Notorious (11 page)

She stepped closer and took the ends of the bow tie in her pink-tipped fingers. “Now hold still,” she murmured.

Oh, he'd hold still. He didn't dare move a muscle. He just hoped that involuntary reactions wouldn't take over. Some things he couldn't control.

Staring at a point over her head, he tried to block out all sensation, but he wasn't having much luck. He was very much aware of the light, whispery sound of her breathing, the brush of her fingers and the scent of raspberries. If she leaned forward a fraction, her breasts would touch the front of his white pleated shirt. He clenched his hands at his sides.

“Shoot,” she muttered.

He glanced down and knew immediately that was a mistake. Keely could be the most provocative, tempting woman in the world when she tried. But right now, to his complete amazement, she wasn't trying. And he discovered she could be just as irresistible when she didn't try.

All her concentration was on his tie, and she'd tucked her tongue into the corner of her mouth while she worked. Apparently she didn't know much more about this process than he did, but she'd been willing to jump in and help. He found that endearing.

Frowning fiercely, she pulled the tie this way and that.

“Want me to try again?” he asked.

“No, I'm going to get it. I'm just out of practice.”

That meant she hadn't been doing this favor for any man recently. Noah was glad to hear it.

“There!” She stepped back with a huge smile of triumph. “I did it!”

A lump of emotion stuck in his throat. He remembered seeing that expression on her face when she was nine years old. As a self-important twelve-year-old he'd been teaching her how to rope her horse as the gelding circled them in the corral. When she'd finally settled her loop over her horse's head, she'd given him that exact grin.

Her grin had turned to surprise when the rope had tightened and jerked her off her feet. He'd forgotten to tell her what to do after she'd roped the horse. Her skinned hands and knees were all his fault that day, and he'd blamed himself for weeks.

He'd been worried about resisting Keely when she turned on her sexual charm, but he might have an even tougher time resisting her when she reminded him of the eager, happy little kid she used to be.

“You look very nice, Noah,” she said softly. There was no taunt in her green eyes this time. Her compliment was simply and sincerely given as if she had no ulterior motive.

He was lost. “Keely.” He gripped her arms, his fingers registering the warmth and smoothness of her skin.

Awareness blazed in her eyes. “You have to go,” she said, her voice husky.

“I have to kiss you first.”

“Noah—”

“I have to.” He settled his mouth over hers with a groan of relief. Yes. How he'd needed this kiss, ached for it. Yet it was a different kind of ache from the one he'd had the night before. There was a sexual edge to this longing, but it was more about cherishing her than making frenzied love to her. It was the kind of ache that scared the hell out of him.

Ah, the joys of Keely's mouth—lips plump against his, re
sponding, moistening, parting to let him stroke his tongue inside. His grip on her arms tightened, his fingers massaged that silky skin. And before he knew it, he'd slid both hands to her neck and untied her halter top.

And then…then he went a little crazy, filling both hands with her magnificent breasts, kissing his way over her jaw and down her throat. Braced against the edge of the counter, he leaned down and claimed his prize.

He grew dizzy from the pure pleasure of her breast in his mouth.

And she tunneled her fingers through his hair and held him close. “Noah…” she said, gasping out his name. “You have to…leave.”

Oh, no. He couldn't leave now. Not when he'd found heaven.

“You…should go.”

With a murmur of protest he lifted his mouth and caressed one wet, erect nipple with his thumb while he moved to dampen the other with his tongue. Men had died for less reward than this. He could barely believe he was really cupping the weight of her beautiful breasts. Squeezing them with trembling fingers, he gave thanks for his good fortune as he tasted and tasted again, his mind numbed by the wonder of what was happening. The sensations bombarding him made his head buzz and his ears ring.

And ring, and ring. Wow, that was some sensation, like a…telephone.

Keely backed away from his embrace. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

Dazed, he stared at her as she went over to get her purse and then proceeded to dig through it. A man could go crazy watching uncovered breasts like hers quiver. Finally she pulled a cell phone from the bottom of her purse.

A cell phone?

She pushed a button and shoved the phone back in her purse. Then she glanced up at him. “You'd better go,” she murmured.

“What—” He paused to clear his throat. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“You have a cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” He couldn't fit the cell phone in with her supposed rootless living style. Topless dancers moving from city to city didn't have cell phones. Or did they?

“It's for work,” she said.

Everything clicked into place for him. “Keely, are you a call girl?”

“No, I'm not.”

