The assistant nibbled her bottom lip, clearly unsure of how to respond. “I’ve paid the boy who’s taking care of your bags. Would you like something to drink in the car?”
“How far is it?” Ariel yawned, rubbing her eyes like a child.
“Twenty-nine minutes.”
Ariel gaped, then grinned. “Not twenty-eight? Not thirty? You must be very good at your job.”
Her teasing seemed to stymy the prim employee. “Is that a yes or a no?”
Ariel glanced at Jacob, eyebrows raised. “No, thank you,” she said, her tone gentle. “I’ll grab something at the hotel.” She reached back and snagged Jacob’s hand, dragging him closer. “Harriet, this is my boyfriend, Jacob.”
Harriet blushed and stuttered. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize anyone was traveling with you. That must not have been in my notes.” She flipped frantically through a day planner. “Welcome, Mr. …”
“Wolff. Jacob Wolff.” He bent down to pick up the rainbow of sticky notes that had apparently lost their adhesive in the muggy heat. “No problem, Harriet. Why don’t I see if all the bags are accounted for?” While Ariel climbed into the backseat, flashing a mouth-drying expanse of leg, Jacob watched the kid loading the bags, did a quick count and joined his pseudo girlfriend in the sweltering interior.
Harriet slid behind the wheel, put the car in gear, and accelerated with a jerk that plastered Ariel and Jacob to the seat back. “Sorry,” she tossed over her shoulder. “AC should be working in a minute.” She drove with both hands on the wheel at ten and two, her gaze fixed intently on the road ahead.
Ariel, still wearing her stylish hat, wiped sweat from her forehead. “Not one paparazzi. Hallelujah. Brad and Angelina must be doing something noteworthy this week. Remind me to send them a thank-you note.” She leaned forward, her hand on Harriet’s shoulder. “What’s the schedule?”
Harriet never blinked. “Meet and greet cast and crew party at eight in the hotel dining room. You’re due on set at five in the morning ready to go. Rod will give you the rundown.”
Ariel wrinkled her nose, but didn’t seem unduly concerned. Jacob noted her calm with a puzzled frown. God knows what time she would have to get up to be ready. But apparently she was accustomed to the brutal hours. “Rod?” he asked.
“Rod Brinkman, the director. He’s a legend. I’ll be scared spitless.”
“Who’s your leading man?”
“A kid you’ve never heard of… John England. It’s his first major motion picture. He’ll be a mess.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s only ever done commercials and a few guest spots on an afternoon soap. He went in for a cold audition with this project and nailed it. The powers that be saw his face and knew he was what they wanted. Plus, they could pay him crap, which they like, because my salary is straining the budget.”
Jacob was forced to do mental hoop jumping to adjust the current reality to his first impressions of Ariel Dane. On Wolff Mountain she’d seemed frail, almost tentative…painfully young. Suddenly, in her natural environment, he saw boundless confidence, professional savvy and a maturity that told him he had most definitely underestimated his lovely diva.
As the car swung into the driveway of a luxury resort, Jacob looked around with interest. The place had seen better days, but it had the charm of an aging beauty. Only two stories high, the building arced in a crescent that swept around a jewel-like pool and bisected lush grounds crisscrossed with palm-shaded pathways.
Harriet shoved the gearshift into Park. “You’re not staying in the main hotel, Ms. Dane. Mr. Brinkman reserved a waterfront villa for you.” She stopped short, her skin flushing. “And for Mr. Wolff, of course.”
Ariel threw her arms around Jacob’s neck and gave him a big kiss square on the mouth, her breasts pressed against him. “Jacob and I can’t wait to get settled in, right, sweetheart?”
Rigid with shock and a surge of lust, Jacob inhaled sharply, only to groan in disappointment when Ariel abandoned him and hopped out of the car. Reality smacked him in the face. She’s acting, Jacob. Get a grip.
Feeling more foolish than he cared to admit, he exited the vehicle and inhaled the combined scents of coconut and hot sunshine.
Harriet smacked his hand lightly when he tried to pick up two of the bags. “No, no, no,” she cried. “Leave those. I’ll get you and Ms. Dane settled and someone will deliver your luggage shortly.”
