by Mia Zachary
Emelio kept his back to her as he filled the refrigerator. “Everybody has secrets, don’t they, Stevie.”
“I told you mine back at my apartment.”
“Not all of them.”
Well, he had her there. But some things about her past were better left in the past. After throwing the grocery bag away, he crossed to the other side of the kitchen, not waiting to see if she followed, which, of course, she did.
“This is the Florida room.” He waved one arm to encompass a large tiled sunroom. Floor-to-ceiling glass offered a perfect view of the blue-green Gulf waves lapping against the powder-white sand. Despite the gorgeous panorama, she wasn’t about to be distracted.
“I admire those paintings in your office every time I come in, you’ve never said a word. When were you going to tell me?”
“I wasn’t. No one outside of my family knows except Alex and my agent. And now you. That’s the way I want it.” He unlocked the French doors and slid them open to access the glass-walled room that enclosed the swimming pool.
She followed him out to the lanai, stepping around one of the lounge chairs as she walked. “I still can’t believe you’re José Castillo. Your work is incredible! It’s provocative and passionate and yet you’re so…”
He stopped to glance over his shoulder, curiosity lacing his tone. “So what?”
“Well…inhibited.”
Emelio arched one raven-wing eyebrow, as if she’d insulted him, and for one brief instant his heated gaze stripped her bare. A jolt of electric awareness danced along her spine, hardening her nipples before settling between her thighs.
“Whoa. What was that look?”
“What look, Stevie?” When he shifted his weight to one leg and shoved his hands into his back pockets, the pistachio cotton of his shirt tightened across his broad shoulders.
“That look you just gave me.” Stevie ran her tongue over her lower lip and sashayed over to his side. Like a Bond babe going after classified documents, she felt the heat and turned it up fifty degrees. Tilting her head playfully, she reached out to draw one finger over the hard planes of his chest.
Strands of thick coffee hair fell over his forehead, luring her attention to the gleam of mischief and more that lit his eyes. The edge of his mouth curved and he lowered his voice to an intimate purr. “I was just wondering… When were you going to tell me you wrote the black-lace letters?”
Stevie gasped out a nervous laugh as her heart skittered to a halt, then pounded back to life. “Is that what you call them? I hadn’t figured out how to tell you. When did you know?”
“I saw the stationery in your living room.” He tipped his face down, his gaze focused on her mouth. “Like I said, we all have secrets.”
“Now that it’s out in the open, and we have this place all to ourselves, what are we going to do about it?”
Emelio held utterly still, in that watchful and predatory manner she’d come to know. But his eyes gave him away. Staring into the depths of his amber-green gaze, Stevie knew she had reached him on a primal level at last. She drew closer, seducing him with her eyes, yearning for another taste of his kiss.
Then a shutter came down over his features. He reached up to sweep the hair from his forehead, looking around as if he’d just remembered where they were. Regret darkened his eyes a second before he raised his chin and stepped away.
“I have a strict policy against workplace relationships.”
He walked along the edge of the swimming pool to the other side of the room and punched in a code for the back door. From the main hallway, another arch led to the short hall of the private section of the house. He flicked one hand toward the room on the right. “This is the gym.”
Stevie leaned around him, making sure her breasts brushed across his arm, and glanced inside. Expensive-looking boxing equipment and weight sets lined the padded mat-covered floor. She studied his reflection in the mirrored panels. “We’re nowhere near the agency now.”
In the mirror, his eyes widened at the contact and for an instant she saw his desire. He shifted back on his heels and jammed his fists into his pockets. A residual sheen of lust still clouded his gaze, but his tone was decisive. “You still work for me, Stevie.”
“Okay. I quit.”
“Resignation duly noted,” he said wryly. “But the policy is in place for a reason. Sleeping with someone who works for you impairs your judgment.”
“So who said anything about sleep?”
