by Jianne Carlo
“She'll feel sleepy and disoriented for a while,” a paramedic said not ten minutes later. “But she's fine. By tomorrow morning, she'll be as right as rain.”
Eli hovered, unable to stop touching Stephanie, petting her hair, cupping a shoulder; he laced the fingers of one hand with hers and touched his lips to her knuckles. Iggie and Bill had remained inside the house while the ex-SWAT team guarded Asia and Lisa Mason.
“You should get her inside, bro. The temperature dips real fast once the sun sets in this neck of the woods.”
Scooping Stephanie into his arms, Eli kissed the tip of her nose and then climbed the steps to the front doors, which stood wide open. Bill greeted him at the entrance to the study.
“Stephanie okay?”
“Yeah. Just sleepy. What's happening?”
“Asia's under arrest for embezzlement. His VP of finance went to the authorities and gave up the details of Asia's part in Rothstein's Ponzi scheme.” Bill pushed his spectacles to the top of the bridge of his nose. “My guess is that this is going to take a while to unravel. Iggie requested a private word with Lisa, but she's refusing to speak with him. She's called her lawyer.”
“How's Iggie holding up?”
“He's in shock. The only positive I see out of this is that with this whole Scott Rothstein news breaking, the media isn't going to pay us any attention.” Bill shook his head. “That, and Shane being in the clear.”
“I'd forgotten all about him. Where is he?” Eli asked.
“Turns out Shane was in a car accident last night. When he woke up this morning, he was nauseated, saw dancing black spots. He took a cab to the ER. He has a mild concussion, and they're keeping him overnight.”
“I'm taking Stephanie to a hotel. She needs to get a good night's rest.” Eli glanced down at Stephanie's shuttered eyes.
“Go. I'll stay with Iggie. He still has to tape the interview for the red-carpet screening tomorrow. Sam's on his way here. We've changed the venue for the interview to our headquarters. It's set for noon. I'll send a limo for the two of you. Midmorning?”
“I'll rent a car and drive up.” Eli shifted Stephanie higher. “I'm developing a definite aversion to limos.”
She slept the entire trip to the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Stephanie woke when he ran her a bath, and she soaked and dozed in the scented, hot water for all of five minutes. Eli couldn't take his eyes off her. Perched on the edge of the tub, he stared at her face, mesmerized by the cute way her nose twitched and the slight crook of one corner of her mouth when her breathing evened and her napping deepened into slumber.
After drying her damp skin with a fluffy towel, he carried her to the mattress and sat with Stephanie in his arms, savoring the sight and feel and smell of her. It took long minutes before he could move again. After settling her under the covers, he shucked his shoes and clothes and climbed onto the mattress and gathered her into his arms. His mind raced, and he fell asleep before he could decide how he could accelerate the time between her moving in with him and their getting hitched. Normally a sound sleeper, he jerked awake every time she moved or sighed too long, and cuddled her rear into his groin, feeling grateful beyond words to have Stephanie safe in his arms.
They slept in the next morning, Eli opened his eyes to a sun already full and heavy in a blue, cloudless sky. Groaning at the time displayed on his phone, he kissed Stephanie's nose and then tickled her earlobe with his tongue. She stretched, arching her hands high above her head as she pointed her toes. He'd never seen anything so adorable.
Marry me.
He swallowed hard. Eli turned so they faced each other on the bed.
“How're you feeling, Steph?”
“Like my brain and my thoughts aren't quite connected yet,” she replied. The curtains waltzed as the air vents fought the rising desert heat, and a shadow flitted across her cheek.
Eli traced the ridge of her cheek. “What happened after I left you alone, honey?”
“I couldn't fall back asleep, so I got up and had a shower. I went to get a clean panty from the carry-on, and I found a few green beads. They bothered me. I ordered room service and then started working on re-creating the trailer. The doorbell rang, I opened the door, and the houngan from the château grabbed me.” She rubbed her forehead. “It happened so fast. He slapped a cloth over my nose. I tried to twist away, and one of the women held me from behind. I remember grabbing her necklace. Seeing the same bead. And then nothing until I woke up in the backseat of the SUV. Why was Lisa in the car? And who was that man she was with?”
