Lou knew her father had been confused at her
behavior and felt a little compassion for him. After all, it wasn’t
his fault that she’d allowed him to boss her around all these
years. Still, the time had come for James to see his daughter as an
adult—not a recalcitrant child in need of his constant supervision.
Besides, it was hard to keep up the compassion when he’d been so
damned belligerent.
Truth be told, at first the thought of the
press following her around had given Lou pause as well. But then
inspiration had struck and she’d decided that she could use her
father’s infernal stubbornness to her own advantage. Sam wouldn’t
like attention from the media, but what better way to showcase her
new life? Her newfound independence?
Obviously it would take more than running
away from her wedding to wake up James Honeycutt. If he wanted to
sic the press on her…then he’d best be prepared to deal with the
consequences.
Lou indulged herself in a wicked grin and
relished her own naughtiness. Whether it was fate or folly, Lou had
decided to give them an eyeful.
“
Sam? Sam?” Mona whined
impatiently in his ear. “Are you there?”
Sam dragged his gaze away from the pool—Lou
lying beside the pool, specifically—and attempted to wrestle his
thoughts back to his telephone conversation. “Yeah, I’m here. Fill
me in.”
“
I’ve already done that.
What’s with you?”” Mona paused. “Are you sick?”
Just sick in the head, Sam thought, utterly
disgusted with his inability to think straight. He drew back from
the window and plopped into a chair. “No, I’m not sick,” he
snapped. “Tell me again.”
“
Sorry. Can’t,” Mona
replied. “My psychic is on line three—”
Irritation flashed through Sam. “I don’t give
a damn about your psychic, Mona—”
“
Trust me, Sam. At a dollar
ninety-nine a minute, it’s your best interest if I call you back.
Bye.” Click. She was gone.
A dollar ninety-nine a minute? His best
interest? He mentally tallied how long he’d been on the phone with
Mona and swore hotly. God only knew how long she’d been on the
phone with the supposed psychic before he’d called. Note to self,
Sam thought darkly-kill Mona.
Sam pulled a cola from the mini fridge and
snagged a Fudgy-Nutty cake, then plopped down onto the bed. The
late afternoon sun streamed through his window, painting a gold
spectrum on the serviceable beige carpet. The faint hum of the air
conditioner provided soothing white noise to his turbulent
thoughts.
As far as the first part of Lou’s adventure
went, Sam supposed it had been an unquestionable success. Lou had
more than enjoyed the manatees—she’d been moved by them. Her pretty
blue eyes had alternately shone with enthusiasm and softened with
concern. She’d taken to the water like a fish and, though he knew
after several hours of swimming, she had to have been exhausted,
Lou hadn’t uttered a single complaint. She dove into her adventure
with a verve he found not only refreshing, but contagious.
Naturally, Sam found a degree of enjoyment
from hosting adventures. Despite the fact that he’d become a little
cynical and jaded about it all, he still derived pleasure from
trying new things as much as anyone. And, of course, it always
pleased him when a client came away from an adventure
satisfied.
But the simple, unadulterated pleasure he
felt today with Lou had been completely out of his realm of
experience. In addition, his own pleasure seemed somehow to be
linked to hers and that had given him pause—even frightened him a
little.
That simply wasn’t supposed to happen.
Rather than think about it, Sam attempted to
force his thoughts in a different direction.
His willpower crumbled though because, as
soon as he got up, his feet carried him back to the window. To look
at Lou.
His groin tightened as a bolt of lust zapped
his blood. Annoyed at the reaction, Sam shifted…closer to the
window.
A light breeze ruffled her gold ringlets—Sam
had the perpetual urge to twine those curls around his fingers—and
the sun gilded her pale skin, giving her an almost ethereal glow.
Surprisingly long, shapely legs dangled over the pool’s edge as she
wiggled her toes in the water. Her breasts, two creamy swells,
pushed above the abbreviated scrap of silky fabric Lou called a
swimsuit, temping him beyond reason.
