Hot and Bothered (12 page)

She could really feed a male ego too, he thought, in her innocence. “Not bad, eh?”

“Not too shabby.”

“Then I have a confession to make.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m jelly too. Beyond jelly. You were devastating.”

“Really?”

She looked so pleased that he laughed. “Yes. I’m glad I made my point, because I couldn’t make a point this morning if it killed me.”

She flushed, but giggled. “I was that good, eh?”

“Oh, yes.”

He snuggled with her, stroking her hair, just wanting to touch her, to feel her presence. She ran her hand up and down his arm in a caress. He didn’t need more than this ever again, he thought.

Reality wriggled its way into his system, forcing
him to think about what had brought her to Sunset Cove … and what would take her away all too soon.

“When are you leaving?” he asked, hating himself for doing so. Yet he needed the answer, needed to know how much time he had left with her.

She stilled. “Leaving? I don’t know for sure. The board meeting’s in a few weeks.”

His heart sank. “That’s all?”

She relaxed. “I thought you were already looking to get rid of me.”

“No.” He kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her temples, her hair. Then he kissed her mouth again, thoroughly this time. “God, no. I want you to stay at the cove for as long as you want to.”

He had admitted it, opening himself to emotional vulnerability.

She smiled. “So do I.”

He kissed her, then said reluctantly, “We ought to get up. I should go down, get Gringo, and check out your trailer.” He grinned. “I also want to thank those people behind you. Without their fight, where would we be now?”

“Alone and miserable?”

“Bull’s-eye.” He took her hand. “Why not stay here with me, Judith? You don’t need the trailer. You won’t be in it much. I guarantee that, because you’ll be with me all the time.”

“Paul—”

“Don’t say no,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “Just say yes.”

She hesitated for the longest of moments. “Yes.”

He kissed her until his head was spinning. “I’ll go get the dog now,” he said.

“I’ll come and clean out my things.”

He cupped her breast, loving the way her body fit his hand so perfectly. Judith’s breath caught. Her gaze turned lambent as he rubbed his thumb across the hardened nub of her nipple.

“Gringo can wait a little longer,” he said.

“If you say so.” She pulled him down for her kiss.

That afternoon Paul stared at all the business papers strewn over his couch. Judith sat in the midst of them, her feet curled up under her. She flipped over a page of the computer printout she was reading, and the gesture squeezed Paul’s heart.

Here it was again: proof that her world was not his world. Not even close. He would hold her only so long, then she would return to San Diego. She wouldn’t be back.

He took a deep breath. Right then her toothbrush was hanging next to his in the bathroom, and her lingerie was in the top drawer of his wardrobe. Whatever he was getting into, he would deal with the future when it came, not one step before.

He cleared a space for himself next to her and
sat. She had used his shampoo that morning when she had showered, and its scent wafted lightly around him. He hoped he was embedding an imprint of himself on her, one that she would never forget for all her life. If he did that, he would be content. She had imbedded her imprint so deeply within him, no brief affair would satisfy it. Yet he would never have more than that with her.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

She tossed the papers down and rubbed her temples. “I feel like I’m in Numberland. I keep reading the numbers and I keeping getting number.”

“That pun ought to have its days numbered. Do the numbers, pardon me, make any sense?”

She chuckled. “No. I’m no Collier where it counts. As far as I can tell, the deal looks good, but there’s no guarantee they’ll continue with the current employees. I can’t accept that.”

“Is there any guarantee your family will keep the employees if they don’t sell the company? I mean, will they restructure or scale down?” He had the
Los Angeles Times
mailed to him, just to keep up with what was happening in the States, and had read several articles about the latest business trend of downsizing.

Judith lifted her head. “Well, no. At least I haven’t heard. But I would think the family wouldn’t do a wholesale clean-out to install new people like an outside company would to install
their own. Nor would we change the benefit plans.” She rattled the papers. “This doesn’t say a word about that.”

“You probably ought to see a lawyer about all this,” he said, picking up the prospectus and reading the first few lines.

