The Holiday (6 page)

Mel was indefatigable. And
relentless. And more than knowledgeable about all genres of art. Yes, it'd been
an exhausting day, but it'd been exciting too. Mel had definite ideas about her
East-meets-West island show, but she also welcomed Leilani's input.

They'd laid out the framework for
the show, including a tentative list of which artists they wanted to contact.
They'd divided the work, deciding that she'd orchestrate the show while Mel
handled the press and marketing. They'd worked out the details and signed the
contract. Leilani felt amazingly good about it, as the show would be billed
"in conjunction with the Wakida Gallery of Maui."

"How do you know Mel?"
a man to her left suddenly asked her, tipping into her space.

She backed up discreetly to get
away from the alcohol fumes he emitted. "I'm working with her."

"That Mel." He shook
his head so vigorously that if his drink weren't almost empty he'd have sloshed
it over. "Always had to be the black sheep of her family. Started with
that Latin polo player back ages ago, and now she has a
vocation
."

He said vocation like it was a
curse word, and it made her smile. Jasper had hinted that Mel was a black sheep
too. She'd have to find out why, and who the Latin polo player was.

Suddenly there was a hand at her
elbow. The way it made her shiver telegraphed who it was, so she wasn't
surprised when she looked up into Colin's warm, amused eyes.

He turned to the drunk man and
said, "Nigel, Mel's looking for you. Something about her birthday and
finding you in her closet?"

The man, Nigel, paled.
"Whatever she told you, it's an exaggeration. You know I wouldn't ever try
on her clothes, much less something purple. Makes my complexion sallow."

"Tell
her
that. She's over there." Colin pointed behind him.

But Nigel was already gone.

Colin leaned and whispered in her
ear. "Terrible cross-dressing habit. One of Britain's worst kept secrets.
I blame his three sisters, who used to make him wear their clothes and called
him their fourth sister."

Leilani chuckled. "I might
pay to see that."

"Why? You can probably find
pictures posted online for free." He smiled at her, his hand moving slowly
to her back. "In case you wondered, I don't cross-dress."

She wondered if it were possible
to melt from a gentle hand on one's back. "I'm relieved to hear that.
Since I had no siblings, I'd have a hard time sharing my shoes."

"You would have been safe
there. My feet appear to be larger."

They both looked down at their
feet.

"It's almost a shame,
because I have a pair of gold strappy heels that would have looked fantastic with
your outfit," she said mildly.

He shook his head. "Life can
wield such great disappointments."

Mel walked up between them,
putting an arm around their waists and looking down. "Are there cockroaches
on the floor, loves?"

Colin exchanged a conspiratorial
look with Leilani. "We were discussing shoes."

"I picked out what he's
wearing," Mel said to Leilani. "If you saw his clothing before I took
a hand in it, you'd have thought the man was seventy, what with all the sweater
vests and argyle." Mel shuddered.

"Perhaps I need more gold in
my wardrobe," Colin said mildly.

"Have you been swigging from
Nigel's flask? No, don't tell me. Just the thought of it is ghastly." With
a delicate shudder, Mel moved on, already chatting with another of her guests.

Leilani turned to Colin. "She
told me it was going to be a small dinner party, to introduce me to her close
friends."

"For Mel, this
is
small. She's arguably more popular
than the Queen."

She tried not to feel
disappointed that he didn't put his hand back on her. She felt oddly adrift
without his touch.

"How do you find this?"
he asked.

"Overwhelming." She
smiled. "Seeing your friendly face is nice though."

"Only nice?" he
murmured, moving closer to protect her from a person rushing by.

The brush of his body against
hers must have been what did it, because she heard herself say, "Colin, I
have a proposal for you."

He paused to digest that. Then he
asked, "Will I like it?"

"Yes." She frowned.
"I hope."

"Now you have me
intrigued," he said softly close to her ear. He took her arm. "Should
we find a quiet place to discuss it?"

