by Lori Wilde
“I had to.”
“How come?”
Jorgie told her the story of Lady Evangeline and Casanova and how she was playing the part of his love interest.
“Woman, that’s just wacked. You realize if you keep playing the part of this Lady Evangeline you’re not going to get any.”
“I know, but I’m not sure I want to get any if it means I’ll just be another notch on Quint’s bedpost.”
“Are you saying you want something more from him than sex?’
“No. Yes. I don’t know.”
“Which is it really?”
“Okay, I want sex with him but I’m afraid that if I go to bed with Quint then I will want more and I don’t know how to stop myself from wanting more.” She hung her blouse in the closet.
“So tell me exactly what happened.”
“We went on a gondola ride.”
“How was that?”
“The most romantic thing I’ve ever done.”
“Uh-oh. That’s a problem right there. Stop thinking in terms of romance. Say it was the hottest thing you ever did.”
“But it wasn’t. It was romantic.”
“Then stop doing romantic things.”
Jorgie stepped out of her pants and hung them beside her blouse. “I’m in Venice, the most romantic city on the face of the earth. How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re working yourself up into a fuss the way you always do,” Avery said.
“I don’t.” Jorgie unhooked her bra.
“You do, and here’s the reason why. You find it impossible to live in the moment. You’re always thinking about the future, borrowing trouble for some time that’s not even here yet. Well, what if you just found out you were going to die tomorrow? Would you sleep with Quint then?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. “Absolutely.”
“So there’s your answer. Shag the guy until you’re blue in the face.”
Jorgie paused to pull the phone from her ear long enough to slide the bra off her shoulders and slip into her sleep shirt. “You make it sound so easy.”
“That’s because it is. Follow your instincts, not your brain. Your brain will trip you up every time.”
“You think I should do it?”
“Do you feel safe with him?”
“No question.”
“Then just go for it. Forget this Lady Evangeline crap. It’s ancient history and it might not even be true. Besides, right now is all that any of us really have. And even if it wasn’t, even if you had sex with Quint and in spite of all your best intentions you fell in love with him and then he broke your heart, isn’t it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”
QUINT COULDN’T SLEEP. He could still taste Jorgie on his tongue. Still smell her lovely scent in his nostrils, could still feel the effects of her in his body. The erection he’d gotten in the gondola hadn’t fully abated.
He left the villa and walked the cobblestones of Venice at midnight. For once, the streets were mostly empty. There were a few couples strolling hand in hand or kissing in the moonlight. There were one or two drunks staggering out of bars, but for the most part, he was alone with his thoughts.Quint didn’t like being alone with his thoughts.
Water lapped against the rocks. Gondolas bobbed at their moorings. He jammed his hands into his pockets; his fingers brushed against his cell phone. Jake. He could call Jake and talk about the threats made against Taylor Milton and her resorts. That ought to keep his mind off Jorgie Gerard.
“Hey, man,” he said when Jake picked up the phone.
“Mason,” Jake said in his clipped, all-business tone. Anyone listening to him would never guess that he and Quint had been friends since college, had served in the air force together for four years. He was as reserved as Quint was open. Most people would assume they had nothing in common and on the surface, they did not. But their shared military experience had bound them in a way nothing else could have. Their styles complemented each other. Quint was the graceful charmer, Jake the street-savvy tough guy.
“How are things in La-la Land?”
“Too much damned sunshine.” Jake grunted. He’d been raised in Seattle and rain was as much a part of him as his taciturn nature.
“Any action on your end?”
“You talking about business or women?”
“Whatever kind of action you’re getting, let’s hear it.”
“Quiet on the sabotage front.”
“Nothing at all?”
“A chair broken in the dining hall at lunch when a hefty guy sat in it, but I think it’s safe to assume it wasn’t sabotage.”
They’d been on this case for months now, and after the bomb that had been found in the Japanese resort, nothing else had surfaced until Taylor had received the letter. “Did Dougal tell you about the letter Taylor Milton got?”
“He faxed me a copy.”
“What do you think?”
“Calm before the storm.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Quint splayed a hand to the back of his neck. “Who do you think could be doing this?”
“My money’s on a disgruntled employee, but I’ve been through the employee files with a fine-tooth comb, and nothing.”
“Same here. Maybe it’s the competition. Like that airline Dougal’s fiancée worked for. What was it called?”
“Getaway Airlines, but Dougal’s put the owner, Porter Langely, through the wringer and he came up empty-handed. I hope something happens soon because I’m bored out of my skull here.”
“Really? I kind of like it.”
“Well, sure, you get to play Casanova. Right up your alley.”
“Hey, you get to film beautiful women all day.”
“They’re not all beautiful. This morning I filmed a seventy-two-year-old woman and her boyfriend. I mean, it’s nice to see they still have the spark, but it’s kind of tough to get a glimpse into your future, wrinkles, sags and all.”
“So how are things on the romantic front?”
“Ah,” Jake said. “Your favorite topic.”
“Anything shaking for you?”
