Danny let out a long laugh. “And you think I’m going to leave her with you, totally unprotected, for what reason?”
Sean sighed. He was about to open up to a total stranger who could easily use his words against him.
“I don’t know how much she’s told you about us.”
The other man shrugged. “Not much. I know you were engaged and that you broke up. That’s pretty much it.”
Sean winced. How could so few words encapsulate so many emotions?
“Well, there was more to it than that,” he muttered, bitterness in his tone. “The bottom line is that I loved Leah. And I wanted to prove to her that I was worthy of her love.”
Both of Danny’s eyebrows shot up and he looked like he wanted to say something. Sean paused, hoping he’d get some insight into Leah’s mindset, but the photographer finally just sighed.
Sean shook his head. “Now I am worthy. I want her to see that. I want to know if I have another chance.”
“Why didn’t you just come to Philadelphia, then?” Danny asked. “Why all this high drama and hostage taking?”
“Because I know her. I knew if I came to her in Pennsylvania she’d put up a bunch of walls. She’d have all these safe places where she could hide away from me. But here it’s different. Here she’s forced to face me and our past. Maybe she’ll choose the same way she did before, but at least I’ll know I did everything I could this time.” Sean sighed. “I can’t do that if you’re here.”
Danny nodded and a light of understanding was in his eyes. “Because I’m her safety net here.”
“Exactly.” Sean sighed. At least Danny got it. “So I’ll ask you again. Please leave. I’ll arrange for you to be taken to Jamaica on one of the luxury yachts we house here. I’ll put you up in another resort there and pay for whatever you want, whatever will make you happy. At the end of the week, if Leah decides to go home, you can travel back with her, just as you’d planned to. I won’t keep her here if she doesn’t want to stay.”
Danny examined Sean closely. “You’re not a man used to asking for favors, are you?”
“No. So you must understand how important this is.”
“I understand a lot more than you think.” Danny laughed. “A lot more than either you or Leah care to see. Fine. I’ll leave the island today if you want. I should have enough material for the article with the rolls of film I’ve taken so far. I could use a vacation anyway. When you work at a travel magazine, you don’t go to resorts for fun very often.”
Sean exhaled a relief-filled breath. This was one hurdle he’d worried he couldn’t overcome. “Thank you.”
Danny rose from the breakfast table and offered Sean a hand. As the two men shook, Danny’s grip became tighter. “But if I think for one moment that you’ve hurt Leah, I will come back here and prove every stereotype about gay men wrong by beating you to a bloody pulp. Understand me?”
Sean couldn’t help a smile. “I understand completely. You leave the island in an hour, I hope that’s enough time.”
“More than enough,” Danny said as he headed for the interior of the dining hall. “Especially since I don’t plan to talk to Leah before I go. I’ll write her a note, but you get to deal with the fallout from this little scheme of yours.”
“That only seems fair.” Sean followed Danny to the glass doors where the other man turned with a wicked smile.
“I mean, I’m sure you remember what Leah is like when she’s mad.”
“I do.” Sean waved to Danny, then sank into the nearest chair with a broad smile. “She’s absolutely gorgeous.”
***
“What the hell does this mean?” Leah asked as she burst into Sean’s office without knocking.
Sean smothered a smile, but refused to look up.
“One minute,” he said, returning his pen to a contract and signing his name with a little more flourish than usual. “Why don’t you take a seat?”
He glanced up in time to see her creamy skin flush dark red and her green eyes flash hot emotion, but she did as he’d asked and flopped herself into the chair across from his desk. As he pressed the button on his intercom and summoned his secretary, Sean allowed himself a longer, more direct look at the woman who had once been his fiancée.
She was wearing a rose-colored tank top that brought out the lightly tanned perfection of her arms. The v-neck skimmed seductively low, revealing just the barest hint of cleavage.
Sean shifted slightly, thankful he was safely behind his desk so Leah wouldn’t see how fast his cock went to rock hard when she entered a room. His poor erection was still throbbing from disappointment over last night. No amount of self gratification in a cold shower would change that. Only Leah could ease that particular ache.
“Ah, Margot,” he said with a smile as his secretary entered the room. “I’ll need you to fax this over this afternoon. And see if you can get Mr. Todd on the satellite phone. He’s due in this evening and I want to speak to him about how the tour went before he does.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll notify you as soon as I reach him.” The older woman slipped from the room with a smile for Leah and a nod.
“Will was out on The Passionate with two couples from New York. We have yachts for special tours and one of us always guides them. Next time it will be my turn to play host,” he explained, though from the narrowed gaze Leah had pinned him with, he knew she didn’t care about anything at the moment except for her anger.
“And what about Danny? Is he out touring the Caribbean on one of your yachts? Who, pray tell, is guiding him?”
Sean rose to his feet and walked over to the window to look out at the scene below.
“No one. Danny is on his way to Jamaica until the day of your departure. You’ll meet with him there and fly back to Philadelphia together, as planned.” He turned to lean on the glass and watched her reaction.