The short walk to the cabana was interrupted four times by star-struck hotel employees. In every instance, Ariel responded with charm and humor, signing autographs and chatting with her admirers.
Jacob became more and more confused. Who was the real Ariel Dane? This exotic creature who took adulation matter-of-factly as her due? The sexy, approachable woman who made his body tighten with deep, infinite hunger? Or the lost little girl who gave up her childhood to play make-believe?
There was no time to decide. Harriet ushered them into a pleasantly furnished apartment decorated in varying shades of sea-green and white. Through double louvered doors, Jacob could see a king-size bed. Opposite that was a huge bathroom with a granite shower enclosure and a Jacuzzi.
“You have a fully stocked kitchenette through this door,” Harriet said. “The wireless internet works fairly well as long as it isn’t raining. Maid service daily, of course, but if you need anything in the meantime, the manager asked me to give you his card. You have your usual personal staff for hair, makeup and wardrobe.”
She looked up from her checklist, eyes big behind her lenses. “Am I forgetting anything?”
Ariel took off her hat and tossed it on a chair. “I think you have it covered, Harriet. Feel free to take some time off and lounge by the pool. Mr. Wolff and I are going to…rest.”
Harriet was scandalized, whether by the first half of that speech or the last, Jacob couldn’t tell.
Her hands fluttered aimlessly, stacking and restacking the pile of papers she carried. “Oh, no, ma’am. I have too much to do. I won’t disturb you, but call me if you need anything at all.”
The bags arrived on cue. Minutes later Harriet exited, preceded by a smiling bellhop who clutched the handful of bills Ariel had tucked in his palm.
In the subsequent silence, all Jacob could hear was the gentle whoosh of rattan ceiling fans and his own rapid heartbeat.
Ariel kicked off her shoes, let down her hair and flopped backward onto the mattress. Her gaze was mischievous as she smiled at him. “Which side of the bed do you want?”
Eight
Ariel was nervous as hell and trying not to show it. Jacob’s inscrutable expression gave nothing away. Was he impressed with their accommodations? He’d wondered aloud if she was a spoiled princess. Maybe this confirmed it.
“Say something,” she urged, pretending that they weren’t all alone in a honeymoon-like suite.
He folded his arms across his chest. “You didn’t tell them I was coming, did you?”
The room suddenly seemed much too small, Jacob’s disapproval sapping all the oxygen from the air. His frown judged her and found her wanting.
“I didn’t have to,” she said evenly, trying not to let him intimidate her. “I can bring whomever I like. And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. All of the villas have king-size beds. They wouldn’t put me in the hotel.”
“Because you’re the star?”
Was that derision she heard in his voice? She shrugged. “Yes.”
Her cell phone rang, freeing her from his assessing stare. She answered it quickly and sat up, turning sideways on the bed in a futile attempt for privacy. “Hello, Mama. Yes. I’m here safe and sound. Yes, he’s with me. How was your day? Is the new medicine working?” The conversation went on for a few more minutes, before Ariel said her goodbyes. She hung up and saw Jacob still staring at her.
He leaned a hip against the door frame. “How is she doing?” he asked quietly.
Ariel shrugged. “Okay, I guess. She never wants to worry me, so she puts on a brave
face. The doctors aren’t making us any promises.”
Jacob’s eyes were shadowed. “I know how hard it is to lose someone,” he said.
“Your mother?”
“I was pretty young. Most of that is a blur. But…”
Shock flooded her stomach. He was reaching out to her, offering her, without delineating it, his strength and his understanding. “But what?” she whispered, her throat dry.
Jacob was looking at her, but she had the feeling that his gaze was really trained inward, seeing painful images that still tormented him. “There was someone in med school. A fellow intern who had cancer. She was—” He stopped abruptly. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have brought it up. It didn’t end well.”
Ariel slid off the bed and padded across the room to stand beside him. “I’m sorry, Jacob.”