His nostrils flared and she saw his pupils dilate. She was standing close enough to hear the quick intake of breath before he shook his head. “Even if I accepted your resignation, which I don’t, that doesn’t solve anything. You asked me to take you on as a new client. The same policy applies.”
“Not a problem. You’re fired.”
He crossed his arms and straightened to his full height. “Nice try, Stevie, but you can’t fire me. We never actually contracted the job so—”
“So I’m not really a client and you have no more excuses.” She batted her eyelashes and grinned at him.
A myriad of reactions hurtled across his face, too swiftly for her to interpret any of them, but she could tell he was vacillating. Stevie turned, heading toward the opposite end of the passageway, noting a full bath and an office as she walked by. The last door opened onto a master-bedroom suite. A large side window looked out at the lanai and a set of French doors opened onto a brick-walled patio with a hot tub in the center.
Then she focused on the room and realized there was only a king-size four-poster with an elaborately carved mahogany headboard, no other furniture. Hoo yah. The “cottage” had only one real bedroom. And only one bed.
Though the carpeting muffled his steps, she knew instantly that Emelio had walked up behind her. The air was suddenly charged with a restless energy, and the faint citrus and spice of his cologne drifted to her senses.
Gazing at the paintings on the walls, large abstract images of brightly swirling colors, she wondered why Emelio kept this other, boldly sensual part of his personality hidden. Obviously his art was his emotional outlet, the only way he could really express himself.
Well, she’d just have to show him another method….
4
STEVIE TURNED AND SAUNTERED toward him, a purposeful gleam in her slate-blue eyes. The sexual heat in her gaze hit him hard and he knew he was in trouble.
She raised her arms, draping them behind his neck. He could feel her hardened nipples through the material of her sweater, and the heat of her body underneath. His heart knocked crazily in his chest. Her lush mouth slowly parted, moist and inviting. He had an instant to take a shuddering breath.
And then he was lost.
He reached for her, tracing his tongue over the fullness of her broad lower lip. She opened to him, deepening the kiss. Emelio slanted his mouth over hers, drinking in her sweetness as she wound her arms tighter about his neck. The taste of her was like liquid fire in his veins. Until he heard the sound.
Either Stevie’s stomach was growling again or a late-season hurricane was rumbling toward the coast.
Some of the sexual tension eased, but a current still crackled between them. He gently stroked her upper arm, oddly grateful that her protesting belly had broken the mood. Whether or not to sleep…have sex with Stevie was a decision he couldn’t make lightly, but lust was overshadowing logic. Despite the reasons and protests he’d just offered, he was tempted, very tempted.
They stood facing each other, both intently aware that the bed was only a few steps away. Pulse thudding, his resolve wavered dangerously as he met her aggressive look. She was so beautiful, so sure of herself, and he definitely wanted—
Her belly rumbled again. She laughed, ducking her chin, and pressed one hand against her abdomen. “I told you I was starving.”
“Guess I’d better start cooking, then. Those tuna steaks won’t take long, so dinner should be ready in about twenty-five minutes.”
“Thanks. If you don’t min
d, I’d like to freshen up. I feel all…hot and sticky.”
She smiled innocently at him, but the invitation in her eyes was as bad as could be. Difficult as it was, he ignored the bait. It wasn’t her stomach’s moans he wanted to hear when he finally took her to bed.
“I’ll get your bag so you can change.”
Not until he stepped out the front door, achingly conscious of the erection pressing against his zipper, did Emelio realize his choice had already been made. Just now, he’d thought “when,” not “if,” he should take Stevie to bed.
He paused in the courtyard, his distracted gaze turned inward. His primary mission was to guard Stevie against Braga. He was supposed to consider her both an employee and a client. The trouble was, right now, he could only think of her as a beautiful and enticing siren.
Emelio opened the door to the Jeep and saw black-lace letter number nine still resting on the console between the front seats. Hell, who was he kidding? The decision to get involved with her had been made, at least subconsciously, when he found out she was his secret seductress.
