by Michele Hart
“You’re a man of good timing, like your father,” Elissa commented.
“I hope so.”
“So where did the current Rubia cooking talent come from?” Penny asked, appearing interested.
“My mother’s brothers spawned more masters of food. Julian and his brother Val earn the cooking trophies these days, just like their Rubia father before them. Their sister Marcella graduates from the finest culinary college on this planet in three months, Julian’s and Val’s alma mater. They’d grown up watching the family cook and had immediately known their destinies. I’ve two more junior Rubias in line for chef training. We’re a big Italian family. We’ll have to spread them out into franchises. We’ll have Rubias in every restaurant.”
His smile was proud, a beautiful light in his eyes.
Like an agent of doom, Penny crossed her arms over her bosom, prepared to dissuade an easy approval. “So how many secret wives do you have hidden all over the world?”
He turned to Elissa and cast her a bored expression, then threw his line of vision Penny’s way. “You brought your pit bull.”
His bedroom eyes focused on Elissa, leaned closer to her and took a big sniff of her toffee body spray, then he made a yummy moan. “Less than five secret wives. Still looking to learn I’m a serial killer, Penny? I’m going to eat your friend alive. She smells delicious.”
“Cannibalism, aye?” Penny raised an eyebrow with the accusation.
“Exactly,” he concurred, and saucily winked at Elissa. “I have her trapped in my home with plans of a thorough ravishing.”
“Lucky girl,” Penny commented, and Elissa had to break her stare at his dark, sexy features.
Elissa smiled to Penny. “It’s nice to be so loved that someone worries over me. For Penny to come over and insist on the best for me, she’s taking the place of demanding parents.”
“Her mother’s trusting me to do the job,” Penny put in, her arms knitted before her, her eye squinting on Greg. He never cracked under her tight inspection.
He gave Elissa’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. “Speaking of pit bulls, we have security now. Long overdue, I realize, considering the toys.”
They both cast their vision to the stack of electronics built into the wall. “You’ll have to tell me what half that stuff is. It looks like an airport runway.”
“I’ll need a degree in sound physics to pronounce some of the words.”
Elissa gave up a disbelieving sigh. “Boys and their toys. Maybe if you can’t pronounce the words, you don’t need the stuff.”
Appalled, he cast her a look as though she’d punched him in the gut and knocked the wind from him. “Never say that in my home again.”
Penny gave a disparaging whistle. “Told ya. Rubia brats.”
Greg’s eyes swelled at the label. “I had nothing to do with that reputation. That was Julian’s wing of the family. His crew were the brats. Luckily, they’d walked away without serious arrest records. I was a math nerd and a good kid. I stayed out of trouble.”
Penny’s mouth shot into a giant smile. “Julian Rubia was a spoiled rotten bad boy, huh? Elissa, listen to every story and tell me later.”
Greg laughed, obviously reveling in the possession of something Penny wanted. “The kind of wild creativity Julian’s side of the family possesses doesn’t pass through teenhood unscathed. My side was the business heads. We stayed out of the limelight. Julian has stories to tell.”
“You really must share many stories with Elissa,” Penny hinted, then she turned to her neighbor, and whispered, “Take notes.”
Smiling, Elissa turned back to him, commenting on the new security system, “Cameras and all.”
“Yeah, cameras and all. There are speakers at the door. If you don’t recognize the visitor, if they can’t identify themselves to your satisfaction, they don’t come in. In fact, call me if someone you don’t know comes over. You have your own little code now to get into the door.”
Elissa shook her head, feeling uncomfortable with the security code to his house. He made it too easy to come around. She couldn’t let that happen. “Yeah, you should delete that. When would I have the need to enter your house without you again after today?”
“I’m hoping to give you many needs,” he mumbled into her ear.
Elissa knew at that cold moment of realization that she should and must deny this forward motion they experienced, mentally prepare now to part with Greg and go. It must have shown on her face.
“We’ll discuss the code later,” he muttered low to her, then turned to Penny. “Thanks for house-sitting with Elissa. I wasn’t happy with the idea of her sitting alone after what happened.”
“Can’t blame you. She told me about the robberies,” Penny explained, her sight creeping over to light upon Elissa. “But you shouldn’t worry that Elissa might be some wall flower in need of protection.”
Greg gazed over to Elissa, and his smile rose into his eyes as though he were about to say something, maybe some comment about her being delicate and in need of protection, some macho guy-thing to spout. But then he didn’t say it, just cast his delighted pecan eyes down to her, warming her with the slow stroke of her shoulder.
Elissa wasn’t about to confess she held a black belt in karate. Men never reacted well to that news. Most saw it as an affront to their manhood, and she just didn’t want to go through that with Greg.
Penny gained her feet, and announced, “My job here is done.” She was halfway to the door before Elissa could rise.
“Don’t rush off,” she tried, meeting her friend at the hall entrance.
But Penny leaned toward her and, out of Greg’s earshot, she whispered, “I remember what it’s like being in hot-sweaty-hotel-room love. When you two look at each other, your auras explode. The last thing on Earth you two need is me.”
