Essence of Desire

by Brenda Jackson

  “To talk to me about a trip somewhere. I need a week to relax and I’d rather not hang around here to do it. I’m interested in going on a cruise.”

  Michelle nodded and pushed herself to her feet; glad he was gentleman enough to take a step back. “Do you have any idea where you would like to go?” she asked moving toward her desk in her bare feet.

  “Where do you suggest?”

  She sat down at her desk. “Cruises to the islands or to Mexico are always good this time of year, and you can leave from a port close by, either from Tampa or Port Canaveral.”

  He waved off her words as he eased down on the loveseat she’d just vacated. “Been there, done that. I’d rather not repeat it. Come up with someplace else.”

  She lifted a brow. “All right. How about a cruise to Alaska or Hawaii?” By the lifting of his brow she knew that he was interested.

  “Sounds good. How long will I be gone?

  “A week or longer.”

  He seemed to consider the idea and then said, “I’m working on some serious cases and would rather not be gone that long. A four or five day cruise is preferable and one I can go on fairly soon.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “We have a cruise to Canada that leaves out of New York in a few weeks. It’s going to be tight, but I believe I can still get you on board if you let me know for sure if you’re interested by next Monday.”

  He lifted a brow. “Canada?”

  “Yes, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,” she said and then added. “It’s for five days, leaves out on a Monday evening and returns Saturday morning.”

  Standing, she grabbed a brochure off her desk and walked over to him. “Here, this will tell you basically everything you need to know. Cruises are fun and with this particular cruise line I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s one of the largest ships in the fleet, practically new and is one of the fun ships. ”

  He took the brochure she handed to him and only glanced at it before looking back at her. “Have you ever gone?” he asked.

  She shrugged before walking back over to her desk, feeling the heat of his gaze on her backside. “No, but I heard sailing to those eastern seaboard provinces is nice. I’ve booked several this year and everyone seemed to have had a good time. Just the kind of fun and relaxation you might need.”

  He stood. “I’ll consider it and will let you know something in a day or two.”

  “Fine,” she said thinking once he left she could get back to work.

  “But there is something I would like for you to do,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Come with me.”

  She blinked. Michelle was certain she hadn’t heard him correctly. “What did you say?”

  “I said come with me on the cruise.”

  She rolled her eyes as she slid back into her chair. “Don’t be ridiculous, Royce. I can’t go with you on a cruise.”

  “And why not?”

  She couldn’t believe he would ask such a thing. “Why would I?”

  He leaned against her closed door. “I’m not asking you to go as my lover or anything like that, Michelle. I’m asking you to go as a friend.”

  Now she was really confused. She leaned forward in her chair. “But that’s just it, Royce, we aren’t exactly friends. We slept together that one night for lack of having anything else to do and that was it. You usually stay on your side of Orlando and I stay on mine. We don’t date, have never dated and don’t plan on dating. In other words, we are merely acquaintances, although your best friend happens to be married to my sister. Regardless, acquaintances don’t take cruises together.”

  “Maybe they should. It will be my treat and you can have your own cabin.”

  “No.”

  He smiled. “Think about it. Unless . . .”

  She raised a brow. “Unless what?”

  “Unless you’re afraid to confront those feelings you’re secretly harboring for me on the high seas.”

  Michelle couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m supposed to be secretly harboring feelings for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry to burst your ego, but you’re wrong. I have to admit sex with you was good, but after two years what we did that night no longer consumes my thoughts, not that it ever did,” she said in what she hoped was a convincing voice.

  He shrugged just before opening the door. “Think about it.”

  “There’s nothing to think about, Royce.”

  He gave her that mega-watt smile before turning to walk out the door as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

  ***

  Michelle closed her eyes before dropping her face into her hands on her desk. There were days when she wished she would have stayed in bed and not come into the office. Today was one of them.

  She’d known he would show up; hadn’t been surprised when her secretary had announced his arrival. But since she was still stewing from Saturday night, she’d decided she would see him on her time and not his. So she had made him wait.

  Now of all things he wanted her to go on a cruise with him. What kind of crazy juice had he gotten a hold of that morning? What made him think she would want to endure his presence on a cruise ship for five days? Although to be quite honest the thought of doing so stirred something deep and hot inside of her. Five days to have Royce Parker to herself was too much to consider.

  A knock at her door jolted her thoughts. “Yes?”

  Her secretary, Jill Harris, stuck her head in. “Did you ever get a chance to meet with Mr. Royce Parker? I left him here when I stepped out for lunch. I hope you didn’t mind.”

  Michelle smiled. Since she’d recently hired Jill only six months ago, she had no idea of her and Royce’s history. “No, that was fine.”

  “He’s real nice looking.”

  Michelle leaned back in her chair not at all surprised as to how another woman might view Royce. A younger woman. She was twenty-nine and Jill was only twenty-four, cute, perky and had an hourglass figure. She wondered if Royce had noticed.

  “So, you think he’s good looking?” Michelle asked as a teasing smile touched her lips.

  “Yes, don’t you?” Jill countered.

