Frustration screamed in his brain, and hot need pulsed in his gut.
What was he going to do?
* * *
Ana could feel Ethan’s scrutiny searing her spine as she walked away. Don’t look back. Her heart pounded from seeing him and the way she’d mangled that conversation. What was wrong with her, just blurting things out like that? She’d thought she’d been prepared to see him. But when all six feet five inches of him stepped off that elevator, it had been a punch straight to her heart. She’d missed him so much.
But she meant what she’d told Ethan, she’d grown up. She’d been out of line that night by trying to naively pull her friend into a relationship he didn’t want.
Yet Ana had kissed him.
That humiliation still stung. And the way they parted—him walking out in anger and disgust was an ache that wouldn’t quite heal. What if they could do it over? Recapture some of their friendship and all of that sizzling attraction? But this time Ana wouldn’t push for a lasting romantic relationship. Instead, Ana and Ethan would both walk away with good memories. All she had to do was convince Ethan that she truly was ready to be bad while on vacation. But she’d handled that reunion with him almost as terribly as she’d handled that last night in San Diego. Clumsy and coming on too strong.
Franci approached her as soon as she got a few feet from the hallway. “Did you talk to him?”
“Yep.” She’d rarely seen Ethan so shocked. Or maybe he’d just been struggling with how to turn her down.
“Well? Did you guys make plans? The band is on a break after tomorrow’s show and staying in Florida for a week. It says so on their website.”
“Stalker,” she teased. Both Franci and Chelle had gone to a lot of trouble for tonight. Planning this trip to coincide with Ethan’s schedule, buying the tickets and securing the passes to this afterparty. Their plot was a bit insane, but their hearts were in the right place.
“Hijacker. We had the perfect plan to help you. But no, you stole it.”
Amused, she said, “I’m a hijacker?”
Franci nodded, her brown eyes full of alcohol-fueled sincerity. “You illegally seized control of our plan, which is hijacking. And you stole the keys to the rental car out of my purse. So you hijacked the plan and stole my keys.”
Unable to help it, she tilted her head and said, “Are you sure I didn’t illegally seize control of the rental vehicle, thereby hijacking it too?”
Franci chewed her lip. “The argument could be made… Hey. You’re distracting me.”
“’Cause I’m beautiful?” She was probably going to hell for toying with her somewhat inebriated friend. It was only fair since Ana had assumed the role of designated driver by swiping the car keys. Everyone knew the DD got teasing privileges.
“Funny. Our plan would have worked if you weren’t a control freak who had to butt in and take over.”
Ana laughed, even if there was an uncomfortable grain of truth in that statement. “Or maybe I came up with a better plan of being honest.”
Franci raised her eyebrows. “Okay, so you took over. How’d that work out for you?”
Ana forced a brilliant smile. “Great. He’s going to call me.” Maybe. Okay probably not. Heading for the bar, she added, “Come on, let’s have some fun.” She’d tried, and Ethan would either call or he wouldn’t. Either way, she’d handle it and be fine.
Franci joined her, ordered a vodka and cranberry, and then shot her a smug look. “Bet you’re regretting your hijacking ways now. If you’d stuck to the plan, I’d be the DD.”
Ana ordered an orange soda. “I’ll be glad when I don’t have a hangover tomorrow.”
While they waited for their drinks, she watched as Ethan returned and took up the same post at the end of the bar she’d seen him at earlier. He stood with his legs spread, arms crossed and giving off an alert-and-ready-for-any-trouble vibe. She couldn’t tear her attention from him. In eleven months, she’d never tried to contact him—not even in her most terrified moments. Oh she’d thought about it, and in a strange way that comforted her. Telling herself that if she truly needed him, he would come.
She wouldn’t ever have called though. It was only a fantasy to get her through the nights of worrying.
Now she just wanted a chance to break out and, well, be bad. Safely. For so long, she’d done everything right, struggled to be perfect.
Would Ethan be interested? Could he see her as more than that college girl he’d known?
His gaze slid to hers, and her stomach flipped at the sheer intensity.
“Do you know Ethan?”
The voice startled her. Ana forced herself to turn to a woman with long blond hair flowing around her sculpted face and memorable brown eyes. “You look familiar… Oh! You’re Chef Siena Draco.” Ana loved her show on the Food Network.
“Guilty. I noticed you talking to Ethan earlier. So you know him?”
It seemed odd that anyone paid attention. Curious, she said, “He’s an old friend. Do you know him?” What if they were lovers? She hadn’t asked Ethan if he was involved with someone. The thought hurt way more than it should.
“Yep, we met at one of my restaurants.”
“Wow.” A celebrity chef was familiar with Ethan?
“Ana!” Chelle caught her arm, her blue eyes dancing with excitement. “Come meet the band. I just talked to them, they’re awesome. I told them you know Ethan, and they want to hear all about it.”
