Scent of a Woman (12 page)

A
DAM MIGHT PREFER
beer to any of the high-brow vintages offered on board the ship, but he had to admit champagne tasted better than anything when tasted on Danielle’s lips.

He held her tight against him, shifting her whole body to find the right angle for the kiss. The fabric of her dress was thin and gauzy, allowing him to feel the outline of her underwear just below her waist. His hands were attracted to that line with all the power of a magnet, keeping his touch confined to that narrow pathway.

“Someone will see.” Her words drifted through his consciousness as she pulled back to look at him.

His breath heaved in and out of his lungs and he tried to process her words.

“We could move inside,” she offered, giving him a clue by nodding toward the door.

“Done.” He spun her around in his arms so that she was in front of him and let her lead the way into the suite.

Her dark hair swung against her back as she moved, the lights from the deck above catching in the dark strands. Everything about her was feminine and graceful.

He didn’t let her get all the way to the bedroom, even though he was in a hurry for that. He wanted to take time to appreciate every last inch of her. Now, spinning her in the middle of the suite, he looped his arms around her shoulders, toying with the straps tied at her neck.

“You smell like jasmine,” he said.

“I beg your pardon?” Her kick-ass accent seduced him as much as her passion for life. For him.

“Your perfume. I realized tonight when I found you in the spa that jasmine is one of the notes in the scent you wear.” Walking into the spa had practically made his knees buckle, the scent reminding him of his night with Danielle. He’d never be able to walk into a florist shop without getting turned on again.

“
Magnifique
. Your skills as a perfumer improve every day.” She flicked open a button on his shirt, her fingers cool and light against his skin, which was growing hotter by the second.

“I’ve been taking workshops. Besides, I’m on a mission to solve the riddle of your perfume.” He leaned in closer, brushing his lips over her bare shoulder as he breathed in the scent of her. “But I think I’m going to need some extra time with you to let the notes really sink in.”

“You could cheat and look at the bottle on my bathroom counter.” She popped another button and splayed her hand on his chest.

“My method is going to be a hell of a lot more fun.” He tugged the tie at the back of her neck. “Especially when the places you put perfume are all so tempting.”

The halter top slipped down to reveal a strapless lacy white bra…eyelet, maybe? All he knew was that she looked hot. Hints of skin showed through the fabric, teasing him.

“You couldn’t possibly know all the places I wear fragrance.” She arched back to push the rest of her dress down her hips, but he stopped her, wanting to save that task for himself.

“No?”

“No. I don’t even wear a full-fledged perfume. Instead I mix a blend of light essential oils into a lotion that goes…well, everywhere.” Her fingers went back to his shirt buttons, and she lingered with the last one above his belt. “This sounds like more fun than I could have hoped.” He backed her against the open balcony door, illuminating her from behind with a white moon glow.

“But you’ll never find scent concentrated in any one place.” She tugged his shirt from his pants, and the cotton sliding over his abs felt like a prelude to sex.

“Then you have failed your body chemistry test, since the heat of your pulse points ratchets up any fragrance you put there.” He bent to her neck to test the theory and inhaled the sweet, sexy scent that was Danielle.

“Clever man. Or perhaps you have just spent more time exploring your lovers’ bodies than me.”

He licked her neck with a quick swipe of his tongue and her breath caught. Held.

“I promise you’ll benefit from the experience.” He planted his hands on either side of her, bracketing her with his arms.

“You men are full of promises.” She rose up on her toes, forcing his tongue to swipe lower beneath her collarbone. “What I am interested in is the fulfillment of these promises. I believe you call this the ‘action’ portion?”

Danielle waited for him to see her point, to tumble her into bed and…well, tumble her.

But the man had a will of steel. And, lucky for her, all the rest of him was quite steely, too. She just needed to make him appreciate the urgency of the matter.

Hoping the removal of her clothes would help him see matters her way, she slipped a finger into the waist of her half-fallen dress.

“Danielle.” His reaction time was lightning fast. His hands pinned hers to her sides, preventing her from moving. “Wait.”

She would rather have been naked, but she definitely didn’t mind being pinned by this man. Her skin tingled with pleasure, a warm glow suffusing her whole body.

“Make me.” Her challenge tightened his grip, and his pupils dilated ever so slightly in response.

Oh, she liked this.

