Flirting with Felicity

by Gerri Russell

  “I won’t need you.” She straightened and moved briskly down the hallway after Kayoko.

  He tried not to let the comment hurt him as she disappeared into the lavish bedroom where he usually slept on long flights. He imagined Felicity lying on the cool, linen sheets, her hair splayed about her head, her body warm and willing. His groin tightened, and he groaned against the deep-seated ache that burned through him.

  How would he ever get any work done, knowing she slept only a few feet away? With an effort, he reached for his laptop and turned it on. When Kayoko returned, she scooped up his champagne glass and set a Scotch down in its place. He released a sigh. “It shows that much, huh?”

  Her eyes filled with understanding. “She seems different than the women we usually travel with,” the flight attendant said with a sweet smile.

  The fact that Felicity was in his bed by herself set her apart. Kayoko was right. Something was different, but the difference was with him, not Felicity. Bit by bit, she was breaking down the barriers he’d erected around himself. He’d distanced himself from feeling anything but ambition since his parents had drowned. He preferred to live that way—in a safe cocoon free from turmoil.

  It was so strange that Felicity had succeeded where others had failed. It annoyed him and fascinated him at the same time.

  If he didn’t know any better, he’d think his uncle Vernon had left the hotel to her so they could meet, have a reason to interact. But that was something a loving uncle might have done for a beloved nephew. And Blake knew Vernon was not that, nor was he.

  Blake could feel his blood pounding through his veins as he stared down at his glass of whiskey. He brought the glass to his lips and tossed back the contents in a single swallow.

  Kayoko raised a brow, but silently turned and retrieved the bottle, pouring him another splash of the amber liquid.

  “It’s going to be a long flight,” he said. “You might want to leave the bottle here.”

  She set down the bottle, then left him to himself. He logged on his computer and pulled up the spreadsheets his accountant had sent him. The numbers helped him put Felicity from his thoughts.

  He had work to do.

  Felicity moaned as she felt a warm, strong hand sliding over her bare stomach to her hip. Instinctively, she turned in to the caress, her body instantly on fire with need.

  Blake rolled her over on to her back and captured her lips with his. Her senses swam at the contact, and a hot shiver went through her. As he continued his assault on her lips, his fingers dipped below the coverlet and moved lazily up her thigh.

  Felicity groaned and was tempted to open her eyes, but the dream was too close to her own longings to want to banish it yet. Instead, she breathed in his familiar woodsy scent as she tasted the heat of his mouth.

  His kiss was fierce and hot, yet strangely tender as his hands worked between her thighs. He ruffled the curls at the apex of her womanhood before he dipped his fingers inside the folds. His thumb rotated gently.

  She clenched her teeth as a hot, convulsive shudder tore through her.

  He didn’t release her; instead, his thumb flicked slowly back and forth. Every muscle in her body clenched as she fought for control, fought to stave off the tension that coiled tighter and tighter with each movement of his fingers. She could no longer think coherently as she reached for the source of her pleasure.

  She wanted him inside her.

  Her heart pounding so hard she couldn’t get her breath, she clutched his shoulders and drew him down beside her. She bit her lip expectantly as he stretched along her body and settled between her thighs. He moved closer, his rigid manhood pressing against her core. Just when he was about to slide inside, a hard bump jarred her awake. The world around her slowed, and she felt herself slide forward on the sheets covering her legs.

  Dazed, she glanced around the unfamiliar room. It took her a full minute to realize she was alone in Blake’s bedroom aboard his private jet. The plane had landed in San Francisco, and she’d been asleep the entire time.

  Had it all been a dream? Her heart pounded in her chest as she drew a shaky breath. Suddenly she was conscious of the cool sheets beneath her and the silence that surrounded her. The feel of his hands on her body had seemed so real. Tension still lingered, demanding release—a release that wouldn’t come anytime soon.