Love? Did Penny say the word love? Whatever was going on between them was hot, sweaty, and sexy, but it wasn’t love.
“It might be time to be honest.”
“I can’t do that,” Elissa whispered back.
She knew she did a terrible job alleviating Penny’s worries, but every time Elissa looked to Greg, a tickle traveled through her, coaxing awake every cell in her body. He had such a profound effect on her, causing her to forget everything she probably should do, like confess the truth of her path. With a smoldering look, he changed her thoughts and moods ... and plans for the day.
That was bad.
As Greg rose and joined them, Penny blabbed loudly, “I’ll come over when you love puppies get sick of losing yourselves in each other’s gaze. You two look like you’re the only ones in the world. It’s disgusting to watch.”
Greg gave his approval. “She’s got a good eye for the disgusting.”
Chivalrous, he insisted they escort her friend to her car in his now-dangerous neighborhood. Elissa cast her sight up and down the road to see fabulously appointed homes of different styles, not a pre-fab neighborhood with all the houses much alike, too common in Florida. This neighborhood was older, wealthy, and individual in style. Every yard had a little sign announcing the name of their security companies.
Greg’s house was the last on the block to get a security system, probably didn’t really need one with systems so thick around them, no professional thief would dare to hit one of them without any pre-established goal.
That meant the guy who’d attempted to burglarize Greg’s house must have had a premeditated plan, not some arbitrary hit. Every career thief knows it’s a bad move to rob rich houses so close together. Not only is the punishment harsher for the choice of wealthy victims, the odds of getting caught was much higher, holding the police’s interest much longer.
The crime car said professional, and the neighborhood said no to random robbery. This robbery couldn’t have been a random act, chosen poorly by a career criminal. Nope. Greg’s house had been targeted for some reason. The Cook-off just didn’t seem to her like enough motivation for felonies.
Am
id pleas for her to stay longer, Penny fled at the first sight of giddy romance, her little gold Jetta whizzing her away.
Entrapped again in this beautiful home, Elissa leaned back against the door to see Greg’s sexy gaze on her. The touch of his eyes stirred her body in tune to him. It was a crime how a flash of his hot vision preset her awareness to him, her heartbeat to match his.
Greg reached down to the door’s locks and secured the house from another home invasion, enclosing her against the door in the act.
“I like your friend,” he said so close to Elissa but not touching, close enough for his breath to stir her hair. “Penny’s protective of you, and she’s no pushover.”
The scent of him aroused her. And she bet he knew it, probably was even purposely applied it. She felt titillated under his power.
“She’s a good ally to have,” Elissa testified, enjoying how her body felt so drawn to his, like iron to a magnet.
Greg arrested her hand and returned them to the couch, Elissa dropped down beside him, and he wasted no time planting a hot kiss to her mouth as if he needed to do so to put her mind back on last night’s excitement. In one swift move, Greg put Elissa flat on the cushions under him, and he stared at her breasts.
“What would you like to do for dinner?” he asked, straddling and hovering over her supported by his strong arms, his face a foot away from and obviously focused on her bosom rising to meet his mouth and falling with her every breath.
“You mean we have to eat?”
He nodded, and then he bent down and nibbled on the buttons down her blouse. “Maybe tomorrow night I could come home and find you completely naked so I don’t have to go through all this unnecessary stripping that’s just slowing down my enjoyment of you.”
His hot breath penetrated the material of her shirt. Her bra did nothing to block his incredible heat. “You’ll just have to do the work tonight, and I feel sorry for ya.”
“We should consider food. I’ll need to keep my strength up. You’re hot, hot, hot, and you’re liable to either set me on fire or wear me down. I’ll need fuel.”
Elissa burst into a disbelieving laughter, and his fingers began to pluck at the buttons of her maroon blouse. The sight of watching Greg triumph over her clothes made her wet with anticipation.
“We could order something from the restaurant, and have one of Rubia’s staff deliver. The entire wait staff are college kids and Rubia cousins. Any one of them would do it for a fat tip.”
Unable to think of a single thing more important than Greg making love to her again, she replied, “That does sound like a good plan. We’ll not have to go anywhere.”
He stilled his nibbles of her. “Would you rather go out? We still might make Willows seating list.”
“Will you be able to slip your hands into my blouse there?”
“Not without arrest.”
Elissa brought his mouth to hers, and an inch from his mouth, she said close enough for her lips to graze his, “Let’s stay here, then.”
Then she kissed him with the passion he built in her with his first wink, the caress of his fingertips tracing over breasts aching for his touch.
Probably relishing the power to change her focus, he rose to his feet and offered his hand for her rise. “Let’s place an order for dinner and swim.”
She took a deep breath to cool down from his relentless heat. “You always have the best ideas. But I’ll have to study. You’ve taken me away from my studies, you know.”
He held no facade of guilt in his bright smile. Elissa thought he just might be relishing that power, as well.
A phone call later, Elissa wore Sissy’s bathing suit again, and she stepped into the warm water, careful not to disturb the peace. Greg leapt right over her and cannon-balled into the pool, splashing the plain cover of her textbook. He swam a few laps, and she opened her criminal psychology book, set it on the stone border, and began on the chapter she still hadn’t finished.