“The lawyers I know who specialize in this would be involved in the deal.”

“There’s attorney-client privilege, isn’t there?”

“Everyone’s looking for me. I don’t think attorney-client privilege extends to that.”

Not if someone reported to the police that she was missing, he thought. Then an attorney, as an officer of the court, would be obligated to notify them that she had been in contact. “Your family can’t be so bad that you would let them worry about you.”

She closed her eyes. “I left a note saying I would be away for a while. I don’t think they’ll worry about me as much as they’ll worry about what I’ll do with my shares.”

“I think you worry too damn much,” he said. “How about if you put all this aside and we’ll go diving together.”

She slapped the papers down on the couch. “Deal.”

“Good.”

But when they went down to the beach, Paul couldn’t shake the feeling that a wall was already
rising between them. He could see through it, yet couldn’t penetrate it.

Judith pointed to the plant, its green stem anchored firmly in the reef. The fleshy, almost transparent leaves waved back and forth with the ocean currents.

Paul made the thumbs-up sign to her. His face was nearly obscured again by the diving mask, but then, so was her own. She had to remember to breathe through the mouthpiece, sucking in a rush of cool oxygen to her lungs. She felt light-headed anyway. She knew she was tending to hold her breath, a natural reaction to being underwater. Paul had warned her against doing that. Her first time in the water could be her last if she didn’t pay strict attention to what she was supposed to do. Yet she was excited, delighted with all the things she was seeing.

Looking at Paul, however, didn’t help her quest for air. He sent her head spinning without even trying. Their lovemaking only sharpened her reaction to him. She had flung herself into all the cove’s uncharted waters with abandon.

Paul swam ahead of her. She loved the way he moved even more gracefully under the water. She could still feel his muscles under her hands, the way his shoulders tapered down to narrow hips. He really did have a good-looking backside, she thought happily. She was becoming an expert
on male backsides. At least one particular male backside.

She didn’t regret what had happened between them at all. Paul’s lovemaking had been delicious. Her body was still experiencing wonderful aftershocks that she wished would go on forever. She was in a full-fledged affair now, taking what she could from it before the inevitable ending. Only she didn’t want it ever to end. Living with him was the most amazing event to have happened to her since she had left home.

She only wished they were on the same emotional plane. His words about her allowing her family to worry stung. He didn’t understand. She knew that, so she had controlled her urge to snap at him. She was sure he wanted to understand her. She understood him and his feelings about his daughter. She just didn’t agree with him.

When Paul signaled for them to go to the surface, Judith admitted she was more than ready. She was tired, her weight belt noticeable at her waist. She swam next to him to the surface, loving the way her swim fins pushed her easily along. She and Paul burst through the water together.

Paul raised his mask. “How do you feel?”

Treading water, Judith took out her mouthpiece. “Okay, but I’m not breathing right yet, I don’t think. I’m a little light-headed.”

He smiled and lifted the mask off her nose.
“It’s tough to get the hang of it the first time. I think that’s enough for one day anyway.”

“Thanks. I think so too.” She turned to swim in, but he stopped her, pulling her to him.

“Hell, this wasn’t what I imagined,” he muttered when his fingers tangled with her tank straps.

She rested her hands on his shoulders. “What did you imagine?”

“You and me in the water together.” He grinned. “You weren’t wearing any tank.”

He leaned forward to kiss her. Their masks clanked together. “Damn!”

Judith chuckled. “That wasn’t in the fantasy either, was it?”

He grinned. “Hell, no.”

They swam in together, Judith’s head clearing. She wondered if it was more from the easy companionship than the steadier flow of air. The things that had troubled her underwater still did when they reached land.

“Paul, what will you do about your daughter?” she asked.

He paused, then without turning to her, said, “I told you already. Nothing.”

“I want you to think about it.”

“Judith.” He grabbed her arms and turned her toward him. “Don’t pry, okay? Just don’t pry.

“But I care about you.” She sighed. “I’m not supposed to do that, am I?”

“What does that mean?”

“People aren’t supposed to care in affairs.”