“I have two words for you, Mason. Morality clause. We signed one. Remember that?”
“Oh, yeah, like Dougal himself didn’t violate it when he fell for Roxie,” he said, referring to Dougal’s fiancée. Dougal had met her while undercover at the Eros resort in England.
“Well, he’s the boss, you’re not.”
“We’re not in the military anymore. You can let go of the rank thing.”
“He writes our checks. That’s good enough for me.”
“How do you have so much control?”
“Pure thoughts,” Jake said flippantly.
Quint laughed. “I don’t believe that for a minute.”
“So I take it you’re having women troubles?”
“Not women, woman. But it’s no big deal, really. One gondola ride, that’s all.”
Jake hooted. “She wouldn’t put out for you.”
He felt slightly embarrassed that he was that easy to predict, and the fact that a woman had not eagerly gone back to his room with him was so unusual.
“When was the last time that happened?” Jake asked.
“I can’t remember,” he mumbled.
“I can. It was sophomore year of college. Jenny Gray. She was saving herself for marriage and she drove you crazy. You were consumed with her for months.”
“Was not.”
“Dude, I was there.”
“‘Dude’?”
“Oh, shit, I’ve been in California too long, they’ve got me saying it now. Wish this saboteur would strike so we could catch the guy and I could get the hell out of here.”
“So anyway, what am I supposed to do about this woman?”
“Stop obsessing about her because she didn’t give it up for you.”
“But how?”
“Find someone else to distract you. Preferably a woman who isn’t an Eros guest.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” Quint said, but he didn’t want to be distracted. All he wanted to do was be with Jorgie, whether she had sex with him or not.
And that realization scared the living hell out of him.
8
It’s all about the look
—Make Love Like a Movie Star
FOR SEVEN EVENINGS RUNNING, Jake Stewart had been treated to his own private striptease. Night after night, Avery peeled off her clothes in the bedroom of the bungalow across the way. She never closed the blinds and she always took her time. He had to assume she knew he was watching.
But during the day, when he saw her around the resort, she acted as if nothing had happened, and her mysterious little game was driving him right over the edge of reason. Like now. He was in the elegant dining room having breakfast with a group of cameramen and Avery sauntered toward their table. She looked straight ahead, tray in her arms, and never turned her head in his direction, but as she passed the narrow aisle between the tables her hip brushed lightly against his back.Had it been accidental? Or calculated?
Instantly, the moisture in his mouth evaporated and his cock hardened. Someone at the table must have said something funny because everyone was laughing, but Jake hadn’t heard a word. He faked a chuckle and tried to concentrate on what his colleagues were laughing about, but the only thing he was aware of was the spot on his back where her body had grazed his.
After being exposed—quite literally—to Avery Bodel and having the sight of her naked body burned into his retinas, he feared there was only one way to ease his burgeoning appetite and get his mind back on work.
Damn his code of ethics—and that morals clause he’d signed—that prevented him from mixing business and pleasure. Besides, he and Avery? Oil versus water.
He blew out his breath and chanced a look over his shoulder to see if he could find where she’d gone. Two attractive young blondes barely over eighteen wriggled their fingers at him, then put their heads together, lowered their lashes coyly and giggled.
What the hell was going on around here? Had someone put a Seduce Me sign on his back? Even though he didn’t consider himself particularly good-looking, certainly not like his buddy, Quint, he’d had his share of women. But he’d never received this many flirtatious overtures in such a short period of time. It had to be the Make Love Like A Movie Star venue. They must all be trying out the new techniques they’d learned.
Each tour started with the guests spending the first several days attending acting classes, touring the studios and being fitted for wardrobes. The last half of their vacations consisted of starring in their own romantic movie, scripted especially for them (or they could chose to reenact scenes from their favorite romantic movie) to indulge their secret fantasies, but only up to a point. The movies had to stay R-rated, no crossing the lines into X-rated territory. However, the guests were allowed to rent cameras from the resort for their own bedroom play and in those instances, what they did behind closed doors was their business.
Most people who came on this tour were with spouses or significant others. But a few came alone. For those guests, actors were hired to play the love interest. The last tour had finished up their movies yesterday and today this current group started filming. He wondered if he would be on the crew of Avery’s movie or if he’d luck out and get some happily married, middle-aged couple to shoot.
Jake shook his head and got up. Filming started at eight and he needed thirty minutes’ prep time.
He arrived on the set along with the rest of the crew and went straight to the camera to set up the opening shot. The stagehands were already at work. Usually, the stage held a bed, but this morning, the bed had been replaced with a bathtub.
The director came onto the set, followed by his assistants, all flitting about, creating a pretty fantasy for rich people who thought nothing of plunking down cash to indulge their sexual fantasies. This glossy, insular world was a long way from the things he’d seen and done in Afghanistan. Things he’d never fully overcome.
He made adjustments to the camera, mentally shutting out the bustle around him, and wondered what it would be like to see the world as one big playground, nothing but fun and games and good times. No starving mothers. No children maimed by land mines. No men so consumed by misguided fervor they didn’t care who they killed in the process.
