CHAPTER FIVE
NIKI DIDN’T TELL anybody at work about the planned holiday in Cancun. Mr. Jacobs was going to be out of town on Friday and Monday, so Niki wasn’t expected to work. She and her father and Blair would fly to Cancun Thursday and leave Monday. It would be a long trip, but Niki was excited and looking forward to it. Cancun, from what she’d read, was a mix of old and new. She’d looked it up on the internet and she was growing more excited by the day.
Her coworker, Dan Brady, mentioned an outing he was taking with a hiking club.
“We’re going up to Jackson Hole and hiking some of the forest trails,” he said. “You should come with us,” he added. “Your father protects you too much, Nicolette. You’ll never toughen up if you don’t get out of that cocoon he’s weaving around you.”
She tried not to be offended. He didn’t know anything about her family, really. “He’s the only family I have,” she said noncommittally.
“Of course, and he loves you. But parents can do damage when they don’t let kids stand on their own feet. And your lungs would toughen up if you’d just use them more. Don’t let allergies stop you from enjoying the outdoors! There are all sorts of new herbal mixtures to combat that. The right diet, the right herbs, and you’ll be a new woman!”
She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He was a nice man. So she smiled and nodded, agreeing with everything he said. But inside she was grimacing. Asthma couldn’t be cured by just a mixture of herbs and a rigid diet. She knew that even if he didn’t. But sometimes you just couldn’t argue with people in that sort of mind-set. So she didn’t try.
“Want to come with us this weekend?” he prodded.
She smiled. He was nice-looking. Tall and tanned and blond, with pale blue eyes. He had a nice smile, too. “Not this weekend,” she said. “Dad has plans, and I’m going with him. We’re going to be out of town.”
“There’s another one next month. Come on. Say you’ll go.”
She laughed. “Okay. I’ll go.”
“That’s the spirit! I’ll print out an allergy-fighting diet plan for you and a list of herbal remedies to start taking to boost your immune system and protect you against allergens!”
She wanted to ask where he got his medical degree, but that wouldn’t have helped. So she nodded and agreed.
He walked her back to Mr. Jacobs’s office and paused at the door. “You really are pretty, you know,” he said suddenly, his eyes twinkling. “Why don’t you date anybody?”
“I’ve been... I just haven’t been interested. I had a bad experience with a guy in college,” she said.
“Oh, I see,” he mused. “Broken heart, lost love, all that jazz?” he asked, getting the wrong idea. “Don’t let it bug you. I’ve had bad relationships myself. You get over them and move on. So how about lunch tomorrow? I’ll take you out for seafood.”
“Seafood?”
He nodded. “They have a lovely crab salad at Buster’s,” he said, naming a local café. “Blue plate special. No dairy.” He grinned. “What do you say?”
“That would be nice, Dan,” she said.
“I’m glad you think so, Nicolette,” he replied. “It’s a beautiful name. Who were you named for?”
“It was my mother’s middle name.”
“Do you look like her?”
“Dad says I do. I don’t remember her well. She died when I was very young,” she added.
“Tough luck.”
“Yes. I have Edna, though. She’s our housekeeper.”
“Can’t you do your own housework?” he chided.
“Dad likes a certain routine in the house. We’ve had Edna since my mother died. She’s like family,” she said.
“Well, if you say so. I do all my own housework, wash clothes, even cook.”
She just nodded.
“I’d better get back to work. See you later.” He grinned and jogged off toward his own office.
She glared after him. He was a nice man until he opened his mouth. She wondered if any other woman had wanted to see him at the end of a pitchfork.
The thought amused her, and she had to hide a smile when she walked into Mr. Jacobs’s office and sat down at her desk.
“Miss Ashton?” he called through the open door. “Can you take a letter, please?”
“Of course, sir,” she said politely, and got her notepad.
He dictated at an even, slow pace so that she never had to ask him to stop or repeat a sentence. The terms, and their spelling, were familiar to her, since she’d helped her father with his paperwork for years now.
“That will need to go out today,” he added when he finished.
“Yes, sir. I’ll have it ready.”
“You’ve been a surprise, Miss Ashton,” he said unexpectedly.
She turned. “Sir?”
He shrugged. “Blair Coleman handed you to me without any explanation except that I was to give you the position. Forgive me, but I thought perhaps there was some personal reason for that.”
She lifted her chin. “There was. My father asked him to.”
