Sea of Seduction: A Single Dad Sports Romance Read online

  His movements slowed, and he leaned over, reaching around to cup my breasts, squeezing gently, kissing my hot cheek. “You are so delicia, meu amor.”

  We collapsed on the thick blanket, my head on Dominick’s chest, the steady thrum of his heart mixing with the lapping of the waves. We straightened our clothing and Dominick held my hand, kissing it softly. He moved to his side until he was staring into my eyes. He stroked my hair and said, “About that card reading. I think you just drew the new partner card again.”

  I smiled so big that I thought my face would break. Then the two of us dissolved in laughter.

  When our giggles died down, he gazed at me with pure adoration. “Come here, minha flor.” His strong hands caressed the back of my head, and he gave me a luscious, salty, surfer kiss as we sank into the afterglow.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Coco

  When we broke our kiss my heart flooded with happiness. I shoved him gently. “The card from our first meeting.” I gazed into his eyes. “Did you plant that card?”

  He laughed. “I wish I could say yes, but no, the cards have their own mind.” We looked at each other for long seconds, and I wanted to memorize the moment. Dominick’s body contrasted against the now-dark sky, the candles flickering softly, the moon, the stars, the sound of the ocean waves. It was all so overwhelmingly romantic. “Are you hungry?”

  I grinned. “Starving.”

  We sat on the edge of the open tailgate and Dominick reached into the basket. “Lola packed our dinner.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to see what kind of feast the lovely Lola prepared.” He removed paper plates and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Rhys would have found our meal tacky, but I loved it. I stared at Dominick’s handsome profile. Here was a man who was so in love with his daughter. I could imagine Lola and Dominick standing side by side in the kitchen fussing over our picnic. High anti-oxidant diet be damned, I was suddenly starving for PBJ sandwiches. I clapped my hands together. “I love peanut butter!”

  He removed a thermos and two plastic cups. “We get apple juice to go with that.” He filled my glass, and we toasted. “To the beautiful woman who walked into my psychic reading and my heart.” We clinked plastic, took sips and Dominick gave me a peck on the lips. We tore into our sandwiches.

  He wiped his mouth with a napkin and gazed out to the sea. “I hope it was okay. You know, that I moved so fast with you.”

  Was it okay? I wanted to jump up and down and scream from the cliff top how fantastic sex with Dominick was.

  I was happy that it was too dark for him to see the heat that spread across my cheeks as I thought of the bet that had gotten me here.

  I held his hand and gazed into his eyes. “It was wonderful. I suppose you could say I threw myself at you.”

  He swallowed down a swig of apple juice. “You did, didn’t you?” He held the sandwich in both hands and looked down at it. “It’s been a while since I’ve been with anyone.” He chuckled and gazed at me with those mesmerizing green eyes. “I suppose Lola pushed us together, didn’t she?”

  “I’m glad she did.” I tried to keep my voice nonchalant. I’d asked him this before, but I needed to know. “Why haven’t you had a girlfriend lately?”

  “Just busy. Focusing on work and Lola.” He gazed at me again, and the raw need in his eyes made me want to tackle him and smother him with passionate kisses again. He smiled, his eyes smiling along with the rest of his face. He kissed my hand. “I’m glad it was with you. I’m just surprised that you’re not married to some lucky guy who begged you to spend life with him.”

  “Nope.”

  “Have you been close?”

  I thought of David and the books I’d read after he left me. Books with titles like He’s Just Not That Into You. “I was. Once. It didn’t work out. What about you?”

  “Not much to tell. Life on the pro tour makes it hard to be married.”

  “Why don’t you compete now?” I conveniently left out the fact that Rhys and I had stalked him on Google.

  A haunted look came across his handsome face. “I got kicked off the tour.” He turned to me, his face frantic. “I’m trying to change, really I am. I’ve changed my life a lot. I’m taking care of Lola. Working the business.”

  “What happened?”

  He gazed at the sandwich in his hands. “I beat somebody up.” His head lifted until he was looking at me. “A judge.”

  My breath was a sharp intake. “Oh.”

