Mariah froze, her gaze darting to his wide-eyed one as he stared at her breasts, the indentation of her waist and the juncture of her thighs with a hunger that sent her pulse into a tailspin. Quickly, she sat across from him, submersing herself to her shoulders in the hot water.
She glared at him. "You promised not to look!"
He dragged a wet hand over his jaw. "I'd never be so foolish as to promise any such thing. Do you realize how long it's been since I've seen you naked? Since we've made love? Really made love?" Need thickened his voice.
Beneath the froth and caress of water her nipples tightened into aching points. She could give him the exact days, narrowed down to the hours and minutes if he really wanted to know. "I have no idea."
"It's been too long," he said. "Much too long, don't you think?"
She gave a one-shoulder shrug. "I haven't thought much about it at all." Liar, her body taunted.
He took a drink of wine. "So, is Richard going to wonder where you are this weekend?" The change of subject made his features tighten and turn grim.
She wasn't sure why, but she took pity on him and divulged the truth. "Richard and I aren't dating any longer."
A low, audible sigh of relief escaped him, though his gaze never left her face. "Why not?"
She stretched out her legs and her foot touched his at the bottom of the spa. Because he's not you. Because you hold my heart and soul. Because I can't forget you, even when I do my best to try. "It's none of your business."
Grey trapped her foot between his ankles, and before she could rescind the move he reached down and caught her leg and settled her foot on his hard thighs. She gasped and jerked back, but lost the match.
"Relax, sweetheart. I only want to massage your foot."
She should tell him no, but he was already rubbing those incredible hands and fingers of his along her sole and heel. It felt too wonderful to fight, and as long as he didn't explore above the calf, she'd be okay. She relaxed slightly, trying not to think how close the foot resting in his lap was to his-
"Richard wasn't any good in bed, was he?" Grey asked abruptly.
She choked on incredulous laughter. "We never got that far!"
"Good." His thumbs pressed into her arch, the satisfied gleam in his eyes slowly fading. "Who's next on Jade's list of eligible bachelors?"
"No one." Thank God.
"And what about your father's?"
She smiled and sank deeper into the water until her neck rested on the rim. Her earlier tension gradually ebbed from her body. "Don't you think I can find my own dates?"
"Oh, absolutely. I just know your father when it comes to his single, available daughters."
She tilted her head and bravely settled her other foot on his knee for equal treatment, wiggling her toes. "Do you now?"
"Yep." Beneath the eddying water, his finger slowly slid between her toes, caressing the sensitive skin there. She shivered, and a smile lifted his mouth. "Remember how we met?"
How could she forget that monumental moment when she'd looked into his gold-brown eyes for the first time and become a devout believer in love at first sight? "Yes, I remember. We met through a consultation appointment."
"Your father set us up."
"He referred you to Casual Elegance," she corrected. Lifting her glass of wine from the side of the spa, she drained the rest of the pale liquid. A languid warmth within her mingled with the heat of the spa's jets, making her lazy and lethargic.
"He set us up, Mariah," he said, the skin around his eyes crinkling in humor. "As soon as I mentioned I was building a house he told me his daughter was the best interior designer in southern California. So I let him set up an appointment with you."
She frowned, recalling her father's enthusiasm when he'd called months ago to set her up with a potential client who owned his own security firm. As much as she loved and adored her father, she wouldn't put it past him to do a little matchmaking, just to speed up the process of one of his daughters getting married.
"You didn't have to see me," she said quietly.
"Your father insisted, and since he was about to become a major account for Nichols' Security I figured it couldn't hurt to see his daughter about a consultation." He stroked his hand along her ankle and cupped her calf in his palm before kneading the taut flesh, loosening the muscle. "Though I have to admit I expected to find a spinster."
A tiny groan of pleasure slipped from her. Instinctively she flexed her foot. "And what did you find instead?"
He gazed at her with a tenderness he rarely displayed. "Instead I found the woman of my dreams."