He nodded, then smiled. “I figured that out on my own. You’re quite young for a man his age,” he added on a chuckle. “You’ve surprised and delighted me. You’re efficient, courteous, and you can spell. I’m pleased with your job performance. Quite pleased.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I understand that you’re going to be away until Monday,” he said.
“Well, yes, if you don’t mind. My father has trade talks in Cancun and he wanted me to go with him...” She flushed. She was too insecure to mention Blair’s name, as well.
“I like your father,” he said unexpectedly. “He’s an empire builder, like our own Mr. Coleman. Certainly, you don’t have to be here if I’m not, but we’ll both have to make up our time, you know. It might mean some overtime later on next week.”
“I don’t mind in the least,” she assured him with a smile.
“You do know your geology,” he said. “You have a degree in it, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wouldn’t the field position we have open have been a better fit for you?” he asked, but kindly.
She sighed. “Yes, sir, it would, but I’m plagued by asthma. A position that required great amounts of time outdoors, especially in spring and autumn, would be a health risk.”
“Health.” He rolled his eyes. “My daughter, God bless her, has rheumatoid arthritis. She’s only ten. Mr. Brady actually said that he could prescribe a helpful diet and list of herbal medicines that would cure her overnight. As if two generations of researchers haven’t been knocking themselves out trying to find even a temporary relief for the pain and inflammation!”
“He said he could cure my asthma with a new diet and herbal remedies, too,” she said. Sensing a kindred spirit, she smiled. “I just agreed with him and walked away.”
“I should have done that,” he chuckled. The smile faded. “The discussion got rather heated. I imagine asthma is difficult. But RA...” His face tautened. “Sometimes I hear her crying at night. She doesn’t want me to know how bad it gets. Herbal medicine. Diet...”
“We could have someone rope Mr. Brady to a chair and fill him full of fried chicken and hash brown potatoes,” she suggested helpfully.
He threw back his head and roared. “I’ll just smile and walk away myself, next time.” He smiled, and meant it. “Thanks, Miss Ashton. You’re a tonic.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jacobs.”
“Get that letter typed, then. I’ve got to make some calls.”
She nodded, smiled again and went out the door. One new disaster averted, she thought to herself. At least Mr. Jacobs didn’t think Blair had designs on her. That was probably true. Blair might like the way she looked, might even have a purely physical attraction to her. But his mind was still locked up in Elise and their past together. He was too bitter to think romantically about any woman right now, let alone Niki.
Well, Blair had said there might be gossip. She hadn’t anticipated how it might look, when he insisted on letting her have this job. On the other hand, it hurt her that Mr. Jacobs thought Blair was too old for her.
Who was she kidding? she thought miserably. Blair thought she was too young for him. He’d said it many times. Why should it surprise her when other people agreed?
She gave a thought to Mr. Jacobs’s poor daughter, in so much pain. Someday there would be a cure for that terrible disease, even one for asthma. Meanwhile, she used her medicines and tried to mitigate the damage by avoiding triggers.
She sat down at her computer and started to work.
* * *
DAN WAS WAITING for her at the exit when she’d clocked out and was on her way to her car in the parking lot.
“Feel like going jogging with me?” he asked with a grin. “I’m just going to do three or four miles, nothing heavy.”
That was nothing heavy? She thought fast. “I promised Dad I’d get some letters out for him tonight. They’re important.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Thanks anyway,” she said, smiling.
“Okay. Your loss,” he mused, sticking his hands in his pockets. “You really don’t like physical activity, do you? That’s going to be hard for you later in life.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Dan,” she said pleasantly, with her social smile pasted on her face.
She walked away from him, got into her car and drove off.
* * *
BUT THE MINUTE Niki walked in the door, her father’s eyebrows started climbing.
“Tidbit, what in the world is the matter with you?” he burst out.
She stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a real temper before.” He scowled. “Did somebody say something about how you got that job?”
Mr. Jacobs had, but she wasn’t about to tell her father and have Blair heave him out a window. That would really mess things up. Besides, she liked Mr. Jacobs a lot better now that she knew more about him. He really was nice.
She put her purse down and took off the lightweight sweater she was wearing over her beige dress. “No. It was one of my coworkers, Dan Brady. He thinks I coddle myself too much. He was irritated because I turned down a four-mile jog with him tonight.”
“Four miles?” he exclaimed.
“He said it was just a little light exercise.” She drew in a breath. It was hard just to do that, with all the pollen in the air, and she hadn’t even been outside long. Actually, though, getting the air back out was easier than getting it inside in the first place. “Honestly, the man is a nut!”
