He wore aviator sunglasses, his long, lean body encased in a T-shirt that emphasised his flat belly and wide shoulders, and fitted board shorts that hugged his muscular thighs. His feet were jammed into boat shoes, his arms full of an exuberant black and brown puppy with one adorable ear folded forward. Both their gazes were trained on her. It struck her almost immediately that she had never seen Sam in casual wear before and he was ten times more dangerous to her this way than in a custom-made suit. Heat seared her insides, her body uncaring that last night he had been so arrogant she’d wanted to throttle him.
As she watched Sam lowered the squirming bundle of fluff onto the deck and it raced towards her. She instinctively went down on her haunches and the puppy jumped into her arms, licking her face.
‘Some guard dog he is,’ Sam grumbled, coming to a stop in front of her.
Finding it hard to hold herself aloof with the puppy all over her, Ruby laughed joyously. ‘He knows I’m a friend. Don’t you, boy? Girl?’
‘Boy,’ Sam replied, just as Miller came up from below deck carrying Redmond in her arms.
‘Hey, Ruby.’ Miller hugged her as she stood up. ‘Forty-five minutes. I’m impressed. By the way, Tino invited Sam, so our girls’ weekend has definitely been gatecrashed.’
‘So I see,’ Ruby murmured.
‘Let me take your bag.’
‘I’ve got it.’ Sam reached for it first and hoisted it onto his shoulder before Ruby could object.
‘Thanks, Sam.’ Miller grinned widely, shifting Red to her other arm so that he could reach out and play with Ruby’s hair. ‘I’m so glad you’re here. Tino, Ruby’s—’
‘Here, I know.’ Valentino pushed out of the engine bay one-handed and came up behind his wife, taking an excited Redmond from her arms. ‘Glad you could make it, Ruby. And right on time.’
The puppy jumped up at her again, his nails scoring the skin on her knee. Ruby winced and grabbed his paws, petting his head. ‘You’re going to be a giant, aren’t you?’
‘Sorry.’ Sam moved forward. ‘He hasn’t learnt any manners yet.’
‘He’s yours?’ She was surprised. She hadn’t expected Sam to be a pet person. Pets seemed so permanent for a man who wasn’t the relationship type.
He picked up the puppy and wiped slobber off his face as it licked him. ‘Yes, he’s mine,’ Sam answered her. ‘I just got him this morning from the rescue centre.’
‘Someone disowned him?’
‘They did more than that.’ His voice deepened with disgust. ‘He was thrown into a wheelie bin with his brothers and sisters.’
‘Oh, you poor thing.’ Instinctively Ruby reached out her hand to stroke between his ears, the move bringing her closer to Sam than she would have liked. ‘What’s his name?’
‘Mutt.’
‘Mutt?’ She scowled at him. ‘You can’t call him that.’
‘I haven’t named him yet. Maybe Shep.’
‘Too passé,’ she said. ‘What about Caesar?’
‘And give him unnecessary illusions of grandeur? There’s only room for one alpha in this pack.’
Ruby rolled her eyes, unable to prevent a smile from forming on her lips. ‘I hope he gives you a run for your money.’
Miller laughed. ‘He’s already got Sam wrapped around his over-large paw, from what I can see.’
‘Looks can be deceiving, Millsy,’ Sam countered. ‘What would you call him?’ he asked Ruby.
Ruby studied the puppy, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. ‘Kong.’
‘Kong?’
The scepticism in his voice made her laugh. ‘He’s going to be enormous,’ she said; ‘you can tell by the ears and the feet.’
Sam turned the dog to face him, holding him at arm’s length. ‘Are you a Kong?’
The puppy barked enthusiastically and Miller laughed. ‘He likes it.’
‘And it’s a hell of a lot better than Mutt,’ Tino drawled. ‘Come on, Red,’ he said, ‘time to get underway.’
‘Ah, wait...’ Ruby trailed off as three pairs of eyes turned towards her. Unbidden, her gaze sought Sam’s. She wanted to say that she had changed her mind about the weekend. That something had come up. Something urgent and completely unavoidable. Only her fuzzy brain couldn’t produce a single excuse that sounded urgent or unavoidable. Especially with Sam looking at her with that half-cocked grin as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Her pregnant pause lengthened into uncomfortable territory, the sun beating down hot and inviting on her head, the waves gently lapping at the side of the hull.