He should have guessed she'd deny it, both now and the first time he'd asked her. What had he expected her to do, confess such a thing? “You are, aren't you? And you were afraid to tell me.”

“No, really. I—”

“It's okay.” He couldn't blame her, not when every time he looked at her he wanted to take her to bed. After years of getting that reaction from men, she might have become convinced that was what she was born to do. “It's not your fault that men want you,” he said. “Hell, look at me. I can't keep my hands off you, and I promised myself I would.”

“Noah, I'm telling you I'm not a call girl.”

“And I'm telling you that I understand. We'll work around it.”

She threw up both hands. “Okay, believe what you want. But right now, you'd better get downstairs.” She stood. Her halter top had fallen until it was draped around her waist, but she made no move to retie it around her neck.

“Yeah, I'd better get going.” But he couldn't seem to stop looking at her. Light from the overhead fixture in the bathroom picked up the sheen of moisture on her breasts, moisture left there by his eager mouth. God help him, he wanted more.

A call girl. That made it even more important that he not
make love to her. She needed a completely platonic relationship with him if she had a prayer of changing her life. And so far he'd completely bombed out on the platonic thing.

Gazing at him, she pulled the halter top off over her head and shook out her hair. “Unless you want a quickie before you go. On the house.”

“No!” He backed toward the door, while his whole body screamed with frustration. “Listen, I should never have kissed you. I should never have gone beyond kissing you.” But, oh, God, was it fantastic. He could still taste her on his tongue. “Tomorrow we'll map out a job strategy. I'm thinking something in sales.”

She arched her eyebrows. “Because I already have sales experience, you mean? I guess that makes sense. If I can sell my body, I can sell widgets.”

“That's not what I meant!”

“I must not be very good at selling my body, though.” She kicked off her sandals and began to peel off her capris. “I've offered it to you several times now and you keep turning me down.”

His heart thudded in his chest as he watched her take off the last of her clothes. A quiver of need passed through him. “It's very, very hard.”

She laughed and glanced at his crotch. “I can see that.”

“Hey! I didn't mean—”

“Men have told me all sorts of lies, Noah, but all I have to do is look at the fly of their pants and I know exactly what they're thinking. It's like those witching sticks some people use to find water. Men get around me and—boing!—that witching stick points right in my direction.” The devilish gleam was back in her eyes when she met his gaze. “If you decide you want to drill for water, come and see me. I'll give you a special rate.”

It took incredible willpower for him to turn away from a very naked, very tempting Keely and walk out of the suite. Somehow he did it.

N
OAH WENT THROUGH
the motions of seating people in the rows of white folding chairs on the grassy courtyard where the wedding would be held, but his thoughts were still back in the suite with Keely. He'd been stupid not to see the truth immediately. The interview she'd been going to in the topless bar might have been with some sort of Las Vegas madam. Or worse yet, a pimp. The thought made him shudder.

Well, he was going to save her from that kind of life, just the way Richard Gere had saved Julia Roberts in
Pretty Woman.
Except Richard Gere had hired Julia Roberts for sex in the first place, so that had been part of the deal from the beginning.

If you decide you want to drill for water
, she'd said, her skin flushed with desire, her eyes issuing a definite invitation. Was he a total fool to be so chained to his principles? Probably. His friends would certainly say so. Keely would certainly say so.

Then something else occurred to him. In her chosen profession as a hired lover, she wouldn't go to bed with a man because she wanted him. Having sex because she wanted to might be a real treat for her, a vacation from the same-ol', same-ol'.

Now, there was a dangerous concept. If he truly believed that, he could start thinking that he'd be doing her a favor, giving her a chance for some mutual satisfaction for a change. That might be the only motivation he'd need to send him over the edge.

Then Keely appeared and he wondered if he hadn't toppled over the edge some time ago.

If he hadn't, this latest dress of hers would do the trick. A rush of possessiveness heated his skin as if he'd just opened an oven door, and he hurried over so that he'd be the one to escort her to her seat.

She smiled as he approached. The smile was sly and seductive, and it put the final touch on a picture designed to bring him to his knees. She'd tamed her wild curls, pinning them on top of her head for a regal, sophisticated look. But it wasn't any less sexy than the tousled style she usually wore. Maybe it was even more sexy, because he could imagine the fun of mussing her up.

Rhinestone earrings and a small rhinestone-trimmed shoulder purse sparkled in the light from the tiki torches surrounding the courtyard. But the fit of her dress was the real showstopper. It shimmered over her body like mercury, outlining her hourglass figure to perfection. Made of an iridescent material, it rippled and flashed like a hologram with her every movement.