He shook his head. “It takes all kinds,” he said.
“Yes, it does, and I find them like pennies on the sidewalk,” she muttered.
“Want me to talk to him for you?” her father asked, his blond eyebrows meeting in the middle of his forehead.
“No, thanks,” she said, having heard stories of her father’s “talks” before from Edna.
He pursed his lips. “Come on. I probably wouldn’t hit him. Hard.”
She laughed softly. Then hugged him shyly. “You’re the best dad in the world and I love you very much. But I can manage one annoying coworker. Honest.”
“All right.” He hesitated. “Better not tell Blair what he said,” he added suddenly.
She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.
He shrugged. “He’s pretty protective of you,” he said.
She smiled. “He’s my friend.”
He cocked his head. He was still smiling. “Just friends?”
She nodded, hiding what she really felt. “Just friends, Dad.”
There was an odd expression on his face. But he just shrugged again and turned away.
* * *
BLAIR HAD A small Learjet waiting for them at the airport in Billings, complete with pilot and copilot and a flight attendant.
“What’s the use in having money if you don’t ever use it?” Blair chuckled as Todd and Niki buckled up beside him. “I told you. I hate flying commercial.”
“So do I,” Todd commented drily, “but some of us don’t have the option.”
Blair just grinned. “Doesn’t matter, if you have friends who do. And we’re off!” he added as the jet taxied down the runway.
* * *
CANCUN WAS INCREDIBLE. Their hotel was one of many on a long strip of beach separated from the mainland of the peninsula. They ranged from fancy to luxurious. Blair apparently owned one of the more opulent ones, right on the beach, with a five-star restaurant downstairs. He’d booked a suite for himself, and one for Todd and Niki, so that they both had enormous bedrooms right off an elegant sitting room.
“This is too much, Blair,” Todd protested.
“I own the hotel,” Blair reminded him with a smile. “It’s not an extravagance.”
“All right, then. Thanks,” Todd said, returning the smile.
“I have ulterior motives,” Blair confessed. “The Mexican industry leaders we’re seeing are staying here, as well. No travel time involved in the meetings.”
Todd’s eyebrows arched. “I see. And are they getting the full treatment? Lovely beach, excellent food, all the amenities?”
He grinned. “Of course. And,” he added, tongue in cheek, “a group of world-class models are filming a commercial here. Eye candy.” He glanced at Niki, who was glowering. “Pretend you didn’t hear that,” he instructed.
She grimaced.
“You’re much prettier than any of them,” Blair teased. But his eyes weren’t teasing. They were intent on her face, very dark and quiet.
She flushed, to her embarrassment. “I think I’ll go get unpacked,” she said. “You men can talk about...swimsuits and stuff,” she added with a wicked grin as she left.
* * *
SWIMSUITS, INDEED. SHE COULD just picture darkly handsome Blair surrounded by svelte models with gorgeous faces and bodies while poor Niki in her boring black one-piece bathing suit lounged on a towel nearby.
No. That wasn’t going to happen.
There was a nice boutique downstairs. She went shopping. She did settle for a one-piece after all, but it was golden and stretchy with bare flesh displayed tastefully inside golden rings that outlined it at both sides of her waist and just above her breasts. It had a built-in bra so that she looked a lot more endowed than she really was.
She bought it, and a lacy cocktail dress, in black, that she could pair with strappy black high heels and her evening bag. She left the shop feeling extravagant, although it was her own money she’d spent, inherited from her late mother, who had been an heiress.
On the way out the door, she spotted Blair. She almost went to him, to show off her purchases, when he was joined by a woman. This one wasn’t a model. She was only a few years younger than Blair, from the look of her, dark-haired and elegantly dressed with long hair in a complicated bun and a fancy manicure, her fingers trailing lovingly across his shirt as she spoke to him.
Blair wasn’t protesting her touch. In fact, he was smiling.
They knew each other. Niki knew it without a word being spoken. And from the look of things, it hadn’t been a platonic sort of thing. There was a familiarity in the way they stood, in the way they looked at each other. A former lover, probably, she thought miserably. Just when Niki had hoped against hope that she might do something, anything, to make Blair see her as older, more sophisticated, desirable...
She turned away, almost colliding with her father. “Watch where you’re going, there, Tidbit! What have you been doing?”
“Just shopping,” she said, trying to smile and failing miserably.
He looked over her head. “Well, I’ll be. That’s Janet Hardman over there with Blair.”
