Business or Pleasure? (6 page)

“Now that you're here it is. You wanna go get lost with me?” he asked, offering her his arm with a show of gallantry.

She smiled at his silly banter. Although he was probably a few years older than her own twenty-eight, he seemed younger and so full of life and energy that she couldn't help but enjoy his attention. “Absolutely,” she said, taking a quick look around for Alec, the Incredible Disappearing Man. “Where're we going?” she asked as Troy began to pull her toward the house.

“The Cave,” he said mysteriously and let out a horror-film cackle.

The Cave turned out to be another patio that was accessed by walking all the way through the house and out another set of doors. The Cave was hopping, and for the next hour or so, Daisy learned how to play a couple of drinking games. Because she'd had to work to put herself through college, she'd always been too busy—and later, too old—to socialize with her fellow students. Tonight, a dozen of her new best friends were doing their best to remedy that.

When someone broke out the supplies to make something called an “inverted margarita,” Daisy took a break and went to find the ladies' room. The party was in full swing, so she had to wait in line for ten minutes before she got her turn, then before she went back to the Cave, she took a quick look around for Alec.

He wasn't hard to find. He was on the front patio, doing what he did best. There he was, looking ultramasculine and confident, leaning against a wall talking to a tall, gorgeous, blond bimbo.

Daisy almost choked on a potent cocktail of anger and self-
doubt. That was her problem right there, all wrapped up in a tiny tropical-print sarong. Maybe if I were more like that, she thought, Alec would've seen me as a woman. Not that she could get taller or blonder or curvier. Just
sexier
…and maybe a little more self-assured.

That's it, she told herself, and wondered why the patio seemed to suddenly spin a little.
I've cracked the code.
Bold, confident, sexy. If she could somehow pull it off, men would slobber at her feet, just like Alec was doing with that flashy blonde right that very minute. I'll do it, she vowed silently, the very next time I have the opportunity.

Which should be sometime before the next ice age.

The blonde moved her perfect body up against Alec's side. He smiled down at his conquest, snapping Daisy out of her reverie. Typical, she thought as she pasted on a smile and headed back into the house. It was exactly what she needed to remember that once this job was complete, Alec was off her Christmas card list forever.

Alec caught the twinkle of Daisy's silver hoop earrings as she turned and sauntered away on those sexy, strappy heels. For the past hour, Alec had been battling with himself, wavering between going to look for her and keeping a safe distance from her. And he'd just about decided that he needed to go find her when she'd appeared on the patio for a moment, then disappeared just as quickly. He wondered for the dozenth time where she'd been for the last hour and if she'd been with Troy. Then he ground his teeth and wondered why he cared so much.

“So what's it going to be?” a soft, feminine voice purred from beside him.

Startled, he looked down to see the overly done-up blonde
gazing at him. He'd been so busy watching Daisy, he'd almost forgotten about her. And that, he thought with a frown, wasn't like him at all.

“What's what going to be, darlin'?” he asked as he glanced back at the doorway where Daisy had just vanished.

“This is definitely going to happen,” she murmured in his ear as she placed one manicured hand on his chest. “But I'm sharing a hotel room with a bunch of girlfriends. It'll have to be your place.”

“Unfortunately,” he said as he tore his gaze away from the doorway and looked back down at the beautiful woman at his side, “I don't think that my roommate would approve. I'll just have to take a rain check.”

He blinked. Had he really just said that? Clearly, he thought as he removed the blonde's hand from his shirt with a shadow of regret, his mind was so preoccupied with Daisy, his natural instincts were failing him. But even so, in the time it took him to walk across the patio, he'd practically forgotten all about the woman, her offer and the rain check. He was much more interested in making sure Troy wasn't doing something that Alec wouldn't approve of—which would be just about anything that had to do with Daisy.

It didn't take long to scan the small cottage. Daisy was nowhere to be found, so Alec stalked out the back door to a smaller patio which was dimly lit by long strings of white Christmas lights. It was easy enough to find her there, all right, but the sight that lay before him made him so mad he had to force himself to breathe.

She was perched at the edge of an old redwood bench, her dress hiked dangerously up to midthigh, her tall heels
making her legs look absurdly long. And good old Troy was kneeling at her feet, caressing that graceful stem of a leg.

