He brushed his thumb slowly over her velvety nipple and felt it pebble beneath his touch. Last night had been…incredible. Like nothing he’d ever before experienced. Sure, he’d had great sex before, had spent the night wrapped around a woman, but something about this woman made it all feel so much more intense. Passionate. In a way that simultaneously captivated and scared the crap out of him. If someone had asked him yesterday morning if he believed in love at first sight, he’d have laughed his ass off. The entire notion went completely against his pragmatic, scientific nature.
But now he wasn’t so sure. Because something sure as hell had happened to him the instant he saw her.
That was lust, you ass, his inner voice informed him. Possibly. He couldn’t deny that he’d taken one look at that transparent skirt of hers and all the blood that usually resided above his neck and operated his brain had gushed below his belt and settled in his groin.
But he’d felt lust before. Strong lust. This…this was more. His common sense, upon which he normally relied heavily, kept reminding him that now was a bad time to get involved in a relationship-he had important decisions to make regarding his career and future and he didn’t need the waters muddied any more than they already were. And even if he were to get involved, he certainly shouldn’t contemplate doing so with an Upper-East-Side princess.
But all that common sense didn’t stand a chance against the way this woman had made him feel from the first moment he’d seen her. The instant he’d caught her scent. His reaction to her was, without a doubt, further validation of his formula. Proof that a person’s unique scent, determined largely by their DNA and immune system, was a powerful aphrodisiac. Not that he’d required further proof, but the fact that he’d now personally experienced it was just the icing on the cake. How much more powerful would his attraction to her be if she used the cream he’d devised?
Would she be interested in his scientific explanations of the cream’s properties? Or would her eyes glaze over with boredom as Lynda’s used to when he discussed his personal research work? Did he even want to discuss his findings with Kayla-a woman he barely knew? He’d hinted that he would, but how much should he really tell her? He didn’t know, but surely it couldn’t hurt to reveal what he’d published in the scientific journals. That information was, after all, available to anyone who cared to read it.
He didn’t doubt for a minute that his formula would work, but hell, he had to question how much more sexually attracted he could possibly be to her. A slow grin tugged at his lips. He didn’t know, but he sure as hell wanted to find out. Another night like last night wasn’t something any guy with a pulse would turn down.
Of course, tonight wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable as last night. They’d had a bed-not that they’d exclusively used it during their sex marathon. Tonight they’d be on the trail, sleeping in individual tents. He knew two things damn well-one of their tents would go empty, and sleep would have very little to do with it.
Speaking of their hike…it was about time they got up. He had to pack his gear and check out of the hotel, and Kayla needed to go back to her hotel to do the same. Then maybe some breakfast together followed by the bus ride to the tour’s starting point.
His gaze wandered over her glossy auburn hair and the ivory-smooth slope of her bare shoulder. So far he’d liked everything about Kayla, but it wasn’t too difficult to like a woman who was witty, intelligent and charming in a restaurant, plus uninhibited in bed. Nor was it necessarily a challenge to exhibit those qualities while dining or having sex in the comfort of a hotel room. It would be interesting to see how an uptown girl did on the trail.
She’d admitted while they’d eaten their sandwiches that she wasn’t much of an outdoorsy gal. That she’d never been camping or hiked anything more strenuous than Manhattan’s streets. She attended yoga, Pilates and spinning classes, and clearly was physically fit. Still, he was curious to see how she’d react to less-than-stellar accommodations. If she proved a good sport and rolled with the punches, he wondered if he’d leave Peru with his heart still belonging to him. Of course if she turned out to be a whiny complainer…well, best that he found that out sooner rather than later. Before his heart became more involved than it already was.
