“I’d have to say that.”
She smiled. “So would I, even if she is my daughter. She’s tough, but she has a remarkable way about her. I’ve watched her basically tell someone to go to Hades, and she does it in such a way, they’re none the wiser. But I also believe she feels things very deeply, even though she’s learned to cover her emotions well.”
Pete wasn’t sure why Anne felt the need to disclose this information, particularly since he already knew all of it. “She is hard to read,” he said. “At times I’ve had to press her to get her to open up.” And he could relate to that because, in this case, they were much the same.
“Maybe you need to press her a little more. She might push back at first, but something tells me you’re the one man who can get through to her.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but we might both end up disappointed.”
“I trust you’ll give it your best shot. I also trust that you’ll do everything in your power not to hurt her.”
He already had hurt her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make amends. When they went their separate ways this time, he wanted to be sure there was some “good” in their goodbye. “I’d never intentionally hurt her, Anne.”
Anne walked from the sofa to the chair, leaned over and gave Pete a hug. “I know you wouldn’t. And it’s been a pleasure meeting you. I do hope you come and see us again sometime.”
When Anne stepped back, he stood. “If I shoot the movie here, I told Renee I’d like the hotel to house my crew.”
Her expression brightened. “That would be wonderful. Then you think you will be back in the near future?”
“Unless the studio execs have a problem with it, yeah, I’ll be back. It might be several months, though.”
Again she smiled. “You know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder.”
Pete had decided long ago “they” had been right. Renee’s absence from his life had hurt like hell, even if he hadn’t been willing to admit it then. And when he left again tomorrow, he doubted any of that would change, at least the part about missing her. Maybe the time had come to make that admission, as well as a few more equally important ones.
What did he have to lose?
WHEN RENEE WALKED OUT of Chez Remy, she nearly ran headlong into Pete, who appeared extremely determined and somewhat agitated.
“Come with me,” he said, his voice an authoritative command. Without giving her the opportunity to protest, he clasped her arm and guided her into the courtyard. Renee could dig in her high heels and refuse to move, or she could go with him quietly and avoid a scene. The second option was preferable, at least until they were alone.
As they passed several tables housing the early dinner crowd, Renee was quite aware of the whispered, “Isn’t that Pete Traynor?” as well as the sound of excited murmurs that began to build with each step they took. Yet none of the patrons addressed him, no one moved to request an autograph, probably because his body language alone said, “Back off.”
Once they arrived in the deserted courtyard, Pete turned Renee to face him, keeping his palms planted firmly on her shoulders. “I have a few things to say to you, and you’re going to listen.”
“I don’t like being bullied, Pete.”
“And I don’t like your attitude. I don’t like you pretending that nothing’s happened between us. You’re really pissing me off.”
“Well, join the club. You’ve pissed me off for the past three years.”
He inclined his head and frowned. “Then you really are into revenge, aren’t you?”
That had been her initial plan, the old love ’em and leave ’em tactic, but for some reason it now seemed foolish, and incredibly immature for a woman nearing forty. “Look, I admit the thought of exacting some revenge crossed my mind initially, but I have other reasons for wanting to end this now.”
“Okay. Name one.”
I’m in love with you. “It would only complicate things between us.”
“Things are already complicated between us, which is why we need to go somewhere and hash this out.”
She kept focusing on his mouth, that undeniably dazzling mouth. “And what do you expect to accomplish?”
“I want to leave knowing that you don’t hate me.”
She loved him too much to ever hate him, and that was the crux of the problem. “I don’t hate you, Pete.”
He rubbed her arms. “I’m glad. And now that we’ve cleared that up, I see no reason why we can’t spend my last evening in town together. We can start with dinner.”
Okay, they’d begun with dinner, why not end it with dinner? “I wouldn’t mind spending a little time with Adam.”
“Adam won’t be there. Your mother came by and picked him up. He’s spending the evening with her and Daisy Rose in the hotel’s living quarters.”
Renee was outnumbered, and her allies had basically banded with the enemy. But Pete wasn’t the enemy at all, and she would be wrong to view him in that light. Would it be so wrong to spend this last night with him? Not wrong, only unwise.
Although she’d planned to stick to her guns this time, once more Pete had unarmed her. She was tired of fighting him, tired of fighting her feelings. One more night might be all they had together, so why not take advantage of the situation? Why not make another memory or two? After all, she couldn’t fall in love with him any more, or hurt any less when he left, whether she said goodbye now or later.
Renee did know one thing—she didn’t want to spend their last evening in a restaurant full of potential Pete Traynor fans. She didn’t want to share him with anyone, or anything, until she once again had to let him go.
She fisted his shirt lapels and gave them a tug. “Listen up, Mr. Director. Tonight I call the shots. Is that understood?”
He gave her a half smile. “Sure. As long as you go easy on me.”
“You’re tough. You can handle it.”
He rested his hands on her waist. “Just tell me what you have planned. I deserve a little advance warning.”
