by Lucy Monroe
“Hello.” He looked her up and down, his fiery gaze touching her with tactile force and leaving goosebumps in unimaginable places in its wake. “I like the way you look.”
“Thank you.”
He’d changed from a business suit to a v-necked, lightweight, black sweater that molded his muscular chest and charcoal gray slacks that emphasized the sheer masculine perfection of his form. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
His smile was more like a wicked invitation to sin. He put his hand out. “Ready to go?”
“I don’t have any makeup on yet.” Not that she normally wore it, but this was a date.
Not counting yesterday, which had not been official…it was her first one in two years.
“You don’t need it.”
She cocked her head to the side and studied him like he was an alien species. Sometimes, like now, it felt like he was. He certainly didn’t fit the mold of the other males she’d known. “Most men want their dates to be as gorgeous as possible.”
“You aren’t an ornament on my arm. You look beautiful to me and that is all that should matter.”
“Thank you.”
“Besides, makeup cannot improve on perfection.” It was a corny line, but he said it was such offhand seriousness; she couldn’t dismiss it as mere flattery.
“Wow…you know just the right thing to say.”
“The truth often comes out that way.”
“But not always. Sometimes the truth hurts.” She didn’t know why she said it, maybe as a reminder to herself.
His mouth set in a grim line. “You’re right, but I still prefer it over dishonesty.”
“Me, too.” A sudden urge made her blurt out. “Promise you’ll always tell me the truth.”
He stared at her as if testing her motive for the request, but then he nodded. “I won’t ever lie to you.”
“I’ll never lie to you either.” She said it quietly, fervently and he received it without comment.
Taking her arm, he tugged her out the door. “Now that we’ve established that, let’s go eat dinner.”
She laughed, a feeling of buoyant happiness bubbling through her. Unless he was the best actor on the planet, he’d meant his vow of honesty and she knew she had. No matter how odd the pact might seem to others, it gave her a sense of peace and a spark of hope for their future.
They were in Washington Park before she thought to ask where he was taking her for dinner.
“We’re almost there.”
To her knowledge, there was no restaurant near where they were, unless you counted the concession stands in the Rose Garden. Which seemed to be where they were headed, but she couldn’t imagine he was taking her there.
She saw that she was right about their destination however as he pulled the purring Mercedes into a parking spot near the gardens. He came around to open her door and the scent of roses washed over her senses. Midsummer, the air was laden with their sweet fragrance.
She closed her eyes and inhaled. “It’s what I think Heaven will smell like. So sweet and good.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
He helped her out of the car and then led her through an archway and down into the gardens. He kept going until they reached one of the private gardens enclosed by a tall green hedge. He stopped and she saw a linen covered table set with china and lit with candlelight in the center of the small garden bedecked with a thousand more flickering candles. Two antique dining chairs were on opposite sides of the smallish table and he seated her in one before taking the other.
A black clad waiter immediately poured them each a glass of champagne and then set starters of chilled crabmeat over a bed of lettuce.
She looked at Angelo, too stunned to pretend to be the least bit casual about his efforts. “This is amazing.”
“I wanted tonight to be special.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Because what is going on between us is special.”
His words seduced her utterly.
Dinner was an incredible experience. They talked about everything including Angelo’s plans for Primo Tech. He listened to her ideas on the subject and then brought up two more companies he was currently resuscitating.
That discussion took them all the way to dessert when Angelo said, “Tell me about Baron Randall.”
Her muscles tensed. “I already did.”
“Only some of it.”
“Do you spend your other dates quizzing women on past liaisons?”
“Only when those liaisons are still impacting the present.”
“He doesn’t. I’m here aren’t I?”
“He does. You’re here against your better judgment. Because of your experience with him, you wanted to write me off.”
“I’ve been writing all men off for two years. It’s not personal.”
“It became personal the moment I got lumped in with the rest.” And in his arrogant view of the world, that was unacceptable.
She almost smiled.
“Your refusal to date makes it sound like you’re not over him.” He didn’t sound pleased at that idea.
“I am, trust me.”
She couldn’t read his expression, but she wasn’t sure he believed her.
“I told you I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“But if you are lying to yourself, how will you help it?”
“I’m not that much of a fool.”
“I hope that is true.”
She wasn’t offended by his words. In fact, their urgency touched her. “Trust me. It is.”
“How did you meet?”
“At a show.” Perhaps talking about it would set Angelo’s mind at rest. Goodness knew she felt more comfortable sharing her secrets with him than anyone else, though she still wasn’t sure why. “He asked for an introduction from my agent and then swept my then naïve self right off my feet.”
“He’s quite a bit older than you.”