But his gut told him she’d rise to the occasion. That he’d somehow discovered a buried treasure when he hadn’t even been digging. His life was already getting back into balance, and the trek to Machu Picchu hadn’t even begun. Certainly he was making up for lost time in the sex department. Speaking of which…
He ran his hand down her smooth torso, his fingers brushing over the curls at the apex of her thighs. Kayla made a soft moaning sound and shifted against him, her silky skin touching him from chest to knee. She then turned onto her back, her thighs falling open, an invitation he wasn’t about to ignore.
His fingers glided lower, to lightly caress her soft folds. A long purr rumbled in her throat and she spread her legs wider, lifting her hips into his touch.
Looking down at her, he watched color slowly flush her cheeks, her breaths becoming longer and deeper as her sex grew wet. He slipped a finger inside her and slowly caressed her slick inner walls. She opened her sleep-heavy eyes and their gazes met.
“Good morning,” he said, leaning down to brush his mouth over the soft plumpness of hers.
“It’s definitely off to a good start,” she murmured. Her hand moved down and stroked over his erection. “Hmmm. You seem happy to see me.”
He groaned as her fingers wrapped around him and gently squeezed. “Very happy.”
She turned her head and glanced at the clock, then looked back at him, her green eyes glowing with sensual heat. “You’re an early, um-” she squeezed him again “-riser.”
“We need to shower, dress, get our gear together-which will require a trip to your hotel-and I thought you might like some breakfast before we catch the eight o’clock bus to the tour’s departure site.”
She stretched sinuously and undulated against his hand, all while her fingers drove him crazy circling the head of his penis.
“Gathering gear and breakfast…is that the best you have to offer a girl in the morning? Especially when she’s facing four days of severe roughing it?”
He lowered his head to lazily swirl his tongue around her taut nipple before drawing the bud into his mouth. “I might be able to do better.”
She arched beneath him and gasped. “Oh, that’s definitely better. What else ya got?”
“What else ya want?”
“You. Inside me. Right now.”
“Are you always this demanding?” he asked, reaching for a condom on the beside table.
“Sometimes. When I really want something. But being naked with you definitely brings out the demanding in me. Is that a problem?”
“I’ll try to make the best of it.”
“Good.” She snagged the condom from his fingers then in a lithe rolling motion-no doubt courtesy of her yoga classes-she straddled his thighs. He reclined beneath her, his avid gaze drinking in the gorgeous sight of her astride him, her hair in wild disarray, nipples erect and damp from his tongue, dark-red curls between her spread legs glistening with the wetness of her arousal.
“You realize I’m now going to want to be awakened in a similar fashion every morning we’re on the trail,” she said as she slowly rolled the condom down his length.
“So you’re telling me you’re not only demanding, you’re spoiled, as well.”
“Figured it was best to throw all my bad habits right on the table.” She raised up on her knees, then slowly sank down the length of his erection. He sucked in a hard breath as her tight, wet heat engulfed him, sizzling lust along his nerves. When he was buried to the hilt, she looked down at him through half-closed eyes. “And if I’m spoiled, it’s all your fault.” She rocked her hips, her satiny inner walls clamping around him, dragging a groan from his throat as he thrust upward. “You’ve set an extraordinarily high benchmark. Be warned-you have your wor
k cut out for you.”
He was quickly losing his ability to make lighthearted conversation. “Yeah, making love with you is arduous work. I should be getting hazard pay.” Reaching up, Brett filled his hands with her breasts, forcing himself to concentrate on holding off his climax until she came, a Herculean task given her control-sapping movements: rising onto her knees only to slowly sink down, a mind-blowing slide into sensual meltdown, then leaning back to clasp her ankles, gyrating as he thrust upward into her hot wetness, harder, faster, her grip milking him until the fight not to come was a battle he was about to lose. The instant he felt the first ripples of her orgasm squeeze him, his control snapped and with a ragged groan, he gripped her hips and pressed her down as he surged upward, thrusting deeper as his climax bore down on him like a speeding train.
His breathing and heart rate hadn’t yet returned to the normal range when he felt her lips brush across his jaw. She lay sprawled on top of him, her face buried against his neck. His hands still gripped her hips and he remained buried inside her.
