One-Click Buy: September 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Lori Wilde

  He pressed his elbows into the towel, the sand beneath it shifting, settling. Supporting his weight as he angled his body, intensified his thrusts. Gave over to the demanding power of his need.

  Her movements edgier, Drucilla’s eyes closed, her chin lifting to leave her pale throat bare for his lips. Little cries, low and breathy, escaped. Alex’s brain shut off. His body took over. He thrust, deeper, faster, harder. His own breath quickened, a guttural cry lodged in his throat.

  Drucilla’s fingers dug into his hips, her nails a sharp counterpoint to the brain-fogging power of his building climax. He slammed into her now, finesse, observers, hell, everything except Drucilla herself, forgotten as he pounded his way to heaven.

  Her body tightened. He felt her orgasm before he heard her cry of ecstasy, the walls of heaven clenching, grasping, pulling him deeper. Drucilla arched. Alex drove deeper. Her nails scraped the bare flesh of his ass as she tried to milk every ounce of delight from his body.

  Growling, Alex exploded. Stars flashed behind his closed eyes.

  Mind blown, he collapsed against her, barely cognizant enough to shift his weight so he didn’t smash her. He buried his face in the silky curve of her throat, the flowery scent of her hair filling his senses. Sweet magic, he thought as his brain slowly reengaged. She was the sweetest of magic. And she needed him.

  Her hands now smoothing soft, soothing circles over the small of his back, his shoulders, he sighed. Oh, yeah, she needed him. For sex, of course. Couldn’t get better sex than what they had going on here. But for balance. He remembered her crazy talk about success and security. No way was his fairy princess meant to waste herself, her fabulous sense of adventure, on something as uptight as safe success.

  He’d have to show her what life was really all about, he realized.

  His heart still jackhammering, Alex sucked in a breath, then let it out in a deep, satisfied sigh.

  Oh, yeah, he promised himself. There was no way this was ending when Drucilla left. He’d spend tomorrow charming her into agreeing to continue their relationship back in the States.

  Relationship, he repeated to himself, waiting, testing. But nope, no freaked-out urge to pat her on the ass and run. Apparently his nerves, along with his heart and his body, were in it for the long haul.

  Crazy, he told himself as his brain still floated somewhere on climax cloud nine. It was crazy to think he could be falling in love with a woman he’d know less than a week.

  A part of him wanted to tell her, now. To spit it out, take his chance with her reaction. Alex shifted so he could see Drucilla’s face, not sure if he was relieved or frustrated to see her lashes curved over her cheeks, her breathing moving from frantic to placid as she slipped into sleep.

  Tomorrow was soon enough, he decided, feeling as if he’d just stepped back from a cliff’s edge. He’d romance her, charm her, then wow her with his plans.

  She wouldn’t be able to resist.

  “WHAT THE HELL do you mean, she’s checked out?” Alex growled, leaning threateningly across the concierge desk. “Don’t bullshit me, Juan. Where’s Drucilla?”

  “She checked out early this morning, took the first flight out.”

  That didn’t make sense. Maybe there was an emergency. Some problem at home.

  “Then tell me how to reach her. Phone number, address, whatever,” he snapped, trying to regroup and revise his plans.

  “I can’t, Alex.”

  “Don’t give me that hotel-policy crap.”

  “In this case, it’s not the hotel’s policy,” Juan said, apology shining in his dark eyes. “It’s the guest’s request. She asked that we keep it private.”

  “She didn’t mean from me,” Alex said, laughing despite the nasty feeling curdling in his stomach.

  “Actually—” Juan fumbled some papers, staring at the disordered pile instead of meeting Alex’s eyes “—she said specifically from you.”

  Alex glared out the window, the pounding surf a pain-hazed blur.

  It wasn’t supposed to end like this. He wasn’t ready to let her go. To let this go. Alex’s teeth clenched against the unfamiliar pain ripping at his gut. He’d thought he and Drucilla might actually have a chance. Oh, not forever. He wasn’t stupid. But for the next little while.

  He had to force himself not to punch the wall as he stormed out the door.

  So much for falling in fucking love.

