by Kresley Cole
“Are you the man Mr. Zimmerman told me to contact if I had a problem?”
He took a swig of his beer before he answered. “Why? You got a problem already?”
“No, I was just wondering.”
“Yeah. I’m the lucky bastard.”
She forced herself to move closer to him. If Mr. Zimmerman had designated this man to oversee the others, then he couldn’t be as fearsome as he seemed.
She held her hand out to him. “Allison George. Nice to meet you.”
He looked at her hand, then swept his magnetic gaze back up to her face without taking her hand in his. “Nice meeting you too.”
He turned away from her.
“Wait. You’re not going to shake my hand?”
He faced her and the hot, lustful look in his eyes burned her all the way to her toes. “Look, lady, I’ve been stuck here on this island for far too long without seeing anything as scrumptious as you are. If I touch your hand I’m going to kiss your lips. If I kiss your lips, I’m going to run my hands all over your body. And after I get tired of running my hands over you, then I’m going to strip your clothes off and lick on you until you scream. So unless you want to have sex with me, I suggest you keep your hands to yourself and just let me go and find a cold shower.”
Heat exploded across her face. “Are you always this outspoken and crude?”
“If you want a refined college boy”—he glanced at the bar—“those are inside. If you want a man…” He gave her a wicked grin that set fire to her blood. “Then baby, I’ve got what you need. You just give me a yell whenever you’re ready for it.”
Allison shivered at his words as he sauntered away from her.
Never in her life had she felt temptation like this. She didn’t know Vince at all, but part of her craved him powerfully.
Robin would already be after him, her hands caressing those broad, muscled shoulders. She would be pulling his tight T-shirt off his body and licking his hard, defined abs.
Allison would run for cover and hide.
It was time for her to make a decision.
Was she going to be a lioness or a mouse? A frightened wimp who had never dared reach for what she wanted, or the wild woman who lived in her heart?
Allison took a step, then heard a motorcycle roaring down the road.
That would be Brendan approaching.
Brendan—the hero from the book.
She looked back at Vince and his deadly, dangerous walk.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
What should she do?
Chapter Four
Allison went running after Vince. He turned as she drew near him and actually looked sick to his stomach. A part of her was highly offended by that, but it was mitigated by the fact that she knew he was attracted to her.
“Why aren’t you the one playing Brendan?”
He let out a tired breath. “Look, baby, I’m just here as window dressing and the muscle in the event one of these gavones gets out of line with you. If I’m the one who gets out of line, there’s no one to make me back off, capisce?”
A shiver went over her at the deep sound of his pronunciation of those foreign words. It was exotic and hot. “Are you Italian?”
He looked baffled by her question. “What?”
“Are you Italian?”
“Yeah. Extremely.”
She smiled. “Wow! That’s so neat. I’ve never met a real Italian before. There just aren’t any in Georgia where I live. Can you do one of those really thick New York City accents like Danny Aiello? I love whenever I hear that on TV. I think it’s so sexy.”
He shook his head with a short laugh. “Lady, you seem really nice, but did you miss the part about how horny I am? That wasn’t a joke.”
“I’m sorry. I just…I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
Vince ground his teeth as he saw the hurt in her eyes an instant before she turned around to head back toward the bar. He was such an ass.
He wanted to apologize, but that would be even worse. He didn’t want to encourage her. She really was a nice lady. Too nice for someone like him. The last thing she needed was to hook up with a gangster.
It wasn’t like he had a future of any kind he could offer her. Hey, baby, let’s date until Gino finds me and kills me. Shall we? And if he happens to find me with a woman, he’ll rape and kill her before he gets to me.
No, there could be no women for him in the foreseeable future. It was one thing to risk his own life and quite another to endanger the Dairy Maid.
His heart heavy, he watched as she hooked up with the college boy and they returned inside. That was where she belonged…in her nice homogenized world.
Vince leaned his head back to guzzle his beer. Then as an image of her and the geek getting together went through his mind, he turned and tossed the bottle toward a tree where it shattered. Just once in his life, he wished he could taste something wholesome. Maybe if he’d had someone like her in his corner, his life would have been different.
Instead, he’d been surrounded by other pieces of cheap trash who had pushed him into an occupation he’d never wanted. But in the end, he couldn’t blame them for it. He’d been the one who had finally succumbed to Gino’s pressures. After he’d left the Marines behind, he’d spent a year looking for a job.
Nothing had been there for him. There wasn’t a lot an infantryman could do in the civilian world. Especially not when he had a juvenile arrest record. Granted those files were sealed, but when he’d applied for the police academy and a job as a security guard, the background search had uncovered his past.
The only people who’d been willing to hire him had been “family.” And after a year of living off his mother and burning through his savings, he’d had no choice except to take what they’d offered. At first it’d been harmless enough. Pick up this, drop this off, drive Gino around…
And then they’d dangled the one carrot before him he couldn’t deny. The one carrot that had started him down the pathway to hell, and once he’d stepped onto it, his life had been over.