“Forget whatever rule book you’re reading,” he said. “Nothing makes me feel better than knowing you do care about me.”

He kissed her … or tried to. Their masks mated long before their lips could.

She laughed. “I think kissing is temporarily off limits.”

“Wait until I get you back to the house.”

“Promise?”

“Absolutely.”

Judith pushed aside her doubts. He had asked her to stay with him. He wanted her to care about him. This was more than a fling when they both felt the same way.

The one thing she would do before she had to go back for the board meeting would be to help him overcome his reluctance to see his daughter. A man like Paul, who had been through so much, deserved to have his daughter again.

She would do it, Judith vowed. No matter how much he protested, she would do it.

Because she cared.

Paul cried out his passion against Judith’s sweet flesh. She was real and she was there with him and he was desperate for all that he could savor of her. She made him feel whole again, for the first time in a long time.

Even as her warmth enveloped him, even as their intimacy stole into his heart in the aftermath of their lovemaking, he could not shake the belief that their relationship was doomed.

Judith stirred beneath him, her movements lovely and languid and nearly pushing him over the edge of sanity yet again. He set his disturbing thoughts aside, wanting only to savor the moment.

“You were very good,” she said in a low, sexy voice. “
Very
good.”

He smiled and kissed her before turning them both on their sides, facing each other. The sun had risen long before, its light so bright it was almost blinding. Yet Paul didn’t have to see her to feel her satisfaction. “I aim to please,” he said.

“You aim and please very well.” She sighed. “I can’t believe what I’ve been missing all these years.”

He chuckled. “You are good for the ego.”

“I am?” She pressed her naked body even more tightly to his, taking his breath.

“Hell, yes,” he growled, giving her a soft love bite. “If you were any more good, I’d be floating above the sheets.”

Judith’s stomach growled back in answer. Paul burst out laughing.

“I can’t help it,” she said. “I’m hungry.”

“But not for me.”

“Always.” She kissed him. “My stomach’s another story.”

“I suppose I should feed you.”

“If only to give me strength for later,” she said solemnly.

Later, as she sat in his kitchen, wearing only his plain white T-shirt, Paul wondered at what he had created. Her hair cascaded around her shoulders in a wild mass that looked incredibly earthy. He remembered the prim and proper woman who had driven into the camp. He just couldn’t connect that Judith with the one before him, eating a simple dish of eggs and buttered tortillas.

“Tell me about your home,” he said. “How you live. What you like.”

“I like to eat,” she said, taking in an overflowing fork full of food.

“Anything,” he said, amused with her, then sobered. “Seriously, Judith. I want to know about you.”

“You know some already,” she answered. “I live quietly, I guess, although I suppose someone else wouldn’t think so because of the social functions I have to go to. My mother does charity work and ropes me in when I can’t say no. I feel guilty saying no to that sort of thing.” She was silent for a moment. “I don’t have much of a life. It was easier to do that than to fight continually. I’m not a fighter, but you already know that.”

“You’ve got your moments,” he said, “but what do
you
like to do, Judith?”

She frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I
don’t have any ambitions … or, rather, my ambitions were geared to avoiding anything having to do with Collier Chocolates. I sound awful, don’t I?”

He smiled wryly. “I’m not one to talk, believe me.”

She made a face. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Paul. I bet you always wanted to be a cop.”

“Pretty much. My dad was one. He and my mother live in Pasadena.”

“Do you see them?”

“When they come to see my mother’s brother, my uncle Ramón. That’s a couple times a year. We talk on the phone a lot.”

“Do you miss it?” she asked. “Being a cop?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted. Much of the time, he thought more truthfully. “I can’t go back. Where I am now is something I can live with. I’m content.”

“Honestly?” she asked.

He smiled. “Yes, honestly. I told you before, there’s a lot here to make you look inside yourself that you won’t get elsewhere.”

“Yes,” she said. “You’re right.”

“Want some more eggs?” he asked, scraping at what was still in the pan. “I’ll divvy what’s left with you.”