Her provocative words had occupied both his dreams and waking thoughts for months. A sharp pang of pure lust gripped him as he added Stevie’s face and body to the erotic scenes in his head…. He grabbed the letter, pulled her travel bag and his gun case out of the cargo area and headed back to the house.
After dropping his Ruger Mark II in the office, he strode down the hall to give Stevie her clothes. He’d just remembered there were no clean towels in the master bath. On his way to the bedroom, he grabbed some from the linen closet. Hopefully, he could catch her before—
Her sandals had been kicked off near the bed. Her sweater was in a puddle on the carpet, a lace bra and her blue-and-white skirt nearby. And her panties, her black-lace thong panties, lay just outside the bathroom door.
Emelio set the suitcase by the walk-in closet while he debated what to do with the towels tucked under his arm. Bound by the cardinal rules of sharing a house with three sisters, he rapped lightly on the door before turning the knob. He’d just drop the towels on the chair for her.
He started to speak but the words caught in his throat. Late-afternoon sun glimmered softly through the window behind the shower, highlighting Stevie’s profile against the frosted-glass door. He could only stare, his eyes burning from the effort to focus her body into more than a long silhouette of tantalizing curves.
The words from black-lace letter number three came back to taunt him.
I love the way you watch me, the way your eyes slowly roam over my body. It makes me hot…and so very wet. Come closer and feel for yourself.
“Temptation” ought to be her middle name. His heart pounded erratically as he continued to look his fill and, in that instant, Emelio was no longer her employer or her protector. He was simply a man who wanted a woman.
STEVIE STOOD BENEATH the spray so that the three separate showerheads pulsated against the base of her skull, between her shoulder blades and over her lower back.
She let her mind empty of all thoughts except the feel of the shower cascading down her body, imagining the last of her fear and emotional stress washing away with the hot water. She was safe; she was with Emelio. Nothing else mattered right now.
Then she felt it, the slightest hint of cool air brushing her skin. Subtly tilting her head, Stevie opened her eyes, squinting through the steamy frosted glass until she could just make out a shadowy figure in the doorway. Listening intently, she tried to make out the click of the door closing back into place—or better yet the thump of denim jeans hitting the floor. But she only heard the water splashing against the glass blocks.
How long had Emelio been standing there? Her heart stuttered as a combination of embarrassment and mischief zinged through her veins. The third note she’d written to him involved the idea of him watching her. A wild and wicked impulse overcame her, urging her to bring that fantasy to life.
She reached for the massaging showerhead at the top of the pole, pulling it down by the metal coil. Positioning herself directly in front of the opaque glass window so the golden-orange sunshine backlit her body, she turned the dial from gentle throb to jet propulsion.
Holding the sprayer in one hand, she slid the other over her chest to cup her right breast, then played the hot pulsating water across it. A gasp escaped her throat when she directed the stream to drum against the sensitive peak, causing a tugging contraction deep in her belly.
From beneath half-closed lids, she made sure that Emelio was still watching from the doorway. She couldn’t be certain, but she thought she’d heard his footsteps edging closer. Bracing her back on the wall, her head resting against the window, Stevie slowly lowered the sprayer. As silky hot water hammered her body, the ripple and clutch of sexual need almost brought her to her knees.
Her uninhibited moan echoed through the shower stall when the wet heat blasted the core of her need. The insistent throb became a delicious ache and she felt her belly quiver and tighten as the climax built inside her.
The pleasure was too intense, too fast, and she came instantly. The ragged sound of her breathing filled the room as the rush of satisfaction slowly ebbed. Moments later, she replaced the showerhead on its hook and returned the dial to the fine mist setting while her heart rate returned to normal.
A loud knock startled her and she swung her head toward the bathroom door. Why was he knocking? She hadn’t imagined the shadow in the doorway. “Yes?”
Emelio cleared his throat, then said, “Clean towels,” in a voice as husky as her own. Holding back a laugh, Stevie wondered if he was smiling yet.