  He told me the story, and I felt so sorry for him. Dominick was like a little boy the way he sat eating his PBJ, eager for my acceptance. “You want to hear something bizarre? The judge I punched, he entered the drink contest.” He looked away, and I noticed something in his eyes, a burning passion, a competitive fire. He faced me and smiled. “What would you do with the money if we won?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe invest in the business. Buy a lifetime supply of bones for Victor Jose. Money’s never been that important to me. What would you do?”

  “Make sure Lola’s got everything she needs for school and clothes. Things a lot of my friends in Brazil can’t afford. Then I’d buy a new surfboard.” He gazed at me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Take you to Tahiti.” He looked at his hands. “Money can’t buy my way back into the tour. I’m not proud of the way things ended. You’re not shocked are you?”

  I held his hand. “Of course I’m not. You reacted. Life has a way of evening out. You’re here now.” With me. “You’re doing a great job with Lola. It looks like your business is a success.” I nudged him with my foot. “You’re the hottest psychic in town you know.” He gave me a self-conscious smile. “How’d you get involved in the business?”

  He told me about his grandmother. “She taught me to read cards when I was just a kid. She made a decent living at it too.” He placed a hand on my thigh. “Tell me more about your business.”

  “I help lonely women get rid of wrinkles and beat the clock.” I smiled. “Time marches on. We just don’t want it to march all over our face.”

  He laughed. “I suppose you could say I help lonely women too. We do the same thing.” He raised his cup. “To public service.” We clinked plastic cups. “Ever thought of having kids?”

  I looked down and brushed a nonexistent crumb off my dress. “I wanted them. But it didn’t work out.” He looked at me, urging me on. I felt so comfortable with him that I told him the truth. “I was pregnant. Three times. I couldn’t carry them past the first trimester.” Tears filled my eyes, and he wiped them away.

  “Oh, meu amor. I am sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve got my business and friends. My life is full. You sure are lucky to have Lola.”

  His smile was broad. “That I am. She wasn’t planned, but I have no idea what life would be like without her. She’s a pistol, that one.”

  We grinned at each other as I admired his athletic frame in the moonlight. I reached out to touch his bicep. “You sure are one heck of a surfer. Do you have any plans for competing again? Maybe at some local contests for fun?”

  He stood up. An excitement lit his eyes. “Wait until I tell you what I’m planning. It’s going to be epic!” He gestured with his hands as he spoke. “There’s this wave called Cortes Bank. It’s a hundred miles off the coast.”

  My body went rigid with fear and ice filled my veins as he spoke.

  “It breaks out in the middle of the ocean like a mountain range on rollers. I’ve surfed big waves before, but nothing like the Banks. When it gets good, the waves can get sixty feet high.” I let Dominick talk, my mouth slack as I watched him pace in front of me, electricity firing off of his body. Finally, he seemed to notice me again. “What’s wrong?”

  The vision of my mother lying on a cold, hard coroner slab filled my mind. My voice was a whisper. “Didn’t somebody die out there last year?”

  He rushed to my side, held my hand and gazed into my eyes. “Yes. But that’s just the way it goes with these things. I�
��m training.” He pointed to his chest. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve been a pro surfer all my life.” He stopped speaking, and silence filled the space between us. “I promised someone I would do it. For them.” His grip lessened on my hand.

  The night grew wavy as I felt myself closing in on what my therapist termed loss of control. I abhorred this about myself. I didn’t mean to, but my voice was higher pitched than intended. “You can’t go out there. What about Lola?”

  His voice was firm, his grip tight on my hand. “Lola supports me in everything I do.”

  I wanted to rail and scream and beg him to stick to the local waves. I’d heard about Cortes Bank. It was one of those crazy, high-risk big wave surfing spots that only a handful of lunatics attempted to surf every year. Dominick would die out there.

  “I know she loves you. But does she really know what it’s like out there? Do you? Have you surfed it yet?”

  My therapist’s voice droned in my head. Take four deep breaths in, four deep breaths out. Dammit, why couldn’t I control my emotions better? The image of him taking off on one of those monstrous waves, the whitewater exploding around him, his body being pitched over the face and forced down to the bottom of the ocean, all the wind knocked out of him, unable to breathe, fighting for air as his life flashed before his eyes. All while his daughter waited at home. It was almost too much to consider.