“Wow,” she murmured against his ear.
“Wow,” he agreed, unable to produce more than one syllable. Yet really, why try when that one described their latest bout of lovemaking so perfectly? Although, he couldn’t quite ignore the unsettling realization that he’d completely lost control of himself and his body in a way he couldn’t recall ever experiencing before.
“You were wrong, you know,” she said.
“Okay,” he again agreed, proud that he’d managed two syllables and too sated and lax to argue.
Her warm chuckle blew across his jaw. “You’re very agreeable after sex.”
“Yup.”
“Good to know. Such knowledge might induce a woman to keep you in bed all the time.”
“Okay.”
Another huff of warm laughter. “Don’t you want to know what you were wrong about?”
“Sure.”
“You said ‘good morning.’ That’s wrong. It’s oh-my-God, you-just-drove-me-out-of-my-mind-and-made-me-see-stars, freakin’-fantastic morning.”
“I stand corrected.”
He felt her lift her head and he forced his eyes open. Her beautiful green eyes glittered like jewels. “I feel-” she inhaled a deep breath then smiled “-incredible. Ready to take on the world.”
“Good for you. I feel like I’ve been rode hard and wrung out.”
“Honey, you were.” She cocked a brow. “Is that a complaint?”
He huffed out a laugh at the way she kept asking him that question. “Hell, no. Except that you’re now full of vim and vigor and I’m ready for a nice long nap.”
She shook her head. “Typical man. Well, forget it. We have gear to pack. A bus to catch. Miles of rough terrain to hike.”
“You’re killing me.”
She laughed, then pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “C’mon, lazybones. You’ll feel better after a nice, hot shower.”
His hands swept over her lush bare bottom. “I think perhaps my strength might be returning. But if we take a shower together, we might never leave this room.”
“We have to leave this room-and soon. We only have one condom left.”
She squealed with surprise as he reared up to a sitting position. “Talk about incentive. Hang on, sweetheart.” After she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, he snatched up the last condom, grasped her beneath her bottom, then headed toward the bathroom.
“Hmmm, it would appear the word condom has the same effect on you as spinach had on Popeye,” she murmured, nibbling on his earlobe between words.
“So it would seem, although scientific logic would dictate that it isn’t the word itself but the person saying it that caused this sudden boost in energy.”
“Again, good to know.”
“I don’t suppose you know how to say condom in Spanish?” he asked, reaching behind the shower curtain to turn on the water.
“I don’t suppose I do. But I bet if we went to a store and kissed passionately in front of the clerk, he’d get the idea.”
“Problem is, once I start kissing you, I can’t seem to stop. Instead of ending up with condoms, we’d probably end up with arrest records.”
“True. Luckily I have an English-to-Spanish dictionary back at my hotel.”
“So you’re not only gorgeous and sexy and hot enough to set water on fire-you’re also very handy to have around.”
She traced his bottom lip with her tongue and his body leapt to life. And he realized there was no point in even trying to deny that this woman posed a serious risk to his heart.
“Right back at ya,” she said, her lips curving into a sexy smile. “And as soon as we get in that shower, I’ll show you just how handy I really am.”
He immediately stepped beneath the warm spray of water, knowing that his heart was quickly slipping from his grasp and not giving a damn. “Sweetheart, consider me more than willing to be shown.”
9
FIFTEEN MINUTES into the three-and-a-half-hour bus trip-and she used the term bus lightly, as the vehicle was actually a van that looked as if it had belonged to a group of Haight-Ashbury hippies-to the hike start point and Kayla realized that she clearly was far too accustomed to luxury. Her butt was numb from the hard, worn, springless seat and she clung to the metal railing next to the open window-aka the air conditioner-with a white-knuckle grip. The wind whipped her hair across her eyes, a blessing because the less she saw of how close the vehicle frequently came to scraping the huge boulders that lined the bumpy road, the better.