“Sixteen years and that was a big part of his success where other men had failed. Not only did he know just what buttons to push to get a response from me because of his experience, but I made the mistake of assuming age meant maturity. That he knew what he wanted.”
“Didn’t he?”
“Yes, I guess he did…but in the end, it wasn’t me.”
“So you broke up.”
“Yes.”
“He married an heiress within a month of the breakup.”
“Don’t ask me how he accomplished that. She had to have heard the stories. We were splashed across every newspaper. Why would she want a man who had to have been having an affair when they met?”
“He was living with someone else when he met you.”
“How did you know that?” She hadn’t even learned that juicy tidbit until she read one of the nasty articles done on their breakup.
He shrugged. “I read.”
“Well, I didn’t know about her until later.”
“I see.”
“I doubt it.”
“You sound bitter.”
“The tabloids slayed me…portrayed me as the skirt on the side while Baron had been courting his one true love. They dubbed me Tempting Tara when I was the one who’d been tempted and then tossed aside.”
“Anyone who knows Baron Randall would know that he’s absolutely incapable of having one true love.”
“You know him?”
“We’ve met.” The cold dismissal in his voice left no doubt what Angelo thought of the other man.
“So, you don’t think I’m some sort of floozy, ripe for the picking by another charismatic tycoon?”
“Floozy?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do and no, I don’t.”
“But—”
“I want you. That’s not a crime.”
“No.”
“So you think I’m charismatic?”
“On occasion, yes.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I’m sure you think so.”
/>
“If it means I get the girl, I do.”
“The jury is still out on that one.”
“Then let’s see if I can’t rig it.”
“What?”
He was standing up and his hand was outstretched. “Come for a walk with me and let me turn some of this charisma on you.”
He was teasing, but it wasn’t a joke. The man was way too attractive for Tara’s own good. And as docile as any lamb, she still put her hand in his and let him lead her toward the main part of the rose garden—that had been closed off for their enjoyment alone. Its lush beauty in the fading light awed her.
“It’s incredible here,” she said after several minutes of silence.
“I think so, too. It’s one of my favorite places.”
“Did you visit when you lived in Seattle or discover it when you bought Primo Tech?”
“When I was a kid, we came every summer. It was like a pilgrimage.”
And he was sharing this special place and his precious memories with her. That meant something. It had to.
“My mother loved the Rose Festival and we drove down for it,” he continued, “I liked the rides.”
“I can’t imagine you on a carnival ride.”
“I was a little boy. Even tycoons had to be children at some point.”
“It’s hard to picture. I see you trading companies from your crib.”
“Actually I didn’t get interested in the business side of things until I was twenty. Before that, I thought I would be an engineer like my father had been.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Life.” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into his hard, warm body. “My father was technically brilliant. He developed several new designs and started his own company.”
“I’m surprised he was a success. A lot of engineer types aren’t good when it comes to the day to day operations.” She’d seen it over and over again at Primo Tech.
“He wasn’t the greatest businessman, but he made do.”
“Whereas you are brilliant business wise.”
“And a mediocre engineer.”
“There are always trade-offs in life.”
“Yes, there are.”
“What’s the name of your father’s company?”
“It doesn’t exist anymore. It was absorbed into a bigger company.”
That surprised her. “I would have thought you would keep it intact. A pride thing.”
“I didn’t own it at the time.”
“I’m sorry.” She sensed that caused him a lot of pain.
He turned to face her. “Let’s not talk about business right now.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
His head lowered. “This,” he said as his lips pressed against hers.
It was unlike any of the other kisses had been. This was both tender and passion driven. Desire vibrated off of him and against her mouth, but he didn’t push for a deeper kiss. When he was done, he lifted his head. “You are so sexy, stellina.”
“You make me want to be.”
Triumph rippled through Angelo. For two years this woman had wanted to be anything but sexy. She had avoided men and intimacy completely, but in his arms, she wanted to be a woman.
She was so close to being his—he could sense it.
“Come on, there is something I want you to see.”
She let him guide her toward the lower part of the rose garden. He kept his hand on her shoulder, his thumb brushing her nape. Triumph flared through him when she shivered despite the warmth of the air and shifted toward him infinitesimally.
Experience had taught him that often it was the small touches which seduced a woman, not a blatant show of passion. She already knew how much he wanted her. He’d shown her that in the pool. Now he had to show her it was okay to want him too…because he knew what to do with her wanting.
He leaned down so his breath caressed her ear when he spoke. “I know how to satisfy your craving to be a sensual woman, Tara. It will be very, very good between us.”
“I…” Her voice trailed off as if she didn’t know how to respond to his comments.
He wasn’t so reticent. “I will give you more pleasure than you have ever known. Believe it.”
This time it was a full blown shudder that rippled down her spine. “Angelo.”
