“I did.”
“For an overpaid attorney, you’re not every ob servant.”
He lifted his brows.
She hid a smile. “I meant high-priced.”
“I know you were embarrassed at dinner, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t give him another chance.” Again he advanced on her, and her pulse skittered. “The guy’s a drunken lout. He’s not good enough for you. Even if only for a week.”
Heat crawled up her neck. He was right, of course, and she had no intention of doing more than exchanging a greeting with Jeff should she see him in the lobby. But David had no business butting in. “Since when are you an expert on my personal life?”
“Touché.” He took her hand, slowly rubbed her palm with his thumb.
She tensed, but in a good way. Jesus, this was David touching her, his face so close that she could see the light flecks of amber in his brown eyes. Funny, she’d always thought they were much darker, more serious.
She straightened, tried to ignore the disturbing sensations his thumb caused. “In fact, Mr. Pearson, you really don’t know anything about me, do you?”
His gaze touched her mouth, lingered and then leisurely moved up. “Don’t I?”
“In the three years since we met, you haven’t said anything more personal than ‘Have a nice weekend.’ And that was on a Saturday afternoon, after we’d worked most of the day together.”
“You exaggerate.”
“Not by much.”
“You think it was easy, keeping my distance?”
“I honestly have no idea.” Her breath caught at the flicker of amusement in his eyes. “You should’ve been a poker player, instead of a lawyer. You could’ve made a killing.”
He wrapped his fingers around her hand and tugged her closer. “My intentions must be fairly obvious now,” he said in a low, gravelly voice.
She tilted her head back, refusing to be the first to break eye contact as he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. He was hard behind the fly of his khakis, the knowledge shattering a bit of her control. His hand splayed across the exposed skin of her lower back, and his palm felt hotter than it had before.
The tingling began there, traveled all the way up her spine and settled in her braless breasts, tightening her nipples, making them so sensitive that she could hardly stand to have them touch the light sateen material of her dress. Only a knot of fabric at her nape kept the halter in place. The gentlest pressure, the smallest tug…
He put his mouth on hers, his lips soft and supple, his breath minty. She moved against him, laid a hand on his chest, finding a surprising wall of muscle beneath the cotton fabric. When he drew his tongue across the seam of her lips, she parted them, inviting him inside.
David knew how to kiss—he was even better than she’d imagined. He smoothly dove in, but took his time, tasting, nibbling, touching his tongue to hers, giving her just so much, and then holding back until she trembled from wanting more. She pressed herself against him, pushed up to increase the pressure of his mouth. Her aroused nipples rubbed against his chest, and she thought for one dazed, hopeful second that he was about to untie her top.
But he only stroked her back, made a final sweep of the inside of her cheek. When he retreated, lingering long enough to touch his lips to hers one last time, she nearly whimpered in protest.
“I’ve wanted to do that for three years,” he said, his voice husky, his eyes smoldering with a hunger that stole her breath.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered, her whole body weak. “You never showed it.”
“No.” With his thumb, he stroked her cheek. “I couldn’t.”
A part of her resented his ability to exercise that much control. She herself had struggled to keep her feelings in check, and too often she’d failed. How many times had she worried that other people in the office had noticed the lingering looks, the longing in her face? Especially that first year when she’d been too naive to understand that David would never breach company policy. Or finally to accept that he simply wasn’t interested in her.
He lowered his head again, and brushed his lips across hers. Gently, almost too gently. Surely he didn’t need a push. She was about to make it clear they wanted the same thing, even if she had to strip off his clothes, when he broke contact, moved back, out of reach.
“I’ve rented a car,” he said, “and I plan on driving around the island tomorrow. I’d like for you to join me.”
Her arms hanging loosely at her sides, her chest still heaving, she could only stare mutely at him. He’d reverted to the old David. Just like that. His face was unreadable, his eyes filled with that dark intensity that both excited and frustrated her. But the thing he couldn’t hide was the bulge behind his fly.
“Naturally I understand if you already have plans.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and backed toward the door.
“No, um, not yet.” She really hadn’t had much to drink, maybe it was jet lag, but her head was fuzzy. She didn’t get what was happening. “I’d love to go.”
“Would nine-thirty be all right?”
“Nine-thirty. Sure.”
“Let’s meet in the lobby.”
“Okay.”
“I’m looking forward to spending time with you, Mia,” he said. “Tomorrow, then.”
“David—”
“Good night.” He barely smiled, then left the room.
Mia stared at the closed door, wondering what the hell had just happened. Her lips weren’t the only place still damp from his kiss. And he’d been as aroused as she. Ten more minutes and they would’ve been locking the adjoining door and diving between the sheets. She wanted it, and she knew he did, too.
Was he giving her time and space to consider what she was getting into? That would be totally like him. Sighing, she kicked off her sandals, and glanced at the digital bedside clock. Damn, she hoped she could get to sleep and not spend two hours replaying the last ten minutes.