He had to hand it to the guy. He was fast. But as Alec covered the distance across the patio, he made some quick plans to slow Troy down permanently.

Daisy's head snapped up as he approached them. “Alec!” she said, her voice unmistakably higher and brighter than it should be.

“Hey, man,” Troy said as he dropped the hem of her dress and stood up. “I didn't know you were here,” he began with a smile.

“I'm sure you didn't.” Alec stared at Troy until his smile died. “Time to go, Daisy,” Alec said with what he thought was remarkable calm as he clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. When she didn't get up, he looked over to see her chin set stubbornly, her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling with an unfamiliar light.

She set a blue tumbler down on the bench beside her with great care even though it appeared to be empty. Alec saw more empty cups scattered about the immediate vicinity, and it gave him a clue as to why her voice was slightly slurred when she said, “Don't be silly. I'm not ready to go yet.”

“Yes, you are.” Considering that he wanted to slug Troy and sling Daisy over his shoulder and take her away from here as fast as he could, Alec was proud of how reasonable he was being.

“But, dude,” Troy said cheerfully. “The night's yet young. Let's go get another drink and—”

“No, thanks. We've stayed too long already.” Alec took Daisy's hand and pulled her to her feet. “We have to go.”

She stood there a moment, looking from Alec to Troy and back again. Then she looked down at her small hand
enclosed in Alec's larger one, and no one was more surprised than he was when he gave her a light, encouraging squeeze.

She looked up at him, and a sweet, simple smile curved her lips before she said, “Oh, all right. You win.”

“Okay,” Troy said genially. “But if you change your minds, we'll be raging all night here. Thanks for coming by,” he said, and gave Daisy a look that made Alec want to put a fist through his big, toothy grin.

“Our pleasure,” Daisy began, but Alec had had enough. Still holding Daisy's hand, he turned and tugged against her resistance until he felt her follow him.

As they made their way back to the main patio, Alec wondered what the hell was happening to the dependable, no-nonsense, bespectacled Daisy he knew—and what the hell was making him feel so protective? Nothing would make him happier than to chalk it up to a brotherly instinct, but since his thoughts about the all-new Daisy Kincaid were far from fraternal, that wouldn't wash. But still, something about her
was
getting to him. So much so that he hadn't snapped up that blond, willing, young thing who even now was doing everything she could to catch his eye as he sped across the patio with Daisy in tow.

Whatever it was, he thought as they hit the sidewalk and the music receded behind them, he definitely did not like it.

“What,” Daisy said, stopping in her tracks mulishly and bringing them to a dead halt, “is your problem?”

“I'm not the one with a problem, my little St. Pauli Girl.
You're
the one with a problem.”

“St. Pauli Girl?” She lifted her cute little snoot into the air
and pulled her hand from his. “If you're referring to the tiny glass of beer I had tonight—”

“Tiny glass? I saw your little cup collection.”

She planted her fists on her hourglassy hips. “What were you doing? Counting my drinks?”

“It was pretty hard to miss.”

She shook her head dismissively. “So what? A few of glasses of beer makes me the queen of the beer garden?”

“We were there for an hour, Daisy.”

This seemed to stump her momentarily, but she recovered. “Well, that doesn't give you the right to haul me out of there like you were on some sort of rescue mission,” she said, her voice rising as she warmed to her topic. “I didn't need rescuing, thank you.”

“It sure looked like you did. I'm no Puritan, but I think a twelve-hour acquaintance isn't quite long enough for Troy to be shaving your legs.”

Daisy looked at him like he'd lost his mind. “Shaving my—” she sputtered. “I spilled some beer. Troy was just being chivalrous by drying my leg off with his shirt.”

“Uh-huh,” Alec said, his anger rising again as he remembered the sight of Daisy and Troy on the patio. “Sounds like a real gentleman.”

She cocked her head to the side, and her curls spilled gracefully over one shoulder. Until this week, Daisy had worn her hair in a tight twist every single day. This week, for some reason, she'd decided to let her dark, shiny, chestnut curls down. It was driving him nuts.

And just like that, an image flashed through Alec's mind unbidden, an image of him burying his fingers in her hair, tipping her head back and kissing her until she—

“You know what your problem is, Alec?” she demanded, wrenching him from his thoughts. “You don't trust anybody. And that's just sad.”

