She adjusted the two small triangles of her top over her breasts and raised her arms to tie it behind her neck. “Nice! You should take my job.You can be quite creative when you set your mind to it. Did you know that, baby?”
“You make my mind race.”
He stepped up and reached around her neck, his fingers grazing the little hairs at her nape as he tied one string, then slid sinuously down her back to knot the other.
She did not miss the fact that she made his mind race. Not his heart.
Trying not to dwell on it, she went up on tiptoe to kiss him, and his hands splayed on her back.“Zebras are carnivores’ favorite prey,” he murmured, and lightly caught her lower lip between his teeth. “It’s the coloring. They fairly scream to be eaten.” She was ready to be devoured by a devastatingly gorgeous, golden-eyed carnivore when he slapped her fanny. “Let’s get you fed.”
They raided the kitchen, and found inside the fridge trays of sliced fruit, fresh salmon, and shrimp cocktails prepared by the artful hands of Señor Gonzalez. Carrying the food out to the pool area, they set it on a round table, and nibbled and sipped martinis and wine.
Skinny-dipping, Grey had said.
The men were an awful temptation as it was. Her gorgeous lover wore sexy 007 trunks—of the hunky new Bond type—that Toni had purchased for him last year at Neiman Marcus, and he looked ready for a campaign shoot for Hugo Boss. Heath wore electric blue trunks in a surfer style that reached his knees, and he looked ready to join the cast of
Lost
.
When they migrated to the sleek, upholstered chaise longues lined up along the left side of the infinity pool, Grey discreetly plucked the bow at the back of her bikini top and Toni ended up lying the better part of the afternoon topless, nipples pointing up, chilly and pebbled in the refreshing air.
Palm leaves stirred. In the distance, the waves crashed and rolled along the sand. A crescent moon made its way into the darkening sky.
Inside the pool, his arms on the ledge, Heath could not seem to tear his eyes off her. He’d done laps around the pool, his powerful arms slicing the water. Now his hair was slicked back behind his head and glistening rivulets slid down his tanned neck and shoulders.
Grey was sprawled on the lounge chair next to hers, those awesome, muscled, hair-dusted legs of his stretched to full length while he ate a fresh mango slice.
She thought she might doze off when she caught a movement around a corner of the house, past the neatly maintained grounds of the pool enclosure. She frowned. “Grey, I thought Señor Gonzalez had left for the day already.”Three gazes followed the little man as he came around, carrying a large black plastic bag with dry palm fronds sticking out.
“How much do you pay that guy?” Heath asked.
Grey’s lips curled. “Apparently not enough.”
“The last time Grey and I were here, he fell off the ladder and dropped right into those bushes.” Toni pointed, but Heath didn’t drag his eyes away from her; instead he flashed her a smile. A fast, wicked, dazzling smile that might have made her knees buckle if she’d been unfortunate enough to be standing.
“I’ve told him to back off, but he won’t listen.” Grey settled back on his chaise and waved a hand at the house.“He likes looking after her.You forget that’s his lady.”
“A high-maintenance lady,” Heath said with a grimace.
Grey ran a hand through his damp hair. “He’s such a hard-working bastard. He spends days washing her. Then it rains, and he’s at it again.”
“I dig that,” Heath said.
“So do I.”
Toni thoughtfully tapped a finger to the corner of her lips, scrambling to remember the last time Grey had washed
her
. “See, I remember being someone’s lady, but I don’t remember being washed so diligently.”
“I wash you diligently.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Like, fifteen months ago? Hey, think we would fit in the tub, the three of us? You can
both
wash me diligently.” The wanton words came out so unexpectedly, she was shocked. Aware of two pairs of eyes on her, she bit the inside of her cheek and glanced down the length of her legs at her bare toes.
“Heath’s allergic to soap,” Grey said.
Very vividly, Toni remembered how clean he smelled, what his skin tasted like. A little of water and salt and maybe . . . grass. But how much did she really know about Heath Solis? “Do you read, Heath?”
“When I’m bored enough.”
“What do you do during all those flights, all that time traveling?”
“I sleep.”