“I don’t want to regret not taking the time to appreciate what’s happening between us.” His words were harsh. Serious. “I spent all today knowing I’d regret it if I didn’t try to see you again in spite of what you wanted. And I kept thinking about how much I wanted to find out where you like to be touched best. I want to know what it will do to you if I touch your thigh under a table full of people or what would happen if I undressed you with my teeth. And I’m going to hate it if I go back to New York next week and still don’t know.”

Her heart slowed, her pulse slamming with a devastating beat when it finally kicked in. She could get lost in this moment and never resurface. The air between them crackled with sexual energy and keen awareness.

“I—” Her voice was so breathless it barely had a sound. She tried again. “I want things, too. And since there’s not a chance I’m testing the theory of what might happen between us if we were in a room full of people right now, I think we’d better explore one of my ideas or else you ought to get those teeth ready to disrobe me.”

His grin seemed fierce. Feral. But maybe that was because she only had eyes for the glint of his pearly whites. Her breasts ached as she imagined him peeling off more layers.

“I can give you what you want,” he promised. “I just want to make us both aware of what’s happening here so that we can recall every last heartbeat in vivid detail when we’re back on separate sides of the ocean.”

A fleeting vision of herself alone in her Nice shop brought a pang to her heart before she chased it easily away with the presence of here and now. Both of which tantalized her.

“I’m aware,” she assured him, breathing him in as she tipped her head back against the door. “I’m very, very present to the moment and the feel of you against me. But I don’t want to be present any longer. I want to lose myself totally. Sacrifice my thoughts to an inferno of feeling until there is nothing left but sensation.”

He held her there for a moment that seemed eternal, his breath syncing up to hers to create a oneness between them. And then he lifted her off her feet, picking her up right off her shoes to carry her in his arms through the suite to the bedroom. The mental gratification of having made him see her point didn’t come close to the physical satisfaction she knew awaited them in this room. The scent of lavender on the sheets drifted up as he tossed her in the middle of her bed. He didn’t join her right away and she enjoyed the simmering expectation ignited by watching him unfasten his shirt cuffs.

“I have swayed you from your good intentions.” She flexed her leg to wrap around his calf, holding on to him while he undressed.

“I’m a reasonable man.” He shucked his shirt and stretched out over her, putting his weight on his forearms. “Besides that, you make a damn persuasive argument.”

His mouth covered hers, silencing any response she might have made. Her words turned to sighs and then a low, needy moan in her throat. She met each swipe of his tongue with a stroke of her own, matching his movements until the warm heat in her womb became something sharper. Something she couldn’t ignore.

Her fingers raked helplessly down his sides as she reached for his belt, but he distracted her by slipping a hand behind her back and unfastening the frivolous white cotton eyelet bra she’d bought more for show than function. Her fingers paused at his waist while he lowered the garment, unveiling her breasts.

The night breeze off the water was less noticeable in the bedroom, but she felt it most keenly in the sensitive peaks of her curves as he cupped them each in turn. He drew one taut bud into his mouth and her hips arched in immediate response, the link between pleasure points keen.

Her thighs twitched restlessly until he moved his own leg between hers, providing delicious counter pressure to an ache too sweet to bear.

A wildness took hold of her, making her twist her head back and forth along with her hips. She wanted more. Much more. And she didn’t know how long she could wait to find it.

“Please.” She clutched his belt with an awkward grip, determination making up for what she lacked in finesse. “I am…” The words evaporated from her mind. “Urgent.”

He must have listened because he began to work his way down her body, lowering the skirt of her dress with his teeth. The feel of his breath so close to her skin made her edgy. Excited. Frantic.

When he pulled the fabric over her hip she nearly came undone and he hadn’t even touched her. The dress wound around her knees, binding her in place while he slid back up her legs to retrieve her panties.

Merde.

She battled the urge to close her eyes and let sensation carry her away because she did not want to miss anything. Her fingers twined in the sheets as he hovered over her, teeth clamping on the elastic at her waist. Fire raged over her skin, the heat concentrated at the juncture of her thighs. When he unwound her dress from her legs and planted an intimate kiss there, she cried out with the pleasure of it. The sweet sensation rained over her, quenching the fire on her skin and bathing her nerve endings in undiluted bliss. She quaked with the force of her release, her whole body shaking from lush spasms.

Caught up in her own fulfillment, she must have missed Adam taking off the rest of his clothes and making sure they were protected. She regretted her sexual selfishness as he stretched out over her, naked and ready, while she floated on a cloud of ecstatic aftershocks.

But heaven help her, she couldn’t regret it for long as he slid inside her. Filling her completely. She wound her arms around him, her legs around him. He steadied her, adjusted her, and then found a way to slide still more deeply within her.