"Yes. I'm not sure where
that would be." She looked around, and then an idea struck. She hesitated,
wondering if it was a good idea. What did she have to lose? "I know a
place."

Taking his hand, she led him up
the stairs, all the way to the fourth floor. To her bedroom.

Her heart thumped with each step they
ascended. She felt like she was a teenager again, sneaking away with a boy.

That boy had been Aaron, her
friend. She'd never kissed anyone other than him.

She shook her head. She would
not
think about him now. This was London
and an Aaron-free zone.

"Are you alright?"
Colin asked in his buttery accented voice.

"I will be in a moment."
She opened the door to her bedroom, led him in, and closed it behind him. She'd
left the light dimmed before she'd gone downstairs, and it shined like a
spotlight on the bed.

They both stared at it before
looking at each other. She swallowed. "Maybe we should go onto the
lanai."

"Right." He nodded briskly
and opened the double doors leading to the deck. "The balcony it is."

The night air was chilly. She
hugged herself and turned to face him.

Colin's eyes were directly on
hers—he had such a focused gaze—as he took off his jacket and
draped it across her shoulders. "Better?" he asked.

She inhaled the surprisingly
spicy scent of him, a hint of lime and something exotic, and nodded.
"Thank you."

He stood braced, hands in his
pockets. "About this proposal..."

"Yes." She took a deep
breath. "I want to have sex."

He stilled, eyes wide.

She groaned. "That didn't
come out right."

"You don't want to have
sex?" he asked cautiously.

"No. I mean, yes, I
do."

"With me?"

"Yes." She bit her lip.
"But only if you want to."

"It's a relief you don't
plan to rape me, having lured me to your lair." He looked around. "A
pity, but a relief."

Relaxing, she smiled. "You
aren't horrified at my request?"

"I'm rather intrigued."
He looked her straight in the eye. "You're looking for a holiday
fling."

"Yes." The rest of the tension
melted from her shoulders at the understanding look on his face. "I feel
very awkward. I haven't dated ever, and I've definitely never propositioned a
man before."

He looked confused. "You
haven't dated?"

"I was engaged to my
childhood sweetheart." Oddly, telling him didn't wrench her like she'd expect
it to. "I've only ever been with him."

"And where is he now?"

"He drowned in a surfing
accident last year."

"I'm sorry," Colin
murmured.

She nodded, but she didn't want
to talk about Aaron—not now. This was about her for a change. "I
haven't been with anyone else, ever."

"In the past year?"

"No one." She looked
him in the eye. "You'd be my first."

He studied her. Finally he
nodded, but then he said, "I'm open to negotiation."

"Negotiation?"

"I'm a businessman. I'll
want to define the structure of our partnership."

A spark of excitement jolted her
belly. "I'm open to negotiation."

He walked to her and tipped her
chin up. "I feel confident we'll agree on the terms."

And then he kissed her.

Colin kissed her.

One moment he was standing there,
listening to her proposition him and the next he had her in his arms.

It was delicious.

He'd never been so impulsive
regarding a woman. He'd never just
kissed
someone. It was ingrained in him to be gentlemanly, meaning he didn't touch a
woman until he knew her full pedigree.

But he felt he knew Leilani, like
he'd known her forever. Holding her in his arms and kissing her only confirmed
that.

She sighed, and her body gave to
him.

A barbaric feeling of victory
surged through him, something akin to what his conquering ancestors must have
experienced when they storm the Saxon shores. He pulled her flush against him.

Lord, she felt perfect, like the
right puzzle piece he'd been missing all his life. He ran his hands through her
soft hair, tipping her head back so he could taste the soft skin of her neck.
Better than dessert, and he loved dessert.

Her hands gripped his shoulders
as she let her head fall back more with a groan. "Does this mean your
answer is yes?"

Shaking his head, he nuzzled the
soft spot under her jaw. "We're stilling negotiating."

"Who's winning?" she
asked breathlessly.

