He clasped her wrist and draped her arm back over his shoulder. Leaning, he scooped her up against his chest and started down the stone steps, the sun-warmed water churning around his legs, his hips, around his waist and higher until he slid her to her feet again. The light waves lapped around her shoulders and she leaned into him with buoyancy.
He slid his hand between her legs, the essence of her arousal mixing with the water, leaving her slick to his touch. He tucked two fingers into her warm silken grip, stroking inside, his thumb teasing outside. Sighing, she pressed closer to him just as she’d done in the library, so hot, so responsive. So damn perfect he almost came undone from just the feel of her on his hand.
She sprinkled frenetic kisses over his face, working her way to his ear. “I want you inside me, totally, I want it all here. Now,” she demanded.
“More than willing to accommodate,” he growled.
Jonah cupped her bottom and lifted. She wrapped her slick wet legs around his waist, the core of her pressing closer to him, her damp heat against him. He throbbed from wanting to be inside her again. And again. How often would be enough?
She slid down on the length of him.
“Birth control,” he groaned into her ear. Only now did he realize they’d forgotten and he wanted to kick himself off the damn cliff for being so reckless with her. He never, never forgot. He always protected.
Her arms clamped tighter around him. “I’m on the Pill.”
“You didn’t mention that when we were together before.”
“My thoughts aren’t always clear around you, especially when we’re naked. Now can we stop with the talking and move on to the fun part? I want this—I want you. How convenient for us both that you happen to be my husband, after all.”
But she hadn’t known that for the past months when they’d both assumed their divorce had gone through. He didn’t want to know why she’d used it in the year they were apart. He chose instead to focus on how glad to have that last concern taken away so he could…
Plunge inside her.
Her head flung back, her wet hair floating behind her. He dipped his head to take the pink pert tip of her breast in his mouth. He teased her with his tongue, gently with his teeth, using his mouth in all the ways he wanted to touch her but couldn’t since he held her, guided her.
The cool jet of water from the side of the pool didn’t so much as take an edge off the heat pumping through him. Water sluiced between them as they writhed against each other. Her hair floated behind her, long and dark. Beads of water clung to her face, her shoulders. He sipped from her skin, the taste of her overriding any chlorination.
He palmed her upright until her head rested on his shoulder. “I want you to see.”
To look out at the endless view, the endless possibilities he could give her.
Eloisa gripped his arms, her nails furrowing into his skin. He welcomed the tender bite into his flesh, the tangible sign that she felt the same frenetic need.
Water lapped around them, encircling them in a vortex as he clasped her closer. He had to make this last. He refused to lose her. While they’d made progress today, still he sensed her reservations. Whatever was holding her back, he needed to reassure her she didn’t have to be afraid, because he could take care of her.
He would take care of her, sensually, physically and any other way she needed.
The primal drive to make her his clawed through him, intensified by the open elements. He’d come here for her and found it tapped into something inside himself he hadn’t anticipated. Something basic and undeniable. He thrust inside her as her hips rolled against him, her breath hitching against his neck, faster as her skin began to flush with…
Gasping, she flung her head back again, her back arching, her eyes closed tight. He watched and savored every moment of her sweet release across her face, echoed in the spasms of her moist clamp around him, drawn out until…hell, couldn’t hold back.
He surged inside her. The sunset shot purple, pink and orange spiking through the horizon as sharp and deep as the pleasure blasting through him. She was his, damn it. No more barriers, boundaries, secrets.
He’d won her.
Eleven
Eloisa surrendered to the languid weightlessness of floating in the water and watching the stars overhead. How blessedly freeing to put the world and worries on hold for once. She wasn’t a wife, a sister, a daughter.
Today, tonight, she was simply a woman and a lover.
After Jonah had brought her to such intense completion while she stared over the infinity pool edge, they’d held on to each other for…well…she didn’t know how long. At some point she’d floated away and he’d begun swimming lazy laps. They were simply coexisting in the water without talking. Being together so perfectly, even in silence, surpassed anything she’d imagined gaining from this time away.
The near-silent sluice of his arms through the water announced his presence a second before he passed. She reached out, grazing him with her fingers. His head slid from the water and he stood beside her, not even panting.
He shook his head, swiping back his hair. “Are you ready to go in? There’s a cold supper waiting in the refrigerator.”
She looped an arm around his neck and let her feet sink. “It’s getting late. I just don’t want this day to end.”
“We’re not even close to finished.”
Scooping an arm behind her legs, Jonah pulled her to his chest again, carrying her dripping wet into the shallow end, up the stone stairs just as he’d brought her in earlier. Rivulets of water slid along her skin, caressing, then cooling in the early evening air. Her breasts pulled tight and she couldn’t miss the way his gaze lingered appreciatively.
This new ease with each other was as thrilling as his hands on her body, but also a little frightening. She pulled her focus in on the moment, on these stolen days she’d promised herself.
He cleared the last step and walked under the covered porch, elbowing open double doors to a penthouse suite. The hacienda décor reminded her of the Old World Spanish manor home Jonah had rented a year ago. Was this simply the style he was drawn to naturally, or had he somehow been as caught up in their time together as she had been?