She rolled her eyes to dispel the softening of her heart. "And I thought you were the most arrogant man I'd ever met."
He grinned wolfishly. "I knew what I wanted."
She shook her head at his presumptuousness. "And it wasn't to see carpet samples."
"No, it certainly wasn't that," he agreed. "And we didn't get much business done that night, did we?"
She reflected on that evening, and how he'd deliberately steered their conversation away from business, and onto more personal topics…such as, was she seeing anyone? "Not after you said you just had to kiss me, then did just that without my permission."
"I didn't need it. Your eyes said you wanted the kiss as much as I did."
Scooping a handful of frothing water, she trickled it over a dry patch on her shoulder. "You obviously saw what you wanted to."
"You didn't object." He leaned forward, his thigh flexing where her foot rested. "In fact, if I recall correctly, your mouth opened beneath mine for a deeper kiss when I'd only intended to give you a chaste one."
She lifted a brow. Nothing about Grey had ever been chaste. Not the way he'd relentlessly pursued her, not the way he made love to her the first time and every time since and certainly not the way he kissed. She was certain that if she hadn't parted her lips beneath his he would have found a way to coax her into giving him the taste he really wanted.
His thumb pressed into the ball of her foot and rubbed in sensuous circles. "Admit it, sweetheart, you wanted it every bit as much as I did."
"You think too highly of yourself, Nichols."
His gaze narrowed challengingly and dropped to her mouth. "You gonna make me prove how much you want it, and like it?"
Her heart raced. She wouldn't put it past him to make good on his threat. Summoning strength against the desire ribboning within her, she removed her feet from his lap and gave him the confession he sought. "Okay, I'll admit I was attracted to you."
His expression turned cocky. "So much so that when I asked for another appointment you gave me one."
"To talk business!" Not to be swept off my feet by you. Which is exactly what he'd intended, and exactly what had happened. "You hired me as a consultant, Grey."
Grinning, he dipped his hands into the water and ran all ten fingers through his hair, dampening the strands away from his face. "It was the only way I could get you to see me. I've never had to work so hard at getting a woman the way I had to work to get you."
His admission secretly pleased her. "It was good for you."
He wiggled his dark brows. "The chase wasn't half as much fun as your surrender."
Perspiration beaded on her upper lip, as much from the steam rising off the water as the hot look in Grey's eyes. The man was a master in seduction, wearing down her resistance with kisses and intimate caresses that shattered all coherent thought, until she surrendered heart, body and soul. "You didn't play fair."
"I was crazy about you," he said softly, meaningfully. "I still am."
Her throat closed up with emotion, and she looked away, out into the darkened woods around Mark's cabin. She believed Grey, which made their breakup all the more difficult to handle. But the difference between being crazy about someone and loving someone was too great when it came to making a commitment.
Suddenly tired and weary of trying to sort out her feelings for Grey, she started to stand. But remembering her state of
undress, she promptly sat back down. "I, uh, think I need to get out before I shrivel up."
Grey nodded his agreement, knowing they were close to the "rehashing" point. He didn't want to end their relaxing evening with an argument. Apparently neither did she.
While she kept her gaze averted, he stepped from the tub and quickly dried off with her towel. Tugging his jeans over his damp skin proved to be a challenge. Once he'd zipped his fly and was decently dressed, he handed her the towel.
"I don't suppose you need help drying off?" he asked.
Her fingers brushed his as she reached for the towel. Desire flared in her gaze, the only sign that his touch and nearness had any affect on her. "I think I can manage on my own, thanks."
He grinned. "Doesn't hurt to ask."
Giving her some privacy, he turned toward the deck railing and listened to her step from the spa. The image of her body glistening with water and moonlight taunted him, and it took an incredible amount of control to keep from turning back around and looking his fill…and taking his fill. Grinding his jaw against the rush of heat pooling low in his belly, he wrapped his fingers around the railing and eased out a tight breath.
"Do you have a shirt I can sleep in?" she asked.