He took a few more laps, then swam over to her.
Elissa looked away from her book to see him smiling and watching her. “Did you get anything accomplished in your late-start day?”
He shook his black head, sprinkling her and her book with a light shower of water. “We’ve completely restocked the kitchen, and we’re having Julian’s little brothers take turns sleeping in the stockroom to prevent this from happening again. I’ve scheduled a security system for the restaurant.”
“Bravo.” She tipped her glass of an oaky Chianti toward him, then she took a draw, and she returned to her study, the book flat against the pool’s stone border and subject out of his immediate sight while she lounged partly submerged on the third step of the pool, enjoying the lap of the water.
He floated over to her side again, and fiddled with her toes. “Are you going to stay the night with me again?”
Despite her wish to the opposite, she didn’t want to get used to his spoiling. “No, I must return to my place tonight. My next three days are full with classes and work. I can’t be distracted by a handsome man making love to me every night.”
His smile grew wicked. “Am I distracting you a bit?”
She surrendered study for just a moment to feel the bliss of his brown eyes on her. “God, yes. You are the absolute best distraction I’ve ever encountered, another reason to go home and get some work done.”
His hand caressed the back of her calf, and he looked sad. “To not let you go would be selfish.”
Pouty, he took up her hand and gave it a kiss, pretended innocence of each of his moves breaking her down and covertly seizing a little part of her will away from her. She nudged herself to refocus on a fraction of real life.
“Gotta get a good education, you know,” she reminded him, and recommitted herself to the chapter on the abnormal psychology of the criminal mind.
Keep your eye on the prize, Elissa.
In a month, Greg would be taken over by some well-born super-model debutante and Elissa would let it happen, let someone else take his attention, so she could return to her goals. She just needed to keep her emotional distance.
He turned her hand over and he pressed a soft kiss to her palm. “I have to give you up for three days.”
“Yes, well, it has to be. I need to keep up my grade-point average.”
He was silent for a few seconds that seemed like minutes. “You’re going with me to the Bay Cook-off this Saturday, aren’t you?”
A flush of cool sensation blew over her, pleasing her that he wanted her company. “Of course, I’ll go. I’d hate to miss it.”
Then she frowned. It was about the bet. “I’ll have to be dressed miserably, won’t I? The Amigos will be there, no doubt.”
Greg seemed to regret that part. “Let’s remember the thousand dollars you’ll pocket at the end.”
Elissa feared that grand would cost her soul a lot.
Greg repositioned himself on the step behind her, his legs enclosing her. She sensed trouble coming on if he decided to wreck her study time. She really wanted to stroke his thighs.
As she attempted to reread the first paragraph of the page for the eighth time, she felt his hand slowly slide up her calf, caress her knee, then creep up the inside of her thigh, creating a shiver and a soundless gasp, enticing her with promise of bursts and bliss.
Elissa lost her ability to read, forcing her to abandon study, and her eyes slammed shut at his sexy caress, sending fireworks leaping through her body.
“Your hands feel incredible, Greg,” she murmured, concentrating on his hot brushes and the hunger he gave her. “You could make any woman forget the world.”
His breath traveled through her tresses to her neck, bringing back last night’s rolling thunder in her head. Now quick to his command, her body responded to his every whim, the sound of his voice, his intimate touch, with eagerness and thirst.
“I only want to make one woman forget the world.”
Stars danced through her mind as he lightly stroked her tender flesh,
merely traced slow, indulgent caresses of her inner thighs, building her want into spikes of need. She felt paralyzed by his magic, unable to do much more than to suffer the pleasure he inflicted as he slid his fingers over her spandex-shielded pussy.
He might wish to hear her beg for his release of her. It wasn’t long in coming. Her flesh shivered beneath his curious fingers, becoming hotter for his entire domination. She felt his rock-hard erection pressed against her, and she imagined him filling her body, thrusting her into intense orgasm with just his penetration.
The door bell rang, and Elissa shuddered beneath Greg’s masterful touch, did her best to hold back an orgasmic moan.
“Saved by the bell,” he whispered into her fallen red tresses, inflicting another warp of lust for him. She couldn’t take a full breath until his hand moved from her body.
A reluctant grunt escaping his wonderful mouth, Greg took the steps from the pool to reach the door as Elissa, weak from his exploration, rose and tugged on the bathrobe that smelled like him, still shivering with the want he’d built in her.
Deep breaths. Think of the Constitution. God, Greg is a vicious tease.
More able to think beyond his carnal magic, she went to the kitchen to gather silverware and plates, his power to take her still warping through her body.
A towel tucked around his waist, Greg took the packages from the handsome young man in his late teens who wore one of the restaurant’s uniforms. A half-head taller than her, the boy wore a familiar smile and had dark Italian coloring.
He knocked Greg’s elbow. “Introduce me to her,” he whispered, and Elissa smiled even bigger.
“Elissa, this is my cousin, Antonio. Never take your eye off him.”
Antonio zipped to her side, took up her hand to his lips, and deployed a practiced smoldering stare, “Ciao, Bella. Your reputation precedes you. You are the talk of the restaurant staff.”