“Of course I trust people,” he answered quickly, but knew in the very moment he said it that he'd be hard-pressed to name anyone if pushed to do so.

“Liar. And your suspicious nature ruined my plan for tonight.”

“You had a plan?”

“Yes, I did, and no thanks to you….” She tipped her head to the other side, considering him with an expression that made him uneasy.

As he waited for her to come clean with her big plan, he tried not to notice the glint of her earrings as they reflected the lights of the harbor behind him or the press of her breasts against the dark fabric of her dress or the way she tugged at her lower lip with her teeth as she regarded him.

“Ah, what the hell,” she said, taking a step closer. “I'm going to Plan B.”

And with that, she went up on her toes, placed her fingertips on his shoulders and gently touched her soft, warm lips to his.

T
heir lips met in a tangle of what Alec knew with a rush of clarity was pent-up anticipation, and that knowledge sent a bolt of desire ripping through him that shocked him right down to his shoelaces.

He wanted to pull her closer, taste her sweetness, take control but something told him to hold back, so he merely let his mouth follow hers down the warm, inviting path of least resistance—and let his hands blaze a trail of their own. Both palms skimmed Daisy's narrow waist and stroked the fine muscles of her back before he pushed one hand into that tempting mass of curly hair and the other slipped lower and pulled her against the terrible pressure that was growing with each soft breath she exhaled against his lips.

It was, he realized, just like he'd been imagining it would be.

After all the years they'd worked side by side, when had he
begun to daydream about this? he wondered with a vague sense of surprise. Could it have been since the beginning? Since that very first day when she'd come into his office with the quickest, sweetest laugh he'd ever heard? But then Daisy's lips parted beneath his, and the tempting mystery of her opened up to him and he forgot about everything but the woman in his arms.

At the first coy slide of her warm, wet tongue against his, the desire he'd felt earlier settled solidly, achingly low in his belly. The weight of it made him deepen the kiss, made him tighten his hold on her, made his mouth slanting against hers feel almost desperate. Her sweet scent mingled with the cool, damp ocean air around them, a heady combination that intensified as her curvy little body crowded closer and her soft breasts pressed up against his chest and stole his breath away.

Their tongues began to wage a sweet battle for control as her breath fanned lightly against his cheek and the tiniest of moans slipped from between her lips. The soft noise rippled through him and he felt his control slipping, felt himself being pushed to a limit he didn't even know he had and—

C-r-a-s-h!

The unmistakable sound of shattering glass and the laughter of a group of partygoers spilling out onto the sidewalk behind them was enough to pull Alec from his haze, enough to remind him that Daisy, too, had been drinking tonight. He pulled away from her, dropped his hands to his sides and took a half step back. For God's sake, if he didn't put a stop to this, there was no doubt they'd end up in bed together. And even though that sounded like a spectacular plan right now, he knew Daisy. Tonight she might be acting like she wanted this, but tomorrow she would regret it.

The sounds of the party grew louder as his mind grew
clearer. The space where his brain used to be was still fogged by desire and his body still pulsed with need, but as he slowly became aware of the sweet, yeasty smell of the beer that clung to Daisy, he realized that if he'd taken advantage of her state of drunkenness, he would've been the biggest chump in history.

Before he spoke, he looked down into her pretty, dark-eyed gaze and saw desire smoldering there—the same desire that he knew was still burning inside him. He swallowed hard and clenched his fists to keep himself from pulling her right back up against him.

“Daisy,” he said quietly, “that was a bad idea.” Dammit, had he really just heard his voice crack?

“It was?” Her tempting, kiss-swollen lips curved into a tipsy smile. “Why?”

It
was
a bad idea, he told himself again as he stared down into her lovely velvet-brown eyes. She'd had too much to drink. He was her boss. They had a job to do. They were stuck on this island together for three months. And she wasn't even his type.

At least she didn't used to be.

“For one thing,” he said, “you're drunk.”

For a moment she was silent, as if considering his claim. Then she smiled and weaved toward him a little, reaching out at the last moment to brace her hands against his chest. “Yes. You're right.”

