Renegade Millionaire

by Kristi Gold

  Rio decided playing innocent might work best. “Are you referring to me holding your hand?”

  “I’m referring to you trying to cop a feel underneath the restaurant table.”

  “I had my hand on your leg. If I’d tried something else, trust me, querida, you would have known the difference.”

  Rio detected a slight tremor in Joanna’s body although they weren’t close enough for him to be certain. He wished they were that close.

  “Okay, so maybe you only rested your hand on my leg,” she said. “But it was a little suggestive, don’t you think?”

  He braced his palm on the door frame above her head and leaned into her. “What do you suggest I was suggesting?”

  “I don’t know… I mean…you know.”

  Rio decided it would be incredibly easy to kiss her, lead her backward into the bedroom, right into his bed. Take off that robe again, get out of his jeans that were less than comfortable at the moment, and get down to the business of lovemaking. Slow, unrestrained, in the way that she deserved to be made love to.

  Just when he considered delivering a convincing kiss, Joanna backed into the room and pointed to the opposite end of the hall. “Go to bed, Rio.”

  He pushed away from the door. “That’s what I’m trying to do.” Damn, why couldn’t he hold up his end of the bargain? What had happened to her making the next move? Why did he find it so hard to keep his hands off her? His mind off her?

  She looked as though she was asking herself those same questions and didn’t particularly like the answers. “You said you were going to wait until I came to you, did you not?”

  “True.”

  “So go to bed before I…”

  “Before you what?”

  A grin crept in and lit up her crystalline eyes. “Before I change my mind and pull you down on the hall floor to do some horizontal Olympics.” With that, she shut the door in his face.

  Rio acknowledged it was going to be one helluva hard night. And when the time came, he was going to have one helluva hard time letting her go.

  Nine

  “I really like Rio, Joanna.”

  Joanna glanced up from the Sunday paper to find Margaret assessing her from across the dinette. First her son, now her mother. Rio had become very popular. “He’s a nice man.”

  “And obviously very successful. Have you seen that marvelous game room?”

  “Yes, I’ve seen it.” She’d almost initiated the pool table with Rio, not that she would make that revelation to her mother.

  “Joseph’s in there now. Kid heaven, I tell you. So many toys, so little time.”

  Realizing Margaret was gearing up for a talk, Joanna folded the paper, tossed it aside and took a sip of coffee. “Rio’s into toys. At times I think he’s still very much a little boy.”

  Margaret frowned. “Maybe he’s a bit carefree, but he seems very responsible. I mean, he’s a doctor. You should know better than anyone the kind of responsibility and commitment that requires.”

  Committed to his job, yes, Joanna acquiesced. But when it involved his personal life, he was committed only to his freedom. “Is there a point to this conversation, Mom?”

  “Actually, I’ve been wondering if there’s something going on between you two. Maybe a little more than meets the eye?”

  Joanna fought a sudden surge of panic. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Because yesterday he kept giving you that look.”

  “What look?”

  “The same one your father used to give me when we were dating.” Her smile was bittersweet. “The same one he gave me the whole time we were married.”

  “Look, Mom, Rio’s just not that kind of guy. He’s a great doctor and a good friend.” A fantastic lover.

  “And rather handsome, if you can get past the earring.”

  “But he’s not the forever type.”

  “How do you know?”

  Because he had made that quite clear to Joanna on more than one occasion. “Trust me, I just know.”

  “Men can change, Joanna.”

  “Adam never did.”

  Margaret frowned. “So that’s it? You’re comparing every man to Adam? You’ll never be happy with anyone if you keep doing that.”

  Joanna turned the spoon resting near her hand over and over. “Maybe I don’t need anyone other than my son, at least not another man.”

  “But Joseph does.”

  Joanna inwardly flinched at the truth in her mother’s declaration. It had been all too apparent during the conversation two nights ago that Joseph had been thinking about having a father, and also how much he had enjoyed Rio’s company. That worried her. “Rio’s not a good candidate.”

