Adam shifted uncomfortably in his chair and reached for another glass of chilled sparkling mineral water. He’d get to the bottom of the two women he knew Lainey to be, one way or the other. And he’d find out which one was the real Lainey. Because while one ensured his business ran perfectly and on an even keel, the other threatened Palmer Enterprises’s very existence. Lainey was privilege to the kind of information that their competitors could benefit from, particularly Tremont Corporation. If she owed enough money to Ling could she be enticed to sell Palmer’s secrets to Josh Tremont? Worse, was she already Tremont’s inside person? Was her gambling problem already enough to break her loyalty to Palmers? To Adam?
Confusion tumbled through his mind as logic forced him to reject the idea. Ling had been completely unaware that Lainey worked for him when he’d seen them together last Monday night. Maybe it was simply that she’d run up a massive debt that had to be repaid.
Neither scenario held any appeal and Adam suddenly lost his appetite for the repast spread before them. Instead, there was a bitter taste in his mouth. One he needed to rinse out with the truth.
Once back at Russell, their guests took some time out at their respective villas agreeing to meet again later in the evening for pre-dinner drinks before taking the ferry across to Paihia and dinner at one of the restaurants there.
As Lainey and Adam waited on the deck for their companions to join them Lainey laughed quietly.
“What is it?” Adam asked.
“It’s a good thing this is just a weekend. If I was to keep this up I’d be the size of a house in no time.”
He raked his eyes over her—taking in the fullness of her breasts, as they pressed against the gossamer fine layers of fabric of her multi-colored dress, and the curve of her hips as the fabric draped across them before dropping to just below her knees. While the garment didn’t exactly shriek “sex” as the red dress at the casino had, it still had the power to send a thrill of lust through his body. She was an incredibly tantalizing package, dressed in clothing different to her office wear. He made a mental note to get her to lose the frumpy suits at work.
“I doubt you have anything to worry about, Lainey. You look—” he paused, making sure she was aware of his perusal of her “—just perfect the way you are.”
“Thank you,” she said, ducking her head shyly.
He was satisfied with the flush of color that rose from the curve of her breasts and up the smooth column of her neck. It was good to know he could fluster her with little more than a look and a comment, and it was appealing to see she could still blush. It occurred to him that her capacity to feel embarrassed was in direct contrast to the Lainey he’d seen at the casino that night. The woman in the red dress would no more blush than she’d wear white cotton underwear. At least that had been the impression she exuded as she’d moved about the room.
But the Lainey he knew in the workplace was a reserved creature. A whole lot more like the woman who stood before him, even if the clothing she wore now was more to his taste. Neither too loose nor too revealing, but with just enough of a hint of something enticing.
Adam leaned back against the railing and watched as Lainey fussed with the drinks tray set out on the outdoor bar. She really didn’t like attention focused on her at all. Strange. The red dress of the other night was totally at odds with the elegant woman here. It occurred to Adam that he knew very little about Lainey’s personal life. Not that that in itself was something he normally expected to be privy to with his staff, but now his curiosity had been whetted he was determined to find out more.
The evening passed well enough and ended with a leisurely walk along the waterfront at Paihia before they took the ferry back to Russell and then drove back to the estate. They’d just finished saying good-night to the Schusters and the Peseks and Lainey had turned down the hall toward her bedroom, when Adam surprised her by halting her in her path and putting a hand on her arm.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To my room.” To bed, she amended silently. The day out on the sea, combined with the tension that constantly wreathed itself around her when she was near Adam, had left her exhausted and she was more than ready to have some much needed alone time.
“No, it’s too early. Come and have a drink with me on the deck.”
Lainey bit back the retort that sprang to her lips, reminding herself he was paying for her company. What she wanted, right now, had no bearing.
“If you insist,” she responded as coolly as she could without sounding insolent.
She led the way outside onto the wide decking. The pool lights were on and the water glowed with an inviting turquoise shimmer. It would be bliss, before bed, to take a few leisurely laps of the pool, to feel the satin softness of the water gliding against her skin. Maybe then she’d be able to unwind a little.
“What can I get you? A brandy?” Adam intruded on her thoughts.
“That’ll be fine, thank you.”
“So polite,” Adam taunted softly. “Interesting, when everything tells me that you’d much rather be anything but.”
“You’re my boss. You’re paying me to be here. Why would I be rude? We’ve already established I need my job.”
“Ah, yes, but we haven’t established exactly why, have we?”
He crossed the expanse of wooden boards, two brandy balloons in his hands. He handed her one and she shivered as his fingers brushed against hers, sending a thrill of something she didn’t want to identify tingling up her arm. It had been the same earlier today when he’d zipped up her wet suit. That same instant zing of awareness—of need.
He’d said he wanted her here as his companion, he’d set them up in the same bedroom right from the start. Was it all a test or was this what he really wanted?
She lifted the crystal globe of amber liquid to her lips and allowed a tiny sip to trickle across her tongue and down her throat.
“Tell me, Lainey. Why is your job so important?”