He almost groaned as she let her hands slip seductively down his chest, curving her fingertips into his stomach muscles on the way down. “That's it,” he ground out as he grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms down to her sides.

“Oh, c'mon.” Daisy pouted. “Don't be a killjoy.”

She was a good pouter. Adorable, in fact. Her lips formed a perfect bow, her eyes begged him to let her have her way and she thrust one hip out so sweetly he almost wanted to give her what she wanted. But he couldn't. Not tonight.

Tonight it was his misfortune to be the sane and sober one for both of their sakes.

“Daisy,” he said as he set her away from him. “I may not be a gentleman in all cases, but even I won't stoop this low.”

The words hit her gradually, but they had an impact far beyond what he'd intended. He felt like a bully as he watched the confusion gather in her eyes, as her silly smile dissolved, as her body straightened and she crossed her arms loosely beneath the breasts he was now longing to touch.

Stop it, Mackenzie.

“Fine,” she said, and there was an unmistakable tinge of hurt in her voice as she turned and headed in the wrong direction. “We should go then.”

With a sigh, Alec followed her, reaching her in three long strides. “I appreciate your cooperation,” he said as he put an arm around her shoulder and steered her in a half circle, “but our cart is this way.”

She sagged against him as they walked, and he gritted his teeth at the sensation of her body slipping relentlessly along his from shoulder to hip. Their fit, he noticed grimly, was absolutely perfect.

Alec helped her climb unsteadily into the cart, then drove home as fast as that stupid electric engine would take them. His mission? To get her safely into bed—alone—so he could start to formulate the perfect speech for tomorrow morning. Of course, he had no idea what he was going to say. How could he when he didn't even know what he wanted?

He glanced over at Daisy and wondered what she was thinking behind all that silence. She was probably a little embarrassed, which would be a totally understandable reaction. After all, if she'd been sober, she'd never have kissed him that way. It just wasn't her style to do such a thing on a dark sidewalk with him. She was too levelheaded, too sweet, too nice and smart for that—and for him.

“I've never been much of a drinker,” Daisy said defiantly as she waited for Alec to open the door to their suite.

“Really?” He tried—and failed miserably—to keep the amusement out of his tone.

Luckily she was pretty looped, so she didn't notice. “It's true,” she said, and brushed past him to enter the room.

He flipped on the light as her heels click-clacked across the tile floor, then he closed the door and turned around just in time to see her perfect little behind in its tight black wrapper headed straight for his room.

“Whoa, whoa. Hold it right there.” He came up behind her, put both hands on her shoulders and steered her toward her own room. Feeling as he did right now, having her anywhere near his bed would definitely strain his chivalry to the breaking point.

She sat down on her bed with a plop, causing her cat to leap to the floor in a fit of hissing, its displeasure at being woken up evident.

“Sorry,” she said, but so quietly he had to strain to hear her. She fell back against the pillows, curled up and closed her eyes. “I didn't mean to scare you away.”

Alec tugged off her sandals one at a time and thought about helping her undress but immediately discarded the idea as too dangerous. She looked so pretty, her hair splayed over
the pillow, her hand curled next to her face, the barest of smiles on her lips.

Lord help him, he was attracted to her even now. He had to get the hell out of there, so he pulled the blanket over her and headed for the door. Seconds later, the cat jumped back up on the bed, shot Alec a reproachful glare, curled himself up next to Daisy and fell instantly asleep.

Too bad Alec wasn't going to be nodding off that easily tonight. Not with the memory of Daisy in his arms, not with the feel of her lips and the pressure her body permanently tattooed on his mind.

As he turned off the light and closed her door quietly, he thought about the words she'd mumbled just before she'd fallen asleep. And although he knew she'd meant them for her disgruntled cat, they could've easily applied to him. She
had
scared him—and in a way he'd never been before in his life.

Because for the first time, Alec Mackenzie was attracted to a woman who made him smile, who made him think and who made him want to be a different kind of man.

 

Daisy didn't want to wake up, but eventually the roar of Bam Bam's normally soothing purr forced her to crack an eye open. Then she immediately pulled a pillow over her face to drown out both the noise and the hideous amount of sunlight pouring into her room.