He was not even kissing her, but already her arousal was making her voice husky and her heartbeat quicken. He smiled. She didn’t know it, but they had just passed first base on their way to a home run.
CHAPTER FIVE
BY THE time they returned to the car, Tara was a mass of throbbing sensation.
Angelo and she had lingered in the garden for quite a while. He had shared a surprising knowledge of the different species of roses, having her smell them and feel the softness of their petals as he explained their differences.
All the while, he had been touching her and saying things in that husky, deep voice of his that promised the sun, the moon and the stars all wrapped up in one ultra masculine package.
As battle strategies went, it had been extremely effective. He’d vanquished her resistance and moved her toward surrender with the speed and efficiency of a well-armed, seasoned campaigner. It was the recognition of her comparative lack of experience that made her hesitate to give total surrender.
Could she really be sure of what she wanted and what was best for her when she was under the influence of his charismatic presence? When her hands were literally shaking with the need to touch him?
She turned toward him as his car slid into a parking spot in front of her brownstone and was struck anew by his sheer masculine perfection. So sexy. So strong. So much a man. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone, including Baron.
Which made it all the more imperative that she not dive into an emotional commitment without knowing where he was at in that regard.
She could remember all too clearly the times she had said she loved Baron and gotten no response or an, “I know.” She could see now that he’d only said the words to her when it suited his strategy for manipulation.
She no longer had such naïve illusions about love, but sex wasn’t a simple slaking of physical needs for her, either. It never could be. She needed to know that more than Angelo’s hormones were engaged. She wasn’t giving her body to another man without being sure he saw her as more than an occasional bed partner.
Angelo switched off the ignition.
“I’m not going to ask you up.”
He tensed and turned to face her, his jaw set, surprise making his eyes darken. “Why not?”
Time for total honesty. She sensed any attempt at prevarication would only give him the final leverage he needed to bring about her surrender. “Because if I do, we’ll make love and I’m not ready to do that yet.”
He reached out and cupped the back of her head, his thumb tracing the shell of her ear and making her tremble even more. “You want me.”
No way could she deny it. “Desire isn’t enough.”
“What is enough?”
She stared at him, nonplussed by the question. She hadn’t expected him to want to discuss the intricacies of a relationship. Most men shied away from that sort of thing.
But, goodness knew, Angelo Gordon was unlike any other man of her acquaintance. “I don’t want to be treated like a one night stand.”
Which was as far as she’d gotten in her thought process…or as far as she had allowed herself to go.
“I want more than one night.”
“How much more?”
“How much more do you want?”
“I’m not sure.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“I can’t quantify it.”
“Sure you can. What do you want? Protestations of love?”
She, who no longer believed in love, felt her heart rate double at the mention of the word. Was he saying he was falling in love with her? How could he be?
“What do you want, T
ara? A promise of fidelity, or do you want more?” he went on relentlessly. “Perhaps an offer of marriage. Is that what you need to feel good about giving yourself to me? Commitment with a capital C?”
Was he saying he would give those things to her, or was he testing her, pushing to figure out the parameters of the deal?
“I just realized I wanted to pursue a relationship,” she said, frustration at being put so firmly on the spot lacing her voice. “How am I supposed to know what form I need it to take before I’m ready to be intimate with you?”
“You’re too smart not to know your own mind.”
Only right now, her mind was muddled by desire and the need to conquer fear. She doubted he ever got muddled in his thinking. Probably, he thought he was being extremely reasonable asking her to define what she needed, but he wasn’t the one with doubts. Somehow, she couldn’t see this man ever being the one with the doubts.
Her only defense against his relentless logic was more honesty. “Look, you were right, Angelo. I have been letting my past control my present. I don’t want to do that anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to jump into bed with you. I need time.”
His smile was all sensual, predatory, and it confused her, because it wasn’t the expression of a man who had just been turned down. “Oh, you’re ready all right, but you’re hesitating because you don’t know where it will lead.”
She throbbed low in her womb and she knew he was right. “Fine. You’re right. There aren’t a lot of options for where sex between us could go.”
“This is always true. Those options do not change over time.”
“Some of them become less palatable.”
“You do not want a one night stand, but I gather you also don’t want a few long weekends with us both moving on to other partners?”
The mere idea made her shiver with revulsion. She’d never taken sex casually and the idea of going into a relationship that intimate with the expectation of ending it repelled her. “No.”
“That leaves two other outcomes…we move in together—”
“No,” she practically shouted.
His brow raised in question.
She took a deep breath and let it out. “I stupidly went that route once before…even after watching my mom make the same mistake over and over again. I won’t be controlled by my past, but I won’t refuse to learn from it, either.”
