by Michele Hart
Eager for a sedative to calm the storm he caused, Elissa strode over to the kitchen island and sat on a bar stool, watching him draw two beautiful iridescent stems from a cabinet. He reached for one of the bottles of red from the grapes-and-vines wine rack, and she watched him drill the cork and pop it from the bottle neck like a pro. Muscles flexed everywhere, halting her breath again. He kept doing that.
“Experts say a glass of red wine a day is good for your health. You’ll like tonight’s chaotic pairing, a nice Italian Chianti to go with Chinese food.” He screwed his lips into a farcical expression. “Ethnic diversity. This is Julian’s favorite wine, as well.”
“I gotta have some then. Do you think your uninvited guest was really here for the wine?”
“He might somehow be connected to the Bay Cook-off. This could be a second attempt by the competition to locate the menu and recipes, thinking I might store them in my house. Seems bizarre. It’s not like the wine’s particularly valuable, not cheap but not worth burglary. Anyone can order it like we did. It’s more likely an act of sabotage. An attempt to throw Rubia’s off our game.”
Elissa tapped her lip with her finger. “I don’t think our gunman was ready to kill someone.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The safety on his gun was engaged.”
Surprise lit his eyes. “Most women couldn’t recognize the safety on a gun.”
“It was a Beretta, and I’d recognize it in the dark. It was my father’s service weapon. He’d been a small town police officer,” she said, then regretted it.
Greg was struck speechless.
“But if the gunman was here for the menu and recipes,” she proposed, hoping to move his mind from her too-strong hints of her life, “why did he settle for wine?”
Greg shrugged, willing to take the redirection. “Usually the house would’ve been empty. He probably thought he’d have hours to search. Maybe when he saw you, he thought you’d know where the menu was and could lead him right to it after he packed up the wine. He might’ve come to sabotage Julian’s performance at the Cook-off any way he could.”
She watched Greg fill the shimmery wine glasses with a rich vermillion fluid. “Seems hard to believe someone would be willing to commit burglary for a menu.”
“Not when you realize how much money the Bay Cook-off is worth. It could put a chef on the map and in competition with the best restaurants in the country. That opens doors to worldwide attention and franchises. There’s a lot at stake. Already, Rubia’s is in a franchising position. Another Cook-off win will strengthen the family’s hand in contract negotiations.”
Elissa didn’t like the sound of danger hanging in shadows. “You should warn Julian. Burglars might hit his place next.”
Greg picked up his cell phone, gave his cousin a ring and a brief description of the day. Rubia’s chef took the warning wisely, agreed to give his condo a security check before retiring. Then Greg closed the flip-phone and rejoined her.
“What a lovely home you have,” she had to say a second time, after having enjoyed the gorgeous place half the day, before the assault-with-a-deadly-weapon.
“Yeah, well, Sissy does have an artist’s eye. Try this wine.” He passed a generously filled glass to her. “Made by monks. Gotta be good.”
She tipped the glass to her lips and took in a swallow of a dry and woody wine. Though she couldn’t say she knew much about wines, she liked the taste of this one.
“The paintings of the restaurant are beautiful.”
“Sissy painted these.”
“She’s quite a talent,” Elissa said, with sincere admiration. “No wonder she did such a fine job decorating.”
“I’m surprised I ever got Sissy out of here.”
“You’d have a hard time prying me out of this paradise.”
His big eyes sparkled. “I can’t see me trying.”
The man affected her far too potently. She felt lucky to be the target of his sweet-talk, and she wondered what Sissy had done to get thrown out from under this man’s roof. If Elissa ever found out what that was, she’d make sure she never did it.
Elissa studied the red potion in her glass, sniffed its bouquet, then she took another experimental sip to discover the oak-echoed taste that lingered a second more than the grape flavor.
“This wine brings up visions of wooden chateaus over a calm Italian coast.”
He smiled, obviously liking her imagination. “That’s what it’s supposed to do.”
