it into reverse, backing away from the dock with more speed than necessary thanks to the frustration fueling his every move. Water chugged from the engine, then quieted as he guided the boat forward, chopping through the waves. Darcy stretched her legs on the side of the boat to absorb dwindling rays. If the woman glowed any more, he would be blinded.
He pulled his attention away from her and piloted the boat along the tropical shoreline, trees darker, denser in the hazy glow of sunset. The sheer cliff of Lovers' Leap stretched in the distance, about the only landmark Darcy hadn't trekked through in the past weeks. Her confidences she'd shared on the roof echoed—how her father had found her on the cliff after the kidnapping she labeled a disappearance.
Max pointed the nose of the boat away from the site. "I guess you went to luaus before as a kid, when your dad was stationed in Guam?"
The engine hummed in the silence. He glanced at her. "Darcy?"
He looked past the outward glow and found more of those shadows in her eyes.