Dynamiting Daddy's Dream House Read online

  Troy dipped a napkin into his water glass and swabbed some of the mess off her face. Jill already had to think he was the world's worst father. He didn't need the rest of the world thinking the same thing.

  Annie endured his cleaning, glaring at him with a look that dared him to object.

  "Are you sure you're ready for the ocean?" She'd seemed terrified when he'd mentioned the ocean earlier.

  "Jill says it's safe." Annie spoke with that peculiar patience only a four-year old seemed capable of exercising. "She says things hardly ever fall off cliffs."

  "Of course it's safe, if you're careful. I just wanted to make sure you were ready."

  "I said I was ready." She shook her head at him. "Jeez."

  Troy glanced at his watch. It would be another hour before the bank had his money ready. Until then, he was almost as helpless as Annie.

  "Would you mind coming to the beach with us?" he asked Jill. "We'd be happy to drop you off back at your trailer first, of course."

  "Jill has to come with us. I'm not going with just you. You'd hold my head under the water." Annie's little fists were becoming a familiar sight. This wasn't the first time she'd accused him of contemplating violence. Her mother must really have laid a number on the poor kid. The explosion that destroyed his house had merely pushed her closer to the brink.

  "I'd be happy to come with you." Jill reached into her purse and pulled out a battered wallet.

  Troy noticed that Jill had to open the secret flap in the wallet and pull out a second twenty. Pretty clearly she was digging into her reserves. Despite her generous offer to cover the cost of their breakfast, he resolved to pay her back as soon as he could. From the looks of her little trailer and her beat up pickup truck, Jill wasn't rolling in money.

  They walked the couple of blocks to the beach, Annie clinging to Jill's hand like it was a lifesaver. She kept up a babble of girl-talk that Troy tried to follow. Frankly, he couldn't make any sense of it at all. Jill nodded along and interjected a few comments and questions. Of the three of them, only he was in the dark. He wasn't used to the feeling and didn't think much of it.

  "Have you ever been swimming?" Jill asked.

  Troy opened his mouth to answer until he realized she was asking Annie.

  "My mother made me take water ballet."

  He hadn't known that. In that instant, he realized how much he had missed by giving up so much of Annie's life. When he'd learned about Liz's death, he'd given up a profession that had already burnt him up and spit him out, but he hadn't really expected to find joy in fatherhood. For the most part, even his diminished expectations had been too much. How would his life have been different if he'd fought to be Annie's father from the beginning rather than running for the jungles where he could be safe?

  He shook his head angrily. He couldn't undo the past and saw no reason to fixate on it.

  "I don't think you'll do much water ballet in the ocean," Jill said. "The waves can be pretty big."

  "I can do water ballet anywhere," Annie insisted. "I'm the best in my class."

  When they reached the beach, Troy removed his shoes and let the sun-drenched sand singe his feet.

  It felt cleansing and oddly comforting.

  "Ouch." Clearly Annie didn't feel the same way. "This dirt is burning my feet."

  "It's sand," he corrected automatically.

  "I don't care. It's too hot."

  Troy scooped Annie up and put her on one shoulder.

  She wiggled for a moment, then settled against his neck. "I think Jill is burning too."

  Jill definitely looked uncomfortable. She practically limped as she maintained a fruitless search for protective shade.

  "I'm way too big for your father to pick up," Jill replied.

  "Wrong." Troy scooped Jill up with almost the same ease as he'd gathered Annie. Almost because he hadn't worried about Annie. With Jill, one wiggle could get him in serious trouble.

  Jill did wiggle, but not until he'd planted her firmly on his opposite shoulder. Her tight derriere felt delightfully feminine as she squirmed. He balanced her with one arm against Jill's long muscular legs and felt that a man could do a whole lot worse in life.

  "He is very strong." He couldn't tell whether Annie was proud or ashamed of that fact.

  "Very strong," Jill agreed. Her breathing sounded a little short.

  "Don't worry. I'm not going to drop you," Troy said.