The instant the driver had thrown the vehicle into gear, they’d zoomed off at what felt like a breakneck speed and her heart had lodged in her throat, a place she suspected it would stay.
Still, the scenery-when they emerged from the boulders-was breathtaking. A palette of greens and browns rising up the sides of the majestic Andes, set against a brilliant blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, the perfect backdrop for the array of small, picturesque villages they passed.
Besides the scenery, the only other good thing about the bone-jarring, teeth-clanking drive was that it gave her something to think about besides the man sitting next to her. Or at least it should have. But somehow, even faced with the possibility of bruises and being shaken apart and splattered against a gargantuan rock on the bus ride from hell, her mind remained focused on Brett. On the incredible night they’d spent together. The extraordinary way he’d made her feel. And not just when they were making love-although there was no denying he was great in bed. And on the balcony. And in the shower. And against the wall…
She pressed her lips together and tried to corral her runaway thoughts. But he’d made her feel just as incredible when they’d simply sat and talked. He had a way of looking at her, of focusing on what she said, of really listening, that was extremely flattering. And very attractive. He asked insightful questions and offered spot-on observations, some serious, some humorous, and she found herself engrossed in just talking to him. Watching his beautiful lips form words. The man had the most distracting mouth…
She mentally looked skyward. Good grief, she sounded like a school girl nursing her first crush. Yet, how could she not, when that’s exactly how she felt? Just sitting next to him on this bouncy, dusty ride made her heart race.
But now that they were no longer naked, therefore allowing her to think straight, she needed to get hold of herself and recall why she was here.
The formula. Dr. Thornton’s miracle aphrodisiac wrinkle-reducing cream.
Problem was, it was nearly impossible to equate the Dr. Thornton she’d come to dislike in New York with Brett, the charming American tourist whom she liked very much. Too much. So much that it seriously frightened her. Because in order to do her job, there was no getting around it-she’d have to be dishonest with Brett and also reveal anything he told her to Nelson. She could try to pretty that up and sugarcoat it as much as she wanted, but the bottom line was that she was lying. And betraying Brett.
And that was not sitting well at all this morning.
But what choice did she have? La Fleur was poised to join the ranks of the world’s largest cosmetic companies, a step that would surely happen if they had a product such as the one Thornton laid claim to. Ensuring that La Fleur won the product would be an amazing coup for her-a professional feather in her cap that could open countless doors if her spying mission successfully secured Brett’s formula.
And all she had to do was hide the truth regarding where she worked and why she was here. That would be the lying part, Kayla, her inner voice informed her. Oh yeah, and report any confidential information she managed to finagle out of Brett regarding the formula to Nelson. And that would be the betrayal part, Kayla, her inner voice coldly added.
As if she didn’t know.
As if that didn’t make her heart and stomach and, hell, her entire insides ache with an unpleasant sensation that felt like an allover cramp-the result of her conscience squeezing her.
Fine. So she’d compromise with her conscience. She wouldn’t go out of her way to solicit information from him. But hey, if he volunteered the information, well, she certainly wasn’t deaf. She could hardly slap her hand over his mouth and say, “Don’t tell me anything because I’ll use that information against you.”
No. Especially since she was convinced that La Fleur really was the best company to manufacture his formula, provided it lived up to the hype. Which was one of the things she needed to discover. So, at least for now she’d assuage her conscience by not actively seeking tidbits from him, but if some happened to fall in her lap, well, all bets were off.
There. She felt better now. Sort of. Okay, not really, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances.
The bus careened around a corner, seemingly on two wheels, and she closed her eyes. When they were once again on a straightaway, she turned toward him and said, “I think they subject you to this bus ride before the hike so that the trek up the mountain seems like a piece of cake in comparison.” She winced when her ass smacked down against the seat courtesy of a pothole of a size even Manhattan had never seen.
Just Trust Me… Page 8