Bold tapestries hung on the goldenrod-colored walls. She bypassed surveying all else for later. Right now, her focus stayed on the king-sized bed, definitely a reproduction of the carved walnut headboard from the room they’d shared in Madrid. Linen was draped from the boxed frame overhead, wafting in the wind from the open doors.
He set her on the thick layers of cream, tan and burnt sienna, piped in red. On her back, she inched up the bed, soaking up the amazing view of muscled, naked Jonah against the backdrop of the pool blending into the horizon. He ducked into the bathroom and came back with two fluffy towels. Jonah passed one to her and began toweling his wet hair with the other.
Eloisa knew her own sopping locks would take eons to dry out so she turbaned the soaked mass. He pitched aside his towel and gave his head a quick shaggy shake before settling beside her on the pile of feather pillows.
Tracing lazy circles on his bare chest, she stared out the open double doors, the fresh air swirling the scent of Jonah and a hint of chlorination she would forever find arousing. “I can’t believe the awesome sense of privacy here.”
“That’s something I work to achieve with any of my projects—” his hand settled on her hip, curving to a perfect fit “—seclusion, even if there are multiple units in the resort.”
“You learned the value of privacy growing up in the public eye.”
“To a degree.” He slid an arm behind his head, his eyes focused on the faraway. “My parents did their best to shield us, make sure we didn’t feel wealthy or different.”
“They sound wonderful. You’re lucky to have had parents like that.”
“I know.” He shifted uncomfortably, then smiled as if to lighten the mood. “And if I ever forget, my mother will most definitely remind me.”
S
he nudged her toes against his foot. “You must have been an adventurous child, looking for new territories to explore.”
“I may have given my folks a heart palpitation or two.” He trapped her foot between his.
“Today, I most certainly benefited from your adventurous spirit. Thank you.” She stretched upward to kiss him, not long or intense, just holding and enjoying the contact for the sake of simply kissing, even if it wouldn’t go further. Yet. She tucked back against his chest. “I never even dreamed of making love on a beach, much less something like this. The fear that someone could stumble upon us, rob us, even worse…”
She shivered and wished she could have attributed it to the wind kicking in faster as night set.
Jonah unfolded a downy throw blanket draped along the end of the bed, pulling it up to their waists. “You have to know I would never put you at risk.”
Eloisa snuggled closer. “Not intentionally, no.”
“Not ever.” He stroked her shoulders. “You’re tensing up again. Stop it.”
She stifled a laugh at the notion he thought he could fix anything, even the state of her muscles…and then she realized she had relaxed again after all.
“There you go.” Jonah trailed his fingers down her spine. “That’s more like it.”
“It must be the sound of the water echoing in through the canyon, the closeness to nature at its most soothing and stark all at once. How could anyone stay tense?”
“So you like making love outdoors? I’m totally on board with that. We could do this in any number of countries while I work restoration projects.”
Her stomach backflipped. “Like showing me another infinity pool in Hong Kong?”
“Exactly. The possibilities are as limitless as the horizon.”
It sounded exciting…and aimless for her. “I couldn’t live my life that, just following you around the world.” She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Don’t even say it.”
“Say what?”
“Something smug about—” she lowered her voice to mimic his “—having sex in different countries is a fabulous goal.”
A tic started in the corner of his eye. “There you go again with negative assumptions about me. I can’t help but wonder if you’re using that excuse because you’re nervous about what happened out there between us. You know damn well I have a job, a goal.”
With an exasperated sigh, he plowed his fingers through his hair. “Every time I start falling for your down-to-earth strength and your passionate nature, you withdraw. Why?”
He was right, and it stung. Still she wondered, “You have a job, but how would I fit in with your plan? I need a purpose of my own.”
That silenced him for the first time. She waited through at least a dozen clicks of the ceiling fan overhead and was almost ready to crack, to apologize so they could take a few steps back.
Her cell phone rang from inside her purse. He must have placed it in the room along with their refrigerated meal they’d never gotten around to eating. Not that it mattered in the least to her how it got there. She was just grateful for the distraction.
Eloisa tugged the cover with her as she stumbled from the bed for her bag resting on the trunk at the foot of the bed.
The display screen scrolled “UNKNOWN.”
Averting her eyes from Jonah’s obvious irritation, she thumbed the Talk button. “Hello?”
“Eloisa? This is your father.”
Her stomach pitched at just the word “father” even though she recognized the voice—Harry Taylor, her step-dad. She was just too on edge since Duarte’s surprise visit. “What do you need, Harry?”
She said his name in answer to Jonah’s questioning look.
“It’s about Audrey,” Harry barked with unmistakable frustration.
Her stomach flipped faster. What could possibly be so wrong? Why had she let Jonah persuade her into running away? She should have known better than to leave when her sister was in such a fragile state. “Is she okay? Was she in an accident or something?”
Jonah sat up straighter, leaning closer and resting his hand on her back. His steady presence bolstered her as she gripped the phone and waited for her step-dad’s reply.