  Michelle shrugged. “I guess since I’ve known him for so long, I don’t see him as being a hunk,” she lied. “His best friend is married to my sister.”

  “Oh. Well, he’s definitely one of those tall, dark and handsome types. Trust me, he is definitely pleasing to the eyes.”

  Michelle smiled. “I’m sure he probably thought the same thing about you.”

  Jill looked surprised. “You think? He didn’t act like it. In fact, he didn’t seem the least bit interested. He was all professional and although he was very courteous and all, he didn’t give me any indication that he knew I even existed, other than to ask occasionally how much longer he had to wait to see you.”

  “Well, you know men. They’ll pretend they aren’t interested when they really are,” Michelle said, then she frowned and rose to her feet, wondering why she’d said that and hoped she hadn’t given Jill any ideas. But then, what harm would come of it if she had? Royce might decide to ask Jill to go on the cruise with him. For some reason that thought didn’t sit too well with her. Why? She inhaled, suddenly feeling her emotions oddly conflicted.

  She walked over to the sofa and slipped back into her sandals. “I have a lunch date with my sister, so I won’t be back before two.”

  “All right.” Jill left and pulled the door closed behind her.

  As Michelle moved back over to the desk to get her purse she couldn’t help but recall Royce’s words. First he’d accused her of secretly harboring feelings for him, if that wasn’t a bunch of crap. She harbored feelings for no man, not even Marcus, which was why it had been so easy to drop him like a hot potato along with his mama. So Royce could think whatever he liked because she knew differently.

  Next were the other words he’d spoken. Come with me.

  He had spoken those same exact words two years ago in th
at darkened hotel room when he had been buried deep inside of her, had thrust into her more times than she could count, and she had been on the verge of exploding all over the place. So had he. But he hadn’t wanted to let go and come apart until she had. As a result he had whispered those words in her ear, in a deep, hot and sexy voice.

  And then she had come, in a way she had never done before, screaming his name to the point where he had to kiss her mouth shut, while her body shuddered relentlessly, convulsing into an orgasm that seemed to last forever and had had her limbs quaking for days afterwards.

  She inhaled deeply as she headed for the door. Those words had been the source of her troubles before, but she would not let them get her into mischief with Royce Parker again.

  Three

  Royce leaned back in his chair as he read through the brochure he had gotten from Michelle. The more he read over the brochure, the more he was convinced that this was the cruise he wanted to take. And what he liked about it was that he wouldn’t have to miss a lot of work time.

  He could fly into New York for the weekend and have some fun there. He’d always liked New York and while living in London, Ohio, as a child he would enjoy making the trip to New York City to visit his aunt Mable.

  And then Jordan moved there after college to work for a well-known law firm. During that time, Royce had enjoyed visiting his best friend and doing the nightlife, checking out all the clubs and going to the various Broadway plays.

  Another thing he liked about this trip was the chance to visit Canada again. It had been years since he’d visited there, but always Toronto, and never the eastern seaboard provinces. There would be a lot of places to explore and he looked forward to doing so with the right person.

  Michelle.

  Of course she had bucked at the idea of going anywhere with him, which meant he would have to chip away at her resistance. Regardless of whether she wanted to pretend otherwise or not, she wanted a repeat of that night two years ago as much as he did. He felt it in the way she had sized him up earlier today. There had been something very hot and enticing in her gaze each and every time she’d looked at him. He could read her like a book. At least most of the time. He would admit there had been a few times when she had almost caught him off guard.

  He straightened in his chair when he heard a knock at the door. “Come in.”

  A smiling Jordan walked in. “Hey man, we won another case.”

  Royce stood up to give his best friend and partner a high five. “You mean you were able to convince the jury that Leslie Burns didn’t know her boyfriend planned to kidnap that baby?”

  “Yes.”

  Royce was glad. The case had garnered national attention when Leslie Burns, a nurse at one of the hospitals, had been accused of helping her boyfriend kidnap one of the newborns when he posed as a doctor and walked right out of the hospital with the baby in his arms. Although the boyfriend had admitted using Leslie and that she hadn’t known about his scheme, the Orlando police department hadn’t been convinced and had charged her with being an accomplice. The trial had lasted for three weeks.

  “Well, I’m glad things turned out the way they did. It was bad enough to find out what type of man she’d gotten tied up with and then to be accused of aiding him. She was getting a damn raw deal. I’m glad you saved the day,” Royce said.

  Jordan chuckled. “Me too.” He then glanced down at the brochure on Royce’s desk. “So you decided to take my advice and go on a trip somewhere?”

  “Yes. I’m thinking about a cruise to Canada.”

  “Cruises are nice. Nice cabins. All the food you can eat. Lots of entertainment. A staff that caters to your needs twenty-four hours a day. Port excursions. Man, that’s the life.”

  Royce nodded. Jordan and Dominique had cruised to Mexico for their honeymoon and had come back ranting and raving so much about it, he had taken the same cruise a year later. Although he had gone by himself, he had met a number of women who’d also decided to cruise solo, for the purpose of meeting single men. He had hooked up with a few of them and compared to what he’d shared with Michelle, had found them lacking. In fact, every woman since Michelle had somewhat disappointed him.