  7

  “STAND UP STRAIGHT, Drucilla,” Olympia chided her only child. “Your shirt is bagging in the front, you don’t want to be flashing cleavage, now, do you? You work in a male-dominated field. You have to work harder to get ahead, to command respect. You don’t want them to start thinking you’re easy or something, do you?”

  God forbid.

  Nothing drove home vacation over like a nagging mother, Dru realized as she yanked another weed from her mother’s backyard.

  Dru didn’t bother glancing down. Her crewneck tee was completely modest. After all, she was home. She spared a brief moment of regret for her silk halter dress. Now that’d shown some cleavage. But the dress, like her vacation, was a thing of the past. The real world and all its confining demands were firmly in place again.

  Was it any wonder she’d had to leave the country to score decent sex?

  Within two hours of getting off the plane, she’d laundered and stored her sassy, sexy vacation clothes. She’d put away her stash of romance novels and spent her first night home tucked into bed with three science journals and a notebook.

  And if that wasn’t a mocking reminder of what her life was really like without all the incredible sex she’d left behind, Dru didn’t know what was.

  God, she missed Alex.

  “You don’t have to tidy the entire garden today,” her mother reproved from where she sat, flushed and perspiring on the concrete back step.

  “I don’t mind.” It was a good distraction from pouting over the loss of that mind-blowing sex and missing Alex. And from freaking out that she missed the man even more than she missed the sex.

  “I’m getting tired out just watching you, Drucilla. Please, take a break already.”

  Still patting mulch around the edges of the large clay-potted rose, Dru glanced over, noting the dark circles under her mother’s eyes and the heavy droop of her shoulders. It wasn’t today’s yard work that’d worn her out. Gardening usually recharged Olympia.

  And yet the yard had been a mess when Dru had arrived. Which meant her mother had been working overtime at her waitressing job instead of spending time on the one thing she indulged herself in—puttering with her plants.

  Guilt made Dru wince, and she focused on getting the mulch just so. She knew her mother would prefer she live here. She knew it was insane to carry the expense of two houses.

  But oh, God, she needed her own space.

  “You go ahead and rest. I’m almost finished,” she replied in a cheery tone, crouching to scoop the deadheaded roses and lavender into the gardening bucket. “Besides, the cosmic string project I’m heading starts tomorrow. I’ll probably be swamped for the next few weeks and won’t have much time to stop by.”

  As usual, at the mention of Dru’s job, her mother’s face grew gloomy. Dru ignored it, instead turning back to the happier sight of a pile of weeds and dead flowers.

  It was pointless to wish her mom would be happy for her. Or hell, even fake being supportive. Nope, Olympia was all about the negatives. Lawrence Robichoux had passed on three things to his daughter. His eyes. His love of science. And, upon his unfortunate death six years back, the care of the woman he’d spent thirty years disappointing.

  “You’d have done better to try to get a job with the government, Drucilla. This private lab can fire you at any time, you know. It’s hardly a secure position,” Olympia said as she came over to help Dru lift one of the large ceramic pots filled with freshly planted herbs to move it to its new sunny perch. “Remember, just because they gave you this project, it’s not a guarantee of success. So don�
��t get above yourself. No grandstanding.”

  “Because there’s such an overabundance of grandstanding when it comes to cosmic strings?” Dru retorted, struggling to keep her tone on the joking side of snide.

  “It’s always better to keep your feet on the ground,” her mother chanted, a familiar refrain.

  “I think that corner would be perfect for the hibiscus tree we were talking about,” Dru said, needing to change the subject. “I had a message waiting from the nursery, they said it’d be in tomorrow. I can borrow Nikki’s pickup and get it for you, if you’d like.”

  “No, no,” her mother said as she scooped up the woody bits of jasmine vine they’d trimmed and shoved them into the bucket. “I’m thinking we’re just fine with what we have. I don’t know anything about caring for those fancy flowers.”

  Dru frowned. Her mother had a thumb green enough to grow cactus in the snow. One hardy hibiscus tree was hardly a challenge.