  “Oh, I think he’d make a wonderful father for Joseph.”

  “Mother, please.”

  Margaret reached across the table, yanked the spoon from Joanna’s grasp and took both Joanna’s hands into her own. “Life has a way of surprising you, and so do some people if you give them a chance. Don’t close yourself off to the possibilities or you’ll end up like your father’s sister, May. She was a bitter, vindictive old woman who delighted in making others suffer because she refused to open herself up to love once the preacher dumped her.”

  Joanna smiled at the memory of her aunt whom she’d greatly feared as a child and the legendary story of Aunt May’s unrequited love. “I’ll try not to turn into a shrew.”

  Margaret studied her with a mother’s smile “Just remember, Joanna, dear. Sometimes you have to take that leap of faith and risk the fall in order to learn to live again.”

  Joanna refused to take the leap. She didn’t dare hope that Rio would change his mind about commitment, or change at all for that matter. In reality, she wouldn’t change anything about him. In fact, she loved most everything about him—his smile, his compassion, his innate wisdom, his free spirit. She loved…

  Him?

  Joanna didn’t plan to go there. She didn’t dare fall in love with a man who had the hands of a healer and the heart of a renegade. But she feared she already had.

  Rio stood back as Joanna said goodbye to her son and mother in the airport waiting area. He didn’t care for goodbye scenes, especially this one, knowing how much Joanna was hurting. He could see it in the unshed tears brimming in her blue eyes when Joseph clung to her and begged to stay.

  “I can sleep in the room by myself,” Joseph said. “Like I do at Gran’s. Gabby can sleep with me.”

  Joanna crouched on Joseph’s level and braced his shoulders with her palms. “Honey, I promise it will only be a little while longer before you come to live with me again, right after you’re out of school for the summer. I’ll have a place for us to live then, a nice apartment with a swimming pool. Would you like that?”

  Joseph stuck out his lip in a pout. “I don’t want an old apartment. I want to live with Rio and Gabby. Besides, Rio has a pool. A big pool. And a bunch of games.”

  “Joseph, I’m only living with Dr. Madrid until I can find something else.”

  “But you said you liked him.”

  “Of course I like him, but I can’t live with him forever.”

  Rio couldn’t deny the twinge of bone-deep hurt over the prospect of Joanna leaving. He wanted to ignore the pain, shove it aside, but it kept jabbing at his insides, specifically in the vicinity of his heart. He just didn’t know what the hell to do about it, not when she was so dead set against staying with him. And he wanted her to stay. God, did he want that. He hadn’t realized how much until now. But he couldn’t force her to make that decision.

  The grating sound of the ticket agent announcing the call for boarding caused Joanna to straighten. Rio approached the threesome and held out his hand to Joseph. “You’re welcome to come see me anytime, bud,” he said in earnest.

  Joseph ignored Rio’s extended hand and opted to throw his arms around Rio’s waist in a voracious hug. Giving in to a need he didn’t understand and didn’t want to claim, Rio picked Joseph up and held him tightl
y.

  Joseph studied him with eyes much like his mother’s, only they contained a definite trust that had been absent from Joanna’s when she looked at Rio. “Did you save our last racing game on the video machine?”

  Rio grinned. “Yeah, I saved it so we can take up where we left off, with you kicking my behind all over the virtual track.”

  “It’s time to go, honey,” Joanna said when the attendant made a last call to board.

  Joseph reluctantly let go of Rio’s neck, but not before giving him another hug. “Later, Rio.”

  “Later.” Rio relinquished Joseph to his mother and turned his attention to Margaret. “Mrs. Mathis, it’s been a pleasure.”

  She laid a hand on her throat and blushed. “Oh, stop it with the Mrs. I’m just Margaret, plain and simple.” As her grandson had, she drew Rio into an embrace then whispered, “Take care of our girl, will you? Just don’t let on that you are.”