"I think we both are."
He ran a hand down her neck, sliding his fingers into the neckline of her
dress. He touched the gentle swell of her breast, lingering there, enjoying the
hitch in her breath and the tight clench on her hands on him. Because he had
to, he kissed her again.

She responded enthusiastically
but then she broke it off, leaning back to watch him with those beautiful eyes.
Her lips glistened, full with the force of his desire. "Is that your first
term?"

"Yes, and perhaps my
second."

"What else are we negotiating?"

"You want sex with me."

"Yes." She nodded
firmly.

"I like that."

"That I want sex with
you?" she asked with a glint of humor in her luminous eyes.

"That you're honest about
it, and that you ask for what you want. That's the way I operate."

"So what do you want?"

"You. Exclusively." He
ran his hands down her back, pulling her close. "While you're in London,
you're mine. No one else's."

She nodded slowly. "I'm
amenable to that. What other terms do you have?"

"That you don't deny me of
your company or thoughts." He watched carefully, seeing the wariness creep
into her expression. He knew she wanted a temporary arrangement, a holiday shag,
but he had more of a permanent arrangement in mind.

She didn't need to know that—yet.
But she did need to be open to him, at least enough to give him a chance to
learn her and win her heart.

He wanted her heart more than
he'd ever wanted anything.

That wasn't a surprise to him. He
was a fairly steady fellow. He always knew what he wanted when he saw it, and
his instincts were never wrong.

He wasn't deaf—he'd heard
his family murmur behind his back, speculating on whether he'd ever settle down.
They considered him a playboy. He didn't blame them—he had a record of
casually dating women because he lost interest so quickly.

There was nothing casual about
Leilani.

"You want me open to
you," she restated.

"Yes." He traced a finger
over her lower lip. "In all ways imaginable."

"You make that sound
naughty."

"It will be."

She cleared her throat. "I
thought British men were reserved and reticent."

"We are, but some of us are
willing to bend."

"Do you have any other
terms?"

"Not at the moment. Do
you?"

She shook her head. "Not that
I can think of right now."

"Shall we decide to
renegotiate if we need?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant." He closed
the little distance between them. "I think we should seal our partnership,
don't you?"

"Yes, please," she
whispered right before she pulled his mouth down to meet hers.

The kiss ignited between them, a
heated promised of what he could expect to come. He walked her backwards until
she pressed between the railing and his body.

She gasped, arching into him. He
knew she felt the erection he'd had in some varying degree of severity every
time he was in her company. It was insistent, and for a moment he debated
lifting her dress, turning her around, and taking her right there.

He untangled himself from her and
took her hand. "Come with me."

She nodded, passion glazing her
eyes. Some of the passion turned into confusion when he led her past her bed
and out of the bedroom. "Where are we going?"

"I need to check on MacLeod."

"MacLeod?"

"My dog."

"Okay," she said slowly.

Stopping, he kissed her again,
until she was breathless and wilted and clutching him. "It's going to
happen," he told her, "but not tonight. Tonight I'm going to savor
you. Tomorrow I'll make you mine."

She swallowed audibly.
"Okay. Okay, I can deal with that."

He smiled and led her downstairs.
He escorted her through the throng of people. Catching a glimpse of Mel, he excused
himself for a moment and went to his best friend. "I'm borrowing your
guest of honor for the rest of the evening."

Mel arched a brow as she sipped
her vodka tonic. "Should I be concerned about her virtue?"

"I plan on taking great care
of her virtue."

Her smile was devilish. "You
naughty boy. Should I ask your intentions, or will I be scandalized?"

"I was considering going
back to Maui to find her, Mel."

"Then how clever of me to
invite her here." She reached on her tiptoes and bussed his cheek.
"Don't bugger this up, love."

He didn't plan on it. He returned
to Leilani and took her hand. "Let's go."

"I feel bad leaving the
party after Mel went through so much trouble."

"Mel's sending you off with
me with her blessings." They went outside and he gave the valet his
ticket.

"Where are we headed?"
Leilani asked once they were ensconced in his car.