Sam further tortured himself by imagining her
topless, then went another step by visualizing himself between her
thighs, his mouth tugging at a rosy nipple. At that precise moment,
Lou arched back, seemingly relishing the kiss of nature on her
skin. Sam groaned in agony.
A man with any sense would move away from the
window, would put as much distance between himself and the
temptation that he could possibly manage.
Sam, therefore, deemed himself a world-class
idiot as he hurriedly drew on his swim trunks and hustled to the
pool.
A prickle of excitement made Lou’s spine
tingle. For the past ten minutes, she’d felt as though someone were
watching her. To Lou’s way of thinking, that could mean one of two
things—either a peeping Tom lurked in the bushes…or the paparazzi
had run her to the ground.
Intuition indicated the latter.
Another little tingle worked its way through
Lou and she inwardly jumped for joy. Oh, this couldn’t be any
better!
She and Sam—who’d naturally returned to his
room the moment they arrived back at the hotel, Lou remembered with
a perturbed frown—would be leaving early in the morning for Key
West. Sam had argued that they could complete every item on her
list right here in Tampa, but Lou needed to be on the move.
Besides, why would she want to stay in one
place on her adventure? Fat lotta fun that would be. Honestly, for
a man who made his living through adventure, getting him to
accommodate her rather mundane wishes had been like pulling a tooth
from an outraged alligator. Nevertheless, he’d finally acquiesced
to her request and promised to see to the arrangements.
A rustling sound came from the bushes,
confirming Lou’s earlier deduction. She thought she heard the click
of a camera shutter, but couldn’t be sure. Oh, hell, Lou lamented
silently. If only she’d brought those damned cigarettes down here!
If only she had a beer, or even a man to flirt with.
Briefly Lou entertained the idea of pulling
off her bikini top, but quickly disregarded the idea as ludicrous.
She wanted to shock her father, not give him a heart attack; and
she shuddered to think of what poor unsuspecting Frank in the
publicity department would have to go through were she to be
photographed in the buff. The thought made her grin.
Despite all those reasons, though, Lou simply
lacked the nerve.
But, oh, how she wished she didn’t! She
wanted to be naughty, dammit. Just for a little while. Was that
really too much to ask? Lou had grown tired of her image as the
sweet little girl on the snack-cake package. That’s what the entire
country through of her—her father included—and that same image had
led to the predicament she found herself in now.
Well, Lou thought, her eyes narrowing with
determination, she’d decided to give the press and James Honeycutt
an eye-opener and by damn she meant to do it. Lou bit her lip. But
how?
The “how” chose that unsuspecting moment to
walk out and smile at her. Lou wrestled her own grin under
control.
“
Decide to swim after all?”
she asked, reveling in the warm and jittery sensation her adventure
guide’s mere presence evoked.
Sam spread a towel onto the chair beside
hers, then sauntered toward her. His dark brown hair, wavy and
slightly mussed, looked like burnished bronze in the afternoon
light. Though his lips were curved into a semi-smile, his
expression looked particularly grim.
“
Yeah. I need to cool
off.”
With that, he ran a couple of feet, then
arched over the water and split the crystalline surface in a
perfect, near splashless dive.
Mercy, the man was magnificent. Grace in
motion, she thought again, mesmerized by his sheer physical
strength and conditioning. Lou’s fingers literally itched with the
need to skim those muscles, learn them, to see if they felt as
smooth and hard as they appeared. Lou knew that she shouldn’t be
lusting after him this way, but for reasons more powerful than
common sense, she did all the same. What’s more…she liked it.
Sam surfaced at her knees. Almost between
them, actually. Were she inclined—and she was, though she
refrained—she could have easily wrapped her legs around him.
If the look on Sam’s face were any
indication, he’d figured that little notion out as well. Lou felt
the heat of his gaze as it traced her body from her ankles to her
lips, pausing just long enough at certain integral parts of her
anatomy to make her breathing steadily increase and her pulse
race.
“
C-cool now?” Lou asked,
suddenly on fire herself.
Sam’s smoldering gaze glided up to hers.
“No.”
Lou gulped. Well, that answered that
question. He definitely was attracted to her. The thought made Lou
blush from the inside out.
