Temptation on His Terms

by Robyn Grady

  As if reading her mind, Reese asked, “Have you heard from Dex Hunter?”

  Folding up the blanket, Shelby’s stomach swooped but she checked that emotion. She wouldn’t feel sorry for herself for how things had ended, or blame herself, for that matter. She couldn’t change what she couldn’t control; man, that lesson had been a long time coming.

  “Dex called,” Shelby said carefully. “I asked him not to contact me again. No point.”

  I may never be kissed that way again, Shelby mused, returning from tossing candy wrappers in a nearby receptacle. But just because something looked good, felt good, didn’t mean it was necessarily good for her. Although she wouldn’t lie to herself.

  When she’d woken up that morning here after he’d simply held her all night, deep down she’d known. She was in love with Dex, and nothing like the way she thought she’d loved Kurt. Her affection for Dex was real. Ran deep. It might have been etched like an epithet across her soul.

  But he belonged in glittering Hollywood with his starlets and premieres and extravagant movie sets. She wished Dex and his family luck with their problems but, as much as she’d like to, she couldn’t help. Or get involved. Three weeks after leaving L.A., her time with Dex seemed like a bittersweet dream.

  She’d gone so far as to call Teagan, say she’d resigned and suggest Tate stay with her a while longer. Knowing Shelby was leaving, Teagan had agreed. But as far as Dex sorting out his unhinged friend and correcting past misdeeds, he was on his own. She wanted nothing to do with it, now or anytime in the future.

  She and Reese said good-night. The rest of the crowd, too, was leaving the field. With her chair wedged under one arm, blanket under the other, Shelby was about to head off when an image flickered on the giant movie screen behind her. Next second, music faded up…a scratchy sequence featuring violins. She blinked around. Was there a third movie no one knew about?

  The screen flickered more. When an image of Rudolph Valentino appeared, swaggering up to a woman in a bar, Shelby froze. She knew this scene, the one where Valentino danced his famous tango, her favorite piece of film ever. But the projection area was unmanned, and everyone, including Reese, was still headed for their vehicles.

  To her left came the beat of hooves. She caught sight of a white horse cantering away down the field before a real-life figure moved in front of the screen. A tall well-built man with the posture of a matador. He wore a Stetson—no. It was an Andalusia, the same type of flat-brimmed hat Valentino had worn when he’d danced the tango. She knew because this man also had a striped poncho slung over one shoulder, just like the Valentino character in the film. As he sauntered nearer, she heard the ching-ching of spurs jangling on his boots. While the light from the screen threw the figure into mysterious relief, her heart crashed in her ears and her knees turned to mush. Shelby knew exactly who stood before her now.

  As he moved nearer, Dex Hunter retrieved the rose held between his teeth and presented it to her.

  “I assure you,” he said in a deep smooth voice, “it’s free of thorns.”

  Before she could say a word, the rose took her attention. She set down the rug and chair to bring the flower to her nose and sniff.

  “This is foil-wrapped chocolate,” she said.

  “That was Tate’s idea.”

  He’d spoken to Tate about this? Was his little brother back visiting with Dex? Was that madman Joel still on the loose? But first things first.

  “What are you doing here dressed like that?” she asked.

  “I’ve come to take something from you.” His arm snapped around her waist. “A dance.”

  With his nose touching hers, she stuttered.

  “S-Sorry…what did you say?”

  His familiar heat and sinewy strength suffused her skin, shooting straight into her bloodstream. She pressed her palms hard against his white billowy shirt but every cell in her body begged her to lean closer, not shove him away.

  “Dex, this is sweet, so totally unexpected, but—”

  He touched a fingertip to her lips and she fell silent. Turning his head to the left, he seemed to address the air.

  “Music, Maestro.”

  Crackling echoed through the speakers before those violins resumed their vintage serenade and Dex’s face drew close again. As those ravenous tawny eyes peered down into hers, one eyebrow arched.

  “Do you know the tango?” he asked.

  “You mean know it in that film?” The one playing at his back.

  “Do you know how to do it?”

  “I don’t know anyone who actually performs the tango unless they’re a dance instructor or on a talent show or possibly an eccentric—”

  He pressed his finger to her lips again. “You ask who would know how to dance the tango, the first dance of love?” In the moonlight, she saw a sultry smile hook his mouth. “I do.”

  “Dex, the hokey pokey would trip you up.”

  One palm latched onto her behind. As the other caught her side, he arched her carefully back, all the way until her right leg and her sneaker lifted into the air.

  “I warn you.” So close, his lips teased her. “Resistance is futile.”

  She coughed out a laugh, tried to shake her brain. But he was already tipping her back up to stand on two feet. In the next heartbeat, he twirled her around and tipped her back the other way. She let out a cry as a leg shot up again.