“Why is anyone’s job important?” she hedged. “I enjoy the parameters of my work and I’m good at it. I’d be a fool to do anything to lose it, wouldn’t I?”
“Why, then, are you risking it?”
Lainey felt a cold chill seep through her at his tone.
“Risking it?”
“Being with a man like Ling.”
“Adam, I thought we’d already established that whomever I choose to spend personal time with is really none of your business.”
“But you are my business. You work for me. You say you love your job. What if I made it a condition of your employment that you not associate with—” he paused for a moment, sending her a piercing blue stare “—undesirables.”
Lainey forced a laugh from her throat. “Are you referring to Lee? Seriously, he’s a business man. He makes no secret of what he does or what his expectations are. Why does that make him undesirable?”
“He’s the kind of man who’ll use whatever and whomever he can to get what he wants. Doesn’t that bother you?”
Adam’s implication that she was likewise being used sent a spark of irritation through her veins. She fought to keep her voice level as she replied.
“And are you so very different, Adam? Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing now?”
She’d scored a direct hit; that much was clear by the thunderous expression that drew his brows together in a straight dark line. He compressed his lips and she could see the muscles in his jaw working, as if he was physically holding back his reply. And then, in an instant, the anger was gone.
“Touché,” he murmured, toasting her with his glass.
He relaxed back on the padded deck chair and she watched him surreptitiously as he took a sip of his drink and then stared out for a while at the lights across the water.
“Why do you hide, Lainey?”
His question came out of the blue and startled her, making her breathe in the fumes of the brandy to the back of her throat. She took a second or two to regain her c
omposure before speaking.
“Hide? I don’t know what you mean?”
“At work you hide yourself behind those drab clothes, you even hide behind brown contact lenses.” He rose and walked her to her and tilted her chin up, forcing her to look up to him. “Why would you do that, I wonder, when you have the most beautiful green eyes? And your hair?”
Adam pushed his fingers through her lustrous hair, and cradled the back of her head with his strong fingers. Streams of sensation channeled across her scalp at his touch and the moment of breathlessness she experienced a moment ago faded into insignificance over how she felt right now.
Fear warred with pleasure as he massaged the back of her head and she fought back the blissful moan his touch elicited. And then, as quickly as he’d startled her with his touch, he let her go again.
“Well?” he prompted.
“I don’t like to stand out,” she finally managed to squeeze out past lips that felt numb, unresponsive.
Adam pulled his chair closer to hers, the sound an intrusive rasp on the still evening air and settled back down on the cushions.
“Tell me why.”
The demand, though softly said, was as clear as if he’d shouted it.
Lainey shifted in her seat. He was close, too close. In the cooling evening air she could feel the waves of heat coming off him. Could smell the faint tang of his fragrance, of him.
“It’s…it’s complicated,” she finally managed.
Adam’s silence encouraged her to continue, and she drew in a long shaky breath, pulling courage up from the soles of her feet. She’d never disclosed this to anyone before. Never wanted to. Never had to.
“My parents died in a car wreck when I was thirteen. I was in the car but, by some weird twist of fate, I escaped without a scratch. Both of them died instantly. Afterward, I went to live with my grandfather. Because of his high profile on television the crash was front page news for a while and I found it really hard to settle down.” She laughed, a rueful sound totally lacking in humor.
“His high profile?” Adam asked.
“Gardening with Hugh. That’s his show. Or was until he retired. Actually, to be honest, I made his life complete hell. And I drew a lot of attention to myself. A lot of very negative attention.”
She drew in a deep breath and expelled it in a rush. Always in the spotlight because of her grandfather’s national fame, she’d found her new lifestyle hugely intrusive and, despite her grandfather’s pleas to the contrary, she played it up for all she was worth. The newspapers had been full of it when she’d finally gone too far. She and a group of friends had been caught joyriding in a stolen car. She’d never forget the look on Hugh’s face when the police brought her back to his door—relief that she was okay, interwoven with soul-deep disappointment.
He’d laid down the law that night. She had to clean up her act or he’d turn her over to the authorities. All they had was each other, but if she wasn’t prepared to respect his home and respect him, she was out. He reminded her of the last time the police had come to his door—the night her father’s car had been struck by a drunk driver—and that as much as he loved her, he never wanted to go through that again.
It had been the wake-up call she’d needed. After that discussion, Hugh had agreed that she could change schools to get away from the element of mischief she’d been drawn into, but it was on a solemn promise that she improve her grades and her behavior. Lainey had embraced her new persona. One that didn’t dye her hair a different color every month. One that didn’t wear outrageous clothes designed to draw everyone’s attention. One that studied and passed each subject with excellent grades. One that basically blended effectively into the background—a cloudy gray sky rather than a fiery sunset.
And, after the clear course of seven years her record with the police, such as it was, had been wiped under the Clean Slate Bill, meaning no employer would ever need to know about her earlier misdeeds.
“Anyway, it was easier to learn to blend in,” she finished.
“It’s criminal.”
His words made her sit upright. Had she spoken aloud?