“First of all, I don’t care to have dinner at the moment, or to discuss the past or the present, for that matter. Secondly, we’re going to your suite.”
He didn’t try to mask his surprise. “When?”
“Right now. Before I change my mind.”
PETE GOT RENEE’S MESSAGE loud and clear, even though many things still remained unspoken. But he couldn’t mistake her goal when, in the crowded elevator, she took his hand and stroked her thumb back and forth over his wrist. Couldn’t ignore the sexual current arcing between them. And any doubts that he might have entertained disappeared when he opened the door to the suite, and she turned into his arms.
When she shoved his jacket from his shoulders and began to tackle the buttons on his shirt, he clasped her wrists to stop her. “We need to talk first, Renee.” Before he lost his nerve, and forgot his goal.
She wrested from his grasp and continued her mission. “I told you, I’m calling the shots, and I don’t want to talk.” She parted the placket on his shirt, ran her hands over his chest. “Not to mention, I’m too distracted right now to have a coherent conversation.” She topped off the comment with a press of her pelvis against him. “And so are you.”
She was right about that. “That’s your fault.”
“I know, and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it. And by the time I get done with you, you’re going to be speechless.”
That did it. He hooked one hand around her neck and lowered his head to kiss her while he started on the buttons of her jacket. Pete backed her up, stopping only to discard clothing, as they their way to the bedroom. But they didn’t make it to the bedroom before she had him pressed against the wall, her hands roaming all over his body, and his on hers.
He managed to spin her around, as if they were engaged in a battle of one-upmanship to see whom could drive who more insane. Right now, Renee was winning. If he didn’t relocate them immediately, he’d take her right
there, in the same place they’d made love the first time.
Through sheer will alone, he managed to guide her into the bedroom, tear back the covers, then follow her down onto the bed.
The parted curtains bathed Renee in muted light, and only then did Pete pause to take a long look at her. Her hair framed her face in a red-gold halo against the pillow, her almond-shaped blue eyes alight with the same need he was experiencing.
When he continued to study her, she stared at him a few moments, blinked, then asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to look at you for a while.” He surveyed her face, then planted a few light kisses on her forehead, her cheeks and finally her lips. “But I need to get in a little closer to appreciate the view.”
He divided her legs with his thigh and guided himself inside her, eliciting a slight gasp from Renee and a low groan from him. “It’s damn good between us,” he whispered as he moved at a slower pace despite his primal need to drive harder, go deeper. When Renee failed to verbally respond, he said, “Tell me it’s good, damn it. Tell me you want me as much as I want you.”
She breezed her hands down his back and continued on to his butt. “I want you,” she said, her voice little more than a rasp.
He held her close, but he couldn’t seem to get close enough. He also sensed she was holding back, both physically and emotionally, and he wasn’t going to let her.
Rolling onto his back, he took her with him and positioned her straddling his thighs. “You’re calling the shots. Do your best.”
He watched her transform into the woman she’d been that first night they were together, bent on pleasing him as well as herself. He appreciated this sensual side of her, the fiery independence, the air of mystery she still retained, even now. He felt the pull of her orgasm the same moment he witnessed the signs of its impending arrival—Renee’s sharp release of breath, the flush on her face and her breasts, the tightening of her frame. He wanted to go on watching her, but he was already too far gone. And right before his own body’s demands took over, he had one last thought. He didn’t want to let her go.
SAFE IN PETE’S ARMS, with the first pale light of morning seeping into the window, Renee felt as if she had been thrust back in time. Not only because they had made love through the night, but because in a matter of hours, he would be gone again.
She refused to think about that now, not when they still had some time left. And she planned to make the best of that time.
On that thought, she slid her hand down the thin path of hair on his belly, only to have him catch her wrist. “You’re going to do me in, Renee. I’ll be so wasted, I won’t be able to walk for days.”
She looked up to find his hair stuck out in several places and his jaw covered in a heavy blanket of whiskers. He was a mess, and he’d never looked so irresistible.
Renee moved atop him and smiled. “Can you blame me for taking advantage of the situation? Who knows when the opportunity—” she wriggled against him “—will arise again.”
He worked his way from beneath her and scooted up against the headboard. “As much as I want to make love to you again, right now we need to talk about what happens next.”
Here it came, the “it’s been great, Renee, but I gotta go” speech. She collapsed back onto the pillow and sighed. “There’s nothing to say, Pete. You’re leaving. I know that. I don’t expect any explanation.” She didn’t want one.
“Yeah, I’m going to leave. But I don’t want this to be over between us.”
That she hadn’t expected. Worse, she was totally un-prepared, which was why she remained focused on the ceiling and not Pete. “We both know we can’t maintain any kind of real relationship living thousands of miles apart.” She hadn’t had any successful relationships with men whom she’d seen on a daily basis.
He shifted until he faced her, forcing her to finally look at him. “You could spend some time with me in California, and we can go from there.”
“I can’t do that. Not now. We’ve already been through this. I have to take care of the hotel, and you have to make a movie.”