  As her heart settled into a more normal rhythm, she got up and moved on unsteady legs toward the door. Heaven help her. If her dream had been any indication, the next few days in Blake’s presence would tempt her as never before. Steeling herself for what was ahead, she moved into the living area.

  Blake turned toward her, his gaze as heated as her cheeks. A slow smile spread across his face as he devoured her with his eyes. Could he see the rapid rise and fall of her breasts that forced her taut nipples against the silk of her blouse, or sense the desire that pulsed in her veins unquenched? No man had ever given her such a look. And she’d never responded to a man the way she did to Blake.

  He stood. “I trust you’re feeling less tired.”

  She glanced restlessly around the lounge. Less tired. More worked up than ever. “Yes, thank you,” she said past the dryness in her throat. “Have we arrived?”

  “I was waiting on you to deplane. The others have gone on ahead of us with our bags to prepare.”

  Felicity glanced out the windows. Palm trees swayed gently beneath a sudden, gentle breeze. A brilliant orange-red sunset lingered past them, hovering on the horizon. Sunset? “How long was I asleep?”

  “Six hours.”

  She looked at him bewildered. “How can that be? We just landed?”

  “Yes.”

  She moved toward the door of the plane and stopped at the ramp. Stretched beyond the stairs were emerald-green mountains that looked as though they were covered in velvet that plunged toward a white sand beach. The sun hovered just above the horizon, casting a golden glow across the tropical paradise. The sweet scent of jasmine and orchids hung in the air, seducing her with its headiness as warmth caressed her skin.

  She twisted back to Blake. “Where are we?”

  He came toward her. “Hawai‘i. Kauai, if you’d like me to be specific.”

  “But we were going to San Francisco,” she said, her voice rising.

  He slid his hand beneath her arm, guiding her toward the air stairs. “No, you assumed we were going to San Francisco, and I let you believe that.”

  She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “You tricked me.”

  He stopped on the stairs beside her. “You agreed to go with me anywhere I chose to take you that could demonstrate what I wanted to show you about environmental protections and sustainable living.”

  She wanted to argue, but she remembered agreeing to those very terms. She’d never imagined he would take her here. With a quick glance at the man beside her, the reality of her situation hit her. She’d be in Hawai‘i for two days while Blake tried to convince her that the Bancroft Hotel was better off under his management.

  How was she going to fight him when he wasn’t playing fair? Felicity took a deep breath and fought the urge to strangle him. “Hawai‘i?” she groaned.

  He smiled wickedly. “This is where I can best make my point about sustainability. What better place to protect than paradise?”

  She pushed her hair away from her face, feeling somewhat defeated already and they hadn’t even stepped onto Hawaiian soil. She was in so much trouble from herself, from Blake, from the tropical paradise they were about to enter.

  Sighing, she crooked her arm out from her side. “All right, let’s get this over with.”

  Beside her, Blake flashed a dazzling smile. “Paradise awaits us,” he said as though he’d read her mind.

  Felicity pasted on her best smile and headed to the bottom of the ramp where Kayoko waited with two leis made from purple orchids.

  The flight attendant slipped one of the traditional flower greetings around Felicity’s neck, then Blake’s. “Welcome to Haw
ai‘i.” She motioned off to her left. “Peter has your car ready to take you to the hotel.”

  Blake escorted her to the car and allowed her to slip into the backseat. In a fluid movement, he slid in beside her and gave her a devilish smile that made his blue eyes come alive with humor and hunger.

  A thousand emotions tore through Felicity—excitement, fear, desire, doubt, but most of all happiness. She had no responsibilities for two whole days. Mary Beth would step in for her father if something came up. Edward would look after the hotel. And Hans would take care of the restaurant. It had been three years since she’d had any time off from the restaurant or her obligations to her father—three years since she’d had a moment to relax.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as they headed off the tarmac and away from the airfield.