Instead of rising up in righteous indignation or letting loose with a stream of colorful curses, Leah only cocked her head and stared at him, her mouth parted and her eyes strangely unreadable.
“You-you mean you admit to sending him away, just like that?” She balled her hands into fists on her lap.
“I won’t lie to you, Leah. I asked Danny to go and he agreed.”
She let out a soft gasp, but the pained expression that accompanied it left a trail of guilt through Sean’s soul. For the first time, he wondered at the prudence of his actions. He’d hurt her. Really hurt her.
“How could you?” She shook her head. “Better yet, why would you do that to me?”
He hesitated. He hadn’t expected her to feel so betrayed and now he wasn’t sure how to explain himself.
“Last night you and I made a connection,” he began slowly, picking each word with care. “I thought we were finding a way back to each other. It seemed like we were getting past the bullshit and remembering all the good things we shared, all the things we meant to each other all those years ago. Then Danny interrupted us and I-”
“Wait!” Leah surged to her feet, nearly flipping over his fancy office chair in the process. “You asked my photographer, my friend, to leave this island because he interrupted your little seduction scene in the dining room?”
“No-” he began, but she didn’t stop talking or heading across the room in a few long strides.
“You bastard! Don’t give me all this connection crap. You wanted to get under that little blue dress you bought me, but Danny got in your way. Well, come on then.” She opened her arms wide and took another step forward until her breasts nearly brushed his chest.
“What?” Sean’s mind spun with both her total misunderstanding of his intentions and the feel of her body heat crashing into him.
Her eyes flashed dangerous fire and her voice trembled with harsh emotion. “If this week is all about fucking me then let’s get it over with. Once you’re done, I can get Danny back and write my damned story.” With that, she slipped her fingers under the hem of her tank top and yanked it over her head
in one jerky motion. “Go ahead, Sean.”
But this time her voice lacked angry heat. Her hands trembled as she let her shirt drop to the floor.
Her bra was a flimsy strapless contraption of lace and wispy silk and did nothing to hide the rosy tips of her nipples as they jutted toward him in challenge and invitation. She locked gazes with him and Sean was surprised to see that her anger seemed to have melted away, only to be replaced by something just as heated and potent.
“Go ahead and do it,” she whispered, swallowing hard enough that he saw her throat work. “Then we can move on.”
Sean had two reactions. One for his body and one for his mind. His body screamed at him to do as she’d said. To lay Leah back across his desk and have her, hard and fast and satisfying. To suck and taste and claim her like he had done in so many hot dreams. He wanted to shred that flimsy bra with his teeth. To fuck her like an animal until they were both utterly spent.
But his mind’s reaction was louder.
“Not this way.”
Her cloudy eyes took a long moment to clear, then she blinked in confusion. “What?”
He stooped down to snatch up her tank top and gently handed it back to her. “Not this way, Leah.”
She took the shirt from him with shaking hands, but made no effort to put it on as she stared at him. “I just don’t understand you at all.”
He shook his head. She understood him a lot better than she knew, a lot better than even he had remembered. “Look, I admit sending Danny away was pretty high-handed. I apologize for that.”
“You’re apologizing?” Her eyes went wide as she slipped her tank back over her head. “I don’t think you’ve ever apologized to me.”
He winced. Hadn’t he? “Well, I meant to, so many times. I hope you’ll accept my apology and maybe just try to enjoy the rest of the time we’ll share this week.”
For a long moment, she hesitated as she stared at him with an appraising stare that pinned him and stripped him of his protective shell. Only Leah had the ability to reveal him so fully. It was something he feared as much as loved
Finally, she shook her head slowly. “I don’t know, Sean. It seems to me that this ‘fantasy’ trip you planned has had a lot more to do with taking away my safety and control than making me feel relaxed or comfortable.”
Sean stiffened at the accusation even though in some ways it rang true to him. He’d been so wrapped up in the end result of his seduction that he’d lost sight of what means he used to get there. And now, staring across the room at Leah with her arms folded protectively over her chest and her eyes still glittering with disappointment, he could see he’d gone too far. He hadn’t seduced her, he’d pushed her into a corner and now she had no choice but to fight. He had to let her out. Give her some choices.
“I’m sorry, Leah,” he whispered. “Maybe I can do something that will help. Will you come with me?”
She hesitated for a moment and he could see the struggle in her eyes. Part of her wanted to resist, but the other, the part he was trying to tap into, wanted to go with him. To be with him.
“Okay.”
As he crossed the room, he held out a hand to her. Her lips parted slightly and for a brief, horrible moment Sean thought she was going to refuse him. But then she took his hand, sending a wash of both emotion and intense physical reaction ripping through him.
Leah seemed to feel it, too, for she took in a sharp breath through her teeth. But she didn’t let go.
And that was all that mattered for the moment.
***
“Where are we going anyway?” Leah asked.
“You’ll see,” he replied as he guided her down the long red road past villa after villa, the ocean crashing off to their right.
When she’d gone to Sean’s office after she’d found Danny’s note, Leah had expected a showdown. She’d never expected Sean’s apology or to be heading off hand-in-hand with him to some secret destination.
