“Where in the world aren’t you known?”
Thad chuckled. “Well, movies get around. I guess CDs don’t.”
Darnell stuck her tongue out at him, feigning indignation. He loved teasing her. She was such an easy mark. “Actually, I have a confession to make.”
She looked at him warily. “What?”
Thad took a sip of his virgin piña colada, then settled back casually. “Only a few people know this, but I own this restaurant and the one we ate in yesterday.”
Darnell’s jaws went slack with surprise. “You’re kidding.”
Thad laughed at her expression. “I own quite a bit of real estate on the island. I love it here, and I love the people.” He took another sip of his drink. “So I guess I’m not as shiftless as you think I am.”
Darnell’s fork paused in midair. It was clear that the words she had spouted so carelessly weeks ago had bothered him. She could hear it in the catch in his voice. “I never thought you were shiftless, Thad. I never doubted your potential, and I’m sorry about what I said.”
He smiled. Her words pleased him more than she would ever know. “No problem.” Thad stood and held out his hand. “Come on, let’s go. There’s more of the island to see.”
For the next few hours, Thad continued to introduce her to the sights and sounds of Aruba. He took her among the island natives, where she was fascinated by the musical cadence of the local language, Papiamento. Wherever he went, people knew him, and he always seemed to be at home. He was a man who was comfortable wherever he went. His smile was infectious, and his manner so relaxed that others seemed to glow in his presence. Thad enjoyed people, and they enjoyed him.
In casual conversation with one local, she was informed that Thad had financed a low-income housing project, two schools, and a medical clinic in the poorest of the island’s communities. They had passed each of them during their romp on the island, yet he had never said a word to her about his generosity. Darnell was beginning to appreciate the man more and more.
To end their day, Thad suggested that they go for a swim at the beach. They ended up on a quiet stretch of beach near Thad’s house. There they stripped down to their swimming apparel. He wore a bright red pair of bikini swim trunks, and Darnell a yellow one-piece swimsuit. They frolicked in the ocean for an hour, challenging each other to races and playing water tag. As the sun began to set, they lay side-by-side beneath one of the windswept divi-divi trees that characterized Aruba’s landscape. The ocean breeze and the shade provided by the tree were both soothing.
Darnell lay on her stomach, enjoying the warmth of Thad’s body next to her own and trying to calm the tremors of physical awareness his presence was causing. She had tried to ignore the chiseled perfection of his sculptured form in his swim trucks, but found that next to impossible. She had enjoyed previews of his broad chest beneath the T-shirts that he wore while on the island, but void of the apparel his well-defined pecs were arresting. His slender waistline tapered into a perfect V to his trunks, which were more than filled with that which nature had generously bestowed on him. There was no denying it. The man had a magnificent body. Even his legs were beautiful. How good could one man look?
Beside her, Thad was fighting his own battle for self-control. He had helped her pick out the yellow latex swimsuit she was wearing, thinking himself clever in having avoided the sight of her in a two-piece or a bikini. He knew that his heart couldn’t take it. Neither could it take a form-fitting one piece.
Closing his eyes as he lay on his back, Thad enjoyed the serenity of nature and basked in the joy of being with Darnell. Meanwhile, Darnell was unable to resist the lure of the man beside her. She turned to face him. Propping her head in her hand, she stared down at him. Thad opened his eyes and stared back at her. The tension between them mounted.
Darnell reached out and stroked the hairs on his chest. Thad caught her hand in his and placed a kiss on the tip of her finger. Darnell’s breathing nearly stopped, and so did Thad’s. Suddenly, she turned in the direction of the road, distracted by the sound of brakes screeching to a stop.
Pulling himself up on his elbows, Thad jerked his head around angrily to see what had interrupted perhaps the most important moment of his life. It was a tour bus, and tumbling out of it were dozens of chattering tourists.
Falling back against the sand with a frustrated groan, he harbored murderous thoughts against the busload of camera slinging intruders. After today, he knew that he would never see tourists in quite the same light.