  “So did you ask Michelle to go with you?”

  He sat back down and nodded his head. “I asked, but she turned me down.”

  Jordan lifted a brow. “And?”

  Royce couldn’t help but laugh. Jordan knew him so well. “And I plan on working on her.”

  Jordan shook his head. “Good luck. In dealing with Michelle, you’re definitely going to need it.”

  ***

  Michelle had learned a long time ago that her sister Dominique was a smart and intelligent woman. That insight had nothing to do with the fact that Dominique had graduated from high school at sixteen and gone on to college and law school to graduate at the top of her class. Nor did it have anything to do with Dominique, at the age of twenty-eight, being appointed by the governor a few years ago to fill a spot on the bench left vacant by a retiring judge.

  Michelle couldn’t help but smile when she further thought it had nothing to do with all the times her sister had covered for her when she’d sneaked out of their bedroom window to meet up with friends while their parents slept soundly in the bedroom next door.

  But it had everything to do with the fact that she considered her sister as her best friend, a person who had always been there for her. Where Michelle had always been unresisting and unmanageable, Dominique was the most manageable person she knew. A person who not only respected authority, but had taken an oath to enforce it.

  Dominique was her she-ro, but Michelle would never, ever tell her that. It was always easy to stay true to form and be the ultimate pain in Dominique’s side, like she was doing now. For some reason she enjoyed getting a rise out of her sister every now and then.

  As usual on Mondays and Wednesdays they had lunch together. They used to just meet on Wednesdays but now since Dominique was married, they didn’t get to spend their weekends together like they used to so they had decided to meet every Monday as well. Michelle was happy for her sister and thought married life certainly agreed with her.

  “I can’t believe you’re thinking about going to a nudist camp, Michelle. Mom and Dad will flip if they got wind of it,” Dominique said, before digging back into her salad.

  Michelle smiled. “I didn’t exactly say I was going to go. All I said was that since I added that nudist camp as a vacation spot offered by the travel agency, you would be surprised at how many bookings I get every week. It’s enough to make me want to go there and check things out for myself. Since I’m sending so much business their way, the owners have invited me out to the ranch several times and so far I’ve turned them down. Umm, maybe I should reconsider. Whenever I talk to them on the phone they sound like real nice folks. ”

  Dominique rolled her eyes. “Yes, nice folks who bare all. You should get your head examined for thinking about going to a place like that.”

  Michelle took a sip of her coffee and smile. “And maybe you should stop being a prude.”

  “I am not a prude.”

  “Yes, you are,” Michelle insisted. “I bet Jordan has never tied you to a bed or put handcuffs on you while having sex.”

  At the blush that suddenly appeared on Dominique’s face Michelle’s eyes grew wide, and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “I don’t believe it,” she leaned closer to her sister to whisper. “You’re trying some kinky stuff? I think that’s wonderful.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it so let’s change the subject,” Dominique said, as she tried to keep a straight face while she continued eating her salad.

  “Fine with me,” Michelle said grinning. “Did I tell you that I got a call from Marcus this weekend?”

  Dominique raised a brow. “Marcus? What on earth did he want?”

  “To complain about his mother. He hates that he ever let her talk him into moving to Texas. He claims he’s miserable and misses me.”
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  “It took him three years to call and tell you that?” Dominique asked.

  “I suppose. He wants to fly me to Dallas to spend some time with him.”

  Dominique placed her fork down and gave her sister her full attention. “And?”

  Michelle smiled. “And I told him to go to hell in four different languages. I would tell you what I told him in plain English but the words might be too harsh for your delicate ears, your Honor.”

  “I appreciate that,” Dominique said, picking her fork back up. “And before I forget, Ruth told me to ask you what happened with you and Royce outside on the patio Saturday night.”

  Now it was Michelle’s turn to roll her eyes. Ruth Fowler was Dominique’s seventy-something-year-old secretary who had befriended their grandmother Constance, who was about the same age. Now it seems with Dominique married off, both Ruth and Constance were making it their business to keep up with her love life or lack thereof.

  “Tell Ruth that Royce and I talked, nothing more. In fact he wants to book a cruise with my agency.”

  Dominique lifted a brow. “Really? To where?”

  “Canada. He even asked me to go with him.”

  “Are you going to go?”

  “Of course not!” She then smiled. “He doesn’t have to get me out on the high seas to make a booty call.”

  Dominique’s features creased in concern. “Do you and Royce have that kind of relationship?”

  Michelle leaned back in her chair and met her sister’s gaze. “Explain what you mean by that kind.”

  Dominique inhaled a deep breath. “The kind that you prefer to have with men. Very casual. Where you like to play the role of a sophisticated hooch. ”

  Michelle couldn’t help but grin. “A sophisticated hooch? Umm, I like that description.” She took a sip of her coffee and then said. “But seriously, Dom. Royce and I don’t have a relationship. In fact we haven’t slept together since the night you got married.”

  Dominique dropped her fork again. This time it hit the floor loudly. She ignored it. Her shocked features were gazing at her sister. “You and Royce slept together on my wedding night?”