  "I'm not worried."

  If she wasn't worried, she was giving a darned good impression.

  As they neared the water's edge, the sand hardened, then finally cooled.

  "Hold on," he told Annie.

  He reached for Jill's waist with both hands and lifted her off, setting her on the sand in front of him.

  Jill's cheeks flushed red, almost as if she had a fever and her breath came in small gasps.

  She pushed her hands on her hips and glared at him. "I really am capable of taking care of myself."

  He ignored her for a moment, setting Annie down. "Don't go into the water yet," he ordered. "We'll go out together."

  Annie nodded glumly. He'd thought he would have a few years before Annie didn't want to be seen with her father on a public beach. Then he turned his attention back to Jill.

  "You've done a lot for us. And it didn't look like you were very comfortable walking across the sand."

  "I was fine."

  This argument didn't seem to be going anywhere and he started to turn to check on Annie.

  The second she thought his attention was diverted, Jill hopped up on one leg and, storklike, grasped the other one, inspecting it.

  "What's the matter."

  "Nothing."

  "Crap." He reached for her leg, turning to let her body balance against his own.

  The second her hips came in contact with his, he realized he was in trouble. Spending this kind of time with Jill left him in a perpetual state of frustrated arousal. She had to feel his excitement against her backside.

  He brushed his hand against her foot, barely touching it.

  Jill winced in pain and something sharp scratched his fingers.

  "Looks like you picked up some glass."

  "Are you going to do something about it or are we just going to gloat?" Jill asked.

  "Hum. Do I get to choose?"

  "Shut up and pull it out."

  He followed instructions. Compared to some of the emergency first aid he'd had to perform over the years, this was fairly minor.

  Minor or not, it had to hurt. Jill winced as he tugged out the long sliver of glass from somebody's beer party. Her bottom wiggled against him as he removed it. His body responded with a renewed surge of hardness.

  "Got it." He wondered if he sounded as breathless to her as he did to himself. His mouth felt drier than when he'd led a special forces platoon across the Libyan desert.

  "Uh, thanks." She twisted to face him.

  Her blue eyes shone, glistening with unshed tears. Her lips trembled slightly.

  It was the pain, he reminded himself. Not desire. The desire was all his own.

  Jill's tongue touched her lips and Troy could restrain himself no longer. He pressed her body to his own and sought her lips with his kiss.

  For a second, her lips remained quiescent against his own. Then, as he prepared himself for the inevitable outraged reaction to his unwelcome advance, Jill's lips softened, molding themselves against his, just as her body seemed to conform to his own.

  She tasted of strawberries and coffee. A delicate blend of the exotic and the simple.

  Jill's lips parted slightly under his tongue's assault and he followed up his advantage, exploring her mouth with his touch, tasting her lips and her tongue. Almost, he felt, as if he wanted to commit her to memory.

  She sighed and pressed herself against him more tightly. Her thigh pressed against his own, teasing his arousal into even greater excitement as her breasts yielded against his chest.

  It took time, precious seconds, for him t
o realize that the soft mewing he heard didn't come from Jill, wasn't her voicing of the need that somehow, against all reason, they seemed to share.

  Annie.

  He spun around, almost pushing Jill from him as he sought the source of Annie's cry.

  While he'd allowed himself to seek pleasure in Jill's arms, Annie had entered the water. As he watched, a huge wave bore down on her, sweeping her from her feet and hurling her beneath its foam-topped peaks. Her legs appeared briefly, then they too disappeared beneath the surge.

  Red surged over Troy's eyesight blinding him to everything but the area where Annie had gone down.

  ***

  Jill almost collapsed as the power of Troy's kiss disappeared. She couldn't say he tore himself out of her grasp, but no other words came to mind either. One second he was holding on to her as if he needed her for life itself, the next, he pulled away as if she was a vampire who planned on sucking out his life.

  "What?" She spoke to his back as he hurled himself toward the surf.