Another ring of the doorbell preceded the delivery of their dinner. The food divided, they moved to the couch facing the TV, their plates set on the coffee table.
“You must be a movie fan. You have a great collection, all my favorites.”
“I live for movies.” He mashed buttons on a remote control gizmo and lights fired up all over the panels. “I want to watch a space movie tonight.”
“I like space.”
Greg reached up and chose a movie, opening the box and setting the disk in the player, then he rejoined her and his beef and broccoli. “I figured you’d like that, considering your college major.”
She emitted an uninteresting hum at the reminder of her fib to him. She felt sorry for that small deceit, a disarrangement of facts, really. Her college minor was astronomy … several years ago.
“How about Contact?”
“Yes, please. Whether you’re talking about the action or the movie.”
His sly smile was flirtatious and anticipatory.
She applauded his choice. “I love the movie. I haven’t seen it in a long time. Perfect.”
She hadn’t seen contact, the action, in a long time either but thought not to add that to the conversation.
Dinner was wonderful before a good, thought-provoking movie about the future of mankind. When they’d finished the best Asian cuisine available for delivery, Greg tugged her back onto the couch cushions with him and under his wing, and they watched the rest of the movie cuddled close on the mocha-latte leather pit group. It felt like they were playing House. She couldn’t help but take in the woodsy smell of him, the taste of the wine lingering. The movie went by too quickly.
“So do you believe in aliens?” he asked her when the credits rolled, sounding very interested in her answer.
Elissa put order to her opinion. “Mathematically, there has to be other life in the universe. Whether they’re watching us or not, I have no guess, but yes, there must be other life out there.”
“If aliens are watching us, they’ve got to be bored.”
She shook her head and issued a dissenting quirky sound. “If they’re watching us, it’s because they know we’re dangerous. Humans are very dangerous.”
Which was why Elissa was making herself dangerous by learning weapons and martial arts to competition level. It was a sudden revelation for her, a flash glimpse into her own soul. She’d give that discovery thought, seek its roots, and know that part of herself better ... another day.
Greg hummed, seeming to give her comment a bit of consideration. “Would you go on a space ride to meet the aliens?”
“Yes. I’d go to meet them.”
Greg produced a pout of some hidden meaning. “You must not have much holding you back here on Earth.”
She shrugged. “My mother, a few friends. I could make Mom proud as the First Human Space Ambassador.”
“An adventurous girl, are you?”
She replied with a slow nod, a fiery smile, and a challenge at the edge of her thoughts. “I met you on a dare, remember?”
“You must not be getting enough challenge here on Earth,” he assumed, a raised brow to accentuate his interest.
“I’m up for adventure.”
“That’s good to know. I’ll put that to work. Wanna take a swim?” he asked, shutting off the TV and the wall of electronics by remote. He was already in his swim trunks, so well planned was the suggestion.
Her eyes went to the glass doors, and she saw it was dark outside. “I’d
love to. A night swim sounds heavenly. I’ll go change into Sissy’s swimsuit.”
Elissa rose, reached for the suit draped on the end of the couch, and she turned toward the left bedroom hallway before he reached for her and caught her hand, and tugged her over to the bedroom where he’d changed. “Change in my bedroom so you’ll get used to taking off your clothes there.”
She felt his potent attention, casually cast her sight away from him before he saw her embarrassment and her own little want of his touch. “Tease.”
“I never tease. Teasing is when you tempt someone with something you’re not willing to give them. Surely you see the difference.”
Unable to suppress her smile, she let him lead her by the hand into a large bedroom with a tall, dark-wood poster bed and dark wood furniture of a modern cut and design lining the walls of the room. Mood lighting rose from a mounted sconce. Another pristine fireplace stood regal into the far wall. A beautiful mantle carved into the dark-wood frame was the focus of the room.
“You never use your fireplaces, do you?”
“Never had really good company before. We might be firing them up this year. Got good company this time.”
She turned up to him, hardly believing his claims of a tedious life. “Why have you had no good company?”
