He hesitated. "Do you trust me, Brooke?"

Brooke's heart thudded lightly in her chest, just fast enough that she could feel it. Did she trust him? That all depended on what they were talking about.

"You've never been unreliable," she said finally. "You always do what you say you will."

He nodded, his usually smiling, happy face looking unusually serious. "Yes."

"But you do like to have fun."

"Doesn't everyone?"

"Of course. Everyone likes to have fun. But-"

"Even you?"

She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I like to have fun."

"I mean..." He leaned closer and stroked some of her hair off her face and down behind her shoulder. Her skin quivered. "You're so professional, so serious. So b.u.t.toned up."

"b.u.t.toned up?"

He nodded. "The first time I saw you, that's exactly what I saw."

Her cheeks flamed as she remembered walking in on him and those two women. "That might have been because you were naked and in bed with two women," she said stiffly. "And I was dressed."

"Oh yeah." He grinned. "I was hoping you were going to join us."

"As if."

"No threesomes for you?" He shook his head, a sorrowful look on his face. "And you just said you like to have fun."

Her eyes went wide and then slitty. "A threesome is your idea of fun?"

"Hey, it's just one of many."

"Along with drinking, drugs, partying..."

"Dancing," he added helpfully. "I like to dance."

She gave him a look.

"And surfing," he said. "Don't forget surfing. The most fun there is."

"More than s.e.x?" Oh holy guacamole, why had she said that?

"Hmm. I'd have to give that some thought...okay, no. s.e.x is the most fun there is. Surfing is the most fun I have with my shorts on."

She choked on a laugh, then demanded, "How did we get talking about s.e.x?"

"I don't know. But I like it. Oh wait. We were talking about how b.u.t.toned up you are"

"I'm not 'b.u.t.toned up'!"

He leaned forward and nuzzled her ear. "It's okay, babe. We can work on that. Anyway. You should come out with us. You know...to keep me out of trouble."

She opened her mouth for the obvious reply and then the answer came to her, the way to put him in his place. "Okay, fine," she said. "I'll come with you to dinner."

He frowned.

Ha. She studied him, standing there all gorgeous in the late afternoon sun, all tanned muscles, athletic grace, his dark hair gleaming, his sungla.s.ses hiding his beautiful silvery eyes. She wanted to see his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly. "Don't you want to have dinner with them?"

"Huh?"

"I got the feeling you didn't want to."

He went very still. "What makes you say that?"

"You seemed kind of...tense around them. And the way you said, 'we can make some excuse' sounded like you wanted to make an excuse."

His mouth tightened. "I'm not tense around them. They're my friends."

"Yes. You were tense around them." Maybe it was intuition, she couldn't really put her finger on it, but when his friends had approached them earlier, she'd felt the subtle tightening of his muscles in the arm he had around her, sensed the tension in his words and his smile.

"I am not. Fine. Forget it. I'll tell them you're busy and I'll go out with them myself."

"Are they putting that much pressure on you to settle down? Is that what it is?"

He paused. "Um. Yeah."

"So let's go then. We'll show them."

But he didn't look happy about that, and she suspected she'd been right-he didn't want to have dinner with his friends. And he hadn't wanted to come back to San Amaro. And she was starting to wonder why.

Chapter Thirteen.

They'd agreed to meet Matt and Corey at Matt's brew pub. When they'd done with their duties at the beach, Dylan and Brooke went their separate ways, but he had her address entered into his phone and an arrangement to pick her up at seven o'clock. Kind of like a date.

He returned to the hotel to change. He checked his emails, fooled around on Twitter a little, then showered and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. He looked down, making sure it wasn't a Jackson Cole compet.i.tor T-shirt. That wouldn't impress Brooke.

Why did he care about impressing her? Maybe it was more that he didn't want to annoy her. Staying on her good side was part of his strategy for this trip. Play along with what she and Jackson Cole wanted him to do. Maintain his sponsorship. Win this compet.i.tion. And oh yeah, convince Corey and Matt that he was doing fine now.

Brooke lived in a small apartment building a few blocks off the beach. Looked like only about four apartments in the building. He buzzed and she let him in, and he found her apartment on the second floor on the right.

She opened the door before he had a chance to knock, stepped out and closed the door behind her. For some reason he was disappointed. He'd wanted to see inside, to see where she lived. To see if her home was as b.u.t.toned up as she was. He smiled, remembering her reaction to him saying that earlier.

"You seem in a good mood," she said.

"I'm always in a good mood." That was a big fat lie. But she didn't need to know that. Although she'd already seen him after one of his nightmares. Which reminded him that they'd been in bed together when that had happened. And reminded him of the things they'd done in bed, which made his groin tighten. G.o.dd.a.m.n. He studied her as he followed her down the stairs. Maybe this date could end like a "real" date and they could have some of that again...