  It took her a second to realize what had happened. Troy hadn't deserted her. Or rather, he had, but he'd done so for a reason. Annie had disappeared.

  A flash of pink crested a wave, then vanished again. Annie had worn pink.

  Jill couldn't keep up with Troy's long stride and her injury didn’t help but she did her best.

  She'd never been a strong swimmer but a child's life was at stake. She plunged into the water, keeping up her stride as long as she could before plunging, headfirst, into the surf.

  A huge wave caught at her, spun her around, and left her drenched. Jill sputtered to the surface and watched Troy's strong strokes pull him toward where they'd last seen Annie.

  He looked totally confident, but Jill knew better. She'd seen that momentary break in his cool when he'd first realized his daughter was missing. That look of panic.

  Another wave filled her mouth with water. Jill swallowed about half before managing to cough out the remainder.

  Troy might be the better swimmer, but Jill knew the Pacific. Its gray and cold waters were practically opaque. Unless he got plumb lucky, Troy would need her help.

  She hopped another wave realizing that she'd made it past the breakers, then dog-paddled after Troy.

  She arrived just as Troy grasped the scruff of a dress and then pulled his daughter into his arms. He spoke to her softly, whispering words Jill couldn't understand over the roar of the surf. Words, Jill guessed, that didn't really mean anything but were meant to comfort.

  Annie sputtered, her face flushed. "Let me go."

  Jill dog-paddled a little closer. "Are you all right, honey?"

  Annie gave Jill an exasperated look. "Of course I'm all right. I was doing water-ballet exercises. I told you I was on the water ballet team."

  "Never do something like this again," Troy commanded.

  Jill would have been intimidated if Troy ever spoke that way to her. It sounded like the voice he would use on a soldier who'd chickened out on the eve of battle.

  Annie didn't appear as easily intimidated. "Come off it, Troy. I'm a better swimmer than Jill. Look at her. She can barely hold her head above the water.

  "We're talking about you, not Jill." Troy didn't even loosen his grasp on Annie as he started kicking toward the beach.

  "She didn't ask for your permission before she went into the water, did she?"

  "Jill isn't my responsibility. You are."

  Annie opened her mouth to reply but Jill never heard the words. A huge mountain of water slammed into her, forcing her under.

  She kicked ineffectively, but the water seemed to have a mind of its own, wrenching on her legs, grinding her head against the hard sand bottom, and holding her under long after her lungs cried out for another breath.

  Something brushed against her thigh--something alive. She shuddered, then struck out, landing a solid kick on whatever it was. Were there sharks in the waters off Los Angeles? She couldn't remember reading about any attacking surfers but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. It wouldn't be much of a consolation to be the only victim of a shark attack in twenty years.

  Whatever it was didn't take the hint. It slid up her body, pressing against her bottom, her waist, before seizing an arm.

  She forced her eyes open. The salt might sting like nobody's business, but if she was going to be some sea monster's dinner, she'd darn well give him a fight he'd remember.

  The sea monster resolved itself to Troy's arm.

  He tugged at her pulling her toward what she felt certain was the bottom of the ocean. Was he trying to drown her? That didn't make sense. She'd been doing a good enough job of that even without his help.

  She struggled against his insistent tug.

  Troy simply tightened his grasp on her arm and pulled harder.

  Her lungs were exploding. Even though she knew better, she had to let some of the air from them.

  The air-bubble headed straight toward what she'd been certain was the bottom of the ocean. Her sense of direction twisted itself into a pretzel trying to adjust to this new reality.

  A fractional second later, her head burst into the sunlight.

  She sucked in a huge gasp of fresh air, then coughed right in Troy's face. Talk about a great way to express her gratitude.

  "I told you you should watch Jill and not me," Annie called from where she tread water a few feet away.

  "Can't argue with you on that one," Troy agreed. "Do you want to say something and stop coughing any time soon, Jill?"