  Rio pulled away and acknowledged her request with a simple nod though he doubted he would have that luxury.

  Grandmother and grandson handed off their tickets and started toward the jet way while Rio and Joanna looked on. Operating solely on instinct, he came up behind Joanna and pulled her into his arms, her back to his chest. She leaned heavily against him, as if her legs might give way while they watched the pair disappear.

  In that moment, he wanted to take care of her. He wanted to give her all that she desired. He wanted to be the man she needed, but the honest truth stared him in the face as she pushed out of his arms and walked away.

  The question no longer existed if he was willing to make a go of a real relationship, because he was. The problem now involved Joanna. She was doing her damnedest not to need anybody. Especially not him.

  Joanna needed Rio more than anything at the moment. Her bed was too lonely and so was her heart. Having Joseph and her mother with her over the past two days had only cemented her loneliness now that they had left.

  Unfortunately, Rio had left, too, immediately following their dinner. Retired to the garage, or so he’d told her. Other than that announcement, he’d been relatively quiet throughout the meal although several times he’d looked as if he’d wanted to say something.

  She needed to tell him a few things as well. Explain why she couldn’t stay much longer. If she remained in his home, in his life, she would only become more emotionally entangled. How could she subject her son to the possibility of getting too close to a man who had no designs on having a permanent relationship? How could she subject herself to that very thing?

  At the moment, she didn’t want to think about that. She wanted Rio to fill the void in her soul, right or wrong. She craved his company, craved his touch, so much so that she decided to seek him out, to be with him, if only one more time. She would make a few memories to take with her when she did decide to leave, hopefully with some of her heart intact.

  Joanna left the solitude of her bedroom and padded down the stairs wearing a plain cotton gown covered by an all-weather coat, intending to start her search in the garage. When she caught the faint scent of wood smoke in the second-floor hallway, she walked to his bedroom and pushed open the door.

  Other than a fire burning in the small hearth, the room was dark, deserted and she wondered if maybe Rio was still in the garage after all. Then she noted the sound of the shower running full force in the adjacent bathroom. Knowing he was in there, without a stitch of clothes, brought about a solid round of chills playing over Joanna’s entire body, coupled with an overwhelming heat. She considered joining him in the shower but when she heard the water shut off, she realized it was too late.

  No matter. She would wait for him in the bedroom. He’d wanted her to come to him, and that’s exactly what she intended to do—come to him. Give herself to him, at least in a physical sense. She would be wise to leave it only at that, leave all the fuzzy feelings out of it. But the driving need to have him in her arms once more outweighed the risk to her emotions. That alone convinced her to continue as planned.

  Joanna slipped off her coat and tossed it onto the small sofa in the sitting area. Perching on the edge of the bed closest to the bathroom, she made the snap decision to remove her gown and panties, leaving no room for doubt what she expected from Rio tonight. If she couldn’t have forever, then she would settle for what she could have in the time that remained.

  Naked and flushed, Joanna turned back the covers and slipped beneath the cool black satin sheets. Tonight the smooth texture against her skin and Rio’s lingering scent served to heighten her desire. Feeling brave and bold, she opted to cover herself only from the waist down, leaving her breasts exposed to his eyes when he came into the room.

  For a few moments she wasn’t sure if he would return, a ridiculous thought. Where else would he go? Out the bathroom window? Of course not. Silly, silly girl, she silently admonished. At least she wasn’t quite as nervous as she had been when she’d come into the room—until the bathroom door opened.

  Joanna closed her eyes and grabbed the sheet to cover herself. Maybe she wasn’t so hot at seduction after all. But she was definitely hot. Extremely hot, especially when she opened her eyes to Rio standing next to the bed wearing nothing but a veiled expression.

  “Are you lost, or did you miss my bed?” he asked, his voice as soft as a caress, deadly to her senses.

  She rolled to one side and allowed the sheet to slide down, baring her breasts. “I’ve missed you.” I’m lost to you.

