24 Hours Bundle

by Jo Leigh

  Any second now he would deepen the kiss and her fears would be swept away. But he surprised her by withdrawing and then just touching his mouth to hers again. It wasn’t like any other kiss he’d given her. His lips were feather-light on hers, pressing lightly and then withdrawing as if he were tasting her for the first time.

  It was only then that she realized she might have been tasting him for the first time too. His flavor was different. Without the explosion of heat she’d always experienced before, he tasted more complex, more intense. She wanted more.

  It was only as she tried to lift her hand and pull him closer that she realized how weak she had become.

  He drew back then and said, “There’s no plantation owner tonight, Pepper, and no slave girl. There’s just you and me, and we’re on equal footing.”

  It was what she wanted, what she’d planned. And it was just ridiculous that she was trembling. A little ribbon of fear moved through her—fear that she might come up short when he compared her to Elena. But she shoved it aside. Strengths—she had them, and this was Cole, a man who’d fascinated her much more than a plantation owner who had nothing better to do than to fool around with a slave girl.

  The one thing she could give him was the truth. She managed to raise her hands and frame his face with them. “I want you, Cole, more than I’ve ever wanted any man.” She saw the dark flash of pleasure in his eyes, and her courage increased. “I’ve been thinking of making love with you ever since we left the lagoon.”

  He took her wrist and drawing her hand to his mouth, he pressed a kiss to her palm. Once again the warmth and the weakness moved through her.

  “All through dinner and dancing, even when we were hiding in that forest of palm trees, I was wondering how fast I could get you out of this dress.” When he began to undo the knot at her shoulder, his fingers fumbled.

  Another small thrill moved through her. This was Cole and she was unnerving him. Once the knot was freed, the silk parted and pooled around her. She wore nothing beneath.

  “And I was wondering if you were naked under that dress.”

  The rough edge to his voice dried her throat, and she had to moisten her lips. “Perhaps I should have told you.”

  “We’d never have made it through dinner.” Cole’s gaze locked on hers. “You’re beautiful,” he repeated.

  A fresh thrill moved through her as she let herself believe him.

  Cole began to taste her again, slowly. One moment his lips were pressed firmly against hers and the next he was tracing her lips with his tongue as if she were some delicacy he couldn’t get enough of. He was only touching her with his lips and his tongue and yet she felt as if he were touching her everywhere.

  She was floating, and the pleasure was so sweet she began to ache. There was a part of her that wanted him to hurry. She wanted his hands on her. But there was another part of her that wanted this moment to go on and on.

  When he finally drew back, she felt her heart flutter.

  He framed her face with his hands and regarded her in that intent way he had. “I want you to know that it’s me touching you. And it’s going to be me inside you.”

  When he brushed his mouth softly over hers again, she felt her heart take a slow tumble.

  She was in love with Cole Buchanan. Before she could think about that, Cole increased the pressure of the kiss and began to feast—tasting, nipping, sucking—until the weakness in her body became an ache.

  She murmured his name and he heard it above the surf. It was what he’d been waiting to hear. His name. As he felt the softening of her muscles that signaled surrender, ripples of delight moved through him. But he wanted more. He’d have more. Drawing away, he urged her back so that she was lying on the blanket. Then he simply looked at her, naked in the moonlight.

  “Cole?”

  “I want to look at you.” Reynaldo had been right. In the moonlight, she did look like a goddess. He wanted to store away the memory, he realized. He needed it.

  Pepper’s lips curved slightly. “What if I tell you that every time you looked at me that way in the office, I wanted you to touch me?”

  “What if I told you that I knew it?” He brushed one finger over the pulse that even now was beating rapidly at her throat. “This was a dead giveaway. You nearly drove me crazy.” Bending lower, he replaced his finger with his mouth and once more sampled the sweetness of that telltale pulse.

  Then as his own desire quickened, he began to use his hands on her, tracing curves and angles, skimming over strong arms, firm thighs, and exploring the impossibly soft skin over each breast.