Although the dress had a high-necked collar, a diamond-shaped cutout beneath the collar showed an impressive amount of cleavage. And the back of the dress was nonexistent except for that little band of a collar. Beneath it was a spectacular view of supple, golden skin sweeping down to her waist.

Her skirt was ankle length, but a slit up the side ran to midthigh. Another few inches and it would graze the edge of her panties. That was assuming she wore any tonight. She had a wicked gleam in her eyes, so absolutely anything was possible.

Pulse racing, he offered his arm. When she slipped her hand through and moved in close, he took a deep breath and nearly zoned out on raspberry lotion. “Where do you want to sit?” he asked.

“On your lap,” she murmured.

“Keely.”
He thought his heart would pound right out of his chest.

“Is that a yes or a no?” She flashed him another of her I-dareyou smiles.

“You're outrageous.”

“And you're turned on. I'll bet your witching stick is twitching. I'll bet you're picturing all the possibilities right now.”

“Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?” And she had a right to be. She was dead-on accurate about the state of his mind and his body.

“It's a safe bet that you'll be thinking about me straddling you instead of listening to the ceremony. And speaking of that, I'll sit on the groom's side of the aisle. He asked me to the wedding, after all.”

Taking another deep breath, Noah escorted her to the seats on the right side of the aisle.

“And I can tell you're just dying to know, so I'll end the suspense. I'm not wearing panties. They ruined the line of the dress and it was too hot for panty hose. You can think about that while you're standing at the altar trying not to look my way.”

Swallowing hard, he halted near a row of chairs with a vacant seat. He noticed that most of the men in the vicinity had their attention firmly fixed on Keely. He lowered his voice. “Are you planning to throw out lines like that all night?”

“I'm only trying to live up to your expectations, Noah. Do you like the dress?”

“It's…um…tight.”

“Well, that's on purpose, because if it was too loose you'd be able to see right down the front.” She drew closer and dropped her voice to a low purr. “I'm not wearing a bra, either.”

He struggled for his next breath.

She ran her index finger along his sleeve. “Does looking at me in this dress make you hot?”

He cleared his throat.

“I'll take that as an affirmative. Besides, I know it does. I can tell by the way you're breathing, sort of rough, like a car that needs to be tuned. I'd be glad to give you a tune-up, Noah.”

“You'd better take your seat.”

“Guess so.” She squeezed his arm briefly before turning toward the row of chairs. Then she glanced over her shoulder. “See you later, big guy,” she murmured, puckering her lips in a phantom kiss.

Moments later he took his place at the altar with the other groomsmen. As the minister led Jenny and Brandon through their vows, he tried to pay attention to the ceremony. After all, that was the reason he was here—to witness his buddy getting married.

But instead, he spent the entire ceremony exactly as Keely had predicted he would. He tried not to look at her, but he couldn't help it. And every time his attention strayed in her direction, he thought about how little separated him from her naked body. Only one tight, silvery dress. A dress with no back and a slit up the side. Once the collar was unfastened, she'd be bare to the waist. And if they were alone, he could easily push aside that skirt….

 

K
EELY BECAME
more caught up in the ceremony than she'd expected to be. She'd meant to concentrate on Noah and complete the seduction she'd started with her entrance. Instead, she found herself listening to the words of the ceremony, and for some stupid reason they were making her cry.

She blinked back her tears. Maybe B.J.'s upcoming wedding was hitting her harder than she wanted to admit. When she thought of B.J. getting married without her being there, her stomach felt hollow. Years ago they'd talked about being maid of honor for each other. It had been a given. She wondered if B.J. had chosen her friend Sally for that job.

Discarding that depressing subject, Keely focused on
Brandon and Jenny. They seemed so damn happy, as if they didn't mind a bit that they were severely narrowing their options with this move. Keely had always believed in keeping her options open. Any man who had dared mention the “M” word had been dropped.

By keeping her options open, she'd remained free to fly to Paris if she wanted, free to party wherever the music was the hottest, free to sleep with a gorgeous hunk who suddenly appeared on her radar. Jenny was giving up those options. And yet the life that Jenny had chosen didn't seem so bad at this moment, and all of Keely's options seemed to have lost their luster.

It was Noah's fault. Seeing him again had stirred up those childish dreams of living with one man—Noah Garfield—for the rest of her life. No other guy had ever inspired those dreams, and when Noah had rejected her, she'd decided it was a stupid idea in the first place.