‘Did you forget something?’ Miller asked. ‘We probably have it at the house if you have.’
Ruby had that same embarrassing feeling she’d had two years ago. The one where she made a mountain out of a molehill, thinking that Sam had felt more for her than he really had. The one that had made her sit by the phone all weekend, not even questioning if he’d call, but actually believing that he would.
‘No,’ she said, forcing a smile to her lips. ‘I didn’t forget a thing.’
If Sam wasn’t bothered by having her around this weekend then she wasn’t going to be bothered having him around either. Or at least she wouldn’t show that she was bothered.
* * *
After docking at Tino and Miller’s private jetty, Ruby made a beeline for the state-of-the-art kitchen, fetching two mugs from the kitchen cupboard and reaching for the old-fashioned kettle on the stovetop. ‘Tea?’
‘Tea?’ Miller crinkled her nose in disgust, placing a box of fresh produce on the granite countertop. ‘Is it too early for champagne?’
‘Where do you want these?’ Sam stepped inside with another box of supplies under one arm.
‘Over there,’ Miller said, indicating an empty place on the bench behind Ruby.
Quickly skirting sideways, Ruby sucked in her breath as Sam’s elbow brushed her stomach on his way past.
‘Sorry.’
‘No, I should have...’ Ruby pressed closer against the sink and ducked around him to move to the other side of the bench, ignoring his delicious scent as it wafted into her nose.
‘Great house,’ Sam said easily, and Ruby envied him his composure. Her pulse was beating dangerously fast yet again. ‘I can see why you bought it.’
‘I know. We loved it as soon as we saw it.’ Miller smiled, looking between her and Sam. ‘You know, the place two houses along is up for sale.’
‘That so?’ Sam said.
‘Yep.’ Miller rinsed Redmond’s sipper cup under the tap and stowed it on a shelf. ‘Maybe you should look at buying it. Then, when you find a woman to settle down with, our kids can spend summers together, running back and forth between each other’s houses.’
‘You got it all planned out, Millsy,’ Sam said with an easy smile.
‘It’s the organiser in her,’ Ruby interjected. For some reason Miller’s words had conjured up a picture so sweet it made Ruby’s chest ache. ‘But Sam isn’t interested in relationships. Isn’t that right, Sam?’
Sam took a bottle of water from the fridge, unscrewed the cap and raised it to his lips, his eyes seeing more than she wanted him to see. ‘Depends how good the house is.’
Miller laughed.
Ruby didn’t.
‘And the type of relationship we’re talking about,’ he added softly.
Ruby’s heartbeat picked up at the way he was looking at her, the lid of the kettle she’d been unknowingly fiddling with clattering to the counter as it slipped out of her grasp. Snatching it up, she jammed it back into place. ‘The permanent type, of course.’
He shifted closer to her, subtly hemming her in against the hob. ‘Perhaps I just haven’t met the right woman yet.’
‘Really?’ She gave him a withering look. ‘You’re going to play that hand?’
‘What’s wrong, an
gel? You looking for love and happily-ever-after?’
‘No.’
She absolutely was not looking for that.
‘Ah, well, there goes my plan to ask you to marry me and put me out of my misery.’
Knowing that she only had herself to blame for this conversation, Ruby told herself not to bite. She did anyway. ‘Marry you?’ She nearly choked on the word. ‘I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth and civilisation relied on us to...to...’ She felt her face flush with heat.
‘Procreate?’
She heard the laughter in his voice and her lips clamped together. ‘Exactly!’
‘Oh, well. You can’t blame a man for trying. A word of advice, though...’ He nodded over her shoulder at the kettle. ‘You might want to put some water in that before you boil it. It works better that way.’
Exasperated at how easily he riled her, Ruby glared at his broad back, refusing to admire the width of his shoulders or the narrowness of his hips as he strolled out of the back door.
‘You going to explain all that or do I have to work for it?’ Miller said into the ensuing silence.