She undid the bow at her nape, pausing to massage the tense muscles underneath when she heard her BlackBerry signal that she’d received a text. In her haste to grab the phone, she jammed her bare foot into the corner of the dresser and nearly broke her little toe. All for nothing. Disappointed, she read the text. It was from Lindsey—she didn’t know if she’d be coming back to the room tonight. Good for her.
Mia muttered a mild oath and limped to the bed. What a waste. She had the room to herself, and David, the coward, had slunk away. That was the last time she’d let him off the hook. He’d already shown his hand by flying all the way to Hawaii. Tomorrow he’d better plan on doing more than sightsee.
DAVID ARRIVED IN the lobby fifteen minutes early and made arrangements for the car to be brought around before Mia showed up. He’d blown it last night, and didn’t want to waste another minute of the six days he had left here.
No, he hadn’t really squandered last night. He could easily have gotten her into bed. They both wanted it. They both knew it. Especially after that kiss. Which he also didn’t regret, but couldn’t think about now or risk embarrassing himself in front of a lobby full of Japanese tourists. He watched them, dressed in their aloha shirts and muumuus, cameras hanging from around their necks, chatting with their guide near the koi pond filled with orange and gold carp.
He envied their carefree excitement, their sole purpose as vacationers to enjoy the sparkling blue ocean, the balmy March air that came off the water. Ordinarily he never would have considered traveling this far for a vacation, or for that matter, staying away from the office for longer than three or four days unless it was work-related. But then, this wasn’t actually a vacation.
It could have been, and God knew he wanted this time alone with Mia where they could forget about work and family obligations and get to know each other on a personal level. But hooking up with her wasn’t that simple. Not now, not since his father had asked him to convince her to return to the firm.
He had to make her understand that he wanted to be with her, that
he wasn’t here just to lure her back. He could have talked to her in New York, offered her a nice bonus and promotion that she would’ve had to think twice about turning down. But he needed this break because by the time they returned, he wanted her to be clear on what she wanted, him or the firm.
Only problem was, it was a fine line. Once he extended the firm’s offer, she’d have to trust that his motives were pure.
“David?”
He snapped out of his preoccupation. She stood right in front of him, and he hadn’t even seen her walk up. “Mia.”
“Bet you were thinking about work.”
“Oddly, no.”
She grinned. “Right.”
He frowned at his watch. “I haven’t even called the office, and it’s what, one-thirty there.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
“Nope. If they have a problem they can call me,” he said, ignoring her skeptical expression and appreciating her brief white shorts and the long expanse of legs even more. “The car is parked right over here.” He gestured at the red convertible, uncomfortably aware of how much he wanted to kiss her.
“Sweet.” She took her sunglasses out of her bag and slipped them on as they walked toward the BMW. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“I have a list of places.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Unable to help himself, he touched the small of her back with a guiding hand, even though it was completely unnecessary. “I’ll let you know when we get there.”
She flashed him a smile, her teeth white, her lips a pale glossy pink. “I don’t know how to navigate, so if you’re counting on me…”
“The car has a GPS system.”
“Ah.” She lifted the hair off the back of her neck. “It’s warmer than I thought.”
Tempted to plant a kiss at her nape, he had to look away. “Only in the direct sun. We can put the top up if you want.”
“No, I want to feel the wind in my face and in my hair. It’s Hawaii. I’m on vacation. I want it all,” she said, giving him a look that made his cock twitch. “It might be a rumor, but I heard that what happens in Waikiki, stays in Waikiki.”
“Right,” he muttered, uncomfortably aware that he suddenly felt awkward. He never had trouble with women. No, it wasn’t even that. He had a plan. Sex wasn’t supposed to come first, but if she kept up the sly smiles and sultry looks, it was going to be murder keeping his head.
The valet who’d brought the car around trotted up and opened Mia’s door before David could. “Need directions, sir?”
David shouldn’t have been annoyed. The man was only doing his job, but David had missed out on watching her swing her long bare legs into the car. “No thanks,” he said, slipping the man a ten before climbing in behind the wheel.
“I could get used to this.” Mia adjusted her leather seat so that she partially reclined, and then tugged at the hem of her shorts.
He turned away and fiddled with the navigation system. “It drives well. I picked it up at the airport instead of taking a cab.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I have my license, but I’ve only driven twice since college.”
He wasn’t completely surprised. In Manhattan, he mostly took cabs himself. “What about weekends? Don’t you like getting out of the city?”
Her eyebrows arched over her sunglasses, a cynical smile curving her lips. “Weekends? Is there such a thing at Pearson and Stern?”
“Point taken.” He took out his sunglasses and slid them on before pulling out of the lot. “Is that why you left?”
“I never minded the work.”
He cursed himself for bringing it up. Not so much because she sounded defensive, but the subject only reminded him of his unwanted errand. Luckily traffic was heavy and required all of his attention. So did the GPS. He already knew from studying the map earlier that Hawaiian street names were difficult to differentiate. Too many vowels.
She apparently got the message that he was focusing on driving, but as soon as they stopped at a red light, she asked, “The day I resigned…why didn’t you ask why I was leaving?”
“I was too shocked.”
“You had two and a half weeks.”