Satisfied that he had all the settings in order, he went through the script, checking out the shots he’d need for the scene. It was pretty straightforward. They were filming the bathtub scene from Pretty Woman with some variations to the script that the guest had requested, including a seductive, partial striptease. Immediately, Jake thought of the private stripteases Avery had been doing for him. He had to put her out of his mind. He had work to do. Both as a cameraman and as an undercover air marshal turned bodyguard for Taylor Milton’s resort. From now on, he was keeping his blinds tightly closed. If Avery wanted to continue her nightly stripteases, she’d have to do it without his participation.
Then the side door opened and Avery walked out onto the stage dressed in a bathrobe, fishnet stockings and four-inch black stilettos.
AVERY HAD REQUESTED Jake as her cameraman. She was normally quite bold and had no trouble letting her needs be known. She was not shy or retiring, but suddenly, once she was on the stage and met Jake’s eyes, her bravado evaporated.
What had she been thinking asking for him to be the cameraman on her movie? She’d been trying for the last seven nights to drive the man crazy with sexual desire and either she wasn’t doing something right or he simply was not interested in her.He wasn’t involved with someone else. She’d already asked around. Maybe he was pining for an old love?
Or maybe he’s just not that into you.
When she’d brushed against him in the dining room, he hadn’t made a single twitch. The man had amazing self-control. She bit down on her bottom lip just thinking about it.
“Lights! Camera! Action!”
The minute the director said those words everyone on the sound stage sprang into motion, leaving Avery blinking into Jake’s camera. She couldn’t get past the fact he was there watching her, filming her. The lighting crew turned the lights on soft focus. The guy holding the boom mike positioned it over the bathtub where she would soon slide in and assume her role of Vivian, the sweet-natured hooker from Pretty Woman.
The tip of her nose itched, but she didn’t dare scratch it. Don’t think about your nose, don’t think about Jake, just enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be the star of your own version of the famous Cinderella story.
“Wait a minute,” someone called from off the set.
“Cut.” The director sighed and looked irritated. “What is it?”
The crew member went over to whisper something into the director’s ear.
“Seriously?” The director shook his head.
Avery shaded her eyes against the glare of the spotlights. “Is something wrong?”
The director smiled brightly at her. “We’re taking a short break.”
“Is there a problem I should know about?” she asked, a knot of anxiety rising in her throat.
“Just some production difficulties. We’ll be back in a minute. Tia, could you get Avery something to drink while she’s waiting?”
The assistant hustled to do his bidding, while the director turned to Jake. “Stewart,” he said, “I need to see you outside.”
“THE ACTOR we hired for this script got a bad burrito in the cantina,” the director, Tim Granger, said. “We need someone to fill in for him.”
Jake stared at the man who kept raking his fingers through his graying goatee. “What?”“All our actors are currently booked. We don’t have time to get a temp in here. You know the script. You’re good-looking enough to play her leading man, and I can get Felicity to fill in for you behind the camera.”
Jake shook his head. His place was behind the camera, watching. He was undercover. Being in the limelight was a stupid idea.
Never mind that being that close to Avery would test every ounce of self-control he possessed. Jake shook his head. “Not a good idea.”
“Come on, dude,” Tim said. “Take one for the team. You’re not married, right?”
“I’m not.”
“And purple hair aside, she is gorgeous.”
“Her looks aren’t the issue.”
“What is the issue?”
“I don’t like being in front of the camera.”
“Get over it.” Tim growled. “This woman has paid a lot of money to have her every fantasy fulfilled and you’re going to fulfill it. Get to wardrobe and makeup, now.”
“But…”
“Just do it.”
Realizing he had little choice in the matter, Jake stormed into wardrobe. He couldn’t decide what he was angry about, but he was mad. And then as he sat in the makeup chair getting his face dusted with powder to make it less shiny under the lights, something unexpected occurred to him.
He wasn’t angry. He was scared.
Damn! What was he so scared of?
It was a rhetorical question because he knew the answer. He was scared of the uncontrollable urges that struck him every time he was around Avery. He didn’t like this. Not at all.
Thirty minutes later, he was backstage while the director told Avery to begin her striptease.
He could see her in profile slowly ease the bathrobe off her shoulders. A wave of sensual heat shot through him, clean and deadly as a bullet. Jake sucked in a breath as his cock stiffened against his zipper.
Get a grip. You can’t go out there with a boner.
He tried thinking unsexy thoughts, but there was no way he could think of anything but sliding his big hands down Avery’s slender body. Not when the lowering of her bathrobe kept exposing more and more skin.
“Keep it R-rated,” Tim Granger called out and gave instructions to Felicity, who was manning Jake’s camera to hone in on Avery’s legs while she completely dropped the towel and stepped into the warm bubble bath.
Every muscle in his body tensed as he watched her lower herself into the steamy water. She wore a tiger-print thong bikini, but still, it was itty bitty and showed off the glorious body nature had given her.