  Time spun away. He knew that he couldn’t stop it, but he was determined not to hurry. Not this time. When they were away from the island, she would remember this and so would he. Leaning over her, he kissed her again and again. He wasn’t even aware when his hands stopped moving. He only knew that he could have gone on kissing her forever.

  Finally, he drew back, and shifting his body downward, he took his mouth on the same journey his hands had taken earlier. He wanted to absorb her—her scent, the texture of her skin, the small sounds she made. He wanted her to absorb him. And he was learning about her too. Scraping his teeth along her collarbone made her sigh. Using his tongue on her nipple made her breath hitch. When he caught the peak of one breast between his teeth, she moaned his name and his blood began to pound in a primitive rhythm.

  Pepper hadn’t known it was possible to float on a sea of such intense pleasure. Anticipation and arousal swirled inside her and tangled with the promise of satisfaction. She thought he’d already shown her all the ways that her body could experience pleasure, but there were more doors that he opened up for her as he nibbled long the bone at her hip and his fingers traced patterns on the back of her knee and her inner thigh.

  Then his mouth moved lower still until he found her center. There, his tongue lingered—tracing, teasing and trapping her in a world where pleasure became almost too much to bear. Even then he showed her more. When the first orgasm shot through her, she could only call his name. But he didn’t stop, and he built her second climax more slowly. It was torture. It was paradise. She wasn’t sure there was a difference as she felt her whole body strain upward until the release erupted and shot through her, catapulting her to a new peak.

  She was still falling when she heard her name.

  “Pepper, open your eyes. I want you to let me see where I’m taking you.”

  She did, and once Cole looked into her eyes, he knew nothing but Pepper. He’d made love before. He’d made love with this woman before, but this was new. This was different. At some point when he’d been so focused on giving her pleasure, he’d lost a part of himself. Now she was all he was aware of. There was nothing else. The sound of the sea had faded along with the candlelight and the moonlight.

  He was only aware of her eyes, hot and dark and fastened on him. There was only Pepper, small and strong, soft and seductive. Passion and desire tangled with emotions he couldn’t understand as he slipped into her and gave himself to her.

  13

  Saturday, February 14—12 a.m.

  COLE WASN’T SURE how much time had gone by—seconds, moments, an hour? They were still tangled together on the blanket. But he’d pulled her on top of him and her head was resting on his shoulder. The candles were still flickering nearby, and the sound of the surf had picked up. He was aware that his heart was no longer racing, but he was still holding on to her as if his life depended on it. When a wave dampened one of his feet, he said, “I think we’re going to have to move.”

  “Mmm.” She made a negative motion with her head. “Don’t want to.”

  “I think the tide’s coming in.”

  “That old spoilsport.”

  Cole couldn’t have agreed more. It suddenly occurred to him that he could have gone on holding her just like this for a very long time. And he might have risked it if there hadn’t been a sudden shout.

  “Ahoy, there!”

  Pepper shift
ed off him and they sat up together. In the shaft of moonlight that cut a clear wide path across the water, Cole made out the shape of a boat and watched as a wave shoved it closer to the outcrop of rocks that extended into sea.

  “Anybody there?” The shout was a little louder this time.

  Grabbing his trousers and slipping into them, Cole called, “Are you in trouble?”

  “He is if this isn’t Escapade Island,” a female voice shouted. “Is it?”

  Cole felt Pepper stiffen beside him.

  “It’s Escapade Island.” She grabbed her sarong, tying it around her as she scrambled to her feet. “Aunt Irene, is that you?”

  “Pepper?”

  “Are you all right?” Pepper raced knee deep into the water as the boat surged toward her.

  Cole reached her side just as a second wave brought the boat within ten yards. A small figure slipped over the side and Pepper and her aunt waded toward each other. Cole turned his attention to the man at the tiller.

  “Need some help?” he asked.

  “Appreciate it,” the man said.