  He’d definitely lost his mind.

  “You’re making me dizzy.”

  “Your head is spinning?” His eyebrow arched again. “This is what I planned.”

  Righting herself, she tried to even her breathing as she shimmied away.

  “Reese isn’t in on this, is she?”

  “No one knew. I only bribed the guy who presses Play on the DVDs ten minutes ago.”

  Shelby got back on track. She needed to set him straight once and for all. She wouldn’t change her mind, no matter how many chocolate roses or tango dips he gave her.

  “Dex, I’m home to stay. I’m not interested in a long-distance romance. My life is here. Yours is in California.” Gazing into his eyes, she sighed. “If you truly care, don’t do this to me. Don’t try to drag it out.” A ball of emotion lodged in her throat. “I’ll only end up hurt.”

  His expression shifted from playful to pensive. His hand went to the Andalusian hat then he studied the black-and-white screen behind him. Valentino was in full swing, captivating his partner with his moves and with his eyes. When Dex’s attention returned to her, his gaze roamed her face with an intensity that sent a shiver racing up her spine.

  “Dance with me,” he said. “Let me hold you. I promise I won’t try to seduce you.”

  “You are so lying.”

  “You’re right. I intend to do everything in my power to sweep you off your feet.”

  His arm went around her again, this time slowly but with equal purpose.

  “Dance with me,” he said again.

  She held her breath and then sighed it out. With that devilish smile warming his eyes again, he straightened. Then, left hand clasped around her right, he shot out their arms and strutted forward, tango-style.

  She pulled away. This got more and more freaky.

  “When did you learn to do that?”

  “Lessons every day, twice a day.”

  A pit wedged in her throat grew. She blinked back the mist coming over her eyes.

  “You did that for me?”

  “I did it for us.”

  He wound her extra close again and, caught in the tide, she began to move with him. Let him lead. When he abruptly swung around, about-face, warming up to the tune, she spun, too.

  He directed her through the steps, which he performed with remarkable grace and ease. He tripped up once but glossed over it and continued on. He didn�
�t seem the least self-conscious, and even as she felt a handful of people looking on from the boundary of the playing field, she didn’t feel self-conscious, either. She felt changed. Free. She hadn’t had this much fun since—

  Well, since they’d last been together.

  As he tipped her back in that dramatic pose again, his head bent over hers.

  “I miss you every day. So much,” he told her.

  Only this time there wasn’t a hint of humor in his tone, in his face. He was dead serious and the realization left her feeling as if the ground had been snatched away from beneath her feet.

  When the music stopped, his palm ironed down her back. As fingers reached the rise of her behind, he coaxed her in, unforgivably close.

  “When I first saw you, I knew I’d found someone special. Unique and proud and strong and fragile all at the same time. I wanted you then. I haven’t stopped wanting you. And I realized something else, too.”

  He took a moment, then continued. “I’m in love with you. I’ll do anything to have you. Keep you. I’d dress up in this costume. I’d learn to swoop and twirl. If it means waking up to your beautiful smile every morning.”

  Shelby felt tears coming on. She worried if she spoke, she wouldn’t be able to stop them. But maybe she hadn’t understood properly. She had to hear those words again. Had to be sure.

  “You said…” She drew down a deep breath. “Dex, you love me?”

  “Ask yourself. Would I be here doing this if I didn’t?”

  But even if that were true, she couldn’t forget what was truly keeping them apart. “Your firebug friend…”

  “Joel finally turned himself in. He has a stint in state prison ahead of him.”

  Relief flooded Shelby’s system. “Thank God,” she murmured. “And you?”

  Dex had withheld information relating to a crime.

  “My lawyer’s done a deal with the prosecution. My testimony on the stand in exchange for no charges.”

  An enormous weight was lifted off her shoulders. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.”

  “Then you’ll dance with me again?”

  She swallowed deeply. “Dex, I’m not going back.”

  “Then I won’t, either.”

  “You have a company to run. A family company. You would never just walk out and let them down like that.”

  “Then how about a compromise?”

  “I’ve already told you. A long-distance affair won’t work.”

  “We can divide our time between L.A. and Mountain Ridge. There’s work I can do from here. I might even make a set and film that Western Mr. Oberey from the hardware store is so keen on.” His grin faded into a loving smile. “Point is, if we want this—us, together, forever—we can make it work.”

  Shelby was gaping. If he was serious…if he really meant what he’d just said…

  “You’d really change your life that much for me?”

  He gathered her close. “You are my life. I want to be a good husband. Your husband.” His brow touched hers. “And when you’re ready, I hope to be a father.”

  “Pushing strollers? Filling bottles?”

  This was all going too fast.

  “I bought the property next door to your father’s.”

  “You bought my place?” A tear dropped down her cheek. “With my barn?”