He took that as his cue that he could turn around, and did so. The twisting in his gut increased. She looked like a night nymph…a vision of purity and innocence that grabbed him hard. Her damp hair was loose around her face, and her flushed skin was beaded with drops of water that trickled from her neck to the cleavage swelling above the top of the towel. He wanted to lap the trail with his tongue, taste her skin, her breasts, her belly…
"Grey?"
Jerking his gaze back to her face, he searched his memory for what she'd asked. Oh, yeah, something to sleep in.
"I bought you a nightgown at that boutique I stopped at." Turning off the spa's jets, he pulled the cover over the top.
She fingered the hem of the towel. "Did you buy it for my comfort or your pleasure?"
He laughed deeply. "Come see for yourself, Ms. Skeptic. I was on my best behavior."
She followed him inside the house and waited while he rummaged through the bags the boutique had given him. Into the fourth package, he finally found what he'd been searching for.
He held up the simple peach chemise for her inspection. "Not a bit of silk or lace, and the hem hits below the knee. Does it meet with your approval?"
Pleasure lit her gaze and she smiled. "You surprise me sometimes, Grey. It's perfect." Taking the gown from him, she sashayed toward the bathroom.
Grey watched her swaying hips the entire way, wondering what she'd say if he told her he'd also bought her a red silk-and-lace number that left little to one's imagination. A smile twitched his mouth. He was saving that scrap of nothing for later, when she finally came to her senses and realized they belonged together.
Digging through the duffel he'd packed for himself, he withdrew a pair of sweatpants and changed while waiting for Mariah. She emerged from the bathroom, her face freshly scrubbed and the scent of mint toothpaste clinging to her.
She placed her bundle of clothing on a nearby chair and tried to hide a yawn behind the back of her hand. "Where am I sleeping?"
"I know where I'd like you to sleep." In his arms, snuggled against him like a warm, content kitten; her breath sighing on his chest; the fragrant, feminine scent of her surrounding him. And in the middle of the night her hands would roam, stroking over his belly, down his thigh until she found him hard and ready for her. God, he missed the intimacy and closeness of sleeping together, of reaching for Mariah, pulling her beneath him and them coming together in moans of mutual pleasure.
"We wouldn't sleep," she said huskily, reading his mind.
Considering the arousal he hadn't been able to tame since slipping into the spa with her, she was right. "Would that be so bad?"
She ran her hand over the back of the tweed sofa separating them. "We made a deal, Grey, and we haven't even fulfilled the first condition, let alone dealt with the second one."
"We'll talk," he promised in a low, frustrated growl. Stepping around the sofa, he grabbed her hand and led her down the hall to the master bedroom. "We've got two more days to talk about anything and everything."
She dug her heels in at the bedroom door, bringing them both to a sudden halt. "Good night, Grey."
He didn't like being dismissed, not when he knew he was going to spend a sleepless night tossing and turning on the couch while she slept snug and sound in a soft bed. Alone.
Giving in to the urge to do what he'd been dying to do the entire evening, he slid a hand into the hair at the side of her face and guided her two feet back until her spine pressed against the wall. Her lips parted on a gasp and her eyes widened. He lowered his head to steal a kiss. At the last second she turned her face and his lips grazed her jaw. Damn, he should've known she'd do that!
"Grey, no," she said, a wispy catch to her voice.
He chuckled and pulled back, stroking his thumb over her cheek. "Your willpower amazes me."
She looked up at him with stormy blue eyes. "Yeah, me, too. You're hard to resist, Nichols."
His fingers massaged her scalp and tangled through her hair. He missed her long hair, but he was getting used to this shorter sophisticated cut and the way the strands filtered through his fingers like skeins of silk. "Then why are you resisting what we both know you want?"
"Because I've never been one for gratuitous sex." Taking his hand away from her face, she attempted to step around him.
He trapped her with his hands on either side of her head. "Is that what you think it would be? Gratuitous sex? A wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kind of romp?" He was annoyed that she'd even suggest such a thing.
