At first the kiss was a feather light welcome, soft and gentle. But just when Leah thought she might be safe, he darted his tongue out and brushed the apex of her lips.
An uncontrollable, wanton moan escaped her mouth, but faded away as he took the quiet invitation. His body pressed closer, heating her as much as the island sun that drove through the glass behind her, burning her as he massaged his tongue between her lips. She knew she should resist, but found herself returning the kiss instead.
She tasted him and her traitorous mind remembered how good it had felt to touch him so many years before. She found her hands had stolen around him to clutch at his back, fingers roving over muscle, much stronger and more defined than the last time he’d held her.
As his tongue stroked over hers, she gave in completely. This was a fantasy island after all. Obviously, she’d fallen asleep in the plane and dreamed her deepest, darkest fantasy.
Sean.
That had to be it.
Then, with a reluctant gentleness, he pulled back. He kept her in his embrace, his tanned face just inches from hers. She stared up at him with wide, needy eyes, praying he would speak and also hoping he’d stay silent. If he talked, he’d be real. And that was very scary considering she hadn’t seen him for years and was now standing in the middle of a deserted office making out with him like there was no tomorrow.
“Hey, Leah.” His whisper shattered her fantasy and dragged her back into reality.
***
Sean was surprised that Leah tasted the same. In his erotic dreams she always did, but somehow he hadn’t believed reality would match so perfectly. She was like mint and sugar, and when she responded to his kiss, female lust. He’d always loved her flavor. And kissing her was the same pleasure it had been so long ago. In another lifetime.
She was still in his arms, staring up at him with green eyes that put the color of the rainforest to shame. He knew he had just a few more seconds to enjoy holding her before she’d shake him away and start yelling.
Right on schedule, Leah shrugged out of his embrace, leaving him empty in her absence. On unsteady feet, she stumbled away and turned her back on him, dragging long gasps of air in and out as she tried to regain equilibrium. The fact that she was so upset gave Sean hope. She still wanted him. That was step one.
Of course, there would be no step two if she didn’t face him. Sean took a few steps back and leaned on the corner of his desk to wait her out. Finally, she turned and seemed to have gathered her composure. In fact, she’d taken on a cold society look that mimicked her bitchy mother so perfectly. Sean barely kept from flinching at the memories that expression evoked.
“What the hell is this, Sean?” she asked softly.
God, her voice was the same, too. Slightly husky, soft but with power. It was a total reflection of her personality. He’d spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about that voice. About her saying his name. Crying out with passion.
But she hadn’t had the guts to tell him it was over.
He hardened himself at that memory. “This is Escapades. My private island.” He couldn’t help the cocky grin that broke over his face whenever he said those words.
Apparently the look was lost on Leah, because her mouth tightened in response. “That’s a lie.”
He smiled. Direct as always. “Oh yes? Why do you think so?”
“Because everyone knows Will Todd owns this island. He’s in all the brochures, all the promotional materials sent to travel magazines, and he’s done every single interview I’ve ever seen about this place from beginning to end.” Her glare darkened. “And you can keep that condescending tone to yourself, Sean Dalton.”
Sean allowed one corner of his lip to turn up at her spunk. That was one more thing he’d always loved about Leah.
“You’re right,” he conceded with a nod. “I misspoke. I’m co-owner of this island. Will Todd is the other. And he’s our little project’s front man, as well, which is why you always see him and not me. He’s our Mr. Roark, if you will.”
Her mouth trembled like she wanted to laugh, but was fighting the urge. “That’s a Fantasy Island joke, right? Mr. Roark was the weird guy who owned the island.”
“Exactly.” Sean shrugged. “Hey, everyone has to make at least one reference to the show when they land here. I thought I’d do it first.”
Leah leaned back against the window, folding her arms beneath her breasts. She obviously didn’t know that the action pushed them together and up, and gave him a great view. If he shut his eyes, he could still remember their weight, how it felt to roll one nipple between his teeth like he had the last time they’d made love. If he did that now, her knees would buckle and she’d cry out.
He had to stop. Every memory was making his cock harder by the moment. While he wanted Leah to know he still desired her, now wasn’t the time to show her that. He had to reveal himself slowly, let her adjust to his seduction. He had to peel away her tough layers of resistance.
Showing her a raging hard-on through his khakis was less than subtle.
“So tell me this, Sean,” she said evenly. “If this Will Todd is your Mr. Roark, does that make you Tattoo?”
Sean flinched back in surprise. Tattoo… the little person who was always yelling about planes. He tilted his head back and let out a long laugh. She’d always been able to bait him.
“Something like that,” he said between chuckles.
His humor didn’t spread to her face. If anything, the lines around her mouth grew harsher.
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re trying to play with me, but I’m leaving.” She pushed off from the window and stalked toward the office door.
He might have been worried if she hadn’t been visibly trembling with every purposeful step. He knew for a fact that only part of her trembling was due to anger. He had enough male pride to know she was trembling with desire, too. He’d felt it in her response to his kiss. The way she’d softened beneath his hands and tongue.