  He turned away from me and gazed out at the horizon. “No. But I know what I’m doing. I told you. I’m training. I know the surfers. They’ve got it wired. It’s … maybe not exactly safe, but we’ve got flotation vests and safety crews.”

  I counted in for two breaths and stopped. “Safety crews? Do you have spear guns or hand grenades for the great white sharks?”

  “Calm down. Why are you so upset?”

  Therapist be damned, I was on a roll. “The one guy died. That was horrible. Did you hear about that surfer who had to be airlifted out?”

  “Yes, I heard. And he’s fine.”

  I tapped my foot, but I couldn’t stop myself. “It took the Coast Guard three hours to get to him. He laid on the boat throwing up foamy blood while they took their time. He could’ve died out there! In the middle of the ocean.” That poor man. His wife would’ve gotten the call that his sport finally claimed her lover and the father of her child. No. Dominick couldn’t go.

  He gripped my hand tightly and put his arm around me. In a soft voice, he said, “Please, relax, minha flor. I promise I know what I’m doing.”

  I ran fingers through my hair and stammered out a reply. “I just want you to be safe.”

  He sat up straight, puffing his chest out. “I’ve been planning this for years. This is hands down the most important thing I’ve ever considered doing.” He touched his heart. “It’s a sacred promise. I suppose you could say it’s a religious thing.”

  “Religious?” I tried to remember what religion they practiced in Brazil. “Are you Catholic?”

  He chuckled. “Sort of.”

  So I left it at that. My voice was tiny when I said, “I just want you to be careful out there.”

  I knew I had allowed myself to fall down a well of panic. Dominick had gone to so much trouble to make this evening special. I tried to conjure up my therapist’s soothing voice and forced myself to focus on the present moment—Dominick’s sensual aura, the ocean breeze, the full moon. Inhale to the count of four, exhale to the count of four.

  He stood up and smiled, placing a finger underneath my chin, tilting my face up until our eyes met. “I will be.” His mouth was on mine; his hands were in my hair, his cock ground into my pelvis and I melted under his touch. Dominick made love to me again that night. He turned me around, hiked up my dress and fucked me with an intensity that had me screaming his name so loud I thought all of La Fortuna would hear.

  And I didn’t care.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Coco

  When Dominick dropped me off at home, we stood at my door, and he gave me one final passionate kiss. “When can I see you again?”

  I adopted my public persona, a confident bravado I didn’t feel. “I will be counting the seconds.” I touched his lips. “How do you say it? Meu amor.”

  When I entered my condo, Victor Jose trotted happily after me, but all I wanted to do was grab my phone and call Rhys. I punched in Rhys’s number, and he answered on the first ring. “Well, who’s going to Canyon Ranch? You or me?” I tried to speak, but instead, a low sob erupted. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

  I tried to modulate my voice. “I’m worried about Dominick.”

  “Worried? Why?”

  I told him about Dominick’s plan to surf Cortes Bank. “He’s going to die out there, Rhys.” I collapsed on the sofa in a heap. Victor Jose leaped onto my lap, placing his paws on my chest.

  “Coco. Listen to me. The man knows what he’s doing. Just because your mom …” His voice trailed off. “Sweetie, you have to accept people for who they are. Dominick’s a pro, right? If he said he’s trained for this, you have to believe him. Would he really put his life at risk? He’s got a kid.”

  I felt tears coming on but sniffed them back. “He can’t … he can’t …”

  His voice became a purr. “How was the sex? Did you do it?”

  I smiled. I had won the bet. “Yes, we did it. And it was fan-fucking-tastic.”

  “There’s my best friend.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Dang, I lost. I really didn’t think he’d break.”

  I sat up straight, and my voice was shrill. “I don’t care about the bet anymore.” I sprang up off the sofa and wandered to the kitchen, scouring the fridge for something to soothe my nerves. I found a lone can of beer, a leftover from one of our junk food nights. I popped the top and took a long, satisfying swig. “Rhys. Listen to me. Dominick can never know about the bet.”