Darnell sighed, her own frustration mirrored in the sound. “We’d better go. Somebody might recognize us.”
With that, they gathered their things and headed toward the villa. The day was over.
On their return to the house, Thad walked her to the door of her bedroom and bid her goodnight. As he turned to leave, she stayed him with a touch.
“It seems that I’m forever telling you how much fun I’ve had.”
He tweaked her nose. “No problem, Doe Eyes. I aim to please.”
“I guess I’ve been so single-minded about my singing career that I forgot what enjoying life was all about. That is, until you came along.” She drew his face down and placed a tender kiss on his lips. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Reeling from surprise, Thad drew a ragged breath. “Stop tempting me, Darnell. I promised not to touch you, and you’re not making it easy.”
She gave him an impish grin. “You made the promise, I didn’t.” Backing into her bedroom, Darnell closed the door. For a moment, she stood on the other side trying to force herself not to open it again and steal another kiss. Yep! There was no denying it. She had fought the good fight in the battle of resistance against Thad, and she had lost. She wanted the man, and she wanted him soon.
On the other side of the closed door, Thad stood in a daze. He doubted seriously if the cold shower he planned on taking would do any good. Recalling the feel of her luscious mouth, he mapped the path of her lips against his own. No, a cold shower wasn’t what was needed tonight.
* * *
Thad Stewart was a dead man! He planned on doing the deed personally. There would be no more restless days and nights walking the floor waiting for Darnell to come home. Her absence made it painfully obvious that the dimple-cheeked movie star had somehow convinced her to be with him. How she had gotten caught up in that trap, Moody didn’t know. He had been thorough in his study of her, and Stewart hadn’t been in the equation. Something had fallen between the cracks, but he’d handle that slip-up later. His major concern was finding out if she was still with him.
It wasn’t that hard finding out where he lived. A few inconspicuous, personal calls to Hollywood contacts who owed him favors got him the information that Thad’s primary home was in Tiburon. A trip to that affluent bayside hamlet made his efforts almost pedestrian. It took less than an hour for one proud resident to point out the street on which superstar Thad Stewart lived. It seemed that Stewart hid in plain sight. So much for movie stars wanting their privacy. His next step was to make the decision as to how he would get inside the house to see if Darnell was there with Stewart. Was she all right? She had appeared ill, and he was concerned. He was desperate for information. It was sheer luck that garnered him the answer to his question.
While sitting on an isolated bench on the beach near Stewart’s house hoping to catch a glimpse of Stewart and even Darnell, he overheard a snippet of a conversation. A couple jogging near him was engaged in a quiet disagreement in passing. It seemed that the man was concerned that the woman might tell someone that Darnell was at Stewart’s house recovering from the flu. The moment was surreal.
It didn’t take much longer to find a way to Thad Stewart’s front door, posing as a deliveryman. Nobody was home when he rang the doorbell. The only decision left to be made was where and when he would kill Stewart. He was certain that whatever the relationship between the two superstars was, it was recent and could not have had time to blossom. Perhaps it was simply friend
ship, but from what he had observed in the way Thad had cradled Darnell when he placed her in his car, it was far from friendship on his part, and Moody wasn’t willing to take that chance. No erstwhile playboy was going to have Darnell Cameron. She deserved better than that.
He would do the hit personally. There was no need to get anyone else involved. The fewer people who knew his business, the better. No one would ever trace the hit to him. There was no connection between him and Stewart, and if he did it right, Thad’s death would look like an accident. The actor would be mourned for the blink of an eye, and then another one would come along to take his place. There was probably someone already waiting in the wings. The important thing was that Darnell would be free from making the mistake of her life. Actually, he would be doing her a favor.
CHAPTER 16
It was their last day on the island, and Darnell regretted she would have to leave Aruba. This place was magic, and Thad was the magician.