Tunneling her fingers through his hair, she kissed him. That simple, elemental joining was all she could contribute to their coming together since the rest of her body was completely in thrall to whatever he wanted and however he moved. Her fingernails scraped his shoulders as he withdrew from her and then pushed his way back again. Deeper. Sweeter.

The rhythm took her again, hot and fast. Finally she understood why Adam wanted to slow things down. She wasn’t ready for this to end, either. She tried to hold back, desperate to keep him deep inside her, desperate to put off her release, which was so close. So inevitable.

So—

The tide crashed over her, battering her with wave after wave of molten heat. The ship beneath her could have been sinking and she wouldn’t have known it, her whole world narrowed to the feel of Adam in and all around her. His completion followed hers by seconds, minutes maybe, but it seemed those heightened sensations went on and on. The thrill of each new sensual shudder traveled back and forth between them, multiplying.

She might have fallen asleep in that haze of sexual contentment if Adam hadn’t moved her, securing a pillow under her head and covering her with the sheet. She curled into him then, grateful she had not shut him out of her life this week.

“I will not regret this,” she murmured through sleepy contentment, determined she would find a way to pull her company together, with or without a public image the world approved.

“You’d better not.” He slid his arm underneath her pillow while his other hand fell into the crook of her waist. “Or I’ll hunt you down in France and remind you exactly why this was a good idea.”

She smiled for a moment before a pang shot through her heart. Not seeing him again after this cruise would be a higher price than she’d originally foreseen.

The thought troubled her as she recognized yet another problem in her life she didn’t know how to solve.

“H
OW DO YOU
feel about darts?”

Adam posed the question from Danielle’s bed two mornings later while he watched her hurry around the bedroom searching for a misplaced lipstick, a mate to a shoe and a hairbrush in quick succession. He liked seeing this side of her—the private side that was more whirlwind than sophisticated European. They had barely left her suite in thirty-six hours other than a quick jaunt into Portofino. Although the Italian Riviera had appeal, it couldn’t compete with dragging Danielle back to bed.

She paused long enough to peer strangely at him.

“Darts?” Her accent softened the
d
almost to a
j,
the game clearly unfamiliar to her.

“Yeah. A game where you throw, uh—they’re like miniature arrows—at a corkboard to score points. A bar game.”

Finding the missing shoe under her bed, she slipped into her high heels. She wore an olive-colored linen skirt and a gold camisole that showed off an abundance of skin. He wanted to haul her back into bed but she had her second formal meeting with Ahmed Ramnathan this morning and he didn’t want to do anything she might perceive as jeopardizing her chances of landing the account. He planned to give the retailer his best shot, too, and he wanted a clear conscience about how the business deals shook down when the cruise was over.

“I’m afraid I have missed the kinds of bars where arrows are slung about.” She reached for her jacket and Adam mourned the loss of a spectacular cleavage display. “But I am a woman of adventure, so perhaps you can show me later when we go ashore.”

Villefranche was the port closest to Danielle’s home city of Nice and the site of her satellite shop. He had to admit he was curious to see her on her home turf later today.

“You’d try darts for me?” He tried to picture her in her heels and designer clothes lining up in front of the dartboard.

She shrugged as she swiped on a peachy-colored lipstick and assessed herself in the mirror.

“You sniffed flowers and ferns with me. Why would I not give miniature arrows a try for you?”

He had to grin at that.

“That might be the most romantic thing a woman has ever said to me.” He shoved off the covers and rose out of bed since she appeared close to leaving. He’d already showered—an event he’d never forget since he’d taken Danielle in with him—but he hadn’t bothered to dress yet since he didn’t want to miss a moment of watching her.

“Stick around.” She turned smoky eyes his way and looked at him through long lashes, her painted lips puckering in a full-on pout. “Romance is what a French woman does best.”

He skimmed his hands over her hips and up under her jacket to the delicate silk of her camisole and the soft skin beneath it. In deference to her newly painted lips, he planted a kiss beneath her ear, tasting his way down her neck.

Her fingers clutched at his shoulders and he had to stop himself from pulling her back into bed and messing her up all over again.

“Good luck with your pitch, Danielle.” He stared down into her eyes, until she blinked away the heated moment and stepped back.

“Thank you.” She smoothed her skirt and picked up her sketchbook.

“You must know I accidentally saw a few of your drawings the other night at the spa and they look fantastic. Ahmed would be an idiot to ignore that kind of tailor-made marketing effort for their UAE customers.” In the name of fair play, Adam thought he should at least admit that he’d gotten a peek at her work.