  Cole grabbed the side of the boat and began to urge it toward the sandy beach. This close, Cole saw that the vessel was nothing more than an inflatable raft equipped with a small sail and a motor.

  He let out a low whistle as the short, portly man slipped over the side and joined them in the water. “My hat’s off to you if you sailed this all the way from Eden Island.”

  “Irene wanted to get here tonight, and this was the only thing on that island that was seaworthy enough to make the trip. I’m Happy Johansson, by the way.”

  “Cole Buchanan.” He hitched a thumb toward Pepper’s aunt. “So how do you know Irene?”

  “Met her on the plane to Eden.” He lowered his voice. “And if I can be frank, it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in years. God, I love a take-charge woman.”

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ve got some pretty stiff competition.”

  Happy sighed. “Yeah, I got that. She couldn’t stop talking about him on the way over. But I think I’ll hang around, in case things don’t work out the way Irene’s planned.”

  “She told you about her plan?”

  Happy grinned. “About stealing the Monet to prove a point to her boyfriend?”

  “That would be it,” Cole said.

  “She’s a pip, isn’t she?”

  Cole couldn’t have agreed more. “She’s got the Monet then?”

  “No. I expect the young man who drugged her and put her on the plane to Eden Island nipped it. But she’s confident it’s here on the island somewhere.”

  Cole glanced over at the two women now deep in conversation. No doubt Irene was filling Pepper in on her adventure. For a few minutes Happy and he worked in silence, steering the boat away from the rocks and helping the sea guide it onto the beach. It took only a matter of seconds to drag it away from the reach of the tide. Once the raft was secured, Happy glanced over to where the two women were standing by the rocks in the moonlight, locked in a tight embrace. “Is that her daughter?”

  “Pepper is Irene’s niece,” Cole said, turning to him. “They’ll need a moment to catch up and you look like a man who could use a drink. I hope you like champagne.”

  Happy’s smile grew even brighter. “You just became my new best friend.”

  Cole poured him a glass. “Can Irene describe the man who drugged her?”

  For the first time, Cole saw the laughter completely drain from Happy’s eyes.

  “I can,” he said. “He spoke with a French accent and he was sporting a goatee and a beret. If he’s here on the island, I’d like to have a few moments with him.”

  “He’s here,” Cole assured him. “And you’ll have to wait in line.”

  FOR A LONG MOMENT, Pepper held on hard to her aunt as feelings swamped her. Delight and relief that her aunt was finally safely on the island, regret because she knew that her time with Cole was almost over. “Don’t worry about the Monet. I was so worried about you—ever since you missed the plane. And I know you’re wondering why I’m here.”

  Stepping back, Irene glanced at the remains of the beach picnic. “Not really. It looks like you were having a little tryst with Cole Buchanan.” She shot a glance toward Cole who was pouring champagne into a glass for Happy. “I approve. He’s a definite step up from Evan Atwell. Suits you, too.”

  “No, I mean you’ve got to be wondering why I’m here on the island.”

  “You followed me,” Irene said.

  Pepper stared at her. “My disguise didn’t fool you?”

  “It was damn good, but I figured you’d follow me, and the shoes were a big clue.”

  Pepper drew in a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t trust what you said you were going to do. I know that you intended to return the painting. But I didn’t know that much about Butch. And I figured since you’re in love with him, you might not be seeing him in an objective light.”

  Irene waved a hand. “I would have done the same. But Butch will not accept a stolen painting. He’s legit.”

  “I think you’re right. The people who work here like him, and he seems to be a very nice man.”

  Irene grabbed her hands. “You’ve met him? How is he? What did he say? You didn’t tell him I was coming to the island?”

  Pepper shook her head. “He already knew. You were on the guest list. When I checked into your cabin, he thought that I was you. And when he came barging through the door, he seemed upset that Cole and I were…well, sharing the cabin.”

  Irene’s eyes widened. “He barged through the door?”

  “I had the distinct impression that Butch Castellano was jealous of me,” Cole said as he and Happy joined them.

