The smooth smile that appeared on his face indicated he was. “How did I? By a straight flight from Charlottesville,” he said. “When did I? I arrived in LA a little over two hours ago.”
It took her a moment to digest what he’d said. “So when we talked earlier, you were already in LA?”
He shifted, and when he did, her gaze was drawn to the breadth of his shoulders beneath his jersey. “Yes. I wanted to surprise you. I’d arrived half an hour earlier and had just picked up my rental car. You told me everything I needed to know during our conversation. By the time it ended, I knew what hotel you were staying in and your room number.”
She quickly did a mental recap of their conversation and realized she had supplied him with all that info. “But why are you in LA?”
He shifted to stand with his legs braced apart in a stance that made him appear even more imposing. “I think I mentioned I had family here.”
He had mentioned that, although she’d gotten the distinct impression he and his family weren’t close. “Yes, but when I talked to you yesterday, you didn’t mention anything about coming to LA to visit your family.”
“I decided after we talked that maybe it would be a good time for me to come to LA, as well. I’m glad I did.”
She raised a brow. “Why?”
“Because I get to stand out on the balcony with you tonight.”
With supreme effort, Randi forced herself to continue breathing when he moved forward, covering the distance separating them. Coming to a stop directly in front of her, he reached out and used the pad of his thumb to gently stroke the side of her face.
“So you decided to visit your family during the same time I’m here?” she asked. All kinds of emotions were swirling inside of her from his touch.
“Not exactly.”
Randi was trying to follow him. Hadn’t he said he was in town because of his family? “Seriously, Quasar, why did you come to LA? Are you here to visit your family or not?” She could feel the air sizzling between them. And was that a little purr that sounded in her throat just now?
The eyes staring back at her were dark, intense and mesmerizing. The force of his gaze seemed to touch her all over. “Not. I’m in LA because I wanted to see you again,” he stated in a deep, throaty voice. And then he came a step closer, leaned down and slanted his mouth over hers.
Sensations began flowing through Randi the moment Quasar slid his tongue inside her mouth. Sparks of arousal began escalating all through her body. He wrapped his arms around her waist and began mating greedily with her mouth. The kiss was fiercely hot, hotter than any she’d indulged in before. He was using his tongue in a way that was sending an intense throb of desire through her bloodstream.
When he tightened his arms around her and drew her closer, on instinct she wrapped her own arms around his neck as even more desire clawed at her insides. It was then that she felt the heavy bulge of his erection through his jeans. Evidence of his desire for her was awakening a multitude of feelings within her. Feelings she’d thought she’d put to rest after he left last weekend. But they were back and in full force. Driving her to return his kiss, stroke for stroke.
There was no telling how long they would have stood there, devouring each other’s mouths, if her phone hadn’t rung. Quasar broke off the kiss and when it rang again, he whispered against her moist lips, “Are you going to get that?”
Honestly, the only thing she wanted to get was more of the luscious taste of his mouth. Without answering him, she walked over to the table and grabbed her cell phone on the third ring.
“Yes?”
“Dr. Fuller? Are you alright?”
She had been more than alright moments ago...before being interrupted. “Yes, Agent Riviera, I’m alright. Why do you ask?”
“You took a while to answer your phone.”
“I was in the middle of something, but I’m fine.”
She glanced over to where Quasar was standing. He hadn’t moved from that spot in the middle of her hotel suite, and he was staring at her. Was he waiting for her to come back to him? To continue their kiss? She should have been using this time to reclaim her senses, but for some reason she wasn’t able to do that. All she could think about was returning to him and kissing him some more. Was that crazy or what?
“Sorry I got detained by those meetings, but I wanted to check and make sure you’re okay,” Agent Riviera said, pulling her concentration back to his phone call. “Do you need anything? Have you had dinner?”
“I was about to order room service, and no, I don’t need anything.”
“Okay. If you do, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning at ten.”
“Alright. Goodbye, Agent Riviera.”
Randi clicked off the phone and turned to Quasar. He had shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and was still standing there, staring at her. He was gorgeous. Her gaze moved up past a pair of jeans-clad masculine thighs, a lean waist, a firm stomach and wide, muscled shoulders to focus on his facial features. She studied his lips, the same ones that had melted her insides moments ago.
She hadn’t known that a man’s tongue could go as deep into a woman’s mouth as his had. And when he’d held her tight, she’d felt how hard and powerful his body was. Yet he’d held her with a gentleness that had surprised her.
“Is everything alright, Randi?”
She tried to ignore all the heated sensations rolling around in her stomach. “Yes. That was the FBI agent I’ll be working with while I’m here, Special Agent Riviera. He wanted to make sure I was okay and have everything I need.”
He crossed the room to her. “Do you have everything you need?”
* * *
“ASK ME AGAIN in a few minutes.” In a move that surprised him, she rose up on tiptoes, lifted her arms around his neck and planted her mouth on his.