That stubborn chin of hers lifted. "In some ways, yes. You've always had a healthy sexual drive and I'm sure you're not used to abstinence. That is, if you have been," she added.
His irritation level climbed a notch. "Of course I have been!"
She looked startled by his snappish tone. "I didn't mean that insultingly."
"Well, it sure as hell came across that way," he said gruffly, scowling down at her.
She let out a long sigh and turned her head away, as if it pained her to be this close to him, to look at him. "You're free to date other women, Grey, just like I dated Richard. And what you do with those women is your own business."
Furious with her impersonal tone, he grasped her hand, pulled it between them and pressed her palm against the erection straining the front of his sweats. Her gaze flew to his and a strangled sound hitched in her throat. The shock value was worth the pure torment of having her hand cup him so perfectly.
He leaned close, brushing his lips across her cheek, her throat, just beneath her ear. "Thanks for your permission, sweetheart. Unfortunately there's only one woman who turns me on." He rocked into her palm, squeezed her fingers along his ridged length and grew impossibly harder, thicker. He closed his eyes and groaned at the sensation of both pain and pleasure. "Only you, Mariah," he rasped. "My reaction to any other woman pales in comparison to how you make me feel."
Her breathing grew shallow, and when he eased up the pressure of her hand, she didn't let him go. Instead, her fingers stroked him rhythmically. "And what do I make you feel, Grey?"
His head fell back and he tried to think with his brain, not that other part of his anatomy ready to explode. What did she make him feel? She made him feel…warm, cherished and needed. No one had ever made him feel those things, not his parents or any other woman he'd ever dated. And he had no idea how to express his emotions without sounding like a sap.
So, instead, he focused on the physical sensations rippling through his body. "I think the answer is obvious."
Disappointment clouded her features, and she pulled her hand away. "Yeah, I guess it is," she said regretfully. "Good night, Grey." She slipped into the bedroom and closed the door. The lock clicked softly, solidly.
He stared in bewilderment at
the oak door, unable to believe she actually felt as though she needed to secure herself from him.
Resting his head against the wall, he squeezed his eyes shut, swearing at his own stupidity. "Nothing like taking the subtle approach, Nichols," he muttered in self-disgust.
Chapter Six
"IT'S ABSOLUTELY HUGE!"
Leaning close to Mariah's side, Grey whispered low in her ear, "Do you want it?"
She gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "It's much too big."
He grinned lazily and stroked a finger over the curve of her shoulder and down her arm. She shivered in response. "You've never had a problem handling 'big' before," he murmured.
His innuendo earned him a not-so-subtle jab in the ribs, but the smile in Mariah's eyes soothed his wounded ego. "We aren't talking about your swelled head or that other big part of your anatomy."
He perfected little-boy innocence. "We're not?"
She tapped a finger against the display window outside a jewelry store in the Arrowhead village, indicating the five-carat diamond ring glittering against black velvet. They'd been strolling along the shop fronts after a light breakfast at a gourmet coffee shop when the extravagant piece of jewelry had caught her eye. "That is huge in a way you could never match."
"My family jewels are more impressive than a mere diamond," he said with feigned indignation.
She tilted her head back and laughed-the light, throaty sound warmer than the bright sun overhead. Somewhere between last night's not-so-pleasant parting and this morning, the tension between them had eased. At least the emotional tension, he thought with a grimace, knowing the physical frustration wouldn't abate until he got Mariah back where he wanted her. In his bed. And in his life.
And he had today and tomorrow to sway her to his way of thinking, to convince her that living together was far more practical than marriage.
She slanted him a look of amusement. "I guess you haven't heard that diamonds are a girl's best friend."
Sweeping a splayed hand up her spine, he slid his fingers beneath her silky, shoulder-length hair. Her nape was warm, and he stroked the soft skin there. "Diamonds might be a girl's best friend, but the family jewels are far more valuable."
Private Pleasures Page 9