Disgusted with the choices he’d made, Vince raked his hands through his hair. He had to get out of here for a little while and clear his head.
Allison was listening to Harry and Brendan argue over some pretended slight as she watched Vince get on his motorcycle and roar off. She didn’t know why the sight of his leaving hurt, but it did.
What is wrong with me?
You don’t really want to sleep with a guy you don’t know, do you?
Well, it would be a new experience. It was definitely not something she’d ever done before. But she wasn’t really that kind of woman.
And so she stayed there while the guys acted out the book.
“Robin!”
She snapped her head up to see Harry glaring at her. “What?”
“I said it was time for us to go.” And then as if he remembered that he wasn’t really Harry, his gaze softened. “That is, if you’re ready to go…”
“Sure.” Trying not to laugh as he fell back into his tough-guy role, she got up and followed him out of the bar back to their motorcycles.
Neither of them spoke as the rest of the guys surrounded them, mounted their bikes and then roared down the road a few miles to a really nice hotel. As they pulled into the parking lot, she looked around wide-eyed. Modeled after the famed Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, it had the same white building and sloping red roof. Only it was a lot smaller, but still every bit as impressive.
“Is this where we’re staying?” she asked Harry.
He nodded as he got off the bike and waited on her to pull her helmet off.
Wow. This was much better than the sleazy hotels the characters in the book stayed in.
As the men headed inside, she saw Brendan giving her a hot once-over like he was supposed to do. But strangely enough, it left her cold. It was nothing like the hot flash she’d gotten from Vince.
Not willing to think about that, she followed the men. And as t
hey approached the glass door, she realized that Vince was here too. His black motorcycle was parked off to the side.
Oddly enough, that gave her a tingle.
Yeah, there was something seriously wrong with her. Unlike the real Harry, who would have slammed the door in her face, the actor held the door open for her. A handsome desk clerk was already waiting for her and had the key to her room ready.
“You’re right on the beach,” he said kindly as he handed the key to her. “All of your belongings are unpacked and waiting in your room. The rest of the day and night is yours to do with as you please, and the fantasy will officially begin tomorrow. We have a card in your room that you can fill out and we’ll start in the morning, whenever you’re ready. Just let us know what you want for breakfast and remember that we’re here to serve you. Anything you need. Anything at all, just let us know and we’ll bring it right to you.”
It was really weird to have someone say that to her. In all her life, Allison had never had anyone wait on her. Not even Gary had been willing to help her after her appendectomy. In fact, he’d had the nerve to ask her what she was going to make for dinner just an hour after she’d come home from the hospital. So it was nice to have someone who was willing to wait on her now.
She wondered how rich people dealt with this kind of attention. Something about it was just unsettling.
“Thank you,” she said before she headed toward her room down the hallway.
After kindly saying goodbye to her, the biker gang dissipated. Come to think of it, she was glad to have some alone time to adjust to the new place. The plane ride had worn her out and she could use a shower and a nap.
Not to mention a walk on the beach. She’d always loved the beach, but she hadn’t been to one since she was eight years old. Not since her father had run off and left them. Before that, they’d always made the yearly trek to Panama City. But afterward, her mother had been too heartbroken, too poor and then later too sick to make the trip.
Allison opened the door to her room, then froze. There were several dozen roses and bottles of champagne and wine on the entryway table. Along with a giant box of Godiva chocolate! She’d never had those before.
She felt like a kid on Christmas morning as she walked around the large room that had a king-size bed, a little living-room area, kitchen and study.
“Dang, this is nicer than my house.” It was bigger too. But what really stunned her was the view out the window. She went to the sliding glass door to open it so that she could listen to the surf and watch the waves crash onto the perfectly beautiful beach.
This was so unreal. She felt like Alice after falling down the hole. It was like being in a movie, only it was real and it was definitely the best moment of her entire life. Closing her eyes, she let herself absorb the sound of the ocean and the scent of the roses and sea salt that hung in the air.
Oh, it was going to be hard to go home again after all this and return to her job.
Not wanting to think about that, she headed for the shower and tried not to wonder where Mr. Vince had gone off to and if he might be skinny-dipping on that beach.
Vince was sitting in the lounge chair on the small patio of his room as he watched the surf rolling in. He didn’t know how many beers he’d downed at this point, but he was finally starting to get a little buzz going.
But not even that was enough to dull the fire in his groin that demanded he go find his Dairy Maid.
He tipped the beer back and tried to think disgusting thoughts.
At least until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he almost choked on the beer as he saw the source of his discomfort. There she stood, completely oblivious to him. But the worst part was that she was wearing the same thing he was…
Nothing but a damned bathrobe.
And he couldn’t help but wonder if she were naked under that terry cloth.
“Nice view, huh?” he said, his voice down an octave from his beer and lust.
She jumped as if he’d startled her. A becoming blush spread over her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was there.”