“You know her?” she asked, trying not to sound interested.
“Yes. She and Blair were an item years ago, before he married that wild woman and got taken for the ride of his life. She’s an executive with a film company. Apparently, they’re involved with the commercial he was talking about. Lovely, isn’t she?” he added, with a calculating look at Niki that she missed.
“Lovely.” She hesitated. “He likes brunettes, doesn’t he?” she added, recalling a photo of Blair and Elise that she’d seen in a tabloid just before they’d married.
“They remind him of his mother. He loved her very much. She had a raw deal with his stepfather. He was nobody’s idea of the perfect husband, and he was brutal with Blair. His mother liked Janet, if I recall correctly.”
The comment about Blair’s stepfather went right over her head. She was miserable. Her heart was breaking. She would never be the same. She wished she’d stayed home. She wished...
“I’m going to the beach for a while,” she said.
“Okay, but watch the flags on the beach before you go into the water out there. If they’re red, don’t even tip your toe in.”
She frowned. “Flags?”
“They tell you the condition of the ocean,” her father said patiently. “Red means danger. Riptides.”
“Oh. Okay. There’s a pool, anyway, if I want to swim,” she added. She smiled. “I don’t like sand in my bathing suit.”
He chuckled. “Neither do I. Go on, Tidbit. Have fun. We’ll see you for dinner later.”
“Of course,” she agreed. But she was thinking it likely that Blair wouldn’t be joining them. Or, worse, that he might invite his old flame to eat with them. In which case, Niki was already planning on a vicious headache that would appear at the very best time.
“I won’t be out long,” she added, touching her forehead. “My head feels achy.”
“You shouldn’t lie in the sun,” her father said, concerned.
“Just for a little while. I can’t help it. I love beaches!”
“I know. Don’t stay out too long, then.”
“I won’t.” She tossed him a smile and walked away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blair joining her father and looking after her with an odd expression. She ignored both of them and went on her way.
* * *
NIKI’S SWIMSUIT HAD an odd effect on her looks. With her platinum-blond hair long, waving around her shoulders and reaching almost to her waist in back, with designer sunglasses perched on her straight nose, it made her look older, sophisticated, very worldly. She loved it. The way it clung to her figure gave away secrets that didn’t normally show. That she had long, tanned, lovely legs. That her breasts were high and firm. That she had a tiny waist and curvy hips. That she was almost perfect physically. Usually, she didn’t like those things to show. She dressed conservatively. But today she felt reckless, as if she had nothing to lose. Blair had found a woman from his past, who was obviously still interested in him, and she was apparently staying at the hotel. Niki felt the sting of competition for the first time in her life.
She walked down to the beach without even a coverup, picking up a towel from the steward at the beginning of the beach. She smiled at him, trying to ignore his very appreciative stare.
She picked a spot near an elderly couple, spread her towel and stretched out. The sun was very hot, but she loved the feel of it on her skin. She slid her sunglasses over her nose and settled into the soft sand.
Overhead she heard birds. Seagulls, by the sound of them, dancing in the air as they fluttered by. She smiled to herself. Her father had mentioned that there was a day trip out to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. She thought she might go tomorrow, even if her companions didn’t have time to spare. It would be the trip of a lifetime.
She arched her back to ease the stiffness she’d felt from the long trip here, relaxed, then dozed lightly, trying not to remember the way Blair had looked at the dark-haired woman in the hotel. Why had she been born blonde? Why wasn’t she older and more sophisticated? Why, why, why?
When she’d had dinner with Dan Brady at the seafood restaurant, he’d lectured her nonstop on her lifestyle, her lack of physical stamina and her diet, especially when she’d ordered the fried fish plate. She liked him, in a way. But he was a shadow of Blair. They both cared about her well-being, but she was definitely attracted to Blair much more than Dan.
Well, wishing wouldn’t do her any good. Blair was determined to keep her at arm’s length, and she couldn’t change his mind. Somehow, she had to accept that and deal with it and move on. Somehow, in the middle of her misery, she fell asleep.
* * *
A TINY SPRAY of water hitting her face woke her. Blair was standing over her, glowering. He was wearing swimming trunks, white and clinging, and the rest of him was bare. He was absolutely glorious. Niki ached just looking at him. He was broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, with legs like tree trunks, tanned and muscular. His chest had a wedge of curling black hair that ran down into the waistband of the trunks. His feet, like hers, were bare. He was staring at her. Not only staring. She’d rolled over to her side in her sleep, so that the deep cut of the suit showed her breasts to their very best advantage. His eyes were on them, and she felt his look all the way to her toes.