Siena laughed. “Apparently, I’m not the only nosey one.”
As she was swept away, Ana looked back at Ethan.
He was watching them, his mouth flat. She could almost feel the heat of his gaze sizzle over her skin. Possessive. Her stomach fluttered again. Was it just his old protectiveness? Or was the attraction still there between them?
Would he call her?
* * *
It’d been an hour since Ana’s bombshell proposition that left Ethan buzzing with conflict and struggling to stay focused on his job. And lust, but that wasn’t a surprise. He’d been attracted to her since the first time he’d seen her.
It was that good-girl thing.
And tonight? She’d just upped that to girl good wants to be bad. With him.
Seeing his boss striding toward him, he asked, “What’s up?”
“Everything’s quiet. A few people getting shitfaced, but no trouble. Go take a break before the band leaves. I’ll cover your post.”
Hank was a stickler for security getting a chance to stretch their legs, grab something to eat and let down their hypervigilance for a few minutes. Normally Ethan would snag a water and go outside.
But tonight, he had another goal and headed straight for the woman dominating his thoughts. Weaving through people clawing for the band’s attention, he wrapped his hand around Ana’s arm. “I’m on break, can we talk?”
She turned, her eyes wide. “Uh, sure.”
He led Ana across the room to a high table tucked in a corner by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Holding her chair, he tried to ignore the enticing way her dress slid up her thigh. Why did he remember exactly what her skin felt like, and her shivers as he kissed her, his fingers trailing higher on her leg? The way she’d gotten demanding, needy, triggering a fierce urge to give her everything she wanted.
“You can say whatever you wanted to tell me,” Ana said. “If you’re not interested in seeing me, I’ll accept that.”
He clenched his jaw at the uncertainty swimming in her brown eyes. What had it cost her to come here tonight, face him and make the proposition of a no-strings-attached fling?
“I think about that kiss,” he admitted.
Her mouth parted, and her tongue darted out to touch the tip to her plump bottom lip. “You do?”
“Yes. And I think about you.” He ran a hand over his head. Did she have to look so damned beautiful and sleek? By most standards, Ana was cute, with her heart-shaped face and tiny stature. But to him, she was gorgeous and untouchable. “But the reality is, I’
m still bad for you.”
Her chin notched up. “Bad is what I’m searching for right now. Short-term bad.”
Heat blazed over his skin at the idea of Ana, his sweet girl, wanting to be bad. “Why?”
“I’m tired of being good, of always trying so hard, and worrying that I’m falling short. I’m ready for some fun, but I don’t…” She looked away.
She’d been honest with him right up until now, so why was this hard? Or did she fear him rejecting and hurting her again? Catching her chin, he turned her face to see her expression. “Don’t what?”
Her eyes shimmered with a need that nearly undid him. “I can’t seem to find the guy I want to be bad with. Except for you.”
Hell. He stroked his thumb along her cheek. “Ana. You don’t even know what you do to me.” He’d struggled every damned day they’d spent together battling their growing attraction. Now she was offering herself to him, with no strings and no guilt. How could he resist that?
Tugging his hand away, he searched for a distraction before his control could snap and he kissed her.
Not here. Not now.
He focused on her empty glass. “Can I get you something from the bar?” That would give him a minute to get his head on right.
She wrinkled her nose. “Nope. I’m DD tonight, so just sticking to orange soda or water, and I’ve had my fill of both.” Shifting her attention on a point past him, she waved at a group. “They keep toasting me with their shots.”
He followed her gesture to see Franci and Chelle laughing around Lynx, River and their entourage of the usual party chicks. They raised their glasses of whatever they were chasing the shots with, and made kissing faces at him and Ana.
“How did you end up DD, and why are they taunting you if it lets them have fun?” The Ana he remembered didn’t drink much, especially for a college-aged girl, but he was curious.
“I foiled one of their insane plots.” She shrugged. “This is their payback. But we’ll see who’s laughing in the morning. I’m so setting my phone to blast music at six a.m.”
A chuckle rumbled up his chest at her gleeful voice. “I’ll have one of the limos drive you back to the resort if you want a drink.”
Surprise registered on her face. “You can do that? What about our rental car?”
“We have extra limos on hand tonight, it’s not a big deal.” He’d check, but if it wasn’t being used, his boss Hank and the guys in the band wouldn’t care. There were perks to the job. “I’ll drive your rental to the manor where we’re staying and bring it to you at the resort tomorrow.” Ethan usually rode in the limo with the guys, but someone else could do it tonight.
“All the way to St. Pete’s? It’s a half hour to forty minutes from here.”
Ethan leaned his arm on the table, enjoying being this close to her. “It’ll give us a chance to catch up with each other. And talk about you wanting to be bad. With me.”
“You’re interested?”
He couldn’t lie to himself or her. “I walked away once, and it only made me hungrier for you. But there’s no future, Ana, not for you and me. That will never change.”