  She looked at her mom, ready to argue. Then she saw—really saw—her face. The tension. The worry. The familiar look of fear.

  “What happened?”

  Olympia pressed her lips white, then plastered on a bright smile. Dru knew that smile as well as she knew her own face. It was the we’re-off-for-a-new-adventure smile. The one that always preceded a middle-of-the-night flight. A new school and new friends.

  Dru didn’t see the look as often now as she had when she was a child. After all, now that she was financially invested, the chances of her mother having to sneak off in the middle of the night to escape eviction was slim.

  Her father hadn’t been a bad man. He’d absolutely adored his wife and daughter, and he’d been brilliant. When she was little he’d taught college physics. But then he’d lost that job. After a few years, he’d found a job teaching high school biology. But he’d lost that job, too. Eventually he’d had to resort to instructing the occasional science refresher course at the local adult school. He had been a fabulous teacher.

  He’d just had a tiny little gambling problem.

  One that’d cost his family everything they had. Over and over again.

  “Mom? Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing major,” her mother dismissed. “The washer broke. There was some floor damage, and, well, since the laundry is upstairs, there was a little ceiling damage, too.”

  “Mom, I can pay for the repairs. And I’ll get the new washing machine.”

  Her mother’s smile was shaky. More an acknowledgment that she’d known Dru would offer than a sign of humor.

  “I already bought a washer. Things are going to be tight for a bit, though. I’ve got enough to pay the mortgage, the bills,” she said quietly. “I’ll be okay. We always are. But I’m going to be working a lot, so I shouldn’t bring in new plants right now.”

  Dru didn’t look at the herbs they’d just potted, knowing those didn’t count. They were portable. The hibiscus, planted in the actual ground, wouldn’t be.

  What it would be, though, was a sign of her mother finally acknowledging she was secure. That her home was hers, forever. That she had faith in Dru, in her daughter’s ability to secure a living, to be a success.

  “Besides,” her mom continued, “those full-grown hibiscus trees are so pricey. You can’t be throwing money around, Drucilla. You need to save up. Just in case.”

  Dru grimaced, as usual wondering if her mom’s refusal to let Dru buy this place for her outright was really about control over the garden. Instead, they’d bought it together, with Dru putting enough money down to ensure that her mom would be able to afford the monthly payments.

  The tension pinching the corners of Olympia’s eyes relaxed and she gave her daughter a quick, rare hug. Then without a word she gathered the yard waste, leaving the tools for Dru to put away.

  Once her mother’s back was turned, Dru let her smile drop. Her spirits fell right along with it.

  Any vestige of regrets over leaving Los Cabos early and cutting all ties with Alex were gone. She’d made the best choice. The smart choice.

  The only choice.

  She had to focus on career success and give this new project one hundred percent. It wasn’t about pride or glory. It was about money. Security. A new freaking floor and ceiling.

  With that in mind, Dru pasted another smile on her face and dusted the dirt off her hands. “Well, I guess that’s one less hole we have to dig. How about some iced tea and cookies?”

  DRUCILLA HURRIED down the hall, pulling on her lab jacket as she ran. Because she’d slept through her alarm, her hair flowed down her back in a quick ponytail instead of its usual tidy bun. Four nights home, and each one she’d tossed and turned, at the mercy of hot, sweaty dreams. Winded, she stopped short of the conference-room door to catch her breath, straighten her jacket and adjust the leather messenger bag she carried in lieu of a briefcase. Then she took a deep breath.

  This was it. Her first project meeting as lead. Promising herself she’d ignore the butterflies in her stomach better than she had ignored her racy dreams, she plastered on her most friendly, but authoritative, face and pulled open the door.

  The chatter in the room dropped, turned to a hissing whisper, then went silent. She was sure everyone was staring because she was late. First time in five years, and it had to be today.

  She wanted to blame her mom’s dilemma for her sleepless night. But it hadn’t been worry over finances that’d had her moaning in a fitful sleep. Nope, it was missing Alex that was making it so hard for her to squeeze back into the neat little box that was her life.

