Mallory let out a deep breath. “How about you show me the sauna and whirlpool?” she suggested. It’s obvious neither one of us want to watch this display.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Did I mention we have a masseuse on staff?”
Mallory allowed Mrs. Lederman to lead her on an extended tour, but her mind remained on Jack—who glanced up in time to see her watching him through the large windows.
He proffered a wave, then turned his attention to more shallow pursuits.
JACK LET HIMSELF inside his room. Sweating from his run in the gym, the blast of air-conditioning hit him hard. He raised the temperature dial and sprawled onto the bed.
Today’s revelations had wiped him out far more than the workout. Apparently Lederman was having a midlife crisis courtesy of a mild heart attack he’d hidden from all business associates, his attorneys included. According to Eva, the boss’s health scare explained the gym’s new cardiovascular workouts and doctor on premises and his new dedication to fitness that hadn’t yet shown overt results. But the man had started paying more attention to his looks and flirting with the help.
Jack figured it wasn’t a far leap to assume the man was fooling around outside his marriage to assure himself of his virility and ability. If so, his attorneys, even potential attorneys, shouldn’t be kept in the dark until the bombshell exploded and it was too late to prepare. An affair was the last complication Jack had come here expecting to deal with.
His own or Lederman’s.
Jack leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. Not that an affair was a bad thing—if you were single. And Jack was. Single and primed, by the last woman he’d ever expected.
She haunted his thoughts now, day and night. Even when Eva the spa bunny had outright propositioned him, Jack hadn’t been interested. Only one woman held him in thrall.
But apparently Mallory didn’t want to continue their…what could he call last night? Liaison? She didn’t want to continue their liaison into daylight hours. And with no invitation forthcoming this morning, she obviously had no intention of repeating the episode this evening either.
A one-time lesson. A one-night stand.
On both an intellectual and professional level her decision and withdrawal made sense. But on an emotional plane he didn’t comprehend and a sexual one he understood only too well, the frustration and disappointment were overwhelming.
No way would he leave things as unbalanced and unfinished between them as they were now.
7
MALLORY GRIPPED the telephone receiver and waited for the answering machine in her apartment back home to pick up. At the sound of the tone, Mallory yelled into the phone. “Julia, you pick up the phone or so help me when I get home I’ll hide all the Godiva chocolate in the apartment. I’ll make sure you’re banned from Epicurean Delights. I’ll…”
The sound of someone fumbling with the phone echoed in her ear, then her cousin’s voice. “I was napping and you don’t have to get hostile, Mallory Jane.”
“Don’t call me that.” Only her mother called her by her first and middle name, and it had a cold, grating sound Mallory hated, along with memories she despised even more. But as much as Julia thought she knew about Mallory, Mallory had never confided too much. It was almost as if she was counting on making partner to wipe out all the pain in her life.
The rational part of her knew it could never happen. The dreamer Jack had mentioned earlier, well that Mallory clung to the impossible hope. Maybe Jack knew her better than even she realized.
“Mallory? I’m really sorry about that name thing. It’s just that you threatened to deprive me of chocolate and…I lost it.”
“And I overreacted. Where have you been?”
“Here and there.” Mallory heard the sound of Julia flopping into a beanbag chair and then her cousin spoke. “What’s up with you and this Jack person?”
“If I tell you, will you fill me in on what’s going on in your life when I get back? Because I can always tell when you’re hiding something.” And Julia had been especially vague about her personal life lately.
“Sure. Sure.”
Mallory sighed. “Why did that sound more placating than convincing?”
“Bad connection? Your imagination? You choose. Now spill.”
“When I get home, Julia Rose.” Her cousin didn’t mind her middle name near as much as Mallory resented hers.
Silence followed. Confident her cousin understood she wouldn’t be put off much longer, Mallory felt more comfortable unloading her problems now and taking care of her cousin’s in person. “Do you think it’s the forbidden that makes him so attractive?”
Her attraction to Jack was more than superficial, but as long as she was in control of her emotions and the situation, she’d be fine. No need to alert Julia of the intensity of those feelings.
Julia exhaled hard. “You know there’s no explanation for chemistry. Why are you looking for one?”
“Because nothing about us makes sense.”
“There’s an us?” Her cousin’s voice pitched in excitement.
Just the thought of an us, of a Jack and Mallory, caused tremors of awareness to ripple through her. Mallory pulled her knees up and tucking the phone between her shoulder and ear, she hugged her arms around her legs for comfort. “No, no us. But there was one night.”
And oh, what a night it was. Mallory bit down on her lower lip.
“Ooh, that’s not like you. Tell me more.”
“That’s the problem. It’s not like me and now I can’t forget about him. Maybe because I…we never actually…well you know, but…”
A loud knock interrupted her unburdening herself. “Gotta go, Julia. Thanks for listening and I’ll get back to you,” she said to her cousin. “Coming,” she called toward the door.
“You can’t leave me hanging,” Julia wailed.
Mallory chuckled and lightly replaced the receiver. “I just did.”
She headed for the door and opened it, chain still latched. When she didn’t see anyone, she glanced down and picked up a bag sporting the name of the lobby boutique she’d passed earlier in the day.