David sighed. “I don’t know why. Denial, maybe.”
She didn’t respond, but tied her hair back into a ponytail with something she’d found in her purse. “The light’s green.”
“Thanks.” He started to proceed, but two pedestrians darted into the crosswalk, and he jammed on the brakes.
Mia gasped softly, her hand shooting out to brace herself. “And they say New York is bad.”
“No kidding.” He waited until it was clear, and then accelerated. “I keep forgetting you’ve been here before. I should’ve asked if there’s someplace in particular you wanted to go.”
“Uh, I didn’t get too far out of Waikiki. Or off the beach, for that matter. I had the worst sunburn.”
“I did the same thing freshman year, and I knew better. When I was a kid we spent a lot of summers in Aruba and St. Thomas.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. That Caribbean sun is killer.”
“Where did you summer?” he asked conversationally, then heard an odd strangling noise coming from her. He glanced away from the road long enough to see her burst out laughing.
“The backyard in a small blue inflatable swimming pool.” She patted his arm. “That’s where we Butterfields summered. On special occasions we went to our neighbor’s backyard.”
“All right.” He felt like an idiot. “Consider me duly chastised.”
“You get a pass, but only because you’re not spoiled or a snob.” She paused. “Contrary to what I thought when I first started with the firm.”
He took his gaze off the road long enough to shoot her a look of disbelief. “Totally unfounded.”
“Not from where I sat.”
“On what grounds?”
“Oh, my God, you sound like a damn lawyer.”
He smiled. “Guilty as charged.”
“Okay, no more of that kind of talk.”
“Or what? You’ll fine me for contempt?”
Mia groaned. “The upside is that you do have a sense of humor, corny as it is. It wouldn’t be enough that you’re pretty.”
He choked out a laugh. “Pretty?”
“Oh, come on.” She drew a finger along his jaw. “You know you are.”
All he knew is that if she didn’t keep her hands to herself, he’d end up rear-ending the Jeep in front of them. “Where did you grow up?”
She withdrew, though chuckled softly as if she knew he was trying to distract her. “Upstate New York. Ithaca, not too far from Cornell.”
“But you didn’t go there as I recall.”
“Too expensive. I went to NYU.” She’d moved her hand, or at least she wasn’t touching him. “I’m surprised you know anything about my undergrad studies.”
“I read your résumé.”
“You weren’t there for the interview process.”
“I was in Atlanta overseeing a case.” Good thing. He clearly remembered meeting her on her first day at the firm. One look into those sexy green eyes and he knew he wouldn’t have hired her. “But I was the one who initially flagged you as a candidate.”
“Hmm, I didn’t know.” She shifted, angling her knees toward him. “Why me? You probably had a dozen Harvard and Yale graduates nipping at your heels.”
“We did.”
“So what was it about my résumé that caught your attention?”
He cocked a brow at her. “You were only second in your class, but the top dog had already hired on with another firm in San Francisco.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly. “I happen to know you’re full of it because Lance Heatherton went to work for his father.” She sniffed. “And just so you know, he barely inched past me.”
David smiled at her competitive streak. “Frankly, being second in your class obviously got our attention, but what impressed me more w
as that you were there on a scholarship, working a part-time job and volunteering with the ACLU and the Legal Aid Society. To me, that shows a lot of character and ambition.”
“Ambition nothing, I was exhausted. But I also learned a lot from volunteering.”
He thought for a moment. “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never admitted to anyone.” He glanced over at her to reassure himself. “The first four years at Harvard, I did the typical spring break things, traveled abroad during the summer, screwed off like the rest of my friends. When I started law school, my father told me I had to start spending break times at the firm, sort of like an intern. I resented it. I figured I’d be working my ass off soon enough. He knew how I felt, but he didn’t say anything.
“That first week during Christmas break I showed up like I was supposed to. I was given a small office, and I mean small. In fact, now it’s that storage closet the admins use.”
Mia issued a short laugh. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yeah. I couldn’t believe it, especially since there were a couple of empty offices with windows.”
“I can see your dad trying to teach you a lesson.”
“He never said a word about it, and I didn’t, either. I thought, screw him. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of complaining. It took me a couple of years, but I figured out that he’d saved me a lot of grief. Ended up, respect was more important to me than being the boss’s son. It never would have mattered how good an attorney I was if I hadn’t earned my place in the firm.”
She stayed quiet for so long that he finally took his gaze off the road to look at her. Had he revealed too much?
Her lips curved in a soft smile. “Thank you for sharing that with me.” She touched his face, innocently enough, but he tensed, because with Mia, there was no innocent touch. It was crazy how easily she got to him. “You missed a spot.” She circled the side of his jaw with the tip of her finger and then moved her hand to the tightness at the back of his neck.
“Good thing it’s a straight shot to Diamond Head, or we’d be lost already,” he murmured.
“Oh, am I distracting you? Sorry,” she said, with a sly smile in her voice. “I’ll try to keep my hands to myself.” She folded them primly in her lap, then slowly, deliberately crossed one shapely leg over the other, effectively snaring his attention.
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