“Audrey eloped with Joey.”
Her sister had done what? Eloisa could barely wrap her brain around the very last thing she’d expected to hear.
“Oh…uh…” She struggled for words and could only come up with, “Oh.”
“I can’t believe she would act so impulsively, so thoughtlessly after all I’ve done to make the perfect wedding for her, to give my daughter the social send off she always wanted.”
Eloisa bit back the urge to note it was the send off Harry wanted. “I’m sorry about all the money you lost on down payments.”
“You don’t understand the worst of it,” Harry rambled, the frustration in his voice rapidly turning to anger. “She says she and Joey are moving away, cutting ties to start fresh away from his family. She’s going to throw away all the influence of his family name.”
It sounded to her like her sister had wised up. Now that the shock was beginning to fade, she knew that Audrey was better off.
Jonah gave her a questioning look.
She held up a hand and spoke into the phone. “It’s for the best Audrey gets her life in order now rather than risk a messy divorce later.”
And didn’t that hit a little close to home?
Harry’s laugh hitched on a half sob. “Eloisa? Where are you? How soon can you get back, because I really need your help right now.”
“Uh, I went out for a drive.” And a flight. And a swim. Followed by a resounding realization that she and Jonah had very different expectations from life. While she’d more than enjoyed the peaceful aftermath of their lovemaking, she couldn’t spend her entire life just floating alongside Jonah. “Don’t worry, Harry. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
She disconnected the phone.
Infinity had an end after all.
Jonah tugged on jeans and a button down, slicking his still-wet hair back.
God, things had gone south with Eloisa so fast.
Her family snapped their fingers and she was ready to run to their side. On the one hand, that could be an admirable trait. As a Landis, he would behave the same way in a crisis. When his brother’s military plane had gone done in Afghanistan, the family had all pulled together to hold each other up until Kyle was found safely.
When Sebastian and his wife Marianna separated after their adopted daughter was reclaimed by her biological mother, the brothers had sat together through that first hellish night and poured drinks for Sebastian.
He could go on and on with the list.
Then why was he so damn irritated over this? Because no one was there for her. Yet they expected her to drop everything for manufactured crises that seemed a daily occurrence in Eloisa’s household.
Jonah watched her yank on a fresh sundress and wished he could have enjoyed the moment more. But she was packing. Leaving. Determined to return home immediately to do heaven only knew what. Her sister had left and married some other guy. It was a done deal.
But still, Eloisa was tossing her clothes into her little bag a lot faster than she’d put them in there in the first place. What was really going on here?
Eloisa looked up sharply. “I thought you said we were alone?”
He stopped buttoning his shirt halfway up and looked around, listened. The elevator rumbled softly, then louder, closer. “Decorating staff is downstairs, but there’s no reason for them to come up here, and they don’t have an elevator key for the penthouse anyway.”
A ding sounded just outside the suite.
His muscles tensed protectively. He checked to make sure she was dressed on his way out into the sitting area. “I said no one would bother us. Apparently I was wrong.”
And he damn well wasn’t happy about the interruption.
He opened the door into the hall just as a carefully coiffed woman stepped out of the privat
e elevator. He would know those sweater sets and pearls paired with perfectly pressed jeans anywhere.
His mother, of all people, had arrived in the middle of nowhere just when he happened to be with Eloisa. His mother’s arrival was too convenient. She must know something or at least sense something. He could swear his mom had some kind of special maternal radar.
Could this day go to crap any faster?
Closing the door to the penthouse quietly to seal off Eloisa from the catastrophe in the making, Jonah swore softly as he stepped toward the elevator. “Hi, Ma.”
Ginger Landis Renshaw swatted his arm even as she hugged him. “Is that any way to welcome your mother? You may have gotten taller than me by the time you turned thirteen, but you will still watch the language, young man.”
His mother was all protocol out in the political world, but with her family she still kept things real—even though she was now an ambassador to a small South American country.
He glanced over his shoulder at the closed door. He could only keep Eloisa under wraps for so long. His best hope was to head off his mom long enough to go back into the suite and warn Eloisa. Prepare her for the meeting. Most women he dated either froze up around his family, or worse. They kissed up.
He was certain Eloisa wouldn’t be the latter, but he worried about the former. And she sure as hell was more than a “date.”
At least his brothers weren’t here. “Mom, I have someone with me. This really isn’t a convenient time.”
“I know. Why do you think I’m here? I want to meet this Eloisa for myself rather than keep waiting for you to get around to it.”
Nobody got jack by Ginger. The only question that remained? How much did she know? A lot, apparently, if she’d already learned Eloisa’s name.
The door to the suite opened. His window to prepare anybody was over.
“Jonah,” Eloisa called softly. “I’m packed and ready to leave, but if you’re busy with work I can call a cab.” She pulled up short at the sight of his famous mother. “Excuse me, ma’am.”
“Eloisa, this is my mother,” he said, although it seemed no introductions were needed, “Ginger Landis Renshaw.”
The Tycoon Takes a Wife Page 11