And it was still stupid. Jenny and her friends might think the world had changed enough to allow a woman like Keely to live happily ever after in Saguaro Junction, but Keely, who'd inherited her mother's craving for excitement, knew better. So did Noah, which was why he'd never consider her as his life companion.

Life companion
. God, did Noah have that written all over him. Any woman fantasizing about a man who could see her through all the joys and sorrows fate could dish out would recognize Noah as the real deal. He made her mouth water as he stood up there in his tux. He made her yearn for things that were beyond her reach. But early on she'd taken a clear-eyed inventory of herself, and now she had to have the courage to accept who she was…and who she wasn't.

In the meantime, however, she could have one weekend of lovemaking. Another woman would be lucky enough to have him for a lifetime, but Keely had been allowed this weekend and she intended to make the most of it.

She was aware that the dynamics between them had changed since she'd accidentally left her cell phone on and he'd assumed that she was a call girl. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on in that fertile brain of his, but she had the definite feeling that his resistance to her was weakening. It could be the effect of the dress, of course, but she thought something else was happening.

Whatever it was, she wouldn't question it. If thinking she was a call girl allowed him to let go and make love to her, then she'd let him think she was a call girl. She didn't care how he perceived her, so long as the end result was hours and hours of wild sex. And then they would part. It was the only way this could end.

She blinked back another rush of tears. Damn. Maybe one of the reasons she hated weddings was that they always made her cry.

 

“O
H, MAN
, will you look at that.” Clint handed Noah one of the two piña coladas he'd brought over from the bar before turning to face the action—Keely doing the limbo in her tight, silver dress. “Tell me you're not letting that go to waste.”

Noah took a cooling sip of his coconut-flavored drink, hoping the icy concoction would quench the fire in his belly. Or better yet, maybe the rum would short-circuit his brain. But the drink seemed to have no effect whatsoever and he was still in agony as he gazed at Keely sliding under the pole, her body moving rhythmically to the beat of the music and the clapping hands urging her on. “You have a one-track mind, son,” he told Clint, although the comment applied to him, too.

“Every other track gets shut down when a woman built like Keely does the limbo,” Clint said. “Any man with breath left in his body would respond to a sight like that. But you're the only guy here with a chance of acting on that impulse. I just need to know you're up to the job, so to speak.”

“You might need to know, but you're not gonna know.”
Noah kept his tone casual, disguising the fierce emotions that had gripped him from the moment the luau reception had begun and Keely had made it clear that she planned to party.

When Keely partied, sexual sparks flew in all directions. She'd drawn the attention of every man in attendance, with the possible exception of Brandon, who was understandably preoccupied with his new bride. For a solid two hours Noah had fought his own sexual bonfire. At the same time he'd tried to stamp out the smaller blazes of jealousy whenever he caught a man looking at Keely the way Clint was doing right now.

“I guess you don't really have to tell me anything.” Clint kept his gaze on Keely while he took another swallow of his piña colada. “It's a foregone conclusion that something's gonna happen between you two.”

Noah had pretty much concluded the same thing, but he wasn't happy about it. He should be stronger, nobler, wiser. Then he'd be able to keep his hands off Keely and be in a better moral position to help her turn her life around.

But he'd been forced to admit his own weakness and her greater strength. Before much longer, she would get her way. He couldn't hold out anymore. He'd tried to justify it as a pleasure that Keely deserved, after all those times when she'd only been doing her job. As a justification it didn't work very well. In his heart he knew that this would be about his needs, not hers.

By the time he'd finished his piña colada Keely had won the limbo contest, adding her prize to the one she'd picked up for taking first place in the hula contest. She turned in Noah's direction and blew him a kiss.

Clint chuckled. “Like I said, a foregone conclusion. At lunch I wasn't sure about the chemistry, but tonight she's on your trail, buddy.” He clapped Noah on the back. “How does it feel to be the envy of every guy here?”

“Just wonderful.”

“Funny, but you don't look as happy as I would expect you to. Is there a problem?”

Noah looked at his friend. Clint had no idea how many problems were connected to this situation, but Noah wasn't going to enlighten him. Instead, he grinned. “Clint, Keely's a woman. Of course there will be problems.”

Clint nodded. “Point taken.” He glanced at Noah's empty glass. “I think we need a refill. Let's—”

“Ladies and gentleman,” Greg crooned into a wireless microphone, “may I have your attention, please.”

“Damn, but he loves that mike,” Clint said. “I think he believes he's the next David Letterman.”