Quasar took it from there. Pulling her into his arms, he deepened the kiss, trying to ignore the tumultuous emotions that were battling to overtake him. He loved the way her mouth felt beneath his. He loved her taste. He broke off the kiss to nibble greedily around her mouth before sucking her bottom lip back into his mouth. The moment he did, he could feel something—he wasn’t sure what—bind him to her in a way he’d never been with another woman.
He wanted to pull back, break off the kiss to get his senses under control. Instead he continued kissing her like there was no tomorrow, the taste of her mouth driving him.
This time it was the ringing of his phone that intruded into the moment. He wanted to ignore it but couldn’t when he recognized the ringtone. It was a call from Sheppard Granger. He broke off the kiss and pulled back. “Sorry, I need to take this,” he rasped, pulling his cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans.
“I understand,” she said, backing away.
He wanted to reach out and grab her hand, coaxing her not to go anywhere, but she was too quick and moved across the room to sit down on the sofa.
He kept his gaze trained on her as he clicked on his phone and placed it to his ear. “Yes?”
“Quasar, I hope this isn’t a bad time to call.”
Had it been anyone else, he would have said it was. “No, it’s not. What’s up?”
“I just got a call from your father.”
Anger sliced through Quasar. “Dammit, he had no right to call you. How did he get your number?”
“Calm down, Quasar. It’s okay that he called me. And as far as getting my number, I’m still at the office, and he phoned me here.”
Quasar pulled in an irritated breath. “What did he want?”
“He said he asked you to come home this weekend for some kind of family function and you refused. Since I know you flew to LA this morning, I can only assume he doesn’t know you changed your mind about coming.”
“No, he doesn’
t know.”
“And I didn’t tell him any different. I just wanted you to know.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. We’ll talk when I get back to town.”
“Okay. Talk to you later, and you take care of yourself.”
Quasar drew in a composing breath, trying to get his anger under control. A family event—what a bunch of bullshit. The only reason Louis wanted him to come home was control. The old man had given an order that he wanted obeyed.
“Quasar? Everything okay?”
He glanced over at Randi, and a semblance of calm ran through him. He could see concern line her features. When had anyone other than the select few he’d allowed to get close been concerned about him? “Yes, everything is okay.”
Not wanting to go into any details about the call he’d received, he slid his cell phone back into the pocket of his jeans. The moment she’d opened the door, sexual chemistry had seemed to overpower them. It had made him kiss her to see if the taste he’d remembered from last weekend was as powerful as he thought. It was.
“Did I hear you tell that FBI agent you hadn’t eaten yet?” he asked. The room had become too quiet, and he could feel the sexual chemistry beginning to build between them again.
“Yes. I was going to order room service.”
“May I join you?”
She didn’t say anything. Given the degree of sexual chemistry between them, he wondered if she saw them dining together in her hotel room as not such a good idea. He held his breath for her answer.
“Yes, Quasar. You can join me.”
Standing from the sofa she crossed the room toward him, and he actually felt his throat convulse with every sexy step she took. Coming to a stop in front of him, she gave him a pointed look and said, “And over dinner, you can tell me the real reason you came to Los Angeles.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“THIS IS DEFINITELY BETTER than any of those microwave dinners I usually eat,” Quasar said, sliding another piece of steak into his mouth. Room service had delivered their dinner, rolling a linen-covered table set for two into the room. He’d ordered prime rib with vegetables, and she’d ordered seafood pasta.
“You do a lot of those? Microwave dinners?”
“Yes,” he said, watching how she twirled the pasta onto her fork. “Not because I have to, since I consider myself a pretty good cook, but for me it’s usually more convenient.”
“Same here. They are quick, easy and definitely convenient. But unlike you, I don’t consider myself a good cook.”
He grinned over at her. “So there’s not an apron hanging somewhere around your place?”
She grinned back. “Definitely not. And I refuse to lie and say I wish there was. I’m definitely not a kitchen girl. While I lived with my parents, all that was required of me was a spotless bedroom. I’m glad Mom didn’t pester me about learning kitchen duties. She was a great cook, enjoyed doing it and made sure we ate delicious meals every day.”
There was a lull in the conversation, and he glanced across the table to find her studying him. He figured she was curious about that phone call he’d gotten earlier. Undoubtedly she was curious about a number of things.
“So why are you really in Los Angeles, Quasar?” she finally asked, after taking a sip of her coffee.
He understood she wanted answers, but the big question was how much to tell her. What he wouldn’t go into, at least not tonight, was that crazy-ass dream and all those negative vibes he had about her being in LA unprotected. It would be hard to explain to her when he didn’t fully understand it himself.
He took a sip of his own coffee and said, “Like I told you earlier, the reason I came to LA was that I knew you would be here, and I wanted to see you again. And since I have family here whom I haven’t seen in a while, I decided to pay a visit. But make no mistake, Randi. I came to see you. Had you not been here, I would not have come.”