“It’s all right.” But actually it wasn’t, as the robe parted just enough to really piss him off by teasing him with the thought that he might glimpse a part of her.
Allison knew she should run back into her room, but she couldn’t quite manage it. Vince was sitting on a white chair in a white monogrammed bathrobe that matched her own. Leaning back in his padded chair, he had his long legs spread open with a beer resting on one thigh. Like hers, his hair was wet, letting her know he’d had a shower himself.
But what burned her was the intense look on his face.
“You’re not running away?”
“Should I?” she challenged him back.
His eyes twinkled at her. “If you were wise, Little Red Riding Hood, you’d know to avoid the wolf.” That dangerously hot gaze swept over her body, making her throb again. “So you must be feeling daring…”
Run!
But she refused. For once in her life, she wasn’t going to be a coward. He wasn’t some insane killer. He was the man Mr. Zimmerman had chosen to oversee her safety. Surely he wouldn’t have picked Vince if Vince were really dangerous.
“Maybe.”
A warm laugh rippled out of him. “Just how daring are you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What are you thinking?”
He took a drink of beer before he turned his head toward the beach. She could see him debating what he should say next. He had his tongue in his cheek as he ran it around, thinking.
Finally, he scratched his chin and flashed her a devilish grin that absolutely melted her. “I’m sitting here wondering if you’re naked underneath your robe.”
She bit her lip. Don’t say it. Don’t you dare…. But the words were out before she turned chicken. “I was wondering the same about you.”
His look intensified, and she swore the air between them had solidified. She shivered with anticipation.
“Well, there’s one way to find out.”
She looked about nervously. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
She let out a small squeak at the idea. “No! We’re not the only people staying here, you know? What if one of the others comes out?”
“They won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“’Cause I sit out here every evening at this time and no one has come out yet except you.”
Like she was going to take his word for that. “For all I know, you’re lying.”
He tsked at her, but still his eyes held that warm, playful air. Mercy, that man was more tempting than sin itself. “You know, I read that book of yours that you’re reenacting. Robin would do it in a heartbeat.”
“I’m not Robin.”
“Aren’t you?”
Allison toyed with her belt as she considered that. No, she really wasn’t, but she’d promised herself that she wouldn’t be so damned straight this week.
C’mon, Allison. You’ve never done anything wicked in your entire life. Just once, walk on the bad side….
That was so much easier said than done. It took a lot to undo a lifetime of timidity. But there was no time like the present to work on it.
“Okay. You first.” She didn’t really expect him to agree, but before she could blink, he opened his robe.
Allison’s jaw dropped. Yeah, he was naked all right. Totally. Completely. And she couldn’t take her eyes off him. He had that kind of lean, hard body that they used in movies. The kind that said he was a man who liked to work out. She’d never seen a real eight-pack of abs in the flesh before, but he had one. And those golden muscles were dusted with enough black hair to be attractive and not gross.
But what kept her gaping was the size of his obvious erection. The man was huge, and like he’d said, he was definitely interested.
Holy. Cripes.
“Your turn, princess.”
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Allison bit her lip as fear consumed her. “No one better come out here.”
He gave her a lopsided grin. “If they do, I’ll kill them for you. Promise.”
Yeah, right. Taking a deep breath, she glanced around the area nervously, before she reached for her belt.
Vince couldn’t breathe as she hesitated. Oh man, this really was cruel. “Don’t tease me, princess.”
With a slowness that was sheer torture, she unfolded her belt. He swore his heart stopped beating as he watched her open that belt, then slowly part her robe.
The sight of her hit him like a fist in the gut.
He expelled an appreciative breath at the sight of her naked body. She wasn’t skinny, but rather she had lush curves. Her breasts were a bit small, but they were big enough to fill his hand and that was all that mattered.
Before he could stop himself, he set the bottle down and got up.
Allison knew she should run away as Vince approached her, but she couldn’t.
He hesitated before her so close that she could feel the heat of his body. Smell the beer. It was all she could do not to step into the warmth of him. To press her body against his…
Frozen to the spot, she didn’t move as he bent toward her and drew a deep breath against her neck. He pulled back ever so slightly. “You smell like roses and wine.”
And he smelled like beer, sun and all masculine skin. Her breasts tightening at the thought, Allison turned her head and before she knew what he was doing, he lowered his lips to hers. She moaned at the decadent taste of him.
He cupped her face in his hands as his tongue hungrily explored every inch of her mouth. She shivered. This man certainly knew how to kiss. Her head swimming, she buried her hands in his damp hair.
Vince’s heart pounded as he had his first taste of goodness. He drank it in from her lips and he knew he was lost. Between the beer and his lust, there was no way he could stop. He pulled back only a tiny bit to nibble the corner of that delectable mouth.
“Push me away, Allison,” he whispered against her lips.
She didn’t. Instead, she recaptured his lips with hers. Growling, he dipped himself down so that he could pick her up.