  His voice was incredulous. “Do you love him?”

  I took another swallow and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “No! I mean, yes. I mean, we just met.”

  Rhys chuckled softly. “I think somebody is falling in love. Fine. If you don’t want that trip to Canyon Ranch, maybe I can take Alex.”

  “The barista? Have you guys gone out?”

  “No. But I’m working on it.”

  I tapped my foot impatiently and drained the can of beer. “I didn’t think Dominick would be who he is. I thought he’d be a quick roll in the hay. Rhys, he’s different than I expected.”

  I walked out to the balcony and took a deep breath of ocean air, remembering Dominick’s hands on my body, the way he’d made me scream his name as he made long, slow love to me. But there was more to him. I hadn’t felt this intensity of emotion in a long time. Maybe ever. It was more than his Latin lover mystique, the way his gaze traveled my body lighting on my legs, breasts and between my legs. Yes, it was a downright turn on to have him boldly declare his desire for me. But there were more than mind-blowing orgasms at play.

  I tried to make sense of what Dominick meant to me and didn’t want my judgment clouded by our red-hot sex. I squeezed my legs tightly at the memory, my body shuddering.

  I thought of his home, the way he had littered family photos all over the living room, the way his eyes lit up when he discussed his daughter, the obvious pride he took in Lola. He helped desperate people with his psychic business; it wasn’t all that different from what I did. We sold hope. I thought of his passion for his sport, and I quickly pushed the thought of Dominick on those monster waves aside. “He’s a family man, and he’s building a new life here.”

  “A life with you?”

  “Maybe.”

  We spoke for a few more minutes and finally hung up.

  The bet was off.

  An extreme weariness overtook me and I trudged to bed. As I lay there that night, the ocean breeze wafting through the open window, my only thought was, I have to talk Dominick out of going to Cortes Bank.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Dominick

  “Earth to Dominick.”
Goff waved his hand in front of my face as we stood in his barn-turned-surf-equipment-shed. “Did you hear anything I said about the flotation vest? You’re about a million miles away.” He held the vest in front of him like a flight attendant during a safety briefing. “Ever since you started dating that hot chick.”

  The intensity of emotion I felt toward Coco surprised me because I had never allowed myself to get close to women. Life on the pro tour didn’t allow for that kind of closeness.

  He smiled. “Is my friend thinking about getting serious? Can’t say I blame you, she’s sexy.”

  “Just give me that vest. Nothing to it, right?” I shrugged into the garment.

  “Make sure it fits tight, then your rashguard goes over it.” He tugged on the rip cord lightly. “It’s only for emergencies. The CO2 cartridge is only good one time, but you know all that.” He gazed at me and scratched his head. “Damn. I wish I had a girlfriend to show off for. Does she come watch you surf?”

  “Sometimes.” I scratched my head. “She’s not too thrilled about me going out on big waves.”

  Goff clapped me on the shoulder. “Lots of chicks feel that way. You know how many times I’ve heard folks say I’m going to die out there?” He flexed his muscles. “Nothing’s taking this dude down.”

  I thought of the haunted look that overtook Coco’s face every time I mentioned Cortes Bank. “She seems extra upset somehow.”

  “This stuff ain’t for pansies, you know. She’ll come around.”

  The thing of it was, I didn’t think Coco would accept my desire to ride the mackers at the Banks. I’d gotten close to telling her about the promise I’d made to my father, but I was so tired of reliving the things that brought me down in life. Coco made me want to be a better person—a better father, a better lover, a better businessperson. I was trying to keep things light and happy between us.

  After that first night of sex on the cliff, our relationship had progressed. We’d walk Victor on the beach together, make love at her place, have dinners at my house and Lola was happy. Lola seemed to especially delight in the role of matchmaker. “See, Papai; I told you Coco was good for you.” Every time I saw Coco with Lola my heart did a little dance. She loved to help Lola in the kitchen and with her homework. I admired her passion for her business. Not only that, there was something about Coco that needed protecting. Her reaction to Cortes Bank seemed overblown, but then again she was right to be concerned.