“He hates to fly. Has to be drugged.” Grey stretched his long legs farther out, his arms flexing as he crossed them over his chest. “What would a therapist say about that?”
“I don’t know, Grey. Ask yours.”
Grey chuckled, obviously the last man on earth who’d pay someone to make him
talk
. With a fading smile, Toni scrutinized Heath’s rugged features while seriously wondering why he didn’t have anyone. He was a little primitive, and the intense look in his eyes might seem frightening, but she had to admit that
she
found that riveting. Like discovering a mystery, a complicated puzzle, or submerging herself into an ocean where both danger and treasures lurked.
“Do you ever get homesick?” she asked.
He brought an arm up and swiped his forehead with a dripping forearm. “I don’t have a home.” She couldn’t detect any hint of self-pity in his voice, but somehow his words were sad. “What I meant was,” he amended, covering for his curtness, “I like moving around.”
“But if you found someplace you loved more than others . . . would you stay put?”
“I won’t.”
He said it with such certainty, she bit back the only reply that came to mind, a strangely disgruntled,
Oh
.
“No high-maintenance lady for Heath,” Grey said.
“Sir Richards,
teléfono
!”
Grey wearily scrubbed both hands over his face. “Oh, for god’s sake.”
Toni snatched one big hand down and peered into his eyes. “I thought you weren’t working this weekend.”
Grey bent to kiss her neck before he rose. “I’m not.”
It had to be at least eight p.m. in Chicago. She thoroughly appreciated her friend’s dedication, but if Louisa didn’t rest, that meant Grey didn’t, either, and he worked hard enough as it was. “What time does Louisa leave the office, anyway?” she asked, scowling.
“Apparently never,” he called as he lunged up the three steps to the house.
“Grey has a new assistant,” she turned to explain to Heath. “She’s a friend of mine, actually.”
“Do you have many friends?”
She couldn’t tell if he was really interested or simply making idle conversation. Looking at the particularly impressive poker face he wore, she couldn’t tell a thing—
she
ought to know about that, seeing as Grey had elevated it to an art form—so she kept her reply on the short side. “I have a few good friends. But I’d love to see them more than I do.You?”
He shrugged, like it didn’t matter. “Just Grey.”
She sat up straighter and folded one leg to tuck her toes under her opposite knee. Lights from the interior of the house threw a wide stream of light over the pool area, casting an interesting play of shadows on his face. If her gifts lay more in the creative arts, rather than the graphic, she’d have an urge to paint him. Draw the slanted lines of his eyebrows, capture the angle of his nose, the exact shade of shadow across that belligerent jaw. “Grey told me how you met,” she said, wondering,
Why is Heath Solis alone in the world?
His eyes fell to her breasts, her position fully exposing the globes to him, and something in her went liquid when his eyes began to glimmer.
“So his dad hates you?” she continued.
“Intensely.” He wanted to suckle her. His jaw was working as his eyes took in her nipples. And she knew,
knew
, in every atom of her stirring body, he wanted to suckle her.
“It’s mutual,” he said at last.
“How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
“And what was a sixteen-year-old boy doing parking cars?”
“If you touch your breasts for me, I’ll tell you.”
His brazenness sent a river of heat pouring between her thighs. Even as she told herself she should make him work for it, even as she told herself to laugh it off and ignore him, she shifted her weight on one arm and obediently, coyly, found herself handling one perky breast. It swelled in her hand, grew heavy as she massaged with her fingers.
“All right,” she said huskily, “now tell me.”
True to his word, he said, “I did all kinds of stuff before Grey and I started working together.” His ravenous stare turned her muscles to mush. “That was my first time parking cars, and wouldn’t you know it? In roars Lucien Grey Richards in his shiny red Fer rari.” He chuckled softly, his hair slapping against his temples as he shook his head. “He was lecturing this quiet young man who rode shotgun. . . .”
“Grey,” she breathed, making love to the word, to her breast.
“Yeah. He had on that stony face of his. He was quiet . . . you know,
pissed
. His old man got out of the car and slapped the keys to my palm, saying something like, ‘If I see a single scratch, you’ll be working the rest of your life to pay for it, son, so I suggest you take good care.’”