He didn’t miss the flash of incredulity in her eyes. “You actually want me to believe you got on a plane and flew to LA because of me?”
“Yes, I want you to believe it because it’s the truth, no matter how crazy it sounds. I was looking forward to seeing you again this weekend. When you called to cancel, I came up with a plan.”
“To follow me here?”
“Yes.”
Like he’d told her, he knew it sounded crazy, but it was the truth. He had wanted to see her again and hadn’t realized just how much until she’d opened the door.
“What about your family?”
“What about them?”
“I would think they would rank higher on your list than me.”
“Unfortunately, they don’t.” And for good reasons. He could tell her that his family was none of her business, which is what he’d told other women who’d inquired. But for some reason he didn’t want to handle her like all those other women. He wouldn’t tell her all the sordid details about his family, but he wanted to tell her something.
“I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I’m not close to my family,” he began.
She nodded, eyeing him speculatively. “Yes, I gathered as much. When was the last time you saw them?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t seen them in ten years.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Ten years?”
“Yes. I was locked up for three, and I’ve been free for seven. For reasons I don’t care to go into, when I left Glenworth Penitentiary, I didn’t return here, and I deliberately did not let them know where I’d gone. A couple of years ago, my father hired a private investigator to find me. We talk every so often, but that’s it.”
She tilted her head, staring at him, and he figured her mind was at work, mentally calculating what he’d said and coming up with the fact that his family hadn’t visited him while he’d been confined. “Well, I’m glad you’ve returned home and truly hope whatever kept you and your family apart will be resolved,” she said.
He couldn’t help but smile. She could hope, but he was a lot more skeptical. “Are you always so optimistic?”
Cute little dimples appeared in her cheeks. “I try to be. In a way, I can’t help it, and it has nothing to do with being a psychic and everything to do with wanting the best for everyone.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment as he took another sip of his coffee. In the short time he’d known her, he’d gathered that much about her. She was also friendly. Sometimes he thought she was too friendly. Like on Saturday. He doubted she’d ever met a stranger. She would engage in conversation with just about anybody. People visiting the museum. Families at the zoo. Waiters and waitresses at her uncle’s restaurant. It had been enough for him just to stand on the sidelines and observe her unguarded nature. More often than not, she had pulled him in and included him in the conversations. He’d reluctantly participated. It was definitely not in his nature to be so social. He knew that she couldn’t read everyone she met, and she had explained that more times than not, she didn’t read anyone...just a select few...and only when it was for their sakes and not hers. Yet she was more open and honest than most. There was probably not a deceptive bone in her body. He inwardly shuddered when he thought of all the deceitful people he’d met in his life. It was refreshing to find someone so authentic.
“And what about that phone call you got earlier?” she asked. “The one that got you upset?”
He held her gaze. “What about it?”
“Was it someone from your family? Should you be dining with them instead of me?”
He again saw that concerned look in her eyes. She didn’t want to get into his business. She simply cared.
“That call was from a good friend. He was giving me information I didn’t want to hear.” And that was all he intended to share.
“Oh.”
“So tell me more about your psychic a
bilities, Randi.”
She chuckled and then shook her finger at him. “I know what you’re doing, Quasar.”
He plastered an innocent look on his face. “And what am I doing?”
“You’re trying to shift the conversation from you to me.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. I don’t have to be a psychic to see that.”
She didn’t miss much. “I gather you have more questions?”
“Yes,” she said, twirling more pasta onto her fork. He wasn’t sure why it was such a turn-on to watch her do something like that. “I want to know more about your family,” she said, pulling his mind back to their conversation. “You mentioned last week that you had a brother. One four years older. What’s he like? Do the two of you favor? What about your father?”
“Wait...whoa.” She wanted too much information. Definitely more than he intended to tell her. Rubbing the back of his neck, he fought off a rising feeling of annoyance. She wanted a tell-all conversation, and that was the last thing he intended to engage in with her, or anyone. The people who needed to know his business knew it. He didn’t allow others into his private domain.
But he couldn’t help dropping his hand when he saw the look of genuine interest in her eyes. Quasar knew at that moment he had to get his priorities straight regarding her. And to be honest, hadn’t he told her that she was essentially more of a priority in his life than his father and brother, that she was his main reason for flying across the country? As far as he was concerned, she was more of a priority than any woman had ever been. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been there. In LA. Sitting across the table, sharing dinner in her hotel room.
Besides, she’d shared a lot about her family with him. But then, hers wasn’t fucked-up like his. Whenever she spoke of anyone in her family, he saw the love, warmth and adoration shining in her eyes. Her relationship with her family was one to envy.
He decided to try changing the subject one more time. Flashing a cool smile, he said, “Anything about my family would bore you to tears.”
Seized by Seduction--A Compelling Tale of Romance, Love and Intrigue Page 11