“I know.”
Her simple acceptance nagged at him. Why did she want this? Fast and hard sex and nothing more? For him, it was all he knew. But Ana…shouldn’t she look for a real relationship? He started to ask her if everything was okay, but stopped himself. Once she’d have trusted him enough to tell him if something more was going on.
But now? After he’d left so abruptly that night, and then hadn’t talked to her in nearly a year?
Yeah, time to ease up and give them both a little space. Instead he asked, “Want that drink now?”
“I think… Oh hell.” Ana shoved off the high barstool.
Ethan shot up, automatically on alert. “What?” But he instantly saw the problem. Franci and Chelle were stripping off their tops.
Ana rushed over, pushing through the people gathering around. “Hey! Stop it!” She grabbed Franci’s shirt, which was tangled around her neck, and forced it back down.
Ethan quickly caught the edges of Chelle’s opened shirt and began rebuttoning it.
“No. We’re shashing clothes.”
He squinted, trying to make out the slurred words. “What?”
Furious, Chelle twisted in his hold, damn near ripping her shirt. “Ex-shash-ing.”
It took him a second to work it out “Exchanging? Like trading clothes?”
“Yes! What I said.”
“No,” Ana said. “You can’t exchange clothes with Franci.”
“But we have a plan.” Chelle stuck her bottom lip out.
Ana glared at him. “Don’t you dare laugh.”
“Too late.” He couldn’t help it. He saw this shit all the time. Ordinarily it was annoying, but Franci and Chelle weren’t doing the usual dancing naked, swimming naked, trying to get screwed naked, or his least favorite, the dramatic female meltdown or temper tantrum. These two were original—they wanted to change outfits. Ana’s friends were funny drunk or sober.
“Need a hand?” Hank asked Ethan, while two more security guards urged people away from the scene.
“I’m sorry,” Ana said. “We’ll leave. I didn’t realize they’d had so much to drink.”
Ethan stopped laughing at Ana’s obvious distress. “Hey, no one’s mad. They didn’t hurt anything.”
She nodded. “I’ll get them back to the resort. Thanks for helping.”
He caught her arm. “Take a limo. You can’t handle them both while driving the car, and the driver can help you get them in the room.” Chances were good the girls were going to pass out in the limo at some point.
Gratefulness filled her eyes. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
Hank cut in. “It’s perfectly okay, and Ethan’s right. It’s better you’re not trying to drive and handle double trouble here.” A smile twitched the man’s mouth. “And don’t look so distressed. These two were having fun. I’ve been watching them since they began doing shots. They had some plan for a fashion show…” He gave in and laughed.
Ana flushed again. “Thank you, uh…”
“Hank.”
She straightened, obviously regaining her poise. “Hank. I’m Ana, and I appreciate your understanding.”
He smiled at her, then said, “Ethan, help Ana get her friends packed up and on the road. Use Barb’s limo. She can manage any problems.”
“Limo!” Franci shouted.
Ethan nodded at his boss. “Got it.” Together, he and Ana herded the girls down to the car. After coaxing them inside, he took Ana’s arm. It was early morning, around one a.m., and the moonlight cascaded over her. “Text me when you’re safely in the room and the details to bring the car back tomorrow.”
“We’ll be fine tonight, but I’ll text you.”
God he wanted to pull her against him and kiss her. But he was still on the job, and past experience warned him that a kiss with her could get out of control in seconds. “Ana.”
“What?”
“Let me take you to lunch tomorrow. We’ll talk and catch up, then if it’s really what you want, we can move on to discussing the ways you can be bad.”
Her eyes glinted with something. Curiosity? Mischief? “We can eat at the resort.” She leaned toward him when noise from inside the car cut into the moment.
Franci and Chelle pressed their lips to the window, making exaggerated kissing gestures. Ana sighed. “It’s going to be a long drive. They apparently aren’t too drunk to remember Operation Kiss 2.0.”
“Say what?” She’d lost him with that comment.
Ana caught his expression and laughed. “That’s the name for their insane plot I mentioned earlier. They got the tickets to the concert and party, then planned to sneak off and leave me here so you’d have to take me back to the resort.”
“They’d do that?” The idea of Ana stranded infuriated him. “That’s dangerous as hell.”
“They were going to tell you on their way o
ut they had an emergency and ask you to get me back to the resort. They thought if we spent time together, we’d recreate the kiss of our last night together in San Diego.”
She couldn’t be serious. “The one where I walked out on you?” Ana and her friends teased each other, made hysterical bets with one another, but they’d rip apart anyone who dared to hurt one of them.
Ana’s face flushed. “They don’t know that part. I told them it was a hot kiss but we both decided the timing wasn’t right since you were leaving.”
“Why?” He didn’t get it.
“Because they would have tried to find a way to get revenge on you if they thought you