“Why do I feel so awful?” she mumbled to Bam Bam from beneath the pillow. “Surely those two glasses of wine at dinner didn't…”

As the memories trickled in, her stomach sank.
Ohmigosh.
She sat straight up in bed, then cursed because the sudden movement made her head pound even harder.

She'd thrown herself at Alec—and he'd thrown her right back.

A strange sense of unreality fell over her, making her wonder for a moment if she'd really done what she thought she'd done. But she had only to close her eyes to find the answer. She could still feel the sensations of the silken pressure of his lips, the delicious slide of his tongue, the rough texture of his skin under her fingertips. Oh, yes, she thought with a pained groan. Yes, she had indeed kissed Alec, thoroughly and completely. And it had been better than all her many imaginings had prepared her for.

As she swung her legs around and touched her bare feet to the cool tile floor, her memories of the party flowed back unrelentingly. She remembered her decision to, at the very next opportunity, be brazen and sexy like one of Alec's bimbos. She remembered her careless consumption of beer and her wholehearted participation in all those drinking games. She even vaguely remembered her foolish decision to put it all on the line once and for all and kiss Alec. And then she remembered the cherry on top of her humiliation sundae: his firm rejection and his pronouncement that being with her would be “stooping too low.”

She let her heavy, throbbing head fall into her waiting hands. Daisy had always had an active imagination. Over the past year or so, she'd created hundreds of short films in her mind that depicted—some in graphic detail—how an intimate encounter with Alec would go. But not one of them had ended with him telling her in no uncertain terms that she was so unappealing to him that he couldn't possibly lower himself to be with her.

Daisy got up, swayed a little, then began to pace the room slowly in her bare feet. Ever since she'd met him, Alec had
been plowing through women like a wheat harvester. She'd put dozens of his bimbos' names into her Rolodex, only to pull and chuck each card in a matter of weeks. It was his pattern. Tried and true.

She pulled back the curtains and winced as more bruising light flooded the room. So what in the hell was wrong with
her?
Was she so repellent, so unpleasant and unattractive that he couldn't even bring himself to have a
meaningless fling
with her?

Apparently, the answer was yes.

Her anger flared and continued to blaze hotly, making her embarrassment and hurt feelings dim by comparison.

This was it. What had happened last night really was the last log she would ever allow Alec to toss into the fire that had finally succeeded in burning her self-respect to a cinder. After all, he couldn't possibly make his feelings about her any more clear. Sure, he'd said he needed her during their showdown in her kitchen, but that was in a work sense
and nothing more.
Last night had proved that, hadn't it?

And although she'd said it before, she knew right down to her bones that this time it was different. This time, she promised herself as she stalked to the bathroom and twisted on the shower's hot water valve, her crush was truly extinguished. Never again would she risk her heart that way. Not with Alec.

No matter what.

 

Alec heard Daisy before he saw her.

She was laughing, and the familiar, comforting sound of it rippled through him, making him smile in spite of his dark mood. When he opened the door, he saw that she was talking on the phone in the suite's kitchenette, the receiver
pressed between her shoulder and ear as she reached up to put something into one of the cabinets.

While he'd visited the job sites this morning, he'd spent a considerable amount of energy convincing himself that what had happened between them was a fluke. In fact, until this moment, he'd been almost positive that his attraction to her would seem silly in the light of day. But that wasn't exactly what happened.

What happened was that he was frozen in place as he took in the enticing length of her—from her tanned, toned calves that flexed as she tipped up onto her toes, to her lovely behind encased in khaki shorts, to her light-green top stretched tight over her finely muscled back and shoulders. He shoved his hands into his pockets and willed the damnable tightness in his groin to melt away before she turned around and caught him staring.

“I miss you, too, Tom,” she said in a fond voice as she took more groceries out of the bags on the counter.

His head snapped up.
Tom?
She missed someone named
Tom?
he thought with a frown.
Who the hell was Tom?

“Well, you can always come out here. By boat, I'm just two hours away.” She paused, then laughed again. “That's right. It's just that you're such a hunk,” she said as she leaned over and put something under the sink, “that I forgot you get seasick.”

So Daisy's Tom was a hunk who couldn't hold down his cookies on a little boat ride? Alec thought as he tried not to admire her exceptional backside. If Tom was as big a wuss about flying, it would effectively eliminate him as competition—at least for the next few months.