She didn’t know the plans for the day, but that evening they were to go into town for dinner and dancing. It would be a special evening; he would make it special. He had a way of doing that. Darnell smiled at the thought.
After wandering through the house looking for Thad, she found him sitting in the room adjoining his bedroom suite. Like the other rooms in the house, this one was decorated in white, except there was a splash of red as an accent.
Thad was sitting in a swivel chair with his feet propped on the top of a wooden desk. Preoccupied with what he was reading, he didn’t notice Darnell enter the room. Quietly, she took a seat on the sofa opposite his desk. He looked relaxed.
She had been watching him for a few minutes before he lowered the script and rubbed his eyes, his brow furrowed in thought. Sighing, he looked up and started in surprise at seeing Darnell. His face softened.
“Well, hello. I didn’t know you were here.”
Darnell’s heart fluttered at his dimpled smile. “You were busy reading. I didn’t want to disturb you.” Getting up, she crossed the room to his desk.
As he watched her, Thad could feel his groin begin its familiar tightening. He was glad that he was sitting down. This woman could turn him on by simply walking into a room. Her shapely brown legs peeked at him from beneath a pair of white cotton shorts. The crisp white blouse she wore was tied in a knot beneath her breasts, revealing a flat stomach marked with a perfectly round mole located only inches from her navel. Thad’s mouth went dry.
Darnell perched on the edge of his desk and nodded toward the script in his hands. “That must be interesting. What’s it about?”
Thad couldn’t think. Darnell was wrecking havoc with his senses. Wetting his lips, he swallowed. “What…what did you say?”
She leaned closer, which only made his situation worse.
“I said, that script must be interesting. What’s it about?”
He followed her gaze, still disconcerted by her nearness. “Oh, this?” Closing the script, he quickly stuffed it in the desk drawer. “It’s nothing.”
Darnell frowned. “Nothing? Nobody writes a script about nothing. It must be about something interesting. It was holding your attention.”
“It’s about love.” Thad’s voice was barely audible.
Darnell stilled. Her eyes locked with his. “Love?”
“Yes, the love of a man for a woman he can’t have.”
Her heart hammered in her chest. “Why can’t he have her?”
Thad’s voice was steady. “Because she belongs to someone else.”
This was it—the moment of truth. Darnell swallowed. “But people don’t belong to people, Thad. They can only belong to themselves. If someone wants to be free, it’s their choice when they take their freedom.”
The room was thick with anticipation. Expectation. Thad was direct. “Are you willing to take yours?”
Darnell reached down and touched a finger to his cheek. “I’m already free.”
Thad was too preoccupied with the feel of Darnell’s finger traveling slowly down his cheek to examine her words. As it glided across his mouth and outlined his lips, he enjoyed the tortuous sensations. His body grew hard. Silently, he waited and watched as uncertainty danced across her features, then melted away, replaced with a look of resolve. Slowly, she inched her way across the desk, closing the space between them. When her body was within mere inches of his, she hesitated. Thad took the initiative and opened his arms to her. Instantly, she slipped into them.
Settled on his lap, Darnell encircled his neck with her arms and brought her lips to his. Thad’s tongue delved into her mouth with such deliberate tenderness that it left her senses yearning for more.
Thad was delirious. Darnell was actually here in his arms where he had longed for her to be. But what did it mean? Was it simply for the moment, or could he hope for more? His mind begged for answers. With Herculean effort, he broke the kiss. His voice was ragged with desire.
“Darnell, I’ve got to tell you something.” He felt her tense. “I’ve never dealt romantically with another man’s lady, and I don’t want to start now. I need to know what’s between you and Lance, if there’s a problem…”
“There’s no problem.”
“But you said that you love him.”
“I do.”
Thad sighed. “You’re driving me crazy. Don’t do this to me. Please don’t play with me.”
Darnell smoothed his worried brow. “I wouldn’t do that, Thad. You asked me if I loved him, and I told you the truth.”
He believed her. But something was missing in what she was saying. It didn’t take him long to guess what it was.