Stephanie interrupted him several times during his recounting of the events of the last twenty-four hours.
“Poor Iggie,” she said, two of her fingers drawing a figure eight from Eli's left nipple to his right. “So that was the famous Asia Springstone. Do you think that he and Lisa would've hurt me?”
His prick rising to the occasion distracted him, and her words didn't sink in at first. “I don't know. When Asia's drinking, he's very aggressive. From what we heard before the ex-SWAT team took them down, he was more interested in skipping the country.” Eli tucked a silken lock of hair behind her ear. “I'm just glad we didn't have to find out.”
“I wonder if Amy copied the trailer for her niece. Did Sam find out any more about her?”
“I haven't heard from him, but you don't make it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation without being seriously ill.” Eli studied the color riding her cheeks and neck. “What? Why do you look like that?”
“I wanted it to be Amy. I was so glad to blame her that I ignored the fact there was a copy on my desktop.” Stephanie studied his forearm, her forefinger trailed up his bicep, and she bit her lower lip. “I was jealous, Eli.”
“Are you asking me if anything happened between her and me?” Eli cupped her face and said, “Look at me, honey.”
Her nostrils flared, and a hot, minty breath tickled the hair bristling his upper lip. “When I said you had me at hello, I meant it. I am so in love with you that I can't think straight. Marry me, Steph?”
“You're in love with me?” Her eyes widened, and her dark lashes spiked and fluttered, brushing arched mahogany brows. “Oh Eli. I love you too.”
“Say it again,” he ordered, his voice gruff. “And answer the question.”
“I love you,” she said and edged closer on the bed, then ran her tongue across the seam of his mouth.
“And?” he growled, his hand grasping the back of her neck.
“I'd be honored to marry you, Eli Gallagher. And so proud to call you my husband.”
“You don't get to take that back,” he muttered, then sank his mouth over hers. She opened wide for him, slanting her lips, twirling her tongue around his.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“I've been crazy for you from the first second I set sight on you.” His voice had coarsened, and the last of Eli's control evaporated.
They mated like wildcats.
He had her on her back in seconds, so greedy to imprint her taste on his lips, her scent in his nose, that his mouth and hands went everywhere all at once, fondling her breast, sucking damp kisses from the cusp of her shoulder, up her slender throat, over the line of her jaw.
Stephanie fought him for access, her small fingers crawling across his belly. His lungs caved when she dipped into his navel, and the anticipation smoldered when a thumb grazed the slit of his dick.
His eyes crossed as he tried to focus on one raspberry nipple before skating his tongue around the paler pink circle crowning the budded tip. The sweetness of her taste went straight to his groin, and his balls contracted.
“You're wet,” she murmured and licked his chest; then her hands cupped the head of his dick, and she circled up, slicking his precum, her finger outlining the sensitive ridge under the crown.
“So're you,” he muttered, thumbing her clit and sliding his middle finger inside. “So hot, so ready, honey.”
“Eli,” she crooned as she tipped his cock through her folds, knocking his t
humb sideways.
“Honey.” His eyes wouldn't focus; he slipped his finger out of her.
She groaned and positioned the head of his prick at her center, then wrapped her legs around his waist and ground down on him. “Oh yes, oh yes, Eli.”
Grasping her hips, he sank deeper, and she convulsed around him, her walls contracting and loosening, her hold growing hotter and tighter as he plunged and withdrew, receding to her rim, then sheathing his cock to her core. She grabbed his ass cheeks and squeezed and arched. He hit the precipice, and the orgasm tore through him as she climaxed; her pussy milked all the sperm from his dick.