A frown pulled at her lips for a moment before she seemed to shake it off.

“I’m really excited about the potential for the line,” she admitted, sliding the spiral book into a leather bag with some other paperwork. “I based the ideas on
Tales from the Thousand and One Nights.
”

“It’s a great idea.” He noticed she didn’t offer him a second glimpse, obviously uncomfortable with sharing any more details than necessary.

It sucked being competitors like this.

“You must be pitching something equally unique.”

He recognized a subtle hint for more information and didn’t see the harm in telling her his plans, especially since he’d inadvertently glimpsed some of hers. Maybe the shared information would put her more at ease.

“Prestige Scents is actually taking the direct opposite approach. Instead of catering to the roots of Arabic culture, we’re bringing in some of the tricks of the West and pitching a celebrity as the face of perfumes we’d sell there.”

Danielle bit her lip, clearly uncomfortable talking business.

“Perhaps Jessica? Hmm. Not that I begrudge the little box-office darling an ounce of her success or anything.”

She said it with such a complete lack of sincerity, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“No. We won’t firm up a face or an image until we progress in negotiations, and we haven’t ruled out a regional celebrity.” Adam was still working the deal. And he felt a twinge of guilt since he could see for himself that Danielle’s campaign had taken far more work. But no matter how inspired her scheme was, he still felt really good about the financial projections of his own plan.

“Thank you for telling me.” She picked up her room key and added that to her bag, her movements clipped. Tense? “It’s been hard for me not to talk about my ideas for the Arabian Nights line since my work permeates my whole life. When I am creating something new, I tend to think about it waking and sleeping.”

He saw a ticket out of this conversation and ended it, ready to move their relationship back on comfortable—hot—terrain.

“I’ll bet I know a few times when you weren’t thinking about it.”

He’d never been with a woman who committed herself so completely in the bedroom. He didn’t tend to romanticize relationships, but being with Danielle gave new meaning to the idea of being transported during sex.

“I do, too, you wicked man, and now I’m feeling a bit frazzled walking into a meeting when I haven’t been going over my notes or—”

“Don’t.” He cut her off with a finger gently pressed to her lips. “You’ve got more time and creativity invested in this pitch than I do and—I’m willing to bet—anyone else Ahmed is seeing this week. Your ideas are kick-ass. Go sell the hell out of them.”

And he meant it. He could take a little competition. Hell, to hear his brother talk, Adam thrived on it. No way would he want Danielle to do anything less than her best.

Her whole body seemed to relax at his words. When she nodded and smiled, he felt like a freaking hero.

“I will. Thank you.” Pivoting on her heel, she walked away from him, pausing at the threshold of the door to her suite. “You’re going to love Villefranche and we can tour the city well into the evening since we have a late sailing. Why don’t you ask someone in guest relations to recommend an establishment with darts?”

“I’m on it.” He didn’t bother telling her that anything guest relations would recommend in Portofino would undoubtedly be more upscale than the dive bars he frequented in his free time.

Besides, he was already thinking about her nonstop when he had work to consider, and that wasn’t such a great thing. He knew his proposal could win this deal, but not if he was so rocked by a woman that he didn’t have all the details smoothed out by the time he went into that final meeting tomorrow. Danielle’s proposal was excellent, but she was a savvy enough businesswoman to know that Prestige had a lot more tools besides artistic creativity to bring to this deal.

Adam’s phone showed two messages from Joe. No doubt his brother had projects Adam needed to start thinking about for next week when he rejoined the rat race.

Yet if Adam discovered that Danielle was not only a sexy businesswoman who could match wits with him any day, but a born dart player…he might never get on the plane to fly home.

D
ANIELLE MADE A DETOUR
to the ship’s library before her meeting with Ahmed to return her copy of
Tales From a Thousand and One Nights
. She’d left her room early to drop off the book, but it had not been easy with Adam almost naked and lounging around her bedroom.

Mon Dieu.

The man was too delicious for words. No wonder women pursued him around the globe. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be the next woman to fall hopelessly under the spell of his easy charm and his American accent.

The sound of raised voices from the library startled her as she neared the room. Ariana had said the reading area would be closed to passengers this morning, but that she would be there, so it unsettled Danielle to hear the raised masculine voice booming through the closed door.

“—know how hard it is to find good quality copies? Even high quality reproduction pieces are—”

Danielle rapped on the door, spying Ariana in the far corner of the library through a clear sidelight in the door.