Jack. Gut instinct kicked in and her heart pounded out a thready, erratic beat. She had no doubt this wasn’t a mistaken delivery and she tore into the bag with a keen sense of anticipation, pulling out a one-piece bathing suit, or a maillot as the label called it.
“French,” she murmured aloud.
She fingered the sheer black floral lined in nude fabric. With a high neck and equally high cut-outs up the thighs, the suit was the paradigm of modesty—and yet it was the sexiest garment Mallory had ever seen.
The note came next and she slit open the sealed envelope and pulled out the white paper with stark male writing. Suit up and meet me at the beach after dark. I dare you.
He didn’t mention where on the beach but deep in her soul, she knew he meant the place they’d walked earlier. A shudder shook her, one having nothing to do with the cool air-conditioning in the room. Her nipples puckered and her knees buckled. God the man was good.
Instead of just an invitation, he issued a challenge. A subtle one to be sure, but without the I dare you line, Mallory would have felt free to ignore the request. The desire to show up in this magnificent suit would have been overwhelming, but common sense could have won out. Common sense was nowhere to be found now. Thanks to the phrasing of the note.
And he knew it.
Obviously Jack had given thought to this evening and to the exact words that would both intrigue her and dare her to resist. Even if his motives were selfish or a bit egotistical—and she didn’t doubt he wanted to prove she could succumb to his charms the same way he’d succumbed to hers—he’d given thought to what made Mallory Sinclair tick.
Who else in her life had ever done such a thing? Not her parents who knew one another inside and out but barely knew their own child, and not the occasional men she’d dated who wanted a good time or an introduction into the Waldorf, Haynes’
s world. For this brief interlude of time, Jack’s motives didn’t matter.
His actions did.
She walked over to the mirrored closet and shrugged out of the terry hotel-styled robe, leaving herself dressed in nothing but lace panties and a sheer bra. She held the sexy bathing suit in front of her. The black suit picked up the inky coloring of her hair and thanks to the contrast, her pale skin took on a porcelain glow.
Or was it the excitement of the challenge that lit her eyes, and the sheen of anticipation and sexual awareness that shimmered in her face?
So he wanted to one-up her, did he? Issue an invitation of his own? Mallory slipped out of her bra and panties, replacing the sheer garments with the seductive suit.
She’d accept his challenge and beat him at his own game.
AS THE SUN BEGAN TO SET, an orange haze settled where the water met the sky. Jack watched the sunset with anticipation and as darkness fell he glanced back toward the wooden stairs leading from the hotel to the beach and was struck by the incredible beauty of the woman walking toward him.
He’d chosen the stretch of beach they’d walked on this morning, knowing she’d innately return to find him here based on his note. He’d also walked this area at night and knew it was rarely traveled by guests. Then he’d chosen her bathing suit on a whim, having no idea how it would look on Mallory’s supple curves. His only criteria had been sleek, sexy and enough coverage to make her comfortable yet still make him hot.
He’d more than accomplished his goal.
She came toward him with long-legged strides, confident in both her appearance as well as her effect on him. He could tell by the sultry swing of her hips and the smile on her face—it might be his invitation but she planned to take control. How very surprised she’d be.
“Glad you could make it.” He rose from his seat on a large beach blanket he’d bought for the occasion.
“Did you doubt I’d come?” Her sexy smile grew wider.
“Not for a minute.” His words of challenge had been phrased to ensure her arrival. But he realized now he wanted her here willingly and not under duress. Not because she couldn’t resist a dare, but because she couldn’t resist him.
She shook her head. That gorgeous mane of hair she hid during the day fell over her shoulders in wind-blown disarray. “Am I really that predictable?”
He reached out and lifted a strand of hair, curling it around his finger. “You’re lots of things but predictable isn’t one of them.”
He met and held her gaze for an intense instant, then he unwound his finger from her hair and glanced back toward the ocean, trying to assimilate the feelings rioting through him that had begun to cross the boundary beyond sexual.
When he glanced back, she’d bent to pull a pair of delicate sandals off her feet and he caught an enticing view of cleavage inside the so-called modest bathing suit he’d chosen.
She tilted her head and met his gaze. “Hey put those eyes back in your head. I’m here to swim only.” Rising, she tossed her shoes onto the sand beside the blanket.
“That’s too bad. And here I thought you were going to give skinny-dipping a try.” He shoved his hands into the back pocket of his shorts to prevent himself from reaching for her, stripping her of that bathing suit and living out the fantasy. Just the two of them with miles of ocean and no clothes in sight.
She laughed. “Very funny.”
He didn’t think so, and at this moment, neither did his groin, which was straining uncomfortably against his shorts.
She wiggled her toes. He watched as she dug those coral painted toenails into the cool sand and stifled a groan. He had no doubt she was torturing him on purpose.
“Have you ever?” she asked.
“Ever what?”
“Ever gone skinny-dipping?”
He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Not while she stood inches away, breasts straining against the nearly sheer fabric, tempting him with hidden secrets she had yet to reveal.
“Tell you what. I’ll break the ice. I’ve gone skinny-dipping.” She clasped her hands behind her back, rocked on her heels and grinned.