“
I’m a little…warm…myself.”
Vaguely the sound of the camera shutter clicking penetrated Lou’s
lust-fogged brain. Rational thought fled and her body reacted. “I
need to get wet.”
With that, Lou slid from the side of the
pool. Her thighs grazed his waist, her breasts his chest as Lou
slipped into the water. Sam’s hands instantly went to her waist,
holding her not against him, but not away. Though every part of her
longed to press herself against him, Lou didn’t. She’d let him make
the call. Tension vibrated off him in waves. She watched the
muscles work in his throat as he swallowed, felt his gaze travel to
her lips. Though only a few seconds could have passed in the
interim, for Lou time stood still.
Her own gaze had journey to his beautifully
sculpted lips. Had she ever craved a kiss like this? Lou wondered,
half out of her mind with want. Oh, to feel his body against
hers…Of its volition, Lou’s tongue darted out and swept her lower
lip.
“
Aw, hell,” Sam groaned,
then slanted his lips over hers.
Lou’s thoughts fragmented. The heat of his
amazingly soft lips as they melted with hers liquefied her limbs
and completely shut down every thought process. She couldn’t
think…but she could feel. His tongue traced the seam of her lips
and it never occurred to Lou not to open for him. She couldn’t wait
to taste him, to see if his kiss would be everything she’d
imagined.
It was more. So much more.
Sam’s tongue swept into her mouth, exploring
every contour, exposing every vulnerable spot. In and out, he dove
repeatedly, then suckled her tongue, and started the whole
mind-numbing erotic process over again. Lou thought she would
surely expire from the pleasure.
At some point, and she had no idea when,
she’d threaded her fingers through his hair and hooked one leg
around his thigh.
Seemingly aware of the fact that she would
willingly scale his chest to get closer to him, Sam’s big warm
cupped her bottom and brought her against his arousal, then backed
her against the side of the pool. The water slapped and swirled
around them, leading a peaceful music to his gentle assault. But in
all truth, Lou didn’t care. A heard of bongo-playing elephants
could have stampeded through the small poolside courtyard and she
wouldn’t have heard a thing.
Instead, she gave herself up completely to
the kiss. Reality would intrude soon enough. She’d go back to being
that sweet little girl on the snack-cake package. But until then,
Lou thought wickedly…she’d be naughty.
Right up until the point Sam’s lips had
touched hers, he’d been running a tally on his mistakes where Lou
was concerned.
He shouldn’t have taken her on as a client.
He shouldn’t have kept her as a client after her father had
reported her as kidnapped. He shouldn’t have come down to the pool
so aroused, and he shouldn’t have surfaced right in front of her.
And, right up until he pressed his lips to hers and felt her body
sigh against his, he’d been thinking that he shouldn’t kiss
her.
And all of his sins, that one had to be the
worst. Now that he’d kissed her, Sam knew a.) he’d never get enough
and b.) he wouldn’t be able to help himself.
But how could he truly help himself when she
tasted as sweet as she did, when she felt even better? Lou’s lips
were soft and lush and so damn kissable that he’d never stood a
chance at resisting her. Her sweet mouth was utterly sensual,
robbing him of any attempt at rational thought. He sucked that
plum-soft part of her bottom lip, felt her shudder against him. She
sighed and he swallowed the oddly erotic sound, making it his
own.
Her breasts were pressed tightly against his
chest, and every time she moved he could feel her pearled nipples
graze his chest. The simple thought made him harder than ever.
And all this while he feasted on her mouth,
Lou’s soft little hands explored his shoulders, mapped his chest,
and when her fingernails dragged over his own nipples, he thought
for sure that he would explode.
Sam pulled his lips from hers and sampled her
jaw, her neck.
“
Mercy,” Lou breathed, then
followed his lead and suckled his shoulder. Ever muscle he
possessed tightened in pleasure. Her hips undulated towards him,
strained against him in a need he felt in his own blood. Sam moved
her more snugly against the back of the pool and rocked against
her.
Lou shivered with pleasure. “Sweet heavens,”
she murmured. “Th-that’s incredible.”