“Working too hard, I guess. Didn’t have a great reason to come home and socialize. Always had too much to do.”
Elissa remembered the too-true fact that she’d been studying for years without much outside intervention. “We both could use some life in our lives.”
A set of sliding-glass doors stood at the far end of the room, dressed in gauzy white sheers. Greg went to the door and opened one side, allowing the lively breeze to circulate. The white sheer blew in a lazy, ghostly way, setting a mood.
To her right was a short hallway with mirrored closet doors on both sides and beyond that she could see a bathroom of which she didn’t catch many details. Her eyes caught too much detail of a king-sized bed carved from dark wood posters and appointed with iron accents, very masculine. A black comforter made the bed all the more mysterious.
Stepping up close to her, close enough for her to pick up the musk of his skin, Greg sent a thumb to stroke the line of her cheek as though it fed a curiosity in him to touch her. “I hate leaving you alone in my bedroom.”
“It’s not dangerous in here, is it?”
“Not if you’re alone.”
A reluctant groan all along the way, he quit the room in a loitering sashay, closing the door behind him.
He gave her goose bumps. Greg was a dangerous man, but only as dangerous as she opened the door for him to be. She’d make sure he didn’t take her heart for a hayride to Hell.
A man that attractive and enticing is not a man. He’s a demon. A deliciously tanned, sly, smooth-talking lady-killer who probably planned to put her on her back before the night was through.
Oh, God, I hope so.
What woman could look at Greg and not want him? How fast was too fast? Her thoughts lost reason just taking in his masculine appeal. Elissa knew sexual attraction was a brain-chemical trick Nature pulled on everyone. Awareness of it did little to rob it of its power when Greg walked around shirtless.
Elissa shed her clothes and donned the borrowed bathing suit, then she used the mirror of his dresser to check her appearance, glad to look like herself around him when the Amigos weren't around.
Then she chastised herself for caring what she looked like in front of him. She couldn’t let her heart get involved. Then she’d make room for him in her life. And there was no room for a man in the next five years. A man is not part of the plan.
When she emerged from the room, Greg slipped the wine glass into her hand and looked entirely entertained, sweeping his eyes over her. “You look great in Sissy’s bathing suit.”
“Oh, Sissy’s bathing suit. Yeah, you'd said that. It didn’t look like your style.”
“I would’ve stretched it out quite a bit. I look better in a two-piece.”
Elissa sputtered a laugh as she twisted her hair into a restraining clip for discipline. “Okay, I really don’t want to imagine the sight of that.”
“I’ll need to hide the pictures, then. Oh, the things boys do in college.”
“Yes, please. Hide the pictures and shut up, you weirdo.”
Enjoying an evil snicker, he led her out onto the pool patio and the pretty white wrought-iron furniture with nice cushions that lined the poolside. One light left on in the house provided a weak illumination, not much more than needed to see Greg and every detail about him looking shadowy and mysterious. She watched him set both their glasses on the stone edge of the pool and tug her to the pool steps. She tiptoed into the water while he plowed into the deep end and swam the length of the concrete pond before she was halfway into the water.
Sitting on the fourth step where the water lapped over her spandexed breasts in a lulling rhythm, she leaned back, resting her elbows on a higher step, and she basked in the massage of waves he created and the summer moonlight. Heat lightning lit up a few clouds in the far distance, lending a certain excitement to the night. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the caress of the warm night.
After taking a few laps, he soon settled next to her, and she didn’t even have to open her eyes to feel his presence. She couldn’t keep her mind off him.
Elissa’s sight fell on him filling her view, trimmed in moonlight fluctuating from fast-moving clouds breezing by. His wet hair slicked back glistened under the lunar beams. Little droplets sparkled against his flesh, highlighting his toasty skin. His brown eyes were fixed on her lips. She wondered what he imagined her mouth doing, wondered what fantasy he pictured at the moment.