  Jill righted herself. It was shallow enough here for her to walk even if the waves did seem to pull on her as if they knew they had her number and only wanted to get her back in their clutches to finish her off. "I'm trying." She managed to get the words out between coughing fits.

  Jill took two steps forward, then caught Troy's gaze. He looked as if he hadn't eaten in a week and she was the main course.

  She took a quick look down and dropped to her knees. The cold water had turned a perfectly proper blouse into something that wouldn't have gotten past the censors at Victoria's Secret. Her nipples pushed cold-hardened tips through the nearly transparent fabric.

  "You two looked so funny." Annie seemed to be speaking to her rather than to Troy. "I can't believe you both came into the water with your clothes on."

  Right now Jill's problem was getting out of the water. Even if she could persuade Troy to look away, she had nothing to dry herself off with so she'd remain exposed until her blouse dried. One thing she felt absolutely certain of, she couldn't afford to have Troy's hot gaze on her.

  "We'd better come out of the water," Troy reasoned. "It's too cold for this."

  She shook her head glumly. She might have kissed Troy but that didn't mean she intended to put on some sort of a show for him.

  "You're going to have to come out sometime."

  "I can wait until you're gone."

  "You're being silly," Annie announced. "Troy has seen lots of girls with no clothes on. My mother was a model, remember?"

  Jill could absolutely believe that Troy had seen plenty of women with no clothes on, models or not. Five minutes before, she might even have added herself to the list. Not now, though. The cold water had done more than tighten every muscle in her body, especially the ones that held her nipples fully erect. It had also shocked a little sense back into her.

  Troy's face lightened. "Do you think that's why she won't come out." As if it was some total revelation.

  Annie shook her head in disgust. "Of course. Jill isn't a model."

  Jill wasn't sure whether she was being complemented or disparaged.

  Troy shrugged his jacket and tossed it to her. "This is as wet as you are so it'll probably keep you colder rather than warm you up. But it might help preserve your modesty."

  Just being around Troy provided plenty of heat. She bobbled the sodden jacket almost dumping it into the ocean before her tomboy training came into effect. In her struggle to keep the jacket from falling into the Pacific and
really getting wet, she managed to give Troy one more quick show.

  "Turn around," she commanded.

  With Troy's eyes averted, she regained her footing and pulled the jacket over her body. It hung down almost to her knees and she had to wrap it around her like some sort of robe, but it did the job. Some of Troy's warmth clung to it and her body instantly responded.

  "I think we'd better go home," she offered.

  "I’ll drop you off and then we’ll head for the bank," Troy replied. "We've bothered you long enough."

  Chapter 5

  "I don't want to go to the bank. I want to stay with Jill."

  Annie's outburst shouldn't have surprised Troy, but it did. The two females had bonded in a way he wouldn't have guessed Annie was capable of. Certainly her mother had never been the bonding type.

  Unlike him. It had torn him inside when Liz had sent her lawyers with the court order telling him to keep his distance. With his job and only making it to U.S. soil a few weeks a year, she’d had a point then. Now, things were different. Annie might be fighting their connection, but this was one battle he wouldn't walk away from.

  "We'll all go to the bank together," Jill said.

  Standing next to the SUV, Jill looked lost in his jacket. Unfortunately, its masculine cut did nothing to hide her feminine curves. Couldn't she see what she was doing to him? He'd practically had his way with her on the beach. Spending more time in her trailer, knowing that he was only a few feet from her bed, was more temptation than he was ready to deal with.

  "I don't think that's a good idea."

  "I could watch TV at Jill's house while the two of you go to the bank," Annie suggested.

  "My house isn't really child-safe." Jill looked worried. "You'd better come along with us." She turned back to Troy. "It'll only take me a couple of minutes to change."

  "You don't understand. Once I get some money, we'll move into a hotel. We won't be coming back here. We're going to drop you off, not Annie." Taking Jill up on her offer to let them spend the previous night had been a mistake in the first place although his options had been limited. With a four-year old daughter, you can't exactly camp out in a public park.