The male voice fell silent as Ariana hurried over to let Danielle inside. Danielle nodded her thanks and a greeting, but she didn’t turn in the book right away, wanting to make sure Ariana didn’t need help dealing with an angry patron or—

Father Connelly?

The normally affable priest was standing by his antiquities display, a piece of painted pottery shattered at his feet in a rainbow of colors.

“Is everyone okay?” Danielle asked, hoping no one had been cut. “What happened?”

Ariana pushed her dark hair behind her ear, a steaming cup of coffee in one hand.

“Someone on the cleaning staff broke one of Father Connelly’s display pieces,” Ariana confided, keeping her voice low. A maid arrived just behind Danielle, but Father Connelly waved the woman away while he paced along the far wall outside the circle of scattered pottery.

“It was the Olympian vase, no?” Danielle thought she recognized the piece from the lecture she’d attended.

“Yes,” Father Connelly replied tightly, not bothering to look her way. His Roman collar was askew, his hair sticking up in the back.

“I have a few friends in the art business,” Danielle offered, hoping to defuse the tension. “I can ask one of them for the name of someone who does skilled reproductions in this time period.”

That caught the priest’s attention. As he approached her, she noticed Ariana step back and quickly pick up a fragment of the vase. Did she hope to hide her action from the priest? Instinctively, Danielle trusted the librarian, who had been more than kind to her in her research efforts. Danielle had succeeded in drawing out the quieter woman after the library had closed to the public. She hadn’t realized until then how much she missed having a friendship that didn’t revolve around her work.

“That’s very kind of you.” His smile was tight. “But it won’t be necessary. I will contact a few of my suppliers and find something appropriate to supplement the collection. I just regret the expense for a replacement. I’d much rather add something new to the collection instead.”

Smoothing a hand over his hair, he seemed to recover himself.

“I just wanted to return this book to you.” Turning to Ariana, who had come back to stand with them, Danielle passed her the book. “Now, if you both will excuse me, I have a meeting I must attend.”

“Of course.” Father Connelly smiled. “
Adieu, mademoiselle
.”

“
Adieu
. And thank you, Ariana. Your help has been invaluable to my project this week.”

“It was my pleasure, Danielle. I appreciated your company.”

Danielle left the mess in the library to meet with Ahmed. Her hopes were high even though she knew Adam’s pitch probably had as much chance of winning the contract as hers. And damn it, that worried her. She couldn’t afford to lose this deal. Her shop in Nice depended on it. Her whole company might depend on it if Les Rêves’s financial prospects were as bleak as her brother had been painting them lately.

But at this point, she could only work with what she had. Still, she was nervous. Her company would be devastated if she lost the bid to Adam. But after spending another incredible night with him, she recognized she would be the one who suffered if she lost her heart to him.

A
DAM’S CELL PHONE RANG
in the middle of the afternoon. Since they’d docked in Villefranche, he’d already fielded two calls from his brother, who had arrived in Europe yesterday on business of his own.

Now, Adam ducked into a window seat in the main lounge area where a piano player worked the keys of a baby grand. The lounge was relatively empty since most passengers had gone ashore for the day and many of the perfumers were attending afternoon workshops. Adam had enjoyed the speaker on neuroesthetics who looked at the scientific particulars of the brain’s response to scent.

“Burns.” He didn’t recognize the number on the call window.

“Why aren’t you still in my bed?” The sexy voice on the other end of the phone could only belong to one woman.

His mouth watered within two seconds of thinking about Danielle. Too bad the workshop on neuroesthetics hadn’t included some explanation for the way his brain responded to Danielle. Now that would have been intriguing.

“I didn’t know when you’d be back.” He had left her room moments after she did that morning, hoping to tweak his own presentation before returning his brother’s calls. “But if you’re not busy now, I can be there in five minutes.”

He only had three days with her left, counting today. And really, today was half over. He planned to make the most of every moment remaining on this cruise.

“Have I told you how much I love your American impatience?”

“You might be the only one.” He stared out across the water at the coastline. “What’s your take on American football?”

“I have a friend who always manages to secure World Cup tickets. You want to go next year?”

So much for their compatibility.

“That’s not American football.”

“Football is football, no?”

“No. Your football is soccer. Mine involves helmets. Hitting.” He waved away a waitress who paused at his table. “How did your meeting go this morning?”

He’d meant to ask that as soon as he spoke to her again, but her sexy voice had distracted him.