  He didn’t move at all or respond, at least not with words. But because he was standing there in the altogether, he couldn’t hide his body’s reaction to her spontaneous seduction.

  “I’m thinking you might have missed me a little, too,” she said with a pointed look below his tattoo at proof positive she’d gotten his attention.

  “What do you want, Joanna?”

  “I want you.”

  “Are you sure it’s me you want? Or maybe you just need a little comfort. Something to get your mind off the fact you had to tell your son goodbye.”

  She logically couldn’t deny any of that, yet seeing Joseph and her mother off was only part of the reason. “I need to be with you, Rio. I want to be with you. You’ve told me I had to make the next move, so I’m making it.”

  A muscle twitched in his jaw, his only movement. “You better be certain, Joanna, because if I get into that bed with you, I’m going to make sure that you don’t have the will to change your mind.”

  “And how do you intend to do that?”

  “With my hands, with my mouth. And everything in between.”

  Joanna drew in a deep breath and tossed the sheet away. “I don’t plan to change my mind.”

  His eyes darkened and his hands opened and closed at his sides. For the longest moment she thought he was going to refuse her until he moved closer to the bed. Then he abruptly turned and headed back into the bathroom.

  Joanna’s heart sank to her heels and she felt like screaming from frustration. Then he reentered the room and tossed two condoms onto the bedside table. Her heart took flight and now she felt like shouting from relief.

  He slid onto the bed but instead of taking her into his arms, he took her hands and pulled her up until they sat opposite each other on their knees, face-to-face, covered only in the illumination coming from the hearth.

  In that moment, Rio became the fire, from the golden glow of his eyes to the heat radiating from his body. And like the proverbial moth, Joanna was drawn to the flame.

  He continued to study her a few moments until he finally said, “Convince me.”

  Hadn’t she done that by coming to his room and stripping? “I beg your pardon?”

  “Convince me that you want this.”

  Joanna knew of only one way to do that. She raised a trembling hand to his chest over the place where his heart beat strong and steady. Sliding her palm over his taut damp skin, she began her journey by tracing a path with one fingertip from the spattering of dark hair down along the ribbon to
his navel. She paused at the tattoo to explore the territory the way she had wanted to the night she’d first seen it. The image was muted in the limited light but Joanna could still experience its power, as well as the power she had over Rio at the moment when his muscles constricted beneath her hand. She reveled in that dominance and wanted more of it, more of him. All of him.

  As she inched lower, Joanna watched his face for his reaction. His expression remained almost detached, as solid as stone, until she took matters completely into her hands. His eyes narrowed and his chest rose with a sharp intake of breath when she caressed him, learned the differing textures with curious fingers. His flesh was hot, rigid and totally tempting, bringing her to the verge of complete meltdown. That didn’t stop her from studying the length and breadth of him—until Rio’s hand circled her wrist, halting her exploration.

  “I’m convinced.”

  Joanna sent him a sinister grin. “But I’m not quite done.”

  “Yeah, you are.”

  “No, I’m not.” Before he could deliver another protest, Joanna lowered her head and took him into her mouth. She felt the change in him immediately as his fingers entwined in her hair. Yet he only allowed her the pleasure for a moment before he stopped her by pulling her head up to deliver an earth-tilting kiss.

  Yet the kiss didn’t last long before he broke the contact. Then, as she had, he conducted his own expedition over her body with a fervent touch that left her winded and hot and aching. He fondled her breasts, graced her nipples with soft, circular movements, ran his thumbs along her sides, slipped his hand between her thighs to touch her with a gentle yet insistent sweep of his fingertips, bringing her close to a climax. But right before she shattered, he took his hand away.

  Joanna released a groan of protest that brought about Rio’s own devilish smile. “Do you want more?”

  “Yes,” she said in a pleading tone.

  “How much more?”

  “Everything, dammit.”

  He nipped at her bottom lip and soothed it with his tongue. “I like it when you’re tough. It excites me.”