Gatlinburg Getaway (Destination: Desire) (8 page)

Her mouth opened and closed, then she blew out a breath. “Okay. You’re right, I know you are. It’s just—”

“It’s just that the last couple of hours have been out of character for you? Me too.” He stroked the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone. “So let’s meet up tomorrow and see how we feel. That way we give ourselves the night to mull things over, without the chemistry to cloud our thinking.”

Emotions flickered across her face, too fast for him to pin down what she was feeling, if she agreed with his plan or not.

“Camille?” A female voice called from behind him.

A groan escaped Camille and her head fell back, thunking against the wall while he bit back a curse. Letting go, he turned to face the newcomer. This woman was exotically gorgeous, perfectly dressed and coiffed—a sharp contrast to the fresh-faced adorableness of Camille.

He preferred Camille’s more subtle appeal.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman said in heavily accented English, pressing a manicured hand to her shapely bosom. “I’m interrupting.”

“No, it’s okay.” He gave her a polite smile. “I need to get going.”

“Maria Castro, this is Dalton Wakefield,” Camille interjected drily. “He’s the eye doctor who set me up with some contacts after you broke my glasses.”

“It was an accident.” But Maria’s cheeks flushed with guilt. “And you hate contacts.”

“With the fire of ten thousand suns,” Camille agreed and tapped the button to call the elevator. She looked at Dalton. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You can call me with dinner details.”

“Call you?” He blinked. He supposed he could ring the hotel and leave a message, but that felt oddly old-fashioned in their social media world.

“Or text.” She dimpled. “I gave you my number.”

Realization hit, and he felt like an idiot. “The new patient form.”

“Yep. Bye, Dalton.” She winked and disappeared into the elevator, Maria close on her heels.

“What’s this about dinner?” Maria demanded as Dalton watched the doors slide closed behind the women.

He sighed and shook his head. Well, he wasn’t sure he’d call the day a total success, but he had a date for the next evening and he planned to make the most of it. Where they went from there, he didn’t know yet, but he wanted to find out.

His cell phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out.

A message from his aunt popped up.
I made a huge pecan-peach cobbler and your uncle’s going to eat it all if you don’t get over here and help. Come save him from a heart attack.

With a chuckle, Dalton shot back an affirmative reply. A sweet ending to a remarkable day. He’d take it.

Chapter Three

Kissing Dalton was better than some of the sex Camille had had. That should be a pathetic thing to say, but it wasn’t. The kiss had been that good. Like set a girl’s panties on fire good. Shake the world to its foundations good. Supernova good.

“So, you like this eye doctor. Dalton.” Maria grinned like a maniac from the other side of the elevator car. “Me breaking your glasses was a nice thing, in the end.”

“That remains to be seen. He could be terrible in bed.” And lightning was going to strike her for that lie. Any man who kissed that well had to be something else in the sack. It would be a crime against nature otherwise.

“Then I will pray to all the saints that he is excellent between the sheets.” Maria’s grin only got wider. “You’ve been gone for several hours. What have you been doing?”

The elevator dinged and slid open to let them out on Camille’s floor. “I got contacts and Dalton took me to coffee and lunch.”

Her friend followed her to her room. She swiped her keycard and held the door open.

“What else?” Maria demanded. “You have
un sarpullido
. You don’t get that from talking.”

That didn’t sound good. “What the hell is
un sar
-whatever?”

She took hold of Camille’s shoulders and turned her toward a mirror on the wall. Pointing to Camille’s throat, she said, “That. He had stubble and got close enough to use it.”

“Beard burn.” Ah, well. It could have been worse. She could have a giant hickey on her neck. Thankfully, he hadn’t bitten her that hard, though she doubted she would have protested at the time. She’d been more than ready for him to do any and everything he wanted. She ducked away from her friend, went to the desk, and pulled out the bag Dalton had given her.

“He invited me to dinner tomorrow night, as you heard.” She slanted a look at Maria. “You’ll need to find someone else to dine with.”

Maria’s eyes went wide and wounded. She pressed her hand to her heart with dramatic flare. “You would leave me alone in this strange town?”

“Alone?” Camille smirked. “I saw Tarun Gadhavi was on the speaker list. His presentation is right after mine tomorrow. So, tell me again how you’re all alone and not planning to hook up with your ex-boyfriend?”

“I suppose I will have to throw myself on his mercy for entertainment.” Her friend heaved a sigh, though her eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Mercy, is that what they call it in Spain?”

Maria’s mouth opened to retort, but Camille’s cell rang. It was one of her sisters’ ringtones. She tapped the screen to answer and put it on speakerphone. “Hi, Hazel. I’m here with Maria Castro. Say hello.”

“Hey, Maria,” Hazel answered without missing a beat. “I remember meeting you when I visited Camille at Cal Poly. How’ve you been?”

“
Muy bien
. I’m getting my doctorate now. You are as well, yes?” Maria perched on the edge of the mattress and crossed her legs.

“I completed my PhD in marine biology and I’m working on a postdoc fellowship now.” Hazel sighed, making the connection crackle. “I finish that very soon, thank God.”

“I’m still a few years away from that glorious day.” Maria shook her head ruefully. “But let’s talk about something more pleasant. Let’s talk about Camille having beard burn from a very cute Chinese man with a Southern drawl. It was a charming contradiction.”

“He’s half-Vietnamese, not Chinese,” Camille protested, as if that was the important part of what her friend had said.

“Oh, ho!” Her sister chortled. “I guess those condoms Nora shoved in your suitcase might get a workout.”

“It was just a kiss.” Yeah, kind of like Excalibur was only a sword. It was just the best kiss ever in the history of all kisses. Though they might be able to top it if they tried again. Which her hormones told her was definitely on their horny agenda. If he didn’t back off again. That was a concern. Damn it.