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Damn but she had a way of catching him off guard. He supposed a part of him still thought of her as prim and proper Mallory because she’d actually shocked him with the admission.
He shut his eyes against the carnal images she provoked deliberately. “Let me guess. Kiddie pool at day camp.”
She laughed, the sound breaking through the night air and the crashing waves behind them. “Not hardly. High school, senior year. Prom night. My last hurrah.”
Mallory recalled her one and only venture into the waters nude—like tonight it had also been on a dare. She’d grasped at that one last bit of spontaneity and freedom before buckling down for her ordinary, well-planned life.
“Did you like it?” A grin caught his lips in a devastating smile.
“Not as much as I’d thought I would.” As she listened to the sound of the water around them, she recalled the chillier waters on a cool May night at the New Jersey shore. A stark difference from the warmer summer waters here. “Let’s just say it was an experience.”
He shook his head, a combination of amusement and amazement lighting his expression. “If I hadn’t seen you in action last night, I’d never believe you had it in you.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” And she was surprised she’d divulged as much as she had.
Even Julia didn’t know she’d shed her good-girl inhibitions that one night. But Mallory was learning that Jack was a surprisingly easy man to open up to, and she enjoyed the intimacy created by revealing her secrets under the night sky.
His eyes focused on her, intent and serious. “Good thing I’m an eager student. I want to learn all about you.” He held out his hand. “Walk with me.”
She accepted the gesture. Warm and eager, his fingers closed around hers and he tugged her toward the rushing tide. Cool water lapped at her bare feet in erotic contrast to the heat inside her.
“You never answered the question. Skinny-dipping,” she reminded him. “I’ve done it. Have you?” She dared a glance from the corner of her eye.
“Would you respect me in the morning if I said no?” He bowed his head at the admission.
Jack Latham, embarrassed? Her heart skipped a beat at his surprising confession. The exchange of secrets had just become mutual. Her body hummed in keen anticipation of more closeness to come, so she didn’t make light of his honest statement.
“I respect the truth. So why wouldn’t I respect you?” She opted for sincerity since heckling him now would only drive him away and she wanted him as close as he could get. “How’d you miss out?”
He shrugged. “No opportunity. We grew up in the city. I’ve been sprayed by many a fire hydrant but I’ve never dipped.”
“You never left the city? Not on a vacation or anything?”
“We didn’t do family vacations.”
Her chest constricted at the unsaid but implied discontent in his childhood. “Neither did we,” she admitted softly.
She caught the flicker of recognition in his eyes, of a possible kindred spirit who understood.
“There’s always time.” She deliberately downplayed the subject. Only she needed to know he’d given her ammunition for a more opportune time. Another night, another invitation.
He paused and pulled her close beside him. “How about now?”
She shook her head. He was naughty tonight and she liked his playful side. “How about not? I like to wade before diving in. Test the waters, you know?”
Those intense eyes seemed to darken even more. “Why do I get the sense you’re testing me?”
“Because we’re obviously alike. Neither of us can resist a challenge.”
His hands grasped her hips as he drew her against his hard body. He held her in place, letting her feel the pressure of his erection, stiff and unyielding against her stomach. She steeled he
rself against the waves of longing inside her, but they came hard, stronger and more insistent than the crashing of swells lapping at her feet.
“Is a challenge the only reason you’re here?” he asked.
A snappy retort sprung to mind, but she squelched it. The challenge may have given her the excuse to accept the invitation but she was here for many more reasons than a dare.
She glanced up at him. “I’m here because you invited me.”
“That I did.” A teasing glint lit his gaze, but behind the dark depths Mallory saw deeper emotion, a yearning she couldn’t name, but one she understood because it existed inside her, too, in a place no one saw and especially not in daylight.
But it was nighttime now and she felt free to indulge her desires—and Jack’s as well. He smiled and deep grooves etched the corners of his mouth, dimples she hadn’t realized he possessed.
Mallory didn’t know what overcame her, but she leaned forward, inhaling the scent of salt water and pure man before she touched her lips to first one dimple, then the next, pausing only to dart her tongue into the intriguing crevice of the stubble-roughened skin of his cheek.
His reaction was a purely masculine groan, one that reverberated inside her and set off an explosive, toe-curling burst of arousal.
“Do you have any idea how hot you make me?” His grip on her waist tightened and his hips jerked forward in an instinctive motion.
He was hard and masculine and felt oh, so good. She sucked in an unsteady breath. “I can feel that I do.”
His hands came farther around her back until his palms rested firmly on her behind. She felt herself straining against him, seeking deeper contact than their bodies and positions allowed.
“Relax.” His warm breath blew into her ear. The erotic wisp of air tickled her neck and the excitement caused her nipples to tighten and pucker beneath the constraints of her bathing suit.
He held her in place, his hands gently stroking her behind until her lower body, strung tight, did as he asked. She relaxed and molded to him, fitting herself snugly into his erection.
“Much better.” His hips swayed seductively against hers. With each rocking motion, a wave of tormenting desire shook her. And with each surge came the ridiculous hope that like herself, he was here with her for more than just a dare.
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