His eyes zoomed in pointedly to her breasts and she knew, now, what he was seeing. The tips went hard when she looked at him. She wanted him. And he knew it.
Self-conscious, she sat up and brought up her knees, hiding her breasts from view. She laughed, trying to make light of her embarrassment. “I wasn’t going in,” she said, anticipating the reason for the scowl. “Dad told me about red flags.” She indicated them, flapping madly in the breeze, a few feet away. She felt the hunger in him in a way she never had before.
His trunks were wet, like his hair. Even the hair on his massive chest glittered with water. He was trying desperately to reason with his aching body. In that bathing suit, Niki was the most beautiful, seductive woman he’d ever seen. She was years too young for what he wanted from her. But he couldn’t drag his eyes away. And very quickly, he had a physical reaction to her that he couldn’t hide.
He bent over and picked her up in his arms, shifting her as he turned toward the ocean.
“Blair, there are red...flags,” she faltered.
He looked down at her and brought her close, so that she could feel the thick hair on his chest against the strip of bare skin that showed in her bathing suit.
His eyes were on her mouth as he walked, oblivious to the whole damned world. “Why did you have to put on that damned bathing suit?” he said harshly.
He waded into the water, until it was up to his rib cage.
Niki’s heart was beating like mad. She could feel his heart against her, under the warm, hard muscles of his chest, a drumbeat that gained rhythm by the second.
His black eyes dropped to her mouth. He bent, very slowly, and touched his lips to hers in a soft whisper of contact.
Her nails bit into his shoulders. It was like flying. She’d dreamed of having him kiss her for so long, wanted it, wondered how it would feel. She didn’t hear the cries of the seagulls flying overhead, the laughter of children way down the beach. She didn’t hear the slap of the ocean against the sand. All she felt was the shaky beat of her own heart.
Blair’s warm, firm lips parted against hers, teasing the upper lip away from the lower one, sliding over her soft mouth with pure seduction. At her back, his arm contracted, moving her breasts against him, feeling the tips harden as they pressed into the warm muscle of his chest.
“Blair,” she moaned huskily.
He nipped her upper lip. “Open your mouth.”
“What?” she whispered, dazed by the contact.
“Open it for me, baby,” he whispered. “Let me inside.”
The husky words shocked her into doing as he said. She felt the slow, velvety stab of his tongue into the warm darkness, felt the seductive movement work on every cell in her body. She shivered with her first taste of real desire.
He felt that, felt her eager, shy response. He felt her fingers in the thick hair at his nape, biting in, caressing. Her body was trembling, like his legs.
He eased her down into the water and pulled her very slowly into the thrust of his body, letting her feel the power and heat of the arousal.
She gasped.
He lifted his head, just a little, just enough to see the shock in her slitted eyes. They glittered like silver in sunlight. “I want to peel you out of that bathing suit and lay you down on the beach,” he whispered as his mouth teased hers. “I want to go into you, hard and slow and deep, and feel you curl into me, possess me, while I take you...”
His mouth crushed down onto hers, and she shuddered as his big hands went to her hips and ground them into his. He wasn’t thinking anymore. He was living, breathing, only through the contact with Niki’s exquisite body. He wanted her to the point of madness. It had never been this bad, not even with Elise, when he thought he’d die if he couldn’t have her.
Niki tried to protest, even if weakly. But the warm, slow crush of his mouth on hers was like a drug. She couldn’t get close enough to him. She couldn’t get enough of him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life, tears stinging her eyes as the incredible pleasure, borne on excruciating tension, felt as if it might tear her apart. She wanted...something. Something more. She ached all over. It was as deep as pain. She sobbed helplessly under his hard mouth.
His hands tightened on her hips as he drew back to look into her eyes. She was totally yielding, helpless. He could have her. He could take her back to the hotel, to his room, and have her on the king-size bed with sunlight streaming in through the blinds. He could give her paradise. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
And then, as the cold water began to soothe the heat in his tormented body, he felt the tremors running through her, saw the shock in her flushed face. This was Niki. He was treating her like a sophisticated woman, but he had to remember she was a virgin. She’d never had a man before.
That excited him even more. He closed his eyes on a shudder. He pulled her close and held her tightly, but without passion.
“Blair,” she sobbed at his throat.