She had to admit she was fascinated by him, albeit reluctantly. It was clear that he wanted her. He’d made no secret of that, but he held back where other men pushed, waited when other men rushed. But he wasn’t opposed to making bold moves. He had started their first date off at his house. If a date was what she should call it.

Frankly, she’d never met anyone quite like him.

“She lies,” Maria claimed. “If you could see the look on her face, you’d know, Hazel. She’s going to do very bad things with this man.”

“And I hope she enjoys it.” Hazel hooted. “Go, little sister. Get some.”

“The two of you are incorrigible.” Camille rolled her eyes, set the phone on the nightstand, and went to find some lotion to rub on her abraded neck.

In a way, she was glad Dalton had pulled back from their make-out session. He was right about that, though she didn’t like to admit she might have flung herself headlong into something without considering all the angles. So not like her. And, apparently, not like him either, but he had more discipline than she did. Ugh.

Okay, she needed to get a grip on how far she really wanted this to go. Just a night of hot, sweaty sex? A weeklong affair, as he’d suggested? She’d be the first to admit she’d ignored that part of her life while she built her career. Engineering was a male-dominated field, and since she had no interest in being seen as a sex object instead of a hard-nosed colleague, she’d never fished in the office dating pool. But with the hours she’d been working the last few years, that hadn’t left much time for romance.

Maybe she should change that and do as her sisters and friend advised—indulge in her feminine side for a little while. God knew her hormones wouldn’t mind the opportunity to run wild. Cutting loose for a few days couldn’t hurt much, could it? This conference moved to a new resort town every year, so it wasn’t as if she’d ever see Dalton again if this ended up being a mistake.

Okay, so…weeklong shagfest. At this point, she had no doubt the sex would be good—it was just a question of how good.

Now she just had to convince him to give up a bit of his control. Which might be easier said than done, but she hadn’t become an engineer because she didn’t like a challenge. She grinned as she dug a small bottle of lotion from her suitcase.

“I should thank this Dalton. He’s keeping you occupied while I make Tarun regret he broke up with me.” Maria shimmied her shoulders. “And then I will leave him brokenhearted and return to the beautiful men in Europe.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Hazel chuckled. “Slightly evil, but I do love a good vengeance scheme.”

“Your sister does too.” A laugh tinkled out of Maria, and she pulled a compact from her purse to fix her lipstick. “In college, she helped me put Nair in the shampoo of a boy who cheated on me.”

“Cami, you never told me about this! You’ve been holding out on me. My own sister.”

“It was a private matter.” Camille went to the wall mirror and dabbed cream onto her reddened skin. “Besides, I think you were studying for you GREs. I didn’t want to distract you.”

Her sister harrumphed.

“Did you have a reason for calling, or were you just checking in?” Noticing she had a small splatter of barbeque sauce on her capris, Camille sighed. She was going to need to change before she went downstairs. At this rate, she wasn’t going to see a single presentation today.

“Just checking in, and I’m glad I did, since Maria filled me in on this guy Dalton—sexy name, by the way. I’m guessing you’d have kept it hush-hush until you knew if it was a thing or not.”

“She never tells the good stuff,” Maria commiserated.

“I see nothing wrong with a little discretion. Not much, just some.” Though there was rarely anything to tell. Her sisters knew about her friends with benefits, but it had been years since there’d been a real date to gossip about. Then again, would dinner with a guy she hoped to have a vacation fling with count as a real date? “I’m seeing him tomorrow night. I may or may not sleep with him.”

“If he’s as cute as Maria says, I vote yes,” Hazel said. “Live a little. You deserve it.”

“Fortunately for me, you don’t get a vote,” Camille rejoined. “I don’t care if you are older than me. It’s only by eighteen months, so you’re not that much older or wiser.”

“Hey, one of us should be getting laid.” Her sister’s voice turned cajoling. “We’re the last two Kirby spinsters and our big sisters have hot hubbies.”

“A sad truth, fellow spinster.” Not that she particularly cared about being single, but it was the first time she’d realized Hazel cared. That was something she’d have to ask about at a more private time, make sure Hazel was okay.

“What is a spinster?” Maria appeared baffled.

Camille thought about how to convey all the cultural history and connotations that went into the term. “It’s a woman who’s past her prime and not married yet. She’s seen as a pitiable creature.”

Her friend waved that away. “A Latina is never past her prime. She only perfects with age.”

With a laugh, Hazel asked, “Can I be Latina?”

“Sorry, no.” Maria tsked. “You’re too red and too Irish, Dr. Kirby.”

“Not a doctor yet, but very soon.” Hazel heaved a heartfelt sigh. “The ginger hair never stops punishing me. Can’t go in the sun. Can’t be Latina. It’s shameful.”

Maria made a sympathetic noise. “Poor
pelirroja
spinster.”

“I think I’m insulted.” Hazel’s tone went drier than fall leaves. “But I have to head to the lab. My two student assistants aren’t safe to leave unattended, unfortunately.”

“Thanks for calling, hon.” Camille smiled at the phone, even though her sister couldn’t see. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’d better,” Hazel shot back. “I want details on how things go tomorrow night. All the details—nothing spared. Your fellow spinster needs some thrills.”

“Voyeur.” Camille snorted and shook her head.

“And that’s a problem, why?” her sister asked, sounding innocent.

“Bye!” And then she hung up. She turned to Maria. “So have dinner with me tonight before you run off and seduce the poor, hapless Tarun.”

“Excellent idea,
amiga
.” She rubbed her hands together. “You can help me plan my revenge seduction. It must be perfect!”

Camille laughed. “How can I resist that offer?”

* * * * *

Dalton’s aunt met him at her front door, with hands planted on hips and an evil grin on her face. “I got a very interesting call from Mema Hunt.”