by Susan Napier;Kathryn Ross;Kelly Hunter;Sandra Marton;Katherine Garbera;Margaret Mayo
Her breath caught in her throat and she shifted against him. He plucked at her nipples and lowered his head, suckling the side of her neck. Her fingers clenched against his thighs and he grew painfully hard. He knew that if he didn’t have Jayne soon, he was going to self-combust.
“Let’s go back to the room,” he said.
“Yes.”
Jayne stopped analyzing and just enjoyed being with Adam. She fairly pulsed with need and couldn’t wait until they got to their room to make love. She’d seen a very exquisite negligee in her new wardrobe and wanted to see Adam’s reaction to her in her gown.
“On a night like this I can easily imagine that pirate Antonio sailing into port here with his beautiful maiden.”
Adam’s stride was loose and relaxed. It was the first time she’d walked anywhere with him that wasn’t at a clipped paced. This was a side to him that she hadn’t seen before, and she wanted to explore it more. She wanted to make sure this time on the beach and the magic it wove around her included him, as well.
“I’m sure she wasn’t a maiden when they arrived here,” he said in a wry tone.
“Unless she was in love with him, I bet she was,” Jayne said.
“Don’t put too much stock in love, chère. Passion would have made her change her mind.”
She remembered what he’d said about his father earlier. But she couldn’t believe that Adam didn’t believe love existed.
All of his relationships were designed to insulate him from feeling anything. The part of her mind that loved puzzles wondered if there were other variables that his mistresses of the past had in common. Physically, she’d noticed they all tended to have long legs and full breasts.
“Passion’s overrated. A few pheromones and some scanty clothing are all it takes to evoke passion.”
“That’s lust,” he said.
“Made a study of it, have you?”
He lifted one eyebrow in a very wry expression that made her feel as if she were a naive schoolgirl. She didn’t like the feeling, but knew in this instance she was. She didn’t have any of his sophistication. To her, sex was more than pheromones, which was why she’d had so few lovers.
“Are you asking me about my love life?” he inquired.
“No. I know you have a revolving door on your bedroom.”
He said nothing, but dropped her hand. She stopped and cast her gaze toward him. With one glance she knew he was angry.
“Do you really think so little of me?” he demanded.
Yes and no. Mostly, she was angry at herself for not really understanding what he wanted. “No, I was being flip. I’m sorry. I don’t understand why you’ve chosen only brief affairs.”
He tipped his head back and a warm breeze blew around them. The smell of the sea and the nightblooming jasmine surrounded them both, and she wondered how something she’d meant as a nice romantic conversation had gone so wrong.
“Because they are safer,” he said softly, his deep voice a whisper on the wind.
“Safer than one-night stands?” she asked, really wanting to understand this complex man.
“No. I can live without sex for a few nights.”
“Couldn’t prove it by me.”
He drew one finger across her collarbone and she shivered at the touch. “That’s because you’ve been a fire in my soul for a long time.”
A fire in his soul. The words echoed through her head and her heart. And she threw her arms around him and kissed him. He held her gently and let her control their embrace.
“Thank you for making this sound special.”
“It is, Jayne. Don’t ever doubt that.”
He held her hand loosely and led her toward the path to the hotel. For a moment it felt as if all of her dreams, past and present, melded together. She forgot that she’d been hurt by her father and Ben, and really believed that this time, with Adam, love might stay. Love might blossom. Love might be right.
Anticipation burned through her, making her tremble with desire and a crazy belief that something wrong was being righted. Adam drew her to a halt under a tiki lamp and pulled her close to him. She stretched up on tiptoe to meet his mouth as it descended toward her.
This time it was a sweet embrace with no rushing. It was as if by agreeing that they’d make love in their suite she’d given him permission to linger over her as if she were a gourmet feast.
And he did linger, rubbing his lips sensually against hers until they were so sensitized she couldn’t imagine her mouth without his pressed to it. He tilted his head and forced her mouth open, but only filled it with his warm breath.
Pulling back, he glanced down at her with a slight smile, then took her mouth again. He thrust his tongue past her teeth and tasted her deeply. She returned the embrace.
His hands swept up and down her back. Then his left hand slipped around the curve of her waist and caressed her stomach and midriff, working its way slowly up to her breasts. They felt heavy, and she didn’t know if she could stand another caress there right now.
But as he cupped her and rubbed his finger around the edge of her nipple, never touching the engorged flesh, she realized that she needed his touch. She whimpered in the back of her throat, wishing for more, needing him to take her nipple between his fingers or even in his mouth.
His lips left hers to slide down her cheek to her neck. He nibbled the column of her throat, then bit gently at the spot where her neck and shoulder met. She arched against him and dug her fingernails into his shoulders through the cloth of his dress shirt.
“Chère, I can’t wait.”
“You don’t have to.”
He put his hand on the small of her back and pushed her toward the hotel. His pace was definitely quicker now.
“There you two are,” Ray said as they reentered the main building. He’d shed his dinner jacket and had the stub of a cigar clamped between his teeth. He took a quick puff on it and then removed the cigar from his mouth.