Adam stood and extended a hand to her, drawing her up to stand in front of him. He took her glass from her unresisting fingers and placed it on a table.
“Definitely criminal. To hide those eyes.”
He stroked his index finger over the curve of one eyebrow. She knew she should pull back, break the contact between them, but for the life of her she couldn’t. His touch was light yet mesmerizing. His finger stroked down her cheek, down the column of her neck and then followed the deep V neckline of her dress to the shadowed cleft of her breasts.
“To blur the lines of your body,” he continued, his voice a gravelly rasp of sound in the air between them.
Tiny flames of want licked along the path of his finger, gathering in heat and strength as Adam spread his hand to gently cup her breast through her dress. Instantly her nipples hardened—almost painfully—and pressed against the sheer fabric of her bra as if seeking skin to skin contact.
She arched her back, instinctively pressing harder against his palm, relishing the heat of him through her clothes. She realized he still held her hand when he dragged it up between them, flattening her palm against his chest. Beneath her fingertips she could feel the rise and fall of his breathing, and beneath that, the solid, rapid beat of his heart.
“Feel that?” he asked. “That’s what you’re doing to me.”
She dragged in a shuddering breath.
“I…I am?” she whispered.
“Yes,” his monosyllabic reply hissed through clenched teeth. “Tell me to stop, Lainey, because if you don’t, I’m going to do what I should have done last night. I’m going to kiss you.”
If her life depended on it she couldn’t have uttered the simple command. He must have seen her surrender in her expression because with a low muttered expletive he lowered his head and caught her lips with his own.
Sensation, color, taste—all exploded within her. The rasp of his tongue across her teeth before tangling with hers. The burst of light behind her closed eyelids. The flavor of the brandy mixed with an intrinsic flavor that was pure Adam.
She opened to him, allowed him to plunder the soft recesses of her mouth, to take and take, and take again from her as their lips melded together. Liquid lightning sizzled through her veins as her body fused against his, as she felt each ripple of muscle. An ache built inside such as she’d never known before, an ache that demanded to be assuaged. She flexed her hips against his and moaned deep in her throat as she pressed her mound against the rock hard evidence of his desire for her.
She’d spent so long being invisible it was instantly gratifying to know that she drew this response from him. She raised both hands to the back of his head and tunneled her fingers through his short-cropped hair, holding him to her as if she couldn’t bear to ever let him go.
Adam dragged his lips from hers and tracked a line of hungry kisses along her jaw and to the hollow between her earlobe and her neck. Pleasure rippled through her as he flicked his tongue against the highly sensitive spot, making her inner muscles clench on an exquisite flood of sensation that took her breath away.
And then his hands were at the back of her dress, slowly unzipping it, easing the fabric down over her shoulders to catch at her elbows, effectively imprisoning her arms as he dragged his teeth gently down her neck and along her shoulder, stopping every now and then to alternately lick then press his lips against her bare skin.
Lainey shrugged her arms out of the restriction of her dress, letting the fabric of her gown pool at her waist as her hands flew to the buttons of his shirt. She had to feel his golden skin, which had tormented her today on the boat, against her fingertips. Needed to rake her nails over the ridges of his abdomen, and lower still.
But Adam caught her hands even as his mouth once again took hers, his lips sinking into the softness of hers. And then he pulled away. Letting her hands go so he coul
d pull her dress back up to cover her.
As he slid the zipper back up on her dress he pulled her into the cradle of his hips, his arms wrapping around her, his lips pressing a kiss against her temple. He held her like that until his breathing settled into a normal pattern.
“Don’t hide anymore, okay? Not from me,” he ground out. “Promise.”
“I promise,” Lainey whispered back and nuzzled against his throat, more than a little confused that he’d stopped the way he had.
Gently, Adam set her away from him.
“We have a big day tomorrow. We’d better get to bed.”
He walked her back inside the house and down the hall to the bedrooms. At the door to her room he kissed her briefly, one more time before opening her door and gently pushing her inside.
“I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well.”
But sleep was the furthest thing from her mind as she tossed and turned in the Egyptian cotton sheets until, in a fit of frustration she shoved them aside, and went to stand at the window, staring out into the night.
He’d kissed her. Big deal.
But it was a big deal. A huge deal. Because suddenly she knew that a kiss in the dark was not nearly enough.
Six
Despite spending most of her night staring at the ceiling, Lainey woke the next morning with renewed enthusiasm for the day ahead. They were flying up to the Kari Kari Peninsula where the men would indulge in a round of golf before meeting the ladies for a delicious luncheon at the resort there. A car would be waiting for Lainey to take the ladies on a relaxed tour of the local scenic spots and Mrs. Pesek had already asked if she could purchase some carbon dated kauri-wood items to take home as gifts.
How would Adam react when he saw her today? Lainey wondered as she hurried through her shower and blow-dried her hair to fall in soft waves to her shoulders. At home she’d have scrunched it up in a knot or at least tied it back in a ponytail, but this morning she’d woken infused with feminine power and, after years of quelling the urge to maximize herself, it was time to break free.
Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss Page 5