  Irene shot Cole a narrow-eyed glance. “Jealous?”

  “He thought you had come to the island with another man,” Pepper said. “Cole nearly had to dodge a bullet.”

  “Really,” Irene said and she looked pleased.

  “The important thing is that you’re here now,” Pepper said.

  “But I don’t have the Monet,” Irene pointed out.

  “Cole says the Frenchman who drugged you and nipped the Monet is here on the island,” Happy said.

  “His name is Jean Claude Rambeau,” Pepper added.

  “You know him?” Irene asked.

  Pepper shrugged “We have some information about him. He’s here with Evan Atwell. They’re a couple, and they’re sharing the penthouse suite. So far Butch has had two meetings with them. I’ll bet my PI license that they’re negotiating the price of that Monet.”

  “Time out,” Irene said. “This Rambeau stole the painting from me and Butch is having meetings with him?”

  “In a nutshell,” Pepper said.

  “Shit,” Irene muttered.

  Cole pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll get in touch with Butch, and we’ll straighten this whole thing out.”

  “No!” Irene shouted.

  “Wait,” Pepper said in an only slightly calmer voice.

  Cole closed his cell. “You don’t think he’ll cooperate?”

  “Of course, he will,” Irene said. “He’ll be only to happy to save my ass. That’s why he made the big sacrifice and swore to stay out of my life forty years ago. If you tell him about this, Butch Castellano will ride to the rescue again and he’ll continue to think of me as poor little Renie who needs to be protected and saved from ruining her life. I stole the Monet to erase that image forever from his mind. Unless I get it back, how can I convince him that I’m bad enough for him?”

  Cole stared at her. “You want to steal it again?”

  “Of course she does,” Pepper said. “If she doesn’t steal back the Monet, she hasn’t made her point.”

  Cole glanced at Happy. “Are you following this?’

  Happy laughed. “Nope.” He patted Cole’s arm. “But I wouldn’t argue. It’s female logic. I’ve raised three daughters, and I’ve never gotten the hang of it, but I�
��ve learned not to argue.”

  “After all,” Pepper continued, “if you steal something back, it isn’t really stealing, is it?”

  “See?” Happy said. “There’s really no rebuttal for an argument like that.”

  Cole couldn’t have agreed more.

  As the two women began to talk to each other again, Happy pitched his voice low so that only Cole could hear. “The other thing you ought to watch out for is that the older one is very forceful—though I would say it’s her most endearing quality.”

  “Yeah, well when the younger one gets an idea in her head, she’s no slouch either.” Then he raised his voice. “Ladies, I think we should continue this discussion in more comfortable surroundings.”

  THE MORE COMFORTABLE surroundings turned out to be the two-bedroom suite that Cole had booked when he’d arrived on the island on Thursday. They’d decided against using Irene’s bungalow because Butch would probably be keeping his eye on it, not to mention the hole in the ceiling that needed repairing.

  Pepper glanced up from the diagram that Irene was drawing and took the room in for the first time. It boasted a spacious living room and even a small kitchen where she was surprised to see Cole and Happy cooking something.

  “I’ll come down to their balcony from the roof, jimmy the lock on the door and go into the suite,” Irene said. “When I’m finished, I’ll simply walk out the front door of the suite and take the elevator down three floors.”

  “Something tells me it’s not going to be that easy,” Pepper said.

  Irene met her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve got one of your feelings again.”

  Pepper nodded, and Irene patted her hand. “Relax. I’ve got a real natural feel for locks. One of our Rossi ancestors was not as sweet and pure as my parents would have had me believe. I’m not going to have any problem getting into the suite.”

  “I’m not worried about your getting in,” Pepper said. “It’s getting out that has me worried.”

  Irene shrugged. “Frenchy and Evan will be busy negotiating with Butch.

  “What if the meeting ends early? What if the Monet isn’t just hanging on the wall waiting for you? What if they’ve put it in a safe?”