“Here we are,” Adam said.
Angelini must have been standing on the large veranda at the back of the hotel for some time. Jayne tried to determine if Adam had noticed Ray standing there before or after he’d kissed her.
One glance at Adam’s face revealed nothing. It was the second time she’d realized that he had an innate ability to hide what he was feeling. She tried not to let the knowledge get to her, like some kind of warning.
“Our jazz band is going to be starting their second set in a minute. I was hoping to catch you on your way back from the walk and change your mind. Want come see them, compare?”
“Sure. I want to make some notes on the entertainment. And Jayne likes to dance.”
I do? “Not tonight. I’ve got a headache.”
“Are you okay?” Adam asked.
“Yes. I think it was the traveling and the long day at work.”
“Well, starting tomorrow you won’t have anything to do but relax,” Ray said.
“Go ahead, Adam. I’ll see you later.”
The band started playing and Angelini stood in the doorway of the hotel. Adam was at a crossroads, one path leading toward the man who held the keys to a deal he wanted to close, and the other leading to Jayne. She tried not to place too much importance on that fact. She also told herself it didn’t hurt when he walked away.
Adam was uncomfortable the moment Jayne left. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the evening in a bar with Angelini. The lobby decor hadn’t changed in the last twenty years. There was that sixties-style furniture and large paddle fans that kept the air circulating.
Was Jayne okay? She’d seemed fine on the beach a few minutes ago. He would stay for one drink and then make an excuse and leave. The ceiling fan teased his memory and he knew he’d seen it or one like it before.
Ray seemed annoyed when they entered the smokefilled lounge. The act on the stage was a jazz trio and their music was good, but all Adam saw was Jayne’s wide blue eyes filled with a kind of hurt that he hadn’t realized he could inf
lict on another person.
Angelini signaled the waitress when Didi joined them. His wife didn’t have much fashion sense. She wore a long skirt in some shade of olive-green. Adam was pained to see a woman dressed so…shabbily. He made a mental note to have the boutique send Didi some new clothes.
“Where’s Jayne?”
“Hey, babe. She couldn’t join us. Something about a headache.”
Didi didn’t say anything, but glared at Ray. Those two had the strangest relationship. Adam didn’t sense true love between them at all. So he wasn’t sure why they were insisting on it from their potential buyers.
“I’ll leave you two to discuss business,” Didi said with a pointed look at Ray.
“Babe, you’re cramping my style,” Ray said.
But Didi just walked away. Adam didn’t want to sit here and schmooze with Ray for the next thirty minutes. The band slid into an old Miles Davis tune. Adam wished Jayne were here. She’d like this band, and he knew he could coax her onto the small dance floor.
“That one is always sticking her nose in my business. She gives me agita. Is Jayne like that?”
“No. Well, sometimes. If I ask her to do something she thinks is ridiculous or not good for business.” Adam didn’t mind her interference, because nine times out of ten she was right on the money. Jayne had a way of looking at life and situations with clear eyes, and sometimes she saw things that he didn’t with his single-minded focus on getting the job done.
“How long you two been together?” Ray asked, taking a sip of his drink.
Adam knocked back his single malt. Not long enough, he thought. “She started working for me eight months ago.”
Ray gave him a man-to-man look. “But you knew you wanted more?”
“What are you, my father confessor?”
“Madon’, you have no idea. I guess that was pushy.”
“Yeah, it was. I know how important it is that a couple buys this place.”
“Not any couple,” Ray said. “A couple in love.”
“Jayne and I are committed to keeping Perla Negra as one of the Caribbean’s premiere resorts.”
“That’s not good enough. I thought I was clear when we spoke on the phone. Perla Negra isn’t just a resort. It’s a legend.”
“Legends make a nice selling point,” Adam said.
“Yes, they do,” Ray said. He took a puff off his cigar. “But it has to be more than that… Perla Negra is a place where couples come for romance and to reaffirm the bonds between them.”
Perla Negra…The way Ray spoke of it made it seem like something mystical and otherworldly, the perfect place for love. Two things that couldn’t survive in the real world, or at least in Adam’s world.
“I hate to break it to you, Ray, but some of the couples who come here are adulterers.”
Ray shrugged.
Adam knew that not everyone felt the way he did about adultery. He also acknowledged that if his family hadn’t been shattered by it he might not hold the act of being unfaithful in such disdain. But he did. And it was the one thing he couldn’t forgive or tolerate.
“We provide a place for them to be together. We never stand in the way of true love.”
“No matter what kind of mess it leaves behind?” Adam asked.
“I don’t follow.”
Adam finished off his drink. “Never mind. I think I’d better go see about Jayne.”
“No problem,” Ray said. “We’ll meet you for breakfast on the veranda. I’ve arranged for you both to take a tour around the island on a boat.”
“I can handle the boat myself, so we won’t need a guide. Good night.”
“Buona notte, compare.”