“Did you have a good day at work?” she asked, to break his visual capture of her. “Well, before the gun-slinging desperado showed up.”
“A good day. The afternoon really picked up pace. Lucky for us, you’d called me. Otherwise, I’d’ve walked into the house without a single trump card.”
She wouldn’t tell Greg she’d been about to slap that gun out of the jerk’s hand, break his arm at the elbow, and put his butt on the floor with a flip. “Worked out well, didn’t it? I’m glad you didn’t run right in. He might’ve shot you.”
“Yeah, well, I knew better than to do that.”
“Thank goodness. I can tell you’ve had gun training.”
“It was a hobby for my uncles, taught all the kids to shoot.” He produced a stunning grin. “Would you have missed me if the wine thief had shot me?”
“I’d have dug out the bullet with my bare hands.”
He feigned contemplation, then pretended to write something in the palm of his hand. “Note to self. Get shot to make Elissa put her hands all over me.”
“Gee,” she commented, rolling her eyes. “Gotta be an easier way to do it than that.”
He nodded, conceding. “That’s the hard way to go about it.”
Greg collected the wine glasses from the pool’s stone edge and passed hers to her. She took another sip, envisioning herself walking through rows and rows of grape vines, hanging from handmade oak racks in the fresh-air sun. Another flash of heat lightning far away lit up the night.
“You seemed to recognize our gunman.”
Greg squinted, and she figured he ran the scene before his conscious mind again. “Not wholly. Something about our thief looked very familiar. I can’t place it, maybe a face I’d met up with long ago, but it’ll come to me soon. I’ll probably awaken from a dead sleep, knowing just who he is.”
“That sounds unpleasant.”
Greg turned his big brown eyes onto her like weapons deployed. “Only sad if I awaken alone.”
“We’re going to have to get you a pet.”
“Are you available?” He leered at her humorously. “You could be my Pet Elissa, keep me company in bed at night.”
She took a hard swallow, seeing him play with her the same way a kitten bats a ball of yarn around for fu
n until the sport bores him.
“Was that a proposal that I sleep with you?” she volleyed back, playing hardball with a direct smash. It was so fun to play the flirting game with him. Just being near Greg made her want him.
She probably should go home.
“Not yet,” he deadpanned low, his lips crooked and bewitching. His words sent a shameful ribbon of pleasure down her body. The idea of finding herself in his bed didn’t just weaken her. It made her want to rip his swim trunks off. She hardly trusted herself with him so close now.
Another lightning flash lit up clouds, a bit closer and brighter. Thunder rolled through the sky from a great distance like Nature’s dramatic soundtrack.
“Besides,” Greg added, “I wouldn’t ask you with words. I’m much classier than that.”
He took her glass from her hand and set both their drinks aside. Then he pulled her with him into the deeper depth, deeper than she could touch bottom, and he put her in his arms with the water at her shoulders. His chest grazed the spandex over her breasts, sending her an ache she hadn’t felt since ... she didn’t guess.
She really should go home now.
But it was much too fun to stay.
Locked in his embrace warmer than the water, she felt him nuzzle her neck, his nose pressed into her flesh just below her ear, his breath warming her erotically. “You smell delicious, Elissa.”
She shivered again to be in Greg’s arms, felt him place a kiss as light as a butterfly on her earlobe, then he pulled back, licked his lips, and gave a great smile like some miracle had happened, and she knew what he discovered.
“You taste like toffee, too, Elissa. That body spray smells and tastes like toffee?”
“Do you like it?” she asked, just so she could hear the words again.
His expression bore a wicked delight. “One night soon, I’m going to spray you down with it and kiss it off you. I’ll make you dessert that night. But not tonight.”
She counted herself lucky to be weightless in the water. She didn’t think her legs had the strength to hold her up when he mashed her against him like this.
“Got plans already?”
His hot hand brought her to his mouth, and he kissed her softly, inviting her. Her hands instinctively went to his chest, and the hairs swirled around her palms with the ripples through the water, tickling her.