Tempted At Twilight. Jamie Pope

squeeze. “So, are you seeing anyone? I’m still with Arnold. It’s getting serious! But don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll find someone someday. Women can have children well into their late forties nowadays.”

      That was it. Elias left his spot at the bar and walked back over to Cricket’s table. He didn’t spare a single look at her friend before he took Cricket’s chin between his fingers and kissed her full, pouty mouth. He wasn’t sure if that was the stupidest thing he had ever done or the best decision of his life, because he felt the immediate spark of sexual attraction in their kiss.

      He lifted his head briefly, looked her in the eyes and kissed her again. This time she slid her hand up his jaw and kissed him back a little more deeply than he had kissed her.

      “I’m sorry that took so long,” he said to her as he slipped into the chair next to her. “I got our dinner reservations moved back another half hour.”

      “Dinner.” Cricket nodded, giving him a conspiratorial grin. “Can’t wait.”

      “Um,” Giselle said. “Hello. I’m Giselle, and you are?”

      “Elias.” He nodded his head but didn’t extend his hand to shake. “I’m Cricket’s boyfriend.”

      “Isn’t he gorgeous?” Cricket laughed.

      Giselle looked stunned. “Uh... I... I—I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

      “Well, Elias walked up to me and introduced himself, and I’ve been taken with him ever since.”

      “Oh, how sweet,” she said, looking and sounding disbelieving. “I’m happy for you.” Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me, Elias. What do you do for a living?”

      “I’m a trauma surgeon.”

      “Here on the island?”

      “There are very few traumas here. I work at Miami Mercy. I’m on leave right now. I broke my wrist and haven’t been cleared to return yet.”

      “My boyfriend is in pharmaceutical sales. He’s at your hospital a lot. Maybe you know him.”

      “I don’t. I don’t ever speak to drug reps unless they are bleeding out on my table.”

      “Where did you go to medical school?”

      “Miller.”

      “You got into one of the best hospitals in the country.” She nodded. “Did you meet Bug at a work function?”

      “No. It was purely by chance, and I couldn’t seem to get her off my mind ever since.”

      None of those things were lies. If it were any other day, he might not have been there. He might not have even given a second look to Cricket or cared that she was being disrespected by her rude friend. But it wasn’t any other night. Tonight he wanted something to take his mind off not being able to work, and he was glad that Cricket was that something.

      “So, are you getting serious? Your mother will be pleased, I’m sure,” she said rather stiffly. “Who wouldn’t love another doctor in the family?”

      Another doctor? She’d told him she wasn’t one, and he had believed her because he spent a lot of time around doctors and she seemed a little more free-spirited than most of them. But maybe he didn’t know as much as he thought he did.

      “It doesn’t matter what my mother thinks. It only matters that I’m happy, and right this minute, I’m incredibly happy.”

      Giselle frowned, almost like she didn’t understand what Cricket was saying. “I didn’t mean to keep you two from your date night.”

      “You’re not!” Cricket said. “Elias wanted to meet you.”

      “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He nodded as he took Cricket’s hand and raised it to his lips. “I want to know all of Cricket’s friends.”

      “That’s nice.” She stood up. “I’m meeting Arnold tonight, so I have to run. It was good to meet you, Elias. Cricket, I’ll call you?”

      “Yes. Catching up with you is always fun.”

      She walked out then, and as soon as her heels clicked out of earshot, Cricket turned to him. “What on earth possessed you to do that?”

      “I don’t like the way she speaks to you.”

      “I can handle myself, you know.”

      “I know.”

      “You kissed me.” She tilted her head and studied him.

      “I did, and then you kissed me.”

      She had soft, plump lips. They were perfect for kissing. He could have just sat down beside her, held her hand and pretended like he was her boyfriend, but he’d kissed her. He had to kiss her. It seemed like the right thing to do in that moment. It might have been one of those impulsive moments that his boss was so fond of pointing out. There had been no thinking involved. His mouth just moved toward hers.

      “Do you like tacos?” she asked.

      He blinked at her for a moment, confused by the change in topic. “Yeah.”

      “What about frozen custard?”

      “The soft-serve kind?”

      “Of course.”

      “Yes.”

      “Let me wine and dine you,” she said with a grin. “Or maybe I should say convenient food and converse with you.”

      “You are so weird,” he said again, shaking his head. “I would love to have tacos and custard with you.”

       Chapter 2

      Hideaway Island was one of those small coastal islands that felt a little bit like paradise wrapped up in a warm blanket. Cricket had spent her childhood in Miami and her early adulthood in the New York area. But she had spent all her summers there on the island. It was how she recharged her always draining batteries, and tonight she felt full of electricity.

      There was a beautiful man strolling down the beach beside her. His feet bare, his pants rolled up, his eyes taking in the scenery around them. She didn’t blame him. Hideaway Island had to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Especially at twilight, when the sky was purple and orange and the breeze kicked up and the air smelled like ocean and sweetness and something magical that she couldn’t identify.

      They had stopped at the food trucks lined up in front of the boardwalk and dined on a bench before they embarked on their stroll. She felt at ease with Elias when she shouldn’t. He was a stranger. A stranger whom she had met in a bar! He could be some kind of con artist or murderer. She had already witnessed how smoothly he lied to Giselle about being her boyfriend and a surgeon at one of the best hospitals in the country, but despite all of that, despite all the rational thoughts that were always firing in her head, she liked him. She liked talking to him, being in his large presence. There was something safe about him.

      There was also the fact that he’d kissed her tonight. She had been kissed before, but his had been the sweetest, because it had been so unexpected. She didn’t have time to worry about her breath, or what he was thinking or how she looked. She had just let herself be kissed. And she had kissed him back. Tingles, warmth and sparks all felt like trite ways to describe how she had felt when he was kissing her, but there didn’t seem to be other words for it. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to feel that sensation again, and it was going to have to be tonight.

      Before her rational thoughts returned and she talked herself out of having more fun.

      “Do you live on the island, or are you here just visiting?” she asked him.

      “Visiting. I have family here. You and I met tonight because I needed to escape them.”