She put her hand in his and he gripped it, his fingers strong and warm against hers. “Becoming a doctor can be both a blessing and a curse,” he said, looking down at their linked hands. “You think in the beginning that you have the keys to saving the world, or at least the people who are important to you. But as time passes, you begin to understand that whatever skills you possess are sometimes little more than smoke and mirrors.”
Her heart contracted. She sensed that the pain inside him was rarely allowed to surface. Perhaps the only reason he had acknowledged it now was to assure her that he understood her fears. Or maybe he was warning her, obliquely, that he was still in love with some mystery woman from his past.
It was becoming clear to Ariel why Jacob had agreed to help her. He felt the burden of what he perceived to be repeated failures. The deaths of his friend, his mother and perhaps a lover?
Ariel didn’t want to be another millstone around his neck. Nor could she bear to think she was nothing more to him than an obligation. She reached up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, wanting to comfort him.
He went rigid at the touch of her lips. “Do you expect us to share that bed?” Color slashed his cheekbones and hunger glittered in his eyes. Deep emotion stripped away the veneer of conventionality.
A tiny smear of lip gloss marked his cheek. She smoothed it away with her finger. “It’s a huge mattress. Would it be so terrible?”
Outside their windows she heard the crash of waves on the beach. Somewhere a woman laughed. The smells of cooking wafted pleasantly on the air, making her stomach rumble.
Jacob took her face in his hands, his breath warm on her face. “I’m a man, Ariel. What you ask is unfair, next to impossible,” he said flatly. “I’ll do it, because I’m well over six feet tall and I can’t spend night after night pretzeled up on a love seat. But you have to promise me something.”
“What?” His sheer masculinity made her heart flutter. In his firm grasp she felt the twin pulls of security and danger. Jacob Wolff would do whatever it took to keep her safe and well. But he was a seductive threat to her peace of mind and her heart.
His thumbs smoothed her cheekbones. “You have to behave. No prancing around in see-through nighties. No flirting. No physical contact other than what is necessary to protect your little cover story. Do you understand?”
She curled her hands over his. “You’re touching me now,” she pointed out, breathless and bold enough to move closer.
How had she not noticed the length of his eyelashes? His eyes were beautiful, sometimes pewter, at other moments the simple gray of a rainy afternoon. His jaw clenched. “It comes naturally to you, doesn’t it?” The gruff, accusatory words put her on trial.
“No one’s holding a gun to your head,” she pointed out, desperately wanting to taste his kiss again. “You can let go anytime you want.” Pushing him to the edge was becoming a habit, a yearning to see if she could break his control.
In her bare feet, she felt at a disadvantage, but one look into his stormy eyes told her that whatever leapt and quivered between them leveled the playing field in her favor.
His hands tightened. “Damn you,” he groaned.
They surged together like the tide making love to the beach. He was big and broad, and she felt both cherished and ravished by his wild kiss.
Still waters ran deep. Who knew the reserved Jacob Wolff would be so ferociously, dominantly passionate? Taking what he wanted in a kiss without apology.
Time no longer registered. His hands covered her breasts, caressing them until she cried out. Her dress closed in the back. Had she been able, she would have stripped bare for nothing more than the drunken pleasure of feeling his hands on her bare skin.
A doctor’s hands. With a sure touch and gentle mastery that melted her into a puddle of need with no more than the bold squeeze of his fingers against an aching nipple buried beneath a frustrating layer of cloth.
They were fire and tinder, stunningly quick to ignite, impossible to extinguish. And yet one of them was in control. Not Ariel. Not by a long shot. She would have done anything to coax him into getting her naked.
But Jacob was, at many levels, a man with phenomenal strength of will. Slowly he gentled the kiss until they broke apart, chests heaving, lips swollen with passion. She felt the tiny burn where his late-day stubble had marked her chin.
She licked her lips, feeling light-headed and frustrated. “You can’t blame that one on me,” she said self-righteously.
“The hell I can’t.” His hooded gaze was derisive. “Go put your damned swimsuit on,” he insisted. “Maybe water will cool us off.”
She changed in the master bathroom while Jacob took his suitcase into the outer room. As she gazed into the mirror over the vanity, her naked body embarrassed her. Her breasts felt swollen and achy. Rosy nipples cried out for Jacob’s touch.