“You love Lance, but you’re not in love with him, are you?”
“No, I’m not.”
That spoken revelation from the heart released them both. He crushed her to him.
“You didn’t make this easy for me.”
Darnell caressed his face. “You’re Thad Stewart, movie star. If something comes too easy for you, I don’t think that you’d want it.”
“Smart lady,” he breathed against her succulent mouth. He captured her lips with another soul-wrenching kiss, then moved down the slope of her neck where he languished, inhaling her, enjoying her. While one hand explored the delicious dips and curves of her body, his other hand freed her voluptuous breasts from the confines of a lacy bra and proceeded to massage her nipples, teasing them, taunting them until they were hard, ripe, and ready. Slowly, his fingertips snaked up the leg of her shorts, past her bikini panties. Arriving at their destination they entered and found paradise.
As Thad’s expertise intensified her pleasure, fire ricocheted through Darnell’s system, and her own wandering hands searched desperately for a haven. They threaded through his hair, flittering down the planes of his broad shoulders. They skated across his muscled forearms and chest—wanting, needing, and pleading for an anchor while afloat in a sea of desire. Darnell threw her head back in ecstasy, shattering the serenity of the snow white room with her moans of pleasure.
The shock wave had barely passed when Thad lifted her from his lap and carried her into the adjoining bedroom. Darnell felt much as she had the night that she was brought to Aruba—disembodied. Through the misty fog of desire, she lay on the bed watching Thad undress. Her eyes skittered across his body, stopping at his manhood. He was definitely ready for her, but was she ready for him, and for this? For the first time, she felt apprehension.
Slipping on protection, Thad knelt on the bed over her, anxious to claim her as his own. The fear in her eyes surprised him.
“Don’t be afraid, Doe Eyes, I’d never hurt you.”
The gentleness in his voice calmed her fears, and she relaxed. Between seductive kisses, he slowly disrobed her until she lay naked before him. For a moment, Thad was immobile as his gaze swept the length of her body, drinking in every magnificent dip and curve. Then lowering his body to lie beside her, he feathered kisses along her enticing length, taking special care to encircle that sexy mole near her navel
with his tongue. He lifted feverish eyes to her.
“Tell me what you want, baby. Tell me what pleases you.”
He watched as passionate eyes turned to ones filled with confusion. Darnell remained silent, so he took control. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. He would give her anything she wanted, anything she needed. With that in mind he devoted himself to one purpose, giving total pleasure to the woman that he loved.
Threading his hands through her hair, Thad kissed her soundly before claiming a taut nipple as his own and suckling until both became hardened pebbles. Simultaneously, he caressed her precious folds. For Darnell, all coherent thought ceased to exist. Bolts of lightning snaked straight to her center, and her world tilted out of control.
Fighting his rising excitement, Thad prepared himself to enter her. He wanted the memory of their first union to be a special one for them both. Gently, he parted her thighs as Darnell watched him through lazy eyelids.
He was a large man, and he could feel her discomfort. He had prepared her well, but she was still tight, and his initial contact was nearly his undoing. Lovingly, he caressed her.
“I adore you, Doe.” His breath sizzled against her ear. “You have no idea how deeply I feel for you.” He plunged ahead, deeper. She winced. He stilled. “What’s wrong?”
Darnell’s expression mirrored her discomfort. It couldn’t be what he was thinking. “You’re not a…a…”
She shook her head vigorously against the pillow as her body begged for completion. “Thad, please!”
“Please what, angel?”
“Hurry!” A tear slid from beneath closed eyelids.
“Just relax, Doe Eyes.” Seductively, he licked the heated teardrop. “The last thing I want to do with you is hurry. Just stay with me.”
She did, and her body began to respond to Thad’s gentle command. He was close to the edge. Every muscle in his body was stretched to its limit. He fought for control, but found it elusive as he plunged into dementia, burying himself deeper and deeper within her, losing reason with every thrust.
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