Still, he let her get all the way to the door and extend her hand for the knob before he spoke again.
“How are you going to leave when your plane just departed the island?”
Leah’s shoulders squared as she froze mid-reach for the door. Slowly, she turned back to face him, a look of disbelief mixed with concern on her beautiful face.
“What?”
He folded his own arms and met her stare. “You heard me.” He let the words sink in for a moment. He wanted her to understand completely. “I’m afraid the charter won’t be back for a while. You see, we share it with several other resorts, so the schedule of coming and going is set. Practically in stone.” Yeah, that was a bit of a lie, but whatever. “Until it returns, you are very much at my mercy.”
He straightened up from the desk edge and came toward her. Her eyes followed his every step, like a rabbit being hunted by a wolf. Except, this rabbit was armed. She had weapons like her sweet shampoo and perfume scent. Like the body heat that hit him like a wave when he was just inches from her. Like her rosy, wet lips that invited him to steal another kiss.
Those things affected him just as much as they ever had. Perhaps even more now that he’d gone without them for so long.
He could hardly breathe as he took the last step that took him just an inch away from her. “Leah, you are mine. For seven nights.”
Chapter Two
Sean’s words hit Leah with as much force as his presence, his scent, his touch or the look in those steely gray eyes that stood out so startlingly against his tanned face.
Seven nights with her ex on a tropical island? Virtually alone? She wouldn’t survive. Already, she’d crossed the line by kissing him. Or had he kissed her? Now the order seemed blurred in her mind, her fantasies transposing over the reality until her whole body hummed with desire.
Either way, she’d kissed back, and that was the point. Leah couldn’t afford a trip back in time. Not if she wanted to maintain her sanity.
Though it was nearly
impossible to do so, Leah steeled herself, shutting out the powerful affect Sean had on her. “Take me back to the mainland. Immediately,” she said quietly.
Now it was his turn to go tough. The playful, sparring games went out of his demeanor, replaced by an implacable glint to his eyes. “No.”
She expelled her breath in one haughty burst as she walked away. There was no way she could stand so close to him and maintain her façade of anger. Not when her heart was racing at twice its healthy rate, her blood as hot as fire. Neither reaction had as much to do with fury as they did with lust.
“I’m not playing games with you,” she said, but her voice was little more than that shaky squeak again. The one that made it perfectly clear how much he affected her. Damn him for still having so much power over her.
“Neither am I.”
She spun to face him and found he’d slipped up behind her. She was practically in his arms again, his face just inches from hers. The body she couldn’t seem to control swayed forward a fraction until they touched and lightning shot between them.
How could all this heat still exist when she hadn’t even seen the man for so very long? Hadn’t she killed these desires with years of harsh self-discipline? She’d thought so. Of course, she’d never been tested like this before.
She tilted her face up, her lips a breath from his and he leaned in at the same time. But instead of kissing her, he rubbed the tip of his nose along the side of her own. Her eyes fluttered shut as she drew in a harsh, ragged breath. Need filled, hot.
She didn’t care anymore. All she wanted was his mouth on hers again. The taste of him filling her, the feel of him taunting her long neglected senses. She tilted her mouth up, determined to take his kiss if he wouldn’t offer it, but this time he was the one who stepped away.
Hazy-eyed, she watched him walk across the room and open up a desk drawer. He drew out a file and sat down in his leather chair while he pulled out a few pieces of paper.
Confused, she stepped forward. He thought this was the proper moment to do some paperwork? Now when she was actually soaked with need for his touch?
“Recognize this?” He held up some papers.
She came closer and saw that he held the glossy pages of a clipped magazine article. ‘This Ain’t My Fantasy by Leah Prescott’ screamed out in bold, colorful typeface. It was the article she’d written about fantasy resorts.
She blinked in confusion, still reeling from her intense reaction to him. “What-?”
He interrupted her by reading out loud. “’But what is the actual appeal of these kinds of places? To escape from the realities of a mundane life? From the diapers and the planners overflowing with appointments and meetings? Perhaps that’s the core problem. Couples come to fantasy resorts thinking they can pretend away their issues while they play sexual games and sleep in themed suites. At the end of the day, they still have to come back home and face reality.’”
He smiled. “Should I go on?”
“No.” Her hands were trembling no matter what she did to calm herself. Finally, she shoved them behind her back so the tremors wouldn’t be so obvious. “I wrote the piece. I remember what it said. What’s your point?”
“This-” He held up the article. The papers rattled as he shook them in her direction. “Is why you’re here.”
Leah gripped the back of the closest chair as she fought a wave of hard, harsh disappointment. “You brought me here, you’re holding me hostage in order to get a good review?”
Man, did that hurt. From the first moment Sean had entered the office, she’d been sure he’d brought her to Escapades to finish their business together. To seduce her. Or even to get some kind of revenge on her for leaving him. Whatever the answer, all her ideas had been related to emotion.
But a review was all about business. It had nothing to do with her one way or another, except that he could make her squirm while she wrote it.