No wonder he thought she’d had multiple lovers. She’d fallen into his arms like the proverbial ripe peach. Whatever connection they had forged might be new, but it was powerful.
She was sure that Jacob thought she was playing with him for sport. The truth was, she had never been more serious in her life. She needed the doctor. But she wanted the man. Her brain shied away from acknowledging a more disturbing truth. Jacob was like no one she had ever met. At times she wanted nothing more than to destroy his granite-clad control. But at others she craved his strength. He made her feel things that no man had ever made her feel…drawn from a secret place in her heart. An ache. An unanswered need.
For one long moment, she debated sending him home. He had turned his life upside down for her because of his honor, his integrity, his calling. But it was dangerous for both of them. He didn’t want to be attracted to her. And she didn’t want to be his charity case. What an impossible dilemma she had created.
After throwing a mesh cover-up over her one-piece navy maillot, she tossed a few things in a beach bag and knocked on the door that separated her from Jacob. “Are you decent?” she called out, her heart beating rapidly.
He flung it open. “I may be, but you’re not.” In her absence, he seemed to have returned from some dark, unsettling place. He scanned her from head to toe, his eyes lingering on her legs. His chest heaved in an appreciative sigh. “Sunbathing with a movie star. Wait until I tweet this.”
She snorted, walking past him to the front door with an inward sigh of relief. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re too brilliant and important to dabble in mindless social media.”
He closed the door behind them and slung an arm around her shoulders. “Has it ever occurred to you that turnabout is fair play? You’ve made a lot of assumptions about me, princess. Do I seem so dull to you? I have been known to goof off on occasion.”
“When? Back in 2009 on a Friday night in May? I’m not buying it. You probably hide out in your lab for fun. Admit it.”
“Perhaps. When I get excited and results are headed in a direction I think will be meaningful. But maybe it’s because I don’t have any reason to do anything else. I’m not really a people person in case you hadn’t noticed.”
The walk to the beach was brief in reality. But tucked beneath Jacob’s arm, Ariel had a ha
rd time breathing during the seemingly interminable stroll. “I thought you said no touching,” she whispered.
He stopped suddenly and picked a magenta bougainvillea blossom to tuck behind her ear. “We’re in public,” he said simply. “I’m working on my role as adoring boyfriend.” His head lowered. “Exhibit A.”
The kiss was fleeting. Definitely manufactured for anyone who might be watching. But its effect on Ariel was nonetheless potent. She stumbled when they resumed walking and had to grab Jacob’s arm to keep from falling. “Sorry,” she muttered, wincing as her ankle throbbed.
Jacob shook his head in disgust. “You couldn’t settle for a nice pair of flip-flops?” As they reached their destination, he released her and began spreading out their beach blankets.
Her three-inch cork-soled wedges were meant more for show than for practicality. “We live and die by fashion in this business, Doc. I can’t wear just anything. It’s all about the package.”
He held out his hand. “Sit down before you break a leg. Your talent is what makes the movie. Why should they care what you wear when you’re not working?”
“I play a role on this side of the camera as much as I do during shooting.” She knelt beside him. “It’s not the same, of course. I play myself, but it’s a jacked-up version of me. Glam clothes, perfect hair, pricey accessories. When I’m the movie star, everyone wins. My films get more buzz, the tabloids snap pictures, and my fans get to believe that my life is perfect.”
He registered her sarcasm, but the sympathy she saw in his steady gaze made her squirm. “Sounds like a lot of work for nothing. But you’re looking better,” he said, grabbing a few large shells to pin down the corners of their towels. “I think you’ve gained a few pounds. Have you taken the medicine every day?”
She nodded, whipping her cover-up over her head and stretching out on her back with a sigh of contentment. “Everything the doctor ordered,” she murmured. Eyes closed, she tried to ignore the big, warm male body stretched out next to hers.
She had used the term sunbathing loosely. Rarely did she court the full sun. Too many older actresses she met had skin like leather, not to mention the health risks of UV exposure. So she and Jacob were tucked away in a patch of shade beneath a trio of palm trees.
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