J ayne had focused on work when she’d returned to their suite. She’d changed out of the wraparound silk skirt—not into the one-of-a-kind negligee that Adam had so thoughtfully provided, but a large T-shirt she’d picked up in the gift shop after Adam had left with Ray.
Jayne realized that the bridge wasn’t appearing. She’d leaped off the precipice and had been in a free fall. But she was recovering now. She’d say it was moonlight madness or the sea breeze. A temporary aberration in an otherwise sane person. She and Adam could never be lovers, because she knew without a shadow of a doubt that nothing could ever compete with Powell International in Adam’s life. Especially not a lover.
Earlier she’d had some hope in her heart that she could teach Adam to love her, but not anymore.
“Is your head still bothering you?” he asked from the doorway. He was hidden in shadow and she couldn’t really see him, just hear his deep, sultry voice. And sense the tension that emanated from him.
An answering tautness sprang to life inside her. She shook her head. “I lied. I didn’t have a headache.”
He stepped out onto the balcony and leaned next to her at the railing. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking to her like a relaxed man with nothing but time on his hands.
“Why?” he asked. There was a dangerous softness to his tone that she knew from hearing it in the office meant he was close to losing his temper.
She didn’t place too much importance on that. She probably should have stayed and acted her role for Ray and Didi, but she couldn’t. She’d been exposed there in his arms. And if Adam had been watching her instead of Ray, Jayne feared he’d have seen her heart in her eyes. “I needed to get away.”
“From me?”
She nodded. From him and from herself. But there’d been no escaping her own thoughts. So she’d tried to work, and then she’d tried to call her mom, figuring that Mona would know how to keep a man like Adam in her life. But her mother hadn’t been home, and in the end Jayne hadn’t been able to leave a message.
Adam watched her with an intensity that made her remember his hands on her breasts earlier. She forced her thoughts back to the conversation. “I didn’t want to talk to Angelini. I don’t think I’m cut out for this, Adam.”
“You’re talking about becoming my lover.”
“At least you didn’t say mistress.”
He cursed under his breath and pivoted to face the sea, his hands braced on the railing and his head bent. This was the Adam she wanted to wrap in her arms and comfort. Except she knew now the price was too high, and that she wasn’t to pay it for a few weeks with him.
“I knew it. What the hell happened?”
How could she explain without revealing her own vulnerability where he was concerned? “I just got a wake-up call.”
“Am I supposed to follow that?”
“I guess not. I think the island was working its magic on me. I was falling for the romance of the legend of Perla Negra. And casting you in the role of a swashbuckling hero.”
He rested one lean hip against the railing, his expression now forbidding and dark. And she shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
“But now you’ve decided I’m not a hero?”
She’d hurt him, she realized. “I think you’d make a wonderful hero, Adam. Just not for me.”
“Why not?”
“I need more than you can give me.”
“Jayne—”
She reached up and touched his lips to stop the words. “Don’t say anything yet. I’m not even sure what I need, but I know it’s more than you give your women. And I thought I could make you understand that.”
She dropped her hand and tilted her head to study him in the moonlight.
“What happened to change your mind?”
“That kiss with Ray watching. I forgot that even though you want me in your bed, we are playing a part.”
“Dammit, Jayne I wasn’t playing to Angelini.”
She wanted to believe him, but she knew better. Adam was always aware of everyone and everything. “I’m not mad about it. I’d have done the same thing in your position.”
“How gracious you are. What if I wanted to make love to you out here on the balcony?”
“I’d have to draw the line there. I just told you I’m having a hard time keeping up with the pretense.”
“Exactly what is your difficulty? The hero thing?”
“Yeah, the hero thing.”
“There isn’t another woman in the world I’d have this conversation with,” Adam told her, exasperated.
“Should I be flattered?” she asked mockingly.
“Hell, yes. Dammit, Jayne. For the first time I’m willing to break my own company rules.”
“I know. It means something, but not enough. Even though I’m blaming the island resort, that’s not what’s wrong with me.”
“What is it then?”
“I believe in love and want a family. And you don’t.”
“Would it help if I lied to you?”
“God, no.”
“Then I don’t know what you want. I do know if we both crawl into that bed together the point will be moot.”
“Really?”
He raised one eyebrow. “Now who’s not being honest?”
Swallowing carefully around her tight throat, she realized that maybe that was why she’d been standing out here waiting for him to return. She wanted to force him to make a decision. And maybe force herself to make one, as well.
“You’re right. I guess that’s why I left before.”
“Don’t think about it too much, chère. This isn’t something either of us is used to or can control.”
“It’s magic, isn’t it, Adam?”
He pulled her into his arms and lowered his head. “You’re the magic.”
Adam scooped Jayne up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. Her mouth moved under his with a tentative sweetness he knew was branding him deep in his soul. She let him set the pace, and that was so different from the feisty woman he’d come to know. But he didn’t question it.
