What Happens in Summer
(At the Shore #2)
By Caridad Pineiro
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"One Summer Night is the perfect escape! It's tender, funny
and sexy, with wonderful characters you'll fall in love with. You can't go
wrong with Caridad Pineiro."—RAEANNE THAYNE, USA Today bestselling author
She knows the kind of man he is;
The kind who breaks hearts.
But a hot summer at the Jersey Shore
Might be just what they need to light up their lives…
As the only daughter of a single mom, Connie Reyes swore she
would never put herself or her child in a similar position. But when she runs
into oh so tempting Jonathan Pierce at a wedding, she knows she must stay away.
She'll fall for him—hard. And he's not the type to stick around.
Ever since he left town after their teenaged fling, Jonathan
hasn't been able to forget about Connie. He can't wait for the wedding—to show
her the man he's become. And when the night finally comes, their mutual desire
will lead to unexpected consequences neither of them were prepared for…
Sea Kiss, New Jersey
Playing it safe was far worse than
taking a risk on what you wanted.
Jonathan Pierce knew just what he wanted.
He grabbed hold of the gnarly branch of the decades-old
wisteria vine that climbed the side of the Sinclair mansion and boosted himself
up. He’d made the journey so many times this past summer, he could do it
blindfolded.
He scrambled up the vine, finding the familiar foot and
handholds until he vaulted up and over the second floor railing, and landed
silently as a cat burglar on the balcony. It ran the length of the immense
oceanfront mansion, with elegant french doors offering views of the sea.
The first darkened doorway was Maggie Sinclair’s room. He
rushed past it quietly; Maggie belonged to his older brother, Owen. Not that
Owen had acted on it yet, but Jonathan had known for years that the two were
meant to be together, family feud be damned.
The next doorway was usually Maggie’s dad’s, but the old
man had stopped coming down to the Shore as often as he once had, so it was a
good bet that room was unoccupied.
Reaching the third room, he saw the curtains wafting in
the summer breeze and the dim light from behind the partially closed french
doors. He smiled and his heart raced with pleasure.
Connie was waiting for him. Ever-responsible, ever-loyal
Connie had broken her own rules to fall in love with him. Or at least he
thought it was love. It definitely was on his part. With barely a week left
before the girls all went back to school, he intended to let her know just how he
felt.
He slipped carefully through the open doors and shut them
behind him. He’d gone no more than a step when she launched herself at him,
laughing and kissing him as she said, “What took you so long?”
“I missed you, too,” he said, knowing it was more about
the separation to come in a week and not about the long hours since last night.
He bent his head and kissed her, his touch tender and
caring, and she answered in kind, her lips soft and coaxing.
Although Maggie had been bringing her friends to the
Jersey Shore every summer since they’d met freshman year in college, he’d never
really paid much attention to Connie at first. He’d had his share of girls from
his high school class fawning over him.
But when Maggie and her friends had come back the next
year, he had finally, gratefully, noticed what a real woman should be. Like
Connie: all luscious curves; also proud, smart, and independent,
As impatient as he might be to make love to her tonight,
he wanted her to know how much this meant to him. How this wasn’t only a summer
romance for him.
He leaned over her, his gaze locked on her face. He
wanted to say the words—Lord, how he wanted to—but they stuck in his throat and
so he let every kiss and touch tell her what he couldn’t voice.
***
Connie’s heart thudded almost
painfully in her chest as she wondered how, in a week’s time, she could leave
him. The ache deepened beneath her breastbone and she put her hand there and
rubbed to assuage the hurt.
What had started as a summer fling with a funny, smart,
and beautiful boy had turned into something so much more, with an incredibly
amazing man. Falling in love with Jonathan hadn’t been in her game plan, but he
was just too hard to resist.
She should have resisted.
He was a Pierce. She wasn’t a Sinclair, but Maggie was like a sister and that
stupid family feud was still going strong, as far as she knew.
He was going back to Villanova in a week and she’d be
returning to Princeton. The colleges were not all that far apart, but if she
was to execute her game plan, she had to stay in the game, which meant studying
and more studying. Not nights spent in bed making love and days spent
daydreaming about the nights. But like Adam with Eve, now that she’d had a bite
of such delicious forbidden fruit, she didn’t know how she could go on a
Jonathan-free diet.
At the moment, she could just admire his sun-streaked
light brown hair waving wildly around a masculine face with chiseled features.
A sexy dimpled grin was on his lips and his eyes glittered with a blue as
enchanting as a Sea Kiss summer sea.
That ache in her heart rocketed to life again together
with an almost unbearable lightness in her soul. For so much of her life she’d
been driven to accomplish more and more, but with Jonathan, she could just be
herself. No goals or responsibilities. Just…happy.
And so, in the blink of an eye, her game plan altered.
She could see it all so clearly, only now Jonathan was there beside her at each
step. Finish college. Head to law school. Pass the bar. Get a job in a big New
York City law firm so she could help her family financially, as well as others
who had legal problems and couldn’t afford representation. Become a partner.
Marry Jonathan. Or maybe marry Jonathan and then become a partner. She didn’t
want to wait too long to be with him forever.
Not that she’d ever pictured getting married to anyone
before, since her home life hadn’t been anything great. But for Jonathan, she’d
make an exception.
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