Eli collapsed, his face crooking into her damp hair and neck. She smelled like heaven, all woman and musk and paradise sex. Opening one eye, he spied the fading shadow of the hickey he'd given her at the château; his lips quirked, and he licked the slight salt of her perspiration.
His brain matter slipped sideways, or so he figured, because he couldn't string two words together mentally. Realizing his weight bore down on her, Eli struggled to his forearms.
“Eli?”
“Honey?”
“I really do love you.”
“Remember what I said,” he mumbled. “You don't get to take it back.”
Epilogue
Eli and Stephanie arrived in Dreamcoast's boardroom forty minutes late, but the meeting hadn't come to order. Shane stood opposite the double-doored entrance to the room, sipping from a black porcelain mug. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee permeated the room.
To the right of a robo souped up version of a DeLonghi household coffee appliance, Iggie and Sam conversed in low tones.
Bill Harris walked in the direction of a sideboard laden with sandwiches, subs, and various juice and water bottles. “Everyone want to grab a seat? Get your sandwiches and drinks. This is going to be a working lunch. Iggie's interview was rescheduled for an hour from now, so we have to rush this.”
Ignatius Mason's perpetual tan had paled, the grooves lining either side of his mouth seemed to have deepened, and the bags under his eyes didn't bode well for the television interview in an hour.
Bill took the CEO chair; Shane and Iggie settled into the positions on either side of him. Eli took the seat adjacent to Shane after seating Stephanie in the chair next to his.
“We have the missing DVDs,” Iggie announced.
Eli covered Stephanie's hand with his.
“And thanks to Shane, Bill, and Amy, we managed to re-create the book trailer.”
“Amy?” Stephanie asked.
“Amy copied the trailer to show during the birthday party that the Make-A-Wish Foundation is holding for her niece at Disney as we speak,” Sam replied. “Needless to say, the company decided not to press charges, but a warning will go in her HR file.”
Stephanie shot Eli a surreptitious peek; he met her eyes, and his lips curved.
“The positive publicity we're getting from buying the rights to Cupid's Arrow is amazing,” Bill stated. He flashed Iggie a grin. “I suspect we'll have two blockbusters on our hands.”
“We're buying the rights to Cupid's Arrow?”
“My brilliant idea,” Eli stated. “We'll delay the launch a week and then use Valentine to feed into Cupid.”
Stephanie cuffed Eli's shoulder. “You never said a word.”
“The irony of it all,” Sam quipped. “Lisa and Asia planned to derail Valentine Voodoo to make Cupid's Arrow the runaway movie hit of the year. And they succeed, but not in a way either could ever have envisioned.”
“The banks seized the assets of Southern Adventures.” Iggie rubbed a thumb over his chin. “My guess is it will be a slow and agonizing death. There are too many receivership auctions these days.”
Sam twirled a slim Montblanc between two fingers. “Re our voodoo characters and Kendrick's cousin, our mysterious limo driver—we can't locate him though we've combed every square foot of Kendrick's neighborhood. As far as Kendrick's concerned, looks like he's going to be deported. And I'd bet my left nut that the stolen limo's on its way to some third-world country.”
“No word on who hired them?” Eli asked. “And for what purpose?”
“Asia's finance VP confirms that he hired the lot of them. You and Stephanie were supposed to overreact and call attention to the dolls. That was supposed to be the start of a whole bunch of negative publicity.” Sam stretched back in his chair, lacing his fingers over his chest.
“Instead, we burned them.” Eli brought Stephanie's hand to his lips. “What's happening with Lisa, Iggie?”
“I'm not pressing charges. She's still refusing to meet with me.” Iggie pushed to his feet. “Asia's cutting a deal with the FBI. He'll go to jail, but it won't be hard time.”
“Doesn't seem right, does it?” Stephanie asked. “He's ruined so many lives. Southern Adventures employed over five thousand people. What's going to happen to them now?”
“We'll hire some of their designers, if they're willing to relocate.” Iggie puffed out a long sigh.