Adam walked through the lobby, intent on getting back to Jayne. Something was wrong and he should have picked up on it earlier instead of letting business distract him. The only reason he had was that business was easier to manage and deal with.
The suite was dark when he entered it except for a small coffee table lamp. He was surprised to see the red file folder sitting in the middle of the desk, the one that held his action items. Jayne must have done some work when she returned to their suite.
Relieved that she must be feeling better—not only because he hoped to persuade her to become his lover—he flipped open the file folder and skimmed the printed e-mails and faxes. Nothing urgent.
He loosened his tie and toed off his shoes as he approached the bedroom. He hadn’t worked out the details yet, but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to let Jayne leave her job, despite what he’d always believed about lovers working together. He knew that he functioned better when she was around.
He opened the door to the bedroom carefully. Moonlight spilled in from the window, and Adam stayed in the shadows, searching the bed for Jayne’s small form. But the bed was empty.
“Chère?”
“Out here,” she said. Her voice drifted in from the balcony.
Adam stepped out there, ready to pull her into his arms and finish what they’d started too long ago on the beach. But one look at the way she held herself and he knew something was terribly wrong with Jayne. And it wasn’t a damn headache. It was something he’d done.
He suddenly remembered why he preferred having a mistress to actually dating. There was none of this kind of emotional turmoil.
Chapter Seven
Jayne had focused on work when she’d returned to their suite. She’d changed out of the wraparound silk skirt—not into the one-of-a-kind negligee that Adam had so thoughtfully provided, but a large T-shirt she’d picked up in the gift shop after Adam had left with Ray.
Jayne realized that the bridge wasn’t appearing. She’d leaped off the precipice and had been in a free fall. But she was recovering now. She’d say it was moonlight madness or the sea breeze. A temporary aberration in an otherwise sane person. She and Adam could never be lovers, because she knew without a shadow of a doubt that nothing could ever compete with Powell International in Adam’s life. Especially not a lover.
Earlier she’d had some hope in her heart that she could teach Adam to love her, but not anymore.
“Is your head still bothering you?” he asked from the doorway. He was hidden in shadow and she couldn’t really see him, just hear his deep, sultry voice. And sense the tension that emanated from him.
An answering tautness sprang to life inside her. She shook her head. “I lied. I didn’t have a headache.”
He stepped out onto the balcony and leaned next to her at the railing. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking to her like a relaxed man with nothing but time on his hands.
“Why?” he asked. There was a dangerous softness to his tone that she knew from hearing it in the office meant he was close to losing his temper.
She didn’t place too much importance on that. She probably should have stayed and acted her role for Ray and Didi, but she couldn’t. She’d been exposed there in his arms. And if Adam had been watching her instead of Ray, Jayne feared he’d have seen her heart in her eyes. “I needed to get away.”
“From me?”
She nodded. From him and from herself. But there’d been no escaping her own thoughts. So she’d tried to work, and then she’d tried to call her mom, figuring that Mona would know how to keep a man like Adam in her life. But her mother hadn’t been home, and in the end Jayne hadn’t been able to leave a message.
Adam watched her with an intensity that made her remember his hands on her breasts earlier. She forced her thoughts back to the conversation. “I didn’t want to talk to Angelini. I don’t think I’m cut out for this, Adam.”
“You’re talking about becoming my lover.”
“At least you didn’t say mistress.”
He cursed under his breath and pivoted to face the sea, his hands braced on the railing and his head bent. This was the Adam she wanted to wrap in her arms and comfort. Except she knew now the price was too high, and that she wasn’t to pay it for a few weeks with him.
“I knew it. Wha
t the hell happened?”
How could she explain without revealing her own vulnerability where he was concerned? “I just got a wake-up call.”
“Am I supposed to follow that?”
“I guess not. I think the island was working its magic on me. I was falling for the romance of the legend of Perla Negra. And casting you in the role of a swashbuckling hero.”
He rested one lean hip against the railing, his expression now forbidding and dark. And she shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
“But now you’ve decided I’m not a hero?”
She’d hurt him, she realized. “I think you’d make a wonderful hero, Adam. Just not for me.”
“Why not?”
“I need more than you can give me.”
“Jayne—”
She reached up and touched his lips to stop the words. “Don’t say anything yet. I’m not even sure what I need, but I know it’s more than you give your women. And I thought I could make you understand that.”
She dropped her hand and tilted her head to study him in the moonlight.
“What happened to change your mind?”
“That kiss with Ray watching. I forgot that even though you want me in your bed, we are playing a part.”
“Dammit, Jayne I wasn’t playing to Angelini.”
She wanted to believe him, but she knew better. Adam was always aware of everyone and everything. “I’m not mad about it. I’d have done the same thing in your position.”
“How gracious you are. What if I wanted to make love to you out here on the balcony?”
“I’d have to draw the line there. I just told you I’m having a hard time keeping up with the pretense.”
“Exactly what is your difficulty? The hero thing?”
“Yeah, the hero thing.”
“There isn’t another woman in the world I’d have this conversation with,” Adam told her, exasperated.
“Should I be flattered?” she asked mockingly.