In so many ways, he was a smaller version of Ty. Dark hair, tanned skin, effortless grace on the field. If she and Ty had a child, would it be a boy who looked like Jack? Or a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes?
Her hand went to her mouth as she gasped. She hadn't actually just imagined having a child with Ty, had she?
She was letting herself get in way too deep. She took a deep breath, working hard to rebuild the wall around her heart. How could she have let herself forget, for one single moment, what he'd done ten years ago?
Julie's eyes blurred as she watched Ty run across the grass to pick up a football. All at once, she was back in that yacht with the eighteen-year-old boy she'd just given her soul to.
Grad night on Ty's borrowed yacht was an endless dream of pleasure. Hour after hour, Ty continuedto kiss her, lick her, and caress her, and she returned the favor in every way she could. She wanted tomemorize every muscle, every sinew, the way his abs tightened when she swept her tongue across hisnipples and then marked them gently with her teeth.
Sated and overwhelmed by all of her orgasms, hardly able to believe how close she felt to a boyshe'd never talked to before that night, Julie lay half-awake inside the stateroom until the light outside thetiny window changed from moonlit black to gold.
"It's morning," she whispered and Ty answered by pulling her closer against him, his eyes stillclosed. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed that she was sailing across the Bay. The wind was inher hair and it was a perfect, sunny day. But then she saw Ty piloting an oncoming yacht that was justabout to crash into her. She cried out for him to change course, but all he did was laugh at her. Hisfriends were on board his ship and they were all laughing too, like they knew some dirty little secret abouther.
Julie woke up just as the ships were about to hit. She was disoriented on so little sleep, but she waspretty sure she heard stomping on the deck above them. Had the owners come back early to claim theirboat?
She sat up, covering herself with the sheet. But even though she was petrified about beingdiscovered having sex on a stranger's boat, she couldn't help but admire Ty's incredible physique, tannedand toned from the ankles up.
His eyes opened and his lips curved in a sexy grin. "Come lie down again," he drawled, but shecouldn't ignore the feet that got louder with every passing second.
"It sounds like someone's on board," she whispered.
He cocked his head at the ceiling. "Sure does."
She knew her eyes had to be wild, her hair and makeup unfixable. "Shouldn't we get dressed andget out of here?"
He sat up, utterly unconcerned with his nakedness. Julie didn't think she'd ever learn to be socomfortable with her body, not if she had a hundred years to practice.
"I'm not too worried about it," he said, "but I can go out and take a look if you really want me to."She nodded. "That'd be great."
While he was gone, she'd put her dress back on and use the tiny bathroom to assess the rest of thedamage. After all, she was going to have to sneak back into her parents' house soon. Although they wereboth so self-absorbed, she doubted they'd notice that she'd been out all night and hadn't called.He zipped up his black dress slacks, picking up her discarded panties and shoving them in hispocket.
"Just to make sure you don't try and leave before I get back."Almost at the door, he turned, came back to her, and kissed her hard. "Thanks for a great night," hesaid, grinning as he let her go and opened the door.
Julie blankly watched the door close behind him. How had he meant that? Were you supposed tothank your lover after a night of great sex? Or was he trying to tell her they were done now?
She took a deep breath. When he came back down she'd talk to him so that she'd know if they wereofficially dating now. He was going to USC on a football scholarship, but his school was only an eight-hour drive from Stanford, so they could see each other several times a month pretty easily if they reallywanted to.
She was working on the zipper on her badly wrinkled dress when she heard laugher. Her spinetingled with alarm. Who was Ty laughing with? And what was he laughing about?
He couldn't be laughing about her, could he? Not after what they'd shared. She'd given him hervirginity. He had to know how special he was to her—that she wasn't like the girls he usually slept with.
She finger-combed her hair and quickly looked in the mirror over the tiny sink to make sure she didn'thave mascara on her face. She told herself that she trusted him to tell her the truth when he came backdown. Even so, she picked up her heels and tiptoed down the hall and partway up the stairs, just to thepoint where she could see some faces and hear what they were saying.One of Ty's teammates poured something golden into a shot glass and handed it to Ty. "Dude, youneed to tell us who you're here with. Everyone's been wondering."Ty tilted his head back and drank, then held out the small glass for a refill. "Trust me, she's hot."Julie's face flamed and she nearly dropped her shoes. How could he talk about her like she was justsome random girl he'd picked up at a party? Even if, a voice inside her admitted, that was exactly whatshe was.
"Samantha? Ellen? Melissa?"
Ty laughed and did another shot. "I'll see you guys later. Got to get back to the fine babe I've gotstashed away."
Julie hated the way he called her a "fine babe," even though she knew lots of girls would be flattered.
"What's that in your pocket?" one of his friends said, grabbing her underwear. "Hell yeah, you've gotanother pair of panties for your collection!"
En masse, Ty's friends dropped to their knees. "We bow down to the master."Ty made no move to get her underwear back. Instead, he inclined his head to his friends as if he wasthe king and they were his servants.
He'd taken her panties to give to his friends as a prize.
Cold, bitter anger filled Julie. She walked back down the stairs and pushed open the stateroom door.Eyeing the rumpled bed with distaste, she sat down on a firm upholstered chair in the corner by the built-in armoire.
A few minutes later Ty returned, his eyes glazed over enough to make her wonder how many moreshots he'd pounded.
"Miss me?" he asked, but his expression made it perfectly clear that she had to know how lucky shewas to be his chosen grad night screw.
"Not really," she forced herself to say in a steady voice. "I'd like my underwear back now."He shook his head and moved toward her. "Not so fast. We've got hours before the owner comesback. Don't you want to make the most of it?"
Self-disgust washed through her. Had she really let him touch her all over? Go inside her? He wasjust a cocky jerk looking to score.