She sat up, engrossed, and Heath narrowed his eyes when her hands fell to her sides. He paused for only a moment. “I stared down at those keys,” he continued, “thinking how very much I’d like to test that threat, and then Grey came over and whispered so the old man wouldn’t hear. I swear he was reading my mind. He said, ‘Don’t be shy. Take her for a ride.’ Then he smiled that cold smile of his. ‘Make her squeal.’ He was so pissed and so cool about it, he gave me a laugh. So I thought,
I kind of like this guy
.And I took her for a ride, made her squeal.” He grinned at her. “And made his father squeal, too.”
Toni laughed, enjoying hearing the story again. “You two are so bad.”
“You’re beautiful when you smile.”
She jerked in her seat, taken aback by his compliment.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“Don’t . . . what?”
“Don’t stop. Touch your breast for me.”
For a moment, she considered lying on the chaise, stroking herself to orgasm for Heath as she did for Grey, but rather than act on the tantalizing thought, she just gazed at him, her hand unmoving on her breast. He was blunt. He was rough. He wasn’t supposed to affect her this way.
“Tell me how you and Grey met,” he said. Almost every word he spoke seemed to crackle with authority. But then he smiled, and those smiles softened everything. Her legs, her insides . . .
She smiled warmly as her memories surfaced, dropping her hand to her lap.“I wanted to sell him a new image.A kick-ass design and a sharp new logo for RS. He actually came looking for me—can you believe it? He saw a logo and business card I did for a client.”
Heath was quietly attentive, so she settled back comfortably and continued. “So I met with him in his office. And when I saw him . . .” She remembered the jolt she felt, being the sole focus of those sharp amber eyes. She remembered thinking,
Wow. What a man, what a presence, what a god.
“When I saw him,” she said, her voice cottony, “I’d never wanted anything so much in my life.”
And I still can’t really believe he could be mine
, she thought privately, and then waved a hand to disperse the thought.
“We were having dinner to continue discussing my ideas. I wanted to land RS so badly. Imagine what it would do for my reputation, to create an image for a company like that. But we didn’t even get to dinner.” She remembered Grey on her door-step, remembered rushing back inside to get her briefcase, and she remembered Grey’s hands on her, his hot, sweet- scented mouth against her skin, whispering,
What I want is right here.
And what she wanted was there. In his eyes, in all of him, in the entire intimidating male package of Grey Richards.
“Love at first sight?”
Yes. It was love. Wild, complete, beautiful, vulnerable love.
She thought her voice sounded bizarre, airless, full of longing. “It’s impossible not to love him. He’s . . .” There were no words in the dictionary to describe him. “He’s Grey.”
And I desperately want him to love me.
She shrugged with a little smile to hide her insecurities, then held her breath, noting Heath was staring down at his hands. She had the distinct impression she’d made him uncomfortable.
“Are they wrinkled?” she teased as she rose to her feet, drawn to him by some unearthly pull she couldn’t resist. “You’ve been in there for quite a while.”
“They’re soft,” he said, rubbing them together, his damp, sooty lashes lifting up to reveal his eyes. The chilly air caused gooseflesh to rise along her skin as she walked to the edge of the pool.
The water glistened, its color the dark, rich blue of sapphires. As she walked down the steps, the shock of the cooling water on her skin made her suck in her breath. Dragging in more air, she impulsively plunged beneath the surface to get her body accustomed, then surged up and slicked her hair back, gasping. Heath had turned around to prop his elbows on the ledge and watch her. She smiled at him. Maybe because she was so susceptible to his charm, it was impossible for her smiles to affect him as deeply as his affected her. But still, she let it play on her lips and admitted, “I was getting lonely.”
And somehow, suddenly, he looked very big and very lonely, too, standing there in the same pool but too far away to touch. And she thought perhaps she and Grey should set him up with someone, one of her single friends. Maybe Heath would like Louisa or Francine . . . and maybe
they
would like Heath.Toni certainly liked him, and this way he wouldn’t be entirely alone in the world, and someone would get to enjoy him. . . .