Ruby glanced over at her, appalled to realise that she’d forgotten her friend was even in the room with them. ‘What’s to explain?’ she hedged. ‘He likes to provoke me and, fool that I am, I fall for it every time.’
‘I was talking more about the wicked sexual tension between the two of you,’ Miller said, fanning her face. ‘It was a little hot in here for a while.’
Ruby let out a sigh. ‘You’re not going to let up on this, are you?’
‘Of course I will.’ Miller gave her a too-innocent look. ‘If you don’t want to tell me what’s going on between the two of you then I completely respect that.’
‘Fine. We slept together—or, rather, we had sex.’ She winced as Miller’s jaw hit the floor. ‘Yes, you heard me right. And it was against a wall. At the Herzog party.’
There it was, out in the open. No big deal. She was only glad Miller wouldn’t realise it had been her first time. If she knew that then it would totally be a big deal. She’d want to know, why Sam? Why then? And how did Ruby answer that without telling her best friend that no other man had ever affected her as Sam did?
‘The Herzog party? As in the Herzog party? The one anybody who is anybody tries to get an invitation to every year?’
‘Is there any other?’
‘Well, then.’ Miller set her shoulders as if she were about to mine iron ore from a deep quarry. ‘We’re going to need something stronger than tea. Or champagne.’
Ruby groaned into her hands. ‘Please don’t make it out to be more than it is. It’s never happening again.’
Miller placed a crystal tumbler on the bench in front of her. ‘Uh-huh...’
‘It’s not! I swear.’
‘You know I want details.’ Miller poured a measure of Johnny Walker into both their glasses. ‘How? Why? Which wall?’ She grinned as Ruby made a face. ‘How good was it? That kind of thing. I mean, the Ventura boys have a bit of a reputation, so I’d be surprised if it wasn’t good, but...’
‘It wasn’t good.’ Ruby sipped the amber liquid and let the warmth of it settle in the pit of her stomach. ‘It was fantastic. But it was a one-off thing.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Would you stop saying that?’ she griped. ‘It was.’
‘Why?’ Miller sat down on a bar stool and eyed her speculatively.
‘Because, well...why would it happen again?’
‘Because he looks at you like you’re a tinderbox he wants to set a match to and you’re so on edge you look like you need that match.’
‘Miller, be serious!’ Ruby implored. ‘I’m not into sex for the sake of it, you know that. And he’s my boss. There’s only one way that can end. And it’s not well.’
‘Hmm, his being your boss is a bit of an issue, but it’s not the end of the world. Lots of bosses and employees get married.’
‘Are you listening to yourself?’ Ruby asked, her brows nearly hitting her hairline at the hopeful tone in Miller’s voice. ‘You’ve gone from sex against a wall to a white dress and church bells in a matter of seconds. Being married has clearly fried your brain.’
‘Can you imagine how much fun it would be if you married Sam, though?’ Miller’s blue eyes lit up with glee. ‘We could—’
‘Do nothing!’ Ruby used her courtroom voice to cut off her friend’s romantic diatribe before it got started. The last thing she needed was her loved-up friend playing matchmaker or, heaven forbid, putting unwanted ideas into her own head.
‘Okay, maybe that was a step too far, but I am grappling with the concept that you, Ms Proper Lady Lawyer Extraordinaire, had hot, crazy sex at a party!’
‘I know. But can we not talk about it any more? I’m trying to forget it even happened.’
‘Not that you have, have you?’ Miller asked softly.
‘Can I plead the Fifth on that?’
‘No.’ Miller laughed. ‘Australia doesn’t have amendments. And I’m not trying to embarrass you. I just want you to relax a little, Rubes, be happy. You deserve it. Not all men are bad, you know. Sam’s not.’
‘So says the woman who got the last good one.’
‘The last good what?’
‘Apple,’ Ruby filled in quickly as Valentino strolled into the room and slipped his arm around his wife’s waist.
Picking up on her cue not to mention any of this to her husband, Miller gave him a searing kiss to distract him. It worked and Ruby slipped out of the back door unnoticed.