  “Sorry, everyone. Alarm issues this morning,” she said with a slight shrug, returning greetings as she slipped into her usual chair at the circular table. The chatter started again. She let out a breath of relief and noted neither Dr. Shelby nor their guest had arrived yet.

  “Love the tan,” Nikki said as she leaned over to give Dru a one-armed hug of welcome. Dru struggled not to squirm, uncomfortable with any kind of public display at the lab. But this was Nikki, whom she both cared about and knew perfectly well didn’t give a flip what anyone thought.

  “Tell me all about your vacation,” Nikki insisted, scooting her chair closer so they could chat. There were about twelve other people in the room, all clustered together in twos and threes. As they all waited for the lab director, no one paid Dru and Nikki any attention, so Dru wet her lips and leaned closer to her friend.

  “It was nice,” Dru prevaricated.

  “Nice?” Nikki arched one perfect brow and tilted her head toward Dru. “Running late? Hair in a ponytail? Just exactly what happened on that vacation of yours?” she asked with a wicked grin.

  Dru couldn’t help it. She had to share or she’d burst. And really, it was all Nikki’s fault, so she deserved to know.

  “I did it,” she confessed quietly.

  Dru watched question, confusion, then clarity flash across Nikki’s face. Then Nikki’s eyes went huge and her mouth made an O. Not a shocked O or a judgmental O. More like an impressed O, Dru realized with a little tickle of pride.

  Look at her, going all giddy over getting slutty on the beach.

  “You got yourself a toy?” Nikki clarified.

  “Shh,” Dru hissed. Then she leaned close and whispered, “Not that kind of toy. Don’t make it sound so…dirty. Like vibrators and handcuffs.”

  Nikki grinned and shrugged. “Did the toy come with those, too?”

  Laughter burst out of her before Dru could stop it. The unexpected sound caught the attention of a few of her coworkers. As soon as she noticed, she toned it down to an embarrassed smile. Geez, she’d better get a grip soon or she’d actually deserve her mother’s next lecture.

  “I’ll tell you everything,” she promised. “Later.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Nikki protested. “You can’t leave me hanging like this. One detail,” she wheedled.

  Dru debated. Then she smiled and pulled her notebook and pen out of her bag. She flipped to a blank page and wrote “Sex on a surfbo
ard.”

  She didn’t get to truly appreciate Nikki’s gasp since Dr. Shelby took that moment to enter the room. The director was dapper in his suit and bow tie, all primped and ready to greet their visiting dignitary.

  Dru spared a brief hope that A.A. Maddow was as pleasant as he was brilliant. She’d read over a number of his more recent papers and was awed that someone could have achieved his level of success at such a young age. Four years younger than herself, he’d been offered positions with NASA, as well as every major lab in the country.

  Not only would it be an honor to have him on her team, but his name alone had guaranteed them the grant funding necessary to ensure her success and security. No, she corrected herself, the project’s success and security. But really, weren’t they one and the same?

  She’d have to thank the director again for this opportunity. She sent Dr. Shelby a welcoming smile and rose to greet him. Halfway out of her chair, she saw another man enter the room. Her eyes bugged out. Her breath caught painfully in her chest. Greeting—hell, thought—forgotten, Dru dropped back into her chair.

  Alex? Her playmate, beach lover, sexy naked wild man, Alex?

  What was he doing here? And why was he dressed all uptight and businesslike?

  She barely heard the greetings being passed around the table. A buzzing filled her head. Color warmed her cheeks at the images of the two of them, naked on the beach. Naked on a surfboard. Naked against the wall.

  Then the color drained, leaving her cheeks icy cold.

  Naked. She didn’t do naked here. This was a fantasy-free zone. There was no way in hell she wanted her coworkers, her team—her boss, for crying out loud—to know she’d had mind-blowing sex on every available surface with a virtual stranger.

  Almost hyperventilating at this point, Dru tried to regain control of herself. She ripped her gaze away from Alex’s shocked expression and stared at her hands. She forced herself to see only her pale fingers as they clenched a pencil, instead of flashbacks of his naked ass. She recited star clusters, hoping that by the time she’d worked her way through the Milky Way, she’d be able to think clearly.