Tall, Dark and Fearless. Suzanne Brockmann

eyes were the same fierce shade of blue as the sky.

      Mia rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin up in her hands. “Tell me about this amazing pink couch,” she said. “What’s that all about?”

      This time Frisco did laugh, and the lines around his eyes crinkled with genuine amusement. He stretched out next to her on the blanket, making sure he could still see Tasha from where they lay. “Oh, that,” he said. “It’s gonna look great in my living room, don’t you think? Dirt brown and ugly green go real well with pink and silver.”

      Mia smiled. “You’ll have to redecorate. Maybe a white carpet and lots of Art Deco type mirrors on the walls would work.”

      “And it would be so me,” he said, deadpan.

      “Seriously, though,” Mia said. “If anything will give Tasha incentive to follow your rules, that will. She’s only mentioned it five thousand times today already.”

      “Tell me the truth,” Frisco said, supporting his head with one hand as he gazed at her. “Did I go too far? Did I cross the line from positive reinforcement into sheer bribery?”

      Mia shook her head, caught in the intense blue of his eyes. “You’re giving her the opportunity to earn something that she truly wants, along with learning an important lesson about following rules. That’s not bribery.”

      “I feel like I’m taking the point and heading into totally uncharted territory,” Frisco admitted.

      Mia didn’t understand. “Taking the point…?”

      “If you take the point, if you’re the pointman,” he explained, “that means you lead the squad. You’re the first guy out there—the first guy either to locate or step on any booby traps or land mines. It’s a pretty intense job.”

      “At least you know that Natasha’s not suddenly going to explode.”

      Frisco smiled. “Are you sure about that?”

      With amusement dancing in his eyes, a smile softening his face and the ocean breeze gently ruffling his hair, Frisco looked like the kind of man Mia would go far out of her way to meet. He looked charming and friendly and pleasant and sinfully handsome.

      “You’re doing a wonderful job with Tasha,” she told him. “You’re being remarkably consistent in dealing with her. I know how hard it is not to lose your temper when she disobeys you—I’ve seen you swallow it, and I know that’s not easy. And giving her that medal—that was brilliant.” She sat up, reaching for the T-shirt Tasha had been wearing over her bathing suit. “Look.” She held it up so he could see. “She’s so proud of that medal, she asked me to pin it onto this shirt for her so she could wear it to the beach. If you keep this up, it’s only a matter of time before she’ll remember to follow your rules.”

      Frisco had rolled over onto his back and was shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun with one hand as he looked up at her. He sat up now, in one smooth effortless motion, glancing back at Natasha, checking briefly to be sure the little girl was safe.

      She was crouched in the sand halfway between the blanket and the water, starting a new dribble castle.

      “I’m doing a wonderful job and I’m brilliant?” he said with a half smile. “Sounds like you’re giving me a little positive reinforcement here.”

      Natasha’s T-shirt was damp and Mia spread it out on top of the cooler to dry in the sun. “Well…maybe,” she admitted with a sheepish smile.

      He touched her gently under her chin, pulling her head up so that she was forced to look at him.

      His smile had faded, and the amusement in his eyes was gone, replaced by something else entirely, something hot and dangerous and impossible to turn away from.

      “I like my positive reinforcement delivered a little differently,” he told her, his voice no more than a husky whisper.

      His gaze flickered down to her mouth, then up again to meet her eyes, and Mia knew that he was going to kiss her. He leaned forward slowly, giving her plenty of time to back away. But she didn’t move. She couldn’t move. Or maybe she just plain didn’t want to move.

      She felt him sigh as his lips met hers. His mouth was warm and sweet, and he kissed her so softly. He touched her lips gently with his tongue, waiting until she granted him access before he deepened the kiss. And even then, even as she opened herself to him, he kissed her breathtakingly tenderly.

      It was the sweetest kiss she’d ever shared.

      He pulled back to look into her eyes, and she could feel her heart pounding. But then he smiled, one of his beautiful, heart-stoppingly perfect crooked smiles, as if he’d just found gold at the end of a rainbow. And this time she reached for him, wrapping her arms up around his neck, pressing herself against him, stabbing her fingers up into the incredible softness of his hair as she kissed him again.

      This time it was pure fire. This time he touched her with more than just his lips, pulling her even harder against his chest, running his hands along the bare skin of her back, through her hair, down her arms as he met her tongue in a kiss of wild, bone-melting intensity.

      “Frisco! Frisco! The ice-cream truck is here! Can I get an ice cream?”

      Mia pushed Frisco away from her even as he released her. He was breathing as hard as she was, and he looked thoroughly shaken. But Natasha was oblivious to everything but the ice-cream truck that had pulled into the beach parking lot.

      “Please, please, please, please, please,” she was saying, running in circles around and around the beach blanket.

      Frisco looked up toward the end of the beach, where the ice-cream truck was parked, and then back at Mia. He looked as shocked and as stunned as she felt. “Uh,” he said. He leaned toward her and spoke quickly, in a low voice. “Can you take her? I can’t.”

      “Of course.” She quickly pulled on her T-shirt. God, her hands were shaking. She glanced up at him. “Is your knee all right?”

      He dug a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and handed it to her with a weak grin. “Actually, it has nothing to do with my knee.”

      Suddenly Mia understood. She felt her cheeks heat with a blush. “Come on, Tasha,” she said, pulling her hair out from the collar of her T-shirt as she led the little girl up the beach.

      What had she just done?

      She’d just experienced both the sweetest and the most arousing kisses of her entire life—with a man she’d vowed to stay away from. Mia stood in line with Tasha at the ice-cream truck, trying to figure out her next move.

      Getting involved with Frisco was entirely out of the question. But, oh, those kisses… Mia closed her eyes. Mistake, she told herself over and over. She’d already made the mistake—to continue in this direction would be sheer foolishness. So okay. He was an amazing mixture of sweetness and sexiness. But he was a man who needed saving, and she knew better than to think she could save him. To become involved would only pull her under, too. Only he could save himself from his unhappiness and despair, and only time would tell if he’d succeed.

      She’d have to be honest with him. She’d have to make sure he understood.

      In a fog, she ordered Tasha’s ice cream and two ice bars for herself and Frisco. The trek back to the blanket seemed endlessly long. The sand seemed hotter than before and her feet burned. Tasha went back to her sand castle, ice cream dripping down her chin.

      Frisco was sitting on the edge of the blanket, soaking wet, as if he’d thrown himself into the ocean to cool down. That was good. Mia wanted him cooled down, didn’t she?

      She handed him the ice pop and tried to smile as she sat down. “I figured we could all use something to cool us off, but you beat me to it.”

      Frisco looked at Mia, sitting as far from him as she possibly could on the beach blanket, and then down at the ice bar in his hands. “I kind