  “Bancroft Industries owns several hotels on this island. We are going to a modest hotel called the Mano Kea just off Poipu Beach. It’s one of my favorite places to stay on Kauai, and it’s the greenest of the Bancroft properties.”

  And so it begins, Felicity thought as she stared out the window, watching the long white beach on one side of the car, and the jutting velvet mountains on the other. Despite the fact that they were so close to the ocean, the air smelled as though it were laden with honey instead of the salt so prominent in the air along the waterfront in Seattle.

  It didn’t take long before they turned off the main road to stop in a circular drive. Peter came around to open the door for them. Blake stepped out, then offered Felicity his hand. She slid across the seat to emerge from the car and stilled. The modest hotel was not a hotel at all; it was a palace.

  The white-stone palace towered three stories high. Arches and colonnades graced the front of the building. Behind the building-long balcony were windows, covered in intricately carved filigree wood shutters. Three golden domes, reflecting the bright orange of the setting sun, dominated the center and east and west wings. Two fourteen-foot brass-bound doors, stamped with scenes from Hawai‘i’s Polynesian past, led into the palace. A small courtyard with a graceful waterfall fronted the entrance.

  “It’s beautiful,” Felicity exclaimed as she followed Blake inside, only to have her words snatched away by the tropical beauty that awaited her inside. A paradise stretched before her, with palm trees and bright-colored flowers surrounding a waterfall that filled the lobby with its soothing sound. “It is real?”

  “It’s manmade, but operates much like the fountains of old with no motors or pumps. We collect the water in a reservoir in the hills, then send it downward through a series of aqueducts. Gravity does the rest.”

  “Impressive.”

  “I’d hoped you’d feel that way.” Blake’s eyes crinkled as he chuckled. “This hotel is a LEED Gold–certified building. It not only protects the environment, but also serves as a refuge for several endangered species.”

  Blake moved through the lobby like a man in charge of his troops. In what seemed like only moments, he had two porters and two maids depositing their suitcases in an overly large suite on the third floor, with one bedroom on the right side of the room and another on the left. Before she could object, the maids had her suitcase unpacked in the room on the right.

  With a charming smile on his face, Blake showered his employees with generous tips, until finally they closed the doors of the sitting room, leaving the two of them alone.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I booked us into the VIP suite together. The hotel is always full. I had to move two clients to a different hotel and pay for their entire vacation so we could have this suite.”

  “That was very generous of you.” Felicity remained where she stood.

  “It’s business.”

  Only this wasn’t business as usual, at least not for her. Two days in paradise with Blake, sleeping across the sitting room from him? How was she going to survive, unless she focused on the one thing that was guaranteed to take her mind off anything . . . cooking.

  “I thought we could clean up and have dinner on the veranda.”

  “Dinner,” she said a little desperately. “That’s a great idea. I’d like to see the kitchen here. If I’m going to find out how this hotel differs from the Bancroft, then I’d like to start somewhere I understand.”

  Blake hesitated only a moment before he nodded. “By all means. Right this way.”

  As she moved past him, he placed a hand on the small of her back, as though it were necessary to guide her from the suite, down the stairs and out the door to a separate building not far from the main building. His touch ignited the simmering desire that had coiled inside her since leaving Seattle, and she felt her control slipping.

  Blake escorted her across a stone walkway illuminated with tiki torches and toward an arched doorway. “The kitchen has its own building, since it was added after the hotel was originally built in the early 1900s. The goal was to keep things as close to the original building as possible.”

  “Is that what you would do to the Bancroft? Keep as much of the original building as possible?” she asked even though it sounded like she was admitting defeat, which she definitely wasn’t.

  He shrugged. “I won’t know for certain until we start the inspection.”

  Her lips thinned into a grim, determined line. She needed to believe she would succeed in her efforts to keep the Bancroft.