Feeling slightly niggled, she kicked off her espadrilles and stepped onto sun-warmed paving stones, sighing at the blissful invitation of the blue-tiled infinity pool that looked as if it continued into the even bluer waters of Elvina Bay.
Crouching down on her haunches, she trailed her fingers across the surface of the pool, enjoying the cool deliciousness of the water as it trickled between her fingers.
Redmond’s delightful baby laugh caught her attention and she glanced up to see Sam lying on the lawn, pretending to struggle beneath the combined weight of the toddler and the puppy.
‘Okay, okay, you got me.’ He groaned, taking care to keep the puppy from launching himself on Redmond and knocking the baby over. ‘Ouch, Kong, that’s my finger.’ He ruffled the dog’s fur and gave him a playful push. The puppy loved it, launching himself even harder at his new master.
A strange sensation rushed into Ruby’s chest as she watched them play. So he was good with kids and animals. And he was smart. Attractive. Of course he was. All the Ventura men were. It was some freak gene that made them tall, god-like and irresistible to unsuspecting women.
You want to get married and put me out of my misery?
God, he was an ass!
A too tempting ass as he leaned up on one hand, his powerful biceps bunching as he moved, his wide chest the perfect foil for the toddler snuggled up against him. He bent his dark head to Redmond’s, nuzzling his fine baby hair and making him giggle with helpless delight.
That was just unfair, she thought, forcing her gaze back to the pool. He was unfair. Why did he have to come back to Sydney and turn her life upside down? Why did he have to kiss her? Touch her? Make love to her?
Miller’s gentle prodding that she wanted Ruby to be happy played back inside her head. She was happy. Very happy. Or she had been until Sam had blown back into her life! And, while Miller saw Sam as one of the ‘good’ ones, that was only because she was married to his brother. She was blinkered. Ruby had already experienced Sam walking away from her once without a backward glance. She didn’t want that to happen again. Something inside her warned her that she wouldn’t cope as well as she had the first time.
Suddenly realising that Sam was watching her, she let out a slow breath and attempted to marshal her chaotic emotions. S
eeing her still crouched by the pool, the puppy cocked his head, his floppy ear bouncing as he scampered towards her.
‘Watch the pool,’ she cautioned as he bounded along the edge on unstable baby legs. He lapped at her face and she wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. ‘You have to stop doing that,’ she laughed.
Having followed, Sam offered her a hand up, his other wrapped around Redmond’s chubby legs, balancing the toddler high on his hip like a natural.
Ignoring his hand as politely as possible, Ruby stumbled to her feet. ‘I didn’t know you were going to be here this weekend,’ she said on a breathless note, somehow needing him to know that she hadn’t planned this. That she wasn’t chasing him.
‘And wished that I wasn’t,’ he concluded. ‘Am I right?’
Ruby shot him a quick glance, unsure how to respond to that in a way that wouldn’t ratchet the tension between them even higher.
‘Jesus, Ruby,’ he growled under his breath. ‘I’m not going to jump you. Not without an invitation anyway.’
‘All evidence to the contrary,’ she retorted, miffed at his arrogance and the fact that if he was to touch her right now she’d probably dissolve into a puddle of lustful cravings. She hadn’t slept properly since he’d crashed back into her life, and her defences were clearly suffering as a result.
‘That’s a low blow.’ His bedroom brown eyes locked with hers. ‘You wanted that kiss in the cab last night as much as I did.’
‘I’m not going to argue with you, Sam. It’s pointless.’
‘So is pretending that we don’t want each other,’ he said softly.
‘No, it’s not,’ she denied. ‘It makes everything a lot less complicated.’
He threw her a shrewd look. ‘Less complicated or more?’
‘Less,’ she said vigorously. ‘Definitely less.’
‘I don’t know, angel. It’s not less complicated for me. In fact, it’s downright difficult.’
Sam’s hooded gaze travelled down over her throat and breasts that felt heavy and achy, and farther to her bare legs and feet before slowly making its way back to her eyes, heating her up in the process and leaving her in no doubt as to exactly how he found it difficult.
The Billionaire's Virgin Temptation (HQR Presents) Page 10