Sean’s mouth twitched with a brief smile. “You know me better than that, Leah. I can get a good review from a wide variety of sources. In fact, Escapades has been given high marks in a large collection of travel magazines and books. And there’s always the Travel Channel. The hostess of their resort show has talked to me several times about coming down. She likes me.”
Leah’s nostrils flared. She knew exactly who Sean was talking about. Cute, petite redhead. Her name was Kimmie or something equally ridiculous. Just the idea of that woman coming to the island to spend a week with Sean was nauseating.
“Yeah, well my magazine is all about highbrow travel and you know it. Kimmie Travel Channel might bring in business, but an article written by me will bring in big business. The people who read my work are the kind of clients who’ll spend big time bucks here. They’ll tell all their rich friends about your resort,” she snapped before she had a chance to think her words through. She regretted them the instant Sean arched one eyebrow.
“Are you selling me on this, Leah?”
With difficulty, she said nothing. She’d already done enough damage with her jealous little outburst.
Sean accepted her silence with a wicked grin that had her stomach dropping into her sandals. “I admit, a good review from Get-Aways would be a boon for us, but there’s a lot more to my bringing you here than just that.”
Leah attempted to quell her curiosity without success. “Such as?”
Once again, he smoothed her article out on the desk before him and began to read. “’Of course, the biggest problem I have with these fantasy resorts is that no suit in a big office knows my innermost desires. My fantasies could never be fulfilled in the overdone atmospheres of these so-called escapes. I doubt the owners of these places could even figure out what my fantasies are.’”
His smile warmed Leah’s blood to the point that she was almost sweating. “What about it?”
“I took that as a challenge, Leah.” His voice was deceptively soft and seductive as his eyes roved over her, laid claim on her. “A very personal challenge.”
Leah swallowed, trying to find words, but once again her voice had been stolen by the sensual shock of his declaration. She’d almost forgotten he had that affect on her. It was very disconcerting.
He stood up and leaned both hands on his desk. “By the time you leave my island, I will have fulfilled all your fantasies.”
Panic hitched her breath in her throat. If only he knew what he was saying. She had no doubt Sean could fulfill her every fantasy. After all, most of the dreams that woke her panting at night were of him.
How many times had she thrashed in her bed while the dream Sean stroked his hands over her skin? Awoken naked and sweating from the feel of his imaginary lips on her skin? Or his thick cock pounding inside of her? Those were dreams she’d kept to herself, but they’d stayed with her, still strong, even years after she’d left him.
Left him for very good reasons. Which was why she couldn’t give in to him now. Leaving Sean once had been a nightmare. Leaving him twice… impossible. She didn’t even like remembering the painful, empty months after their breakup. There was no way she could relive them.
But how could she escape his plans? If she stayed on his island, she wouldn’t have the strength to say no when he touched her. That had already been proven in the last fifteen minutes. But without access to the charter, she was trapped. So how could she stay here, do her job, but avoid Sean’s plans to fulfill her deepest desires?
There was only one answer. She had to come up with a really good lie.
“Since you give me no choice, I’ll stay.” Her unsteady voice gained strength gradually. “But I’m afraid you won’t be fulfilling any of my fantasies, whether you could figure them out or not.”
His mouth quirked with arrogant amusement. “And why is that?”
She drew in a deep breath. This was going to be the tricky part. If she didn’t do it right, Sean would see right through her. That was another one of his talents.
Folding her arms, she tried to look bored. “I’m afraid
I’m already involved with another man.”
Sean was quiet for a long moment, but she could tell she’d surprised him. Why? Did it seem so outrageous that she’d moved on? After all, it had been a long time since they’d last been together. Why wouldn’t she date? Sleep with other men?
Of course, she hadn’t done any of those things, but that wasn’t the point. Sean didn’t know her mother had set her up with a dozen society snobs who bored her to the verge of tears. Or that her friends had sent her on several disastrous blind dates before everyone gave up on her. He didn’t know she’d finally resigned herself to her work, given up on finding another love of her life.
“Really?” he finally said, his expression unreadable. He was the consummate businessman, cold like this was some kind of negotiation. In a way, she supposed it was. A negotiation for her body, and if she wasn’t very careful, her heart.
“Yes. He’s very protective.” She swallowed as she tried to gauge whether Sean believed her.
“Who is he?”
She struggled for an answer. “He’s my-my photographer. Daniel Anderson.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Danny was going to be royally pissed since, unlike her, he liked to mix business with pleasure. But he owed her a favor or two, so she was sure she could convince him to play along. Since he wasn’t in any way attracted to her, he was safe. Plus, he had the distinct advantage of being in close proximity. Sean couldn’t very well suggest they have a rendezvous right under her supposed boyfriend’s nose.
“The photographer who’s here with you on my island right now?” he asked and some of his calculated façade chipped away. The jealousy that clipped his tone gave Leah a secret thrill.
“Yes.” She fiddled with the tufts of blonde hair that had come down from her French twist. “Danny and I were hoping to have a little romance this week along with business.”
Oh man. Danny was going to laugh when he heard that. Just the idea of romance with her friend made her stifle a nervous giggle.
Seven Nights Page 2