He set her on her feet and framed her face in his hands. Forcing her head back with the motion of his, he compelled her mouth open. Her tongue greeted his with a tentative foray, but Adam was past the point of foreplay.
He had an erection that was almost painful, and he desperately needed to be inside of Jayne’s body. He needed to spread her bare on the bed and then taste every inch of her from head to heels. And only when she’d reached the same fevered pitch that burned through him would he move up over her and claim her as his own.
He left her lips and let his mouth slide down the side of her neck, encountering that thick terry-cloth robe once again. He set her on her feet next to the bed and reached out to turn on the lamp on the nightstand.
He undid the sash at her waist and pulled back the terry cloth, expecting to find her slim, curvy body. Instead he found a large T-shirt with the resort’s logo printed on it.
“What are you wearing?” he asked, the clothing jarring him from the sensual spell he was weaving them both in.
She shrugged. “Something to sleep in.”
“I know I ordered a nightgown for you.”
“You ordered something for me to wear to bed with a lover.”
“Then why aren’t you wearing it?” he asked. But in his heart he knew the answer. She’d thought he’d used her to make Ray believe they were a couple. She’d thought he could call passion and interest from his body at will. She’d thought he’d been using her, and she didn’t want to be exposed in front of him.
That hurt him in a place he didn’t even like to acknowledge he had—his heart. So he ignored that and focused instead on the woman. He would use his skills as a lover to make up for the hurt and pain he’d caused her.
“Why are you making a federal case out of this, honeybun?” she asked in that smart-ass way of hers.
He had to hide a smile because he knew she sassed him only when she was uncertain. And he didn’t want Jayne to be unsure of him in the bedroom, or of herself. To his knowledge she hadn’t dated anyone in the last eight months since she’d started working for him. He tucked that tidbit away for later.
Right now, he set about seducing her with all the skill he’d learned since he was a boy on the cusp of manhood. Skills he’d first honed to keep from feeling alone, and then later used so that he didn’t have to feel anything other than physical gratification with women. Lately those skills had made him feel jaded. But tonight he was glad for the knowledge, because the only thing that mattered was giving the most pleasure he could to Jayne.
He leaned down, scraping his teeth against the side of her neck and then nibbling at the tender flesh there. Her taste was addictive. Instead he lingered there as if he’d been famished for a long time and she was a full-course meal.
Her hands clutched at his shoulders, fingernails scoring him through the cloth of his shirt. He lifted his head and started unbuttoning it. When he shrugged out of it he felt her appreciative gaze on his body.
“Like what you see?”
“It’s okay,” she said, and when he started toward her with mock menace, she giggled. Really giggled, and despite the ache in his groin, he felt lighter than ever before.
He scooped her up in his arms and dropped her on the bed. “Let’s see if I can change your mind, shall we?”
“It’s going to take some work on your part,” she said, rolling onto her side and propping her head up on her elbow.
“I’d probably work harder if you showed me a little flesh.”
She bit her lip and then lifted the hem of her shirt a little so that it rested on the top of her thighs. “How’s this?”
“You’ve got great legs, chère. But…”
She lifted the shirt quickly and flashed him. He had a brief image of a nest of brown, curly hair at the apex of her thighs and a smooth flat stomach. Unless he was mistaken he’d seen a birthmark on her left hip. He reached under the shirt and rubbed the spot.
“What’s this?”
“Tattoo,” she said.
“Show me?”
“What are you going to show me?”
“I’m already bare-chested.”
“So, convince me,” she said.
He sat sideways on the bed, his hips resting next to her stomach. He took her hand from where it gripped the hem of her shirt, bringing it to his mouth. He nibbled the tip of each finger and then kissed the palm of her hand.
He took her hand and stroked it down his body, rubbing her fingers over his sensitive skin. He hardened even more and tried to shift on the bed to relieve some of the pressure between his legs. Damn. He should have removed his pants.
While her hand explored his chest, her fingernails scraped down the center of his body. He lifted her T-shirt and then bent down to examine her tattoo. It was a pretty little flower that wasn’t open, but tightly closed, and a drop of rain lay on the leaf below it.
He traced the pattern with his tongue. Later he’d question her about it, but now he was too close to her body. He could smell the scent of her arousal, and a red mist settled over him. He wanted her, dammit.
He ached to have her.
“Convinced?” he asked, but his voice now was little more than a growl.
She looked up at him from under her lashes. “I’m naked under this shirt.”
“Hot damn.”
She threw her head back and laughed. He gave up all pretense of playing games, shedding his pants and briefs in one quick motion.
He took the hem of her shirt and pulled it up over her head, tossing it aside. His breath caught in his throat when she lay spread before him in the golden glow of the lamp. She shone with an effervescence he wanted to claim for himself. But he knew at best all he’d have were these moments in her bed.
First Adam caressed her with his eyes and his words. “You’re the most exquisite woman I’ve ever seen.”