“A movie I’ll be shooting here for part of the time.”
She turned her attention back to the ceiling. “Only for a short period of time, then you’ll return to the back lot to film the rest. And then comes the editing process and—”
“You don’t think I realize that.” He bolted upright and sat on the edge of the bed, his back to her. “I have to finish this movie. I don’t have a choice. I’ve already signed the contract.”
And once upon a time, he’d broken a contract for someone he loved. Renee didn’t expect him to do that for her, because to this point, he’d said nothing about love. Or any real commitment. He hadn’t made any reference about a future other than “we can go from there.”
Renee didn’t want to be his weekend girl, waiting patiently for him until he breezed back into town. She couldn’t fly off to California on the off-chance they might actually have a future. She couldn’t afford to fail again, as she had with her own career. As she had with other relationships.
Feeling downhearted and depressed, Renee pushed off the bed and walked into the living area to retrieve her discarded clothes. She’d managed to put on her bra, panties and skirt before Pete joined her.
Wearing a pair of ragtag jeans, his feet and chest still bare, he leaned against the doorframe. “Where are you going?”
She snatched her blouse from the floor and slipped it on. “I’m going to the apartment to shower and change.”
“Will you at least come to the airport and see me off?”
Every instinct she had screamed no. Self-protection told her to refuse. Her love for him spoke above the noise.
She faced him with a shred of a smile. “I suppose I could do that. I still need to say goodbye to Adam.”
The crestfallen look on his face let her know that the reality of seeing his nephew off for what could be years was affecting him greatly. “Yeah. I could use some moral support in that regard.”
So could she, but who would be there for her when Pete boarded that airplane bound for California, and a life that didn’t include her? “That’s what friends are for.”
He was on her in a flash, pulling her against him, kissing her without the least bit of hesitancy. When he pulled away, he nailed her with a resolute gaze. “We’ve gone past the friendship stage, Renee, and you know it.”
Yes, she knew that, but did it really change anything? “What time do you need to be at the airport?”
He dropped his arms from around her and stepped back, looking defeated. “Around noon, but if you have something better to do, don’t bother.”
She had plenty to do, but she couldn’t let him go without seeing him one last time. “I’ll meet you there.”
Renee finished dressing and practically sprinted out the door, fearing that if she stayed any longer, she would have to admit that she was still vulnerable to him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“WHERE’S RENEE, UNCLE PETE?”
Obviously she’d changed her mind about meeting them, Pete decided as he guided Adam to a waiting area immediately inside the terminal. Trish and Craig’s flight was due in at any time, and he’d then join them inside the gate to board his plane to California, an hour after their flight left for Tokyo.
He dropped down into the chair next to Adam, tugged his baseball cap low on his brow and kept his sunglasses in place, hoping to thwart recognition. He’d escorted Adam down the back street behind the hotel before they grabbed a cab two blocks away, and as far as he knew, he’d escaped detection by the paparazzi. But that held no guarantees.
Pete kept his eyes trained on the sliding glass doors leading outside, twice thinking he saw Renee, only to discover he’d been mistaken. Maybe it would be best if she didn’t show, then he wouldn’t have to endure two goodbye scenes with the people he cared about more than he could express. The people he loved.
No doubt in his mind, he
was in love with Renee. And he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do about it. She’d been right about problems with long-distance relationships. And he recognized his notoriety could create havoc on their privacy, but only if he let it. Renee had been dead wrong when she’d claimed it couldn’t work. He wanted to prove that to her, although he didn’t know how, and time was running out.
“There she is!”
Pete looked toward the direction Adam was pointing to find Trish walking through the door exiting the gate area. As glad as he was to see his sister, he couldn’t tamp down the disappointment that she wasn’t Renee.
When Pete stood, Adam wriggled off the chair and ran to his mother in a rush. “My baby boy!” Trish said as she knelt at his level and held him close.
When she pulled back, Adam held up his cast. “See, Mama? I broke it.”
Her gaze snapped to Pete. “What happened?”
He realized he’d made a grave mistake by not notifying Trish earlier, and he most likely would pay for that mistake. “He was in a car accident a couple of days ago. Where’s Craig?”
She straightened, anger flashing in her brown eyes. “Craig’s waiting for us at the gate, and stop trying to change the subject. Why didn’t you call me when this happened?”
“I didn’t want to worry you while you were on your honeymoon. If it had been more serious, I would’ve let you know. But he’s fine. He does need to have the cast removed in about four weeks.”
Trish rummaged through her purse and handed Adam a candy bar. “Why don’t you sit down and eat this while I have a little talk with your Uncle.”
“Okay. But hurry. I want to see Craig.”
After Adam returned to his seat, Trish signaled Pete to join her a few feet away. “You didn’t think I could handle it, did you?”
She was right, but he didn’t want to admit that. “I thought you’d trust me to handle it, Trish.”
“Of course I trust you, but I am his mother. As much as I appreciate what you’ve done for him, for us both, you’re going to have to accept that.”
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