She too wore jeans, which surprised him. s.e.xy jeans, low on her slender hips, hugging her thighs and b.u.t.t. On top she wore a sky-blue loose tank-style shirt with deep cut armholes that left her shoulders and some of her back very bare. He wanted to drag his tongue over those s.e.xy bare shoulders.

"You look hot," he told her outside her building.

She gave him a look, as if she was trying not to smile. "Thank you. You look nice too."

"Nice? I look nice? Jesus."

Her smile twitched again. "What do you want to hear?"

"You're supposed to tell me I look hot too."

She shook her head as he opened the pa.s.senger door of his rental car. "You know d.a.m.n well you look hot."

"I do?"

"Oh my G.o.d."

He closed her door with a grin and bounded around to the driver's side.

When he was in, she said, "Your ego doesn't need any more stroking."

"I can always use more stroking. And not just my ego." He gave a meaningful glance at his lap.

He caught the flush that stole into her cheeks as he started the car and grinned. He shoulder checked and pulled away from the curb. "So," he said. "A threesome is out of the question, huh?"

She choked. "What?"

"We were talking about it earlier. You seemed opposed to the idea."

"Uh..." Her fingers curled tighter around the purse she held on her lap. "Well. If I was ever going to be involved with a threesome, it wouldn't be two girls. It would be two hot guys in my bed, all their attention on me."

Oh Jesus f.u.c.king Christ. Now it was his turn to make a little choked noise.

She shot him an evil grin. "What? Not seeing yourself in bed with another guy?"

Oh h.e.l.l yeah, he was seeing himself in bed with Matt and Corey, he and Matt both focused on her and her pleasure. Brooke thought she was taunting him because the idea was so out there, but little did she know she was torturing him in a different way. And little did Miss b.u.t.toned Up a.s.sistant Marketing and PR Manager know he'd actually done that.

"Yeah, let's drop that subject," he said. "Tell me what's up next week."

Back to business. That was nice and safe. They talked about the things she'd scheduled, working around his practices which he was intensifying in preparation for the compet.i.tion now only two weeks away.

Matt and Corey were already there at a table for four with beers in front of them. Dylan focused on relaxing, because Brooke had been scarily perceptive earlier, noticing that he tensed up around them. Even though things had gotten easier that night when he'd had dinner with them at their place, obviously some uneasiness remained.

So he pulled out his best jokes and stories, teasing Corey, entertaining them all while they ordered beer and then burgers. He asked Matt about new beers he was making, and Brooke got Corey talking about her chocolates, who in turn asked Brooke about her job, and a few hours later he was stoked to realize he'd had a lot of fun with these three people. Like he and Brooke were actually a couple. Which they weren't. Although he couldn't seem to stop touching Brooke throughout the meal, leaning closer, brushing her hair back, stroking her arm...

"I have to plan some kind of bachelor party for Matt," he told Brooke on the way home. "Not sure what to do about that. Any suggestions?"

"Geez. I don't know much about bachelor parties. When my friend AJ got married, the guys flew to Vegas for a weekend."

"Yeah, that's not going to work so much. Seeing as you've got me all handcuffed here."

"Handcuffed. Very funny."

"Vegas'd be fun, though. d.a.m.n. What else?"

"I hope you don't expect me to tell you where to find strippers."

"Well, we have to do something raunchy. We can't just go out for steaks somewhere."

"I don't see why not. You have stay out of trouble, remember?"

"s.h.i.t. Matt's getting married. We have to do something."

"Well, either you have it at someone's home where n.o.body will know what happens, or you go out for a nice dinner. Or maybe miniature golfing."

His horrified laugh nearly choked him. "Miniature golfing! I don't even do real golfing. Golfing is for people who don't know how to surf."

"Remember, my brother Errick's the golf pro at the country club here."

"Oops. Sorry. Didn't mean to insult your brother."

"Don't worry. He does know how to surf. He's a pretty good athlete all around. But back to your bachelor party...maybe bowling? Oh wait! I have the perfect idea."

"What? I'm all ears."

"There's an adventure company just outside of town. They take people kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, and they do this high ropes thing. They do it for groups, like corporate team building and stuff. You guys could all go there, and then maybe go for beers somewhere after. As long as you behave."

"You had to add that in there." He thought about that. "You know, that's a pretty cool idea. You have the name of this place?"

"It's Intrepid Adventures. I know the two guys who own it. Their girlfriend does photography for us. I'll find the number when we get to my place."

"That'd be great. Thanks, Brooke." He paused. "Uh...their girlfriend?"

"Yeah." She smiled. "The three of them live together. Menage a trois relationship."

"Seriously?" He gaped at her. "Like, a permanent relationship?"

"Apparently. I don't know them well enough to talk to them about it, but they don't hide it."

"Huh. How about that?" And he thought he'd been shocking her when he'd talked about having a threesome. Not so much.