“Just hold on until it passes,” he ground out. “Be still, Niki. Be still, honey.”
She had some vague memory of warnings from older women about hungry men and how it hurt them. He might deny it, but he’d wanted her desperately. She’d felt it. She closed her eyes and let herself dream as they clung to each other in the cold, restless ocean. Surely he couldn’t walk away from her after this and pretend nothing had happened.
But apparently, he could. He drew back a minute later, his face hard and quiet.
“We need to get out of here. We’re too close to the current, and the riptides are dangerous,” he said. He picked her up and carried her back to the beach, hating himself for what he’d done, for letting her tempt him.
“You’d been swimming already,” she said breathlessly.
“I know what to do in a riptide. I’ve been in them before.” He put her down on the sand.
She looked up at him with her heart in her eyes, waiting, hoping, self-conscious.
He didn’t look down at her. “I have some phone calls to make back at the hotel. I’ll see you later, Niki.”
Then he just walked away. Just walked away, as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t held her and kissed her and said...incredibly intimate things to her. He didn’t look back. It was as if he’d never touched her.
She went back to her towel, spread it back out, put on her sunglasses and lay down, trying to stop her racing heart. She noticed that Blair had already taken his towel and sunglasses with him when he left. Now what? she wondered. For her, the world had shifted two degrees. But for Blair it obviously hadn’t. Was it because Janet was here, and he was feeling a rekindling of their old romance?
Her heart fell. Was that why he’d kissed her so hungrily, because he’d been thinking of Janet, and Niki in her seductive bathing suit had tempted him? She had to fight tears. At least she was wearing sunglasses. The few people on the beach wouldn’t see them.
* * *
BLAIR WAS DYING inside as he strode back into the hotel, away from the temptation on the beach. He’d been cold to her, when that was the last thing, the very last thing, he felt. Niki was in his heart. She had been for a very long time. But he wanted more for her than an old, used-up oilman who lived for his business. He couldn’t afford to let her fixate on him.
He thought back over the past two years: Niki lying in his arms after her disastrous blind date; Niki taking care of him when he’d had bronchitis; Niki with the children at Christmas, laughing, her face as bright as the season itself; Niki, when he was drowning in anguish after the divorce, leading him out of a drunken stupor and taking him home with her and her father, to take care of him. There had never been a woman in his entire life who’d nurtured him so much, yet made him so hungry for her. But for her own good, he was going to have to smother those feelings. He couldn’t give in to temptation and ruin her life. He wanted her desperately. But she was the one woman on earth he absolutely could not have. Ever!
* * *
A FEW MINUTES LATER, Niki got up from the sand, picked up her towel and walked slowly back to the hotel. All her dreams of love, of Blair, had seemed about to come true. But he didn’t want to be close to her. He was angry, although he’d tried to hide it from her. Maybe he was disgusted with her, as well. She’d behaved like a wanton. She flushed with embarrassment.
He’d given her heaven, but all she had given him was an ache that she couldn’t satisfy. He’d turned away from her as if the whole thing was her fault. Which, of course, it was. She’d bought a revealing bathing suit that showed too much of her body, and she’d tempted him. She’d known that he wanted her. He’d hidden it away, but something inside her had instinctively known, had understood his hunger for her. She’d worn the suit deliberately, to seduce him into acting on his feelings for her.
But nothing had gone the way she’d hoped it would. Her dreams of a shared future had gone up in smoke. He wanted her. He’d kissed her. He’d enjoyed it as much as she had. But it had only been physical, and she realized that with a start. He didn’t want her in any permanent way. He felt that she was too young, had told her over and over again, and that opinion hadn’t changed, even after the heated encounter in the ocean.
Tempting him had only dragged a physical response out of him, not an emotional one. He’d enjoyed her, as he’d enjoyed other women. As he’d probably enjoyed that woman, Janet, that he’d been talking to earlier in the hotel.
She recalled with pain the look that had always been on his face before when he spoke to her. His expression had been gentle, soft, happy. He was tender with Niki, but only when he was pretending that she was a child. After their physical interlude, he’d acted as if he found the whole thing distasteful.
From hope, she passed quickly to shame and embarrassment. There had been emotion growing between them, something deep and soft and gentle. She’d felt it. But with her stupid impatience, with her desire to tempt him out of his reticence, she’d ruined it.
She’d finally had what she’d wanted. She’d had him in her arms, kissing her, wanting her. But it was not to be. She remembered the old adage “Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.” After this afternoon’s fiasco, it was only too true.