“Here we are.”
Leah shook away her musings to look at the door Sean was unlocking. It was to a villa like her own, only larger and marked ‘Private’ instead of with a number.
“What is this?” Both wariness and excitement tightened her chest.
“My room.” He pushed the door open and motioned her inside.
How could two little words, benign words at that, spark such a lusty burst of need in her? Sean had taken her to his private quarters, his personal space. She was going to get to see his life, his room… his bed.
A shiver worked through her as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dimmer light inside.
“Well, what do you think?” He motioned around the room with a smile.
Leah looked around. Sean’s villa was much different from her own. Instead of the feeling of a hotel, it was more like a classy apartment with a full kitchen she could see through an open door to her right and a large living area that had a small desk in the corner by the open veranda door.
But what drew her most was the door to her left. Sean’s bedroom. Unlike her villa, where the bedroom was done in bright island colors and stark white wicker, Sean had put his personality into the space. Dark, rich blue walls gave the room a sensual feel, as did the lighter blue coverlet on the bed that she could see if she turned her head just so.
“I picked the blue to combat the tiki feel in some of the other rooms here,” he explained as he slipped past her into the kitchen.
She heard a refrigerator door open and close in the background, but couldn’t seem to keep herself from continuing to stare into Sean’s bedroom. Or move a bit closer. Close enough that she was finally standing in the doorway, smelling in the faintest hint of sandalwood that wafted gently from his personal space.
“Beer?” he asked. She jumped when she found he’d slipped silently to her side and was holding out a bottle in her direction. “Unfortunately, the color makes the room a bit dark and warm.”
She took one last look before she turned back to Sean. “I don’t know about that, I think it’s perfect. What’s the use of living on an island if you don’t feel the heat?”
Sean’s smile faltered as he held out the beer in her direction. The slick, cold glass slid between her fingers as she took the bottle, never breaking the heated stare that hung between them, along with a healthy amount of sexual chemistry and desire.
He took a long step toward her, easily closing the distance that separated them. Leah couldn’t help the sharp breath his movement seem to suck from her lungs.
“Why are we here, Sean?” Her shaking fingers inched toward the soft cotton of his gray t-shirt, almost against her will.
Her question seemed to snap him out of the sensual spell between them. Just before her fingertips found their target, he stepped back.
“Yes, why we’re here.” He shook his head as if to gain some focus and walked past her into his bedroom.
While Leah struggled to shake off disappointment and a continued pounding in her blood, she watched Sean go to a large safe in the corner of his bedroom. With a few turns, the door opened to reveal her black roller suitcase.
Sean grasped the handle and turned back. With a sheepish grin, he held it out toward her. “Think of it as a peace offering.”
Leah entered the bedroom in a few slow strides. “You’re giving me my clothes back?”
“Yes.” Sean smiled. “Though I’d love it if you continued to wear the ones I chose for you.”
With a smile of her own, Leah took the suitcase. “Thank you, Sean. Now I should probably go before…” She trailed off with a guilty glance toward the sumptuous bed.
Sean tracked her stare with a wicked smile. “Hmmm, I see your point.”
Snorting out a laugh, Leah turned away, dragging her suitcase behind her. When she’d reached the villa door, Sean’s voice stopped her.
“Hey, Leah?”
She turned back, far too quickly for her own good. “Yeah?”
“I want-” Sean shifted, looking every inch a nervous schoolbo
y. It was a vision she hadn’t seen for a long time, definitely not since she’d been confronted by the cool businessman who ran this island. “Will you let me take you on a tour of my island this afternoon?”
The look in his eyes melted Leah’s heart. A tour of the island wasn’t about seduction or power, it was about pride. It was about wanting her approval of the things he had done, the place he’d built in their time apart.
She wanted nothing more than to share that with him. To learn what kind of man he’d become while he built a mini-empire and fought against those people who hadn’t understood him or his dream. Men like her father.
“Yes. Pick me up in an hour, ok?”
The relief was clear on Sean’s face, if only for a brief moment. “I’ll see you then.”
Chapter Six
“So what do you think?”
Leah drew in a long breath as she stared at the bubbling waterfall that cascaded down a sharp rock face to splash into a pool by a white sand beach.
“Oh, Sean,” she breathed, searching her writer’s mind for the right words to describe what she was seeing. When she could think of nothing that would do the scene justice, she merely smiled. “It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad you like it,” His grin was broad with pride. “This is one of my favorite locations on the island. We don’t talk about it much except to our favorite guests, so it’s rarely visited. I like the idea that it’s my little secret.”
She smiled at the excitement in his eyes. “Well, it’s a lovely secret. And I’m so glad you shared it with me.”
He didn’t answer, but instead offered her a hand to help her down the steep path that led to the waterside. He produced a blanket from his backpack and spread it out on the sand. Leah took a seat and watched as he put his things in order and sat down beside her.
“You know, you’ve really done wonders with this place,” she said softly as she watched the light play off the gray in his eyes.
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