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.
"I don't want to keep you from your friends. I'll bet they missed you last night."He shrugged. "Not really."
"Funny, that's not what it sounded like from here."
He kneeled in front of her on the expensive carpet, at least acting like he cared. Considering howdrunk he probably was, he moved pretty fast. She'd heard his dad was a drunk too. Like father, like son.
"Forget what you heard," he said. "It's just stupid guy stuff."
"Screw you."
He grabbed her hand. All night long, his touch had inflamed her, driven her crazy with desire. Nowher fingers remained as cold as icicles.
"It was just guy talk. They wouldn't understand about you."She didn't give a crap about his pseudo apologies. She couldn't let herself believe him.Julie pulled her hand out of his warm grasp, then stood and stepped into her shoes as if she didn'tgive a damn that he was on his knees staring at her.
He stood up too, and she hated how dwarfed she felt by his height, his broad shoulders, as if he waslording his size over her on purpose.
"I said I was sorry, but you're not going to listen to what I have to say, are you?"She stared straight back at him. "I hate you. I'll always hate you. And I never, ever want to see youagain."
He reached for his shirt and grabbed his shoes. "Fine by me. Have a nice life."He left her standing in the middle of the boat. She hadn't even been able to get away first. It was thefinal blow.
Julie's eyes refocused on the football field as Ty laughed and picked up one of the smaller kids. He spun the little boy around to celebrate what she guessed was a perfect spiral. How could she go back to putting up walls when he acted like that?
It had been a great day. Ty was clear on what he wanted to do when the time came to retire. He wanted to run a place like this, teach kids the joy of the game, how everything you needed to know about life was right there with you on the field. Teamwork, respect, how to win, and how to lose. Football was hard on a body. Either you were forced to retire injured or you left willingly while everything still worked. Ty was hoping for the latter.