“YOU’RE A MAN OF MANY TALENTS, Emelio. I never would have guessed you were this good.”
“Well, I figured we needed something quick but satisfying.”
When she brushed a damp tendril of hair off her cheek, he thought about her shower. Watching Stevie indulge herself was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. And hearing her breathy little gasps had increased the heavy, aching pressure in his groin to the point of discomfort. He’d never wanted a woman so badly in his life.
A teasing light shone in Stevie’s azure eyes as she looked over at him. “The faster, the better. But I didn’t think you liked it that way.”
“I do prefer to take my time, but I knew you were hungry so I rushed.”
She looked beautiful in the red-gold colors of twilight streaming through the window. Her bare skin was still flushed with heat, and she seemed relaxed for the first time all day, as if her usual energetic intensity had been ratcheted down a few notches. She proved him right by yawning.
“Sorry. I didn’t sleep much last night.”
She looked ready for bed, dressed in a faded pink T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants that flared over her bare feet. Despite the casual attire, she was incredibly sexy and it required superhuman effort to keep from staring at her breasts. Her perfect, round, bouncy, not-wearing-a-bra…
Emelio nodded toward the food-laden plates set on the dining table. “Go ahead and take a seat.”
“Everything looks wonderful. What is it?” Her chair scraped lightly over the ceramic-tile floor as she pulled it aside.
He called out his reply from the kitchen while choosing a bottle from the wine cooler next to the refrigerator. “Ahi tuna in a blood-orange teriyaki sauce, long-grain and wild rice with mushrooms and a field-greens salad with blue cheese and winter pears.”
“Mmm, yummy. You know, unless you count frozen pizza, I’ve never had a guy cook for me before.”
Emelio walked back into the dining room with the wine in one hand and two goblets balanced in the other. “Well, there’s a first time for—”
The smile melted from Stevie’s lips, the vivid color fading from her cheeks. Her gaze narrowed, focused on the wine bottle like a laser. The expression on her face was one he imagined a drowning man wore when he spotted a life vest.
“I can get us something else, Stevie.” Her features had returned to normal, but her eyes hadn’t left
the wine.
“You don’t have to. I mean, don’t let me keep you from enjoying it. Domaine D’Or pouilly-fumé, right? They make an excellent sauvignon blanc, also.” A strained silence followed while she ducked her head and concentrated on her meal.
“How long have you been sober?”
She didn’t answer straightaway. “It never became that much of a problem. I just used to have a couple glasses of wine at night…. I don’t drink anymore.” She tried to keep her tone light, hoping he heard the pride and not the regret.
“I’ll be right back.” He pivoted and headed for the kitchen. He returned a moment later with two glasses of sparkling water and took the seat to her left at the table. “Here you go.”
“You’re learning all of my secrets today, aren’t you?”
A sip of water did little to wash the taste of failure from her mouth. Stevie clenched one hand into a tight fist in her lap and finally raised her eyes to meet his. If she focused on his face, maybe the image of that chilled, straw-yellow bottle would disappear and take the fierce longing for a taste, just one little sip, away with it. His enigmatic gaze was, as always, nonjudgmental.
“After Overtown, Alex had to come and pull me out of a couple bars when I knew better than to drive home.”
She nodded her head, acknowledging what he’d said as well as the message behind his words. It was that understanding that allowed her to explain. “Everyone kept telling me how lucky I was, what a great life I had. So when Tom would fly into a rage, it must have been my fault somehow, right?”
She forced a bite of fish between cold lips, still haunted by the wine’s false comfort. The weight of remembered emotion dropped onto her shoulders, adding to her fatigue.
“I was so alone, you know? So scared and depressed. One drink led to a second and a third… For a while I thought it was an escape. But actually it was a crutch, and something else for Tom to use against me.”
Emelio had given up all pretense of eating. He draped one arm over the back of his chair and just listened. “What finally gave you the courage to walk away?”