Iggie and Bill then went through the outline of the planned merger, detailing how the combined company would work. The meeting ran over by five minutes, and the resulting rush to get to scheduled appointments blurred events for Stephanie.
Before she could blink, they were in the SUV on the way back to San Francisco.
“I only just realized it,” Stephanie exclaimed. “Today is Valentine's Day. Wow, this couldn't be better. What a story to tell our kids. And you'll never have an excuse for forgetting the day you proposed.”
“Had it all planned,” Eli said as he laced their fingers together.
She studied his features. “Did you really?”
“I knew I was going to ask you to marry me. When was kind of iffy.” He shot her that devilish smile she loved so much. “Until I met you, Stephanie Grant, the only woman in the world who could discombobulate me was my mom. It took me five months to ask you out, and then what do I do? Grab a quickie in my office.”
“You wanted to ask me out for five months?” The blood in her veins and arteries simmered; she turned in the seat to stare at the line of his jaw and grinned when she saw that his hair spiked and stuck out at odd angles.
“If I say it often enough, maybe you'll believe me eventually. You had me at hello, Stephanie Grant.”
“Eli?”
“Honey?”
“I've never been parking. You know the way all the high school students do.” She knew her face had turned seventeen shades of red. “There's that lookout spot that Bill told us about.”
The brakes squealed as the SUV slowed and edged into the side of the road.
“Parking will have to wait.” Eli hauled her into his lap. “We'll need to find a safe place.”
“Why'd you stop, then?”
“Needed to touch you. Hear you say those three words again.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
His gray eyes widened; then he framed her face with both hands and muttered, “You can't take it back,” before kissing the stuffing right out of her right there and then on a slice of California roadway in the shade of swaying pine trees.
Emotion raged in her chest; her heart battled her rib cage as happiness soared and crested. Desire and joy raced through Stephanie. Her scalp tingled; her skin heated, prickling the pads of her fingers, tightening her nipples, plucking at her sex. She tangled her fingers in his hair and felt the sweep of his tongue all the way to her curling toes.
Eli tasted of futures and sunrises, of morning coffee and wine at sunset, of cozy winter evenings, of brilliant beaches and cloudless blue skies, of fairy-tale endings, and Cupid's arrow and love and Valentines.
Loose Id(R) Titles by Jianne Carlo
A Paratrooper in a Pear Tree
Valentine Voodoo
White Wolf
The MEDITERRANEAN MAMBO Series
Manacled in Monaco
Notorious in Nice
Jianne Carlo
Jianne Carlo knows multi-cultural roman
ce. Born to an Indian father and a Hispanic mother intent on becoming a nun, she met and married her Dutch-bred immigrant husband in her last year at college. Their children check off the majority of the boxes under the category, Ethnic Origin.
Add to this the fact Jianne grew up on a sixty by forty Caribbean island where the population mixture represents the world's religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity (and some mixtures no one's dreamed up) and you have a multi-cultural woman who believes the word 'Mutt' represents the best of human nature.
For the factually inclined, Jianne has a Bachelor's Degree in English and Sociology, and a Master's in Management Science with three areas of concentration, Computers, Finance, and Statistics.
She's lived and worked in Canada (Ontario, Vancouver), the United States (San Francisco, various small cities in southern California, Miami, and Parkland) and the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Tortola) and South America (Guyana).
Her passions in life center around her proudest achievements, a happy marriage (measure of happiness varies with level of irritation), and three grown sons of the finest caliber she's proud to call friends, although they're never allowed to forget the mom factor.
Other areas of interest include, traveling, meeting new people, reading, dressage, all animals, cooking eclectic food, eating said food, and sipping good wine, while hanging out, ('liming' in Trini-speak) with friends. Jianne's proud to announce the only carbonated beverage she drinks is champagne. Who needs Coke?
And you never want to be in the same room if she picks up a dart and aims for the target. Run for your life. Her colleagues do. Her family hides such instruments.