And when he looked at her the way he was now, she felt as if she really were. For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel plain and ordinary. A flush spread over her body and she pushed her shoulders back against the bed, thrusting her breasts into greater prominence.
“Your skin is like the sunrise, warm and golden. And my fingers ache to touch you.”
“I ache to be touched,” she replied.
He smiled softly in acknowledgment. Then he bent over her, tracing the line of her body with his hands. His touch was so light it felt like a breeze, and she thought she was imagining it. But when he paused to explore her belly button she knew it was real.
He licked a path straight down her center, but when he reached her pubic hair he turned his attention to her thigh, nibbling his way down her left leg and then back up her right.
He avoided the areas of her body that ached most for his contact. Her nipples stood erect waiting for his mouth, but each time he came close he didn’t touch them. She writhed on the bed.
He stopped and lingered at her tattoo. With his tongue he traced the pattern again, over and over until she reached down, tunneling her fingers through his hair and holding him to her.
Her tattoo was a big part of who she was—a reminder that she never wanted to be a blossom that had bloomed too many times, like her mother. Jayne had had it done when she was seventeen. It had been painful, but she’d learned that most things in life were.
Adam lifted his head, watching her. He palmed both of her breasts, rubbing their centers in a circular motion until her hips lifted from the bed. His hands moved downward then, skimming her sides and squeezing her hips.
She was helpless to do anything but lie there like a sexual feast prepared for his delight. He stood over her like a god from ancient times. He was like a powerful and successful warrior, she realized, and as she studied him she saw another scar. Unlike the small mark near his nipple, this one ran across his lower belly and down his hip.
She touched the scar gently, tracing over lines that were white with age. He reached down and moved her hand away, bringing her touch instead to his pectorals. How many times had she sat in the boardroom and imagined opening his shirt and touching him?
Now she could. And she did, leaving no area unexplored. She scored his chest with his fingernails when he reached the center of her body, tracing a path with one blunt finger, then dipping inside to test her warmth.
He stretched her carefully, adding a second finger to her opening. She clenched around him, needing more. He bent and she felt the brush of his breath for a second before his tongue tickled her bud.
His fingers moved inside her and his tongue continued its relentless assault until her hips bucked and she grabbed his head, holding him to her hot body. Her orgasm when it broke over her left her convulsing around him.
Sweat gleamed on her skin and she throbbed from head to toe. She tugged him up over her, skimming her hands down his back. “My turn.”
She pushed against him until he was on his back, then knelt next to him on the bed. She kissed him first, exploring that bold, sensual mouth. She could taste herself on him, and it made her feel a little wicked and naughty. And deep in her center she felt an answering pulse.
She scratched his small nipple carefully with her fingernail. He closed his eyes and then reached for her hand, smoothing open her palm and rubbing it over his nipple the way he always caressed her. She watched as his own back arched and his hips jerked toward her.
She took his hard length in her hand. He was hot to her touch and hard. Grasping him at the root, she circled him with her hand and stroked him.
She brought her other arm down and reached between his legs to cup him, squeezing gently until she felt a spurt of moisture at his tip. She rubbed at it with her finger.
Glancing up at him, she realized he was watching her. She lifted her finger to her lips and licked away his taste.
Something primitive lit in his eyes and he rolled over, taking her beneath him. He pinned her to the bed with his hips, his member hot and hard at her entrance. She groaned at the feel of him there and couldn’t help thrusting her hips toward him.
He held her still and rubbed his length against her. It felt good, but she was still so empty, and desperately needed him inside her.
With a muttered curse, he pushed away from her. “Are you on the pill?”
She blinked a few times before she understood what he was asking. “Yes.”
“Thank God. I hate condoms.”
“Me, too,” she said. She preferred skin to skin. Especially with Adam.
“I’m healthy,” he muttered as he shifted on the bed. He draped her legs over his arms and pushed them back toward her body. “Okay?”
It was way more than okay, but she couldn’t speak. He was at her entrance, pushing inside her. He thrust forward until he was fully seated. She relaxed her lower body, trying to take him deeper, and was rewarded when he slipped in farther.
He kissed her, his tongue thrusting into her mouth in the same rhythm as his body took hers. She was on fire and there was little she could do but lay beneath him, an instrument of his pleasure. She’d never had an orgasm more than once in an evening and didn’t expect it to be different with Adam.
But then she felt that tingling at the center of her body that signaled one was coming. She gripped Adam’s shoulders, digging her nails into his back as her entire body started to throb and clench around him. When she came this time lights flashed before her eyes, and she felt Adam’s body empty into hers at the moment consciousness dimmed.
He roared her name and then continued to thrust a few more times before pulling her into his arms and rolling to his side.
She couldn’t think and could barely breathe. But her heart overflowed with emotions and she realized that despite what she’d said earlier at dinner, having a family was no longer her heart’s desire. Having Adam in her life forever was.