  Blake guided her along the pathway until she could hear the low rumble of male voices in the kitchen, accompanied by the clinking of plates and silverware. They stepped through the doorway to the tantalizing aromas of spices and savory meat. Her stomach rumbled in appreciation as she walked into the stainless steel kitchen. Four men worked at the grill and stove, and two women bustled around the kitchen dressed in blue and white floral dresses with flowers tucked into their hair near their left ears.

  “Haku,” Blake greeted one of the men behind the grill.

  The Hawaiian smiled easily and, after wiping his hands on the white towel tucked into the belt of his apron, came to greet them. “Mr. Bancroft, so good to see you.”

  “I apologize for interrupting you during dinner,” Blake said as he shook the chef’s hand, then clapped him on the shoulder.

  “No worries. Aloha. I don’t usually find you in the kitchen,” Haku said as his gaze focused on Felicity’s face.

  “I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Felicity Wright. She’s a superb chef at the Bancroft Hotel in Seattle.”

  Blake’s compliment caught her off guard as the cook grasped her hand in both of his and gave it an enthusiastic shake. “Haku Kepoo. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Come, let me show you how we do things around here—Hawaiian style.” He pulled her back toward the grill, leaving Blake standing alone.

  She wanted the distraction, she reminded herself as she walked away listening to Haku talk about what they were preparing for the evening’s menu. Yet watching Blake’s expression fade as she left him behind brought a heavy sensation to her chest. A pain that made no sense to her, but it was there, acknowledging everything she tried so hard to deny.

  She liked Blake Bancroft. Perhaps a little too much.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Blake left the kitchen and Felicity in the hands of the friendly chef and went directly to the suite. He palmed his cell phone and placed a long-overdue call to Marcus.

  “It’s eleven at night, Blake. I already finalized the deal with Jamison.”

  “This isn’t about the Heritage Hotel.”

  “Then what’s it about? I was sleeping,” Marcus said, less than pleased to hear from him.

  “What do you have on Felicity?”

  Marcus groaned. “We couldn’t have talked about this yesterday?”

  Blake frowned into the phone. “I’ve been”—distracted, enchanted, consumed with lust—“busy.”

  “Where are you?” Marcus asked with a yawn.

  “Hawai‘i.”

  There was a pause, a ruffle of crisp linens, then Marcus said, “You took her to Hawai‘i?”r />
  Blake shifted uncomfortably. “It was a last-minute decision.”

  “You don’t make those kinds of decisions,” Marcus said, his tone serious. “That’s twice in one week. You must really like this girl.”

  Blake did, and he wanted more.

  The realization surprised him. He wanted to know her. When they’d first met, he’d thought of her only as another business adversary. Yet the more time he spent with her, the more he became aware she was a woman of intense passions. She was generous to a fault, faithful to her friends, and had deep bonds with her employees. She was one of them, yet she was also forced to stand apart. Alone. Every day that he spent with her he saw some new facet that intrigued him and drew him to uncover more.

  She was coming too close, and that both exhilarated and scared him.

  “What did you find out about her?” Blake asked, forcing his thoughts back to the conversation.

  “I found her father.”

  “Where?”

  “In a hospital in Seattle. He had a procedure done on Friday to help him regain his speech.”

  Blake gripped the phone more firmly. “He doesn’t talk?”

  “He hasn’t said a word in years.”

  “Did the procedure work?” Blake asked with a frown.

  “Hard to tell at this point.”

  Blake let that news slide over him before he asked, “Why doesn’t he talk? What’s wrong with him?”

  “The whole family was in a car accident years ago. Her mother was killed, and her father injured.”

  “A brain injury?”

  “I haven’t found anything definite, but I’d assume so.”

  “Anything else?” Blake asked, his thoughts going in a million directions.

  “She spent a year abroad. Had very little contact over there with anyone except her employers. There was one employer she had a short affair—”

  “Dig deeper into the father.” Blake cut his lawyer off. “I want to know more. Details about the accident. Her father’s medical history. His prognosis.” Her father was her weakness. He could use that to his advantage.