  “I’m going to build there. Maybe not a castle,” he teased. “But a big family home.” That somber look darkened his eyes. “I’m asking you to be my wife.”

  She coughed out a laugh. “You can’t expect me to stand here and believe all this when you must know that—”

  Her words were drowned when his mouth captured hers with a kiss that was both penetrating and heartfelt. Simply, utterly, made-in-heaven divine. She was aware of his thumb pressing on the base of her spine, the rhythm of his tongue as a hand steadied the back of her head. All her life she’d been tall. Now she was soaring.

  Too soon his lips left hers. When she dragged open her eyes and saw the satisfaction calming his face, she was left stunned.

  “I was never going to do this again.”

  “It’s okay.” He wound a wave of hair away from her cheek. “I forgive you.”

  She coiled her arms around his neck.

  “I forgive me, too.”

  “I pledge to love and adore you, as well as your cupcakes and roasts,” he vowed. “And there’s also that little matter of being faithful to only you for the rest of our lives.” His lips grazed hers. “I can’t wait.” He pretended to frown. “Now isn’t there something you’d like to tell me?”

  More tears fell. “Do I have to say it aloud?” Surely he knew.

  “These past weeks I’ve daydreamed about hearing you say it.”

  A thrill ran through her. She couldn’t believe this was happening. That she would truly get a fairy-tale ending. She was going to be one of the lucky ones.

  “I love you,” she said. “Everything about you. And I do want to have children. I think I want that more than anything.”

  “I’ve heard that the fastest way to fall pregnant is to have lots of sex. Experts aren’t sure about the best position so we should probably try them all.”

  His cheeky smile faded into an expression that warmed her heart a hundred ways.

  “We’re going to have a fabulous life together.”

  She brought herself closer. “We really can do this, can’t we?”

  Before he kissed her again, Dex murmured against her lips, “Baby, we’ll be a smash hit.”

  Epilogue

  Meanwhile in New York…

  As Wynn Hunter peeled the shirt off his back and entered his Park Avenue penthouse bedroom, he recalled his night…the boring business dinner, a nightcap at a club then a chance meeting with a woman who seemed as hell-bent on forgetting past regrets as he was.

  And he had a lot to regret in the form of Heather Matthews. She had been the most tempting woman he’d ever known. Stylish, playful… Whenever they’d touched, Wynn had felt the sexual charge to his bones.

  Had it been love? The kind of love that his brothers Cole and Dex had recently found?

  Once he’d been convinced. So much so, he’d popped the question. She’d blushed, held her brow. Then, before leaving him to sit alone in that restaurant, she’d declined. She didn’t want to get married. Didn’t want to be his wife. Wynn had to admit…he’d died a little that night.

  While he usually rushed to the office each morning, for weeks after he’d dragged himself out of bed. Nothing seemed to have a purpose. The world might end and he couldn’t have cared less because his world had ended the moment he’d slipped that diamond ring back into its box.

  But in time good sense had returned and, arguably, he was sharper than before. Lately, for the first time, he’d heard the word ruthless bandied around the corridors at work and connected with his name. It seemed that the managing director of Hunter Publishing was no longer considered “a nice guy.”

  Ever since he was a child, Wynn had counted himself as the most zealous of the three Hunter boys. He played fair, gave chances. Had a heart. Those qualities, along with his soul, seemed to have vanished.

  Alakazam.

  When he’d realized the change, Wynn was thankful. Relieved. Instead of that churning inner turmoil, there’d come an odd sense of calm. Of course that went hand in hand with trading off personal warmth for this cool, almost detached awareness. He wouldn’t call it pleasant. A better word was necessary.

  Now, as Wynn ditched the rest of his clothes and crossed the room, he studied the perfect naked form draped over his bed. Toned supple limbs, a halo of wheat-gold hair splayed upon the pillow. Acknowledging t
he pleasant stir in his gut, Wynn put one knee and two palms down upon the sheet and curled over her. She quivered as the stiff tip of his tongue trailed around a tight nipple.

  He murmured against her flesh, “I’d like to know your name.”

  “And I’d like us to get under the covers.”

  When her manicured fingers combed through his hair and her knee bent languidly toward his chest, a series of sparks ignited in his groin and for a heartbeat, as he slid down the length of her lithe body to her thighs, he had a glimpse of sharing something more with this woman than one night of red-hot sex. Of course, right now he didn’t want anything more.

  Nor did he expect anything less.

  * * * * *

  Watch for Wynn’s story, the next in

  THE HUNTER PACT series,

  coming soon from Harlequin Desire.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Temporarily His Princess by Olivia Gates

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  One

  The present

  Vincenzo Arsenio D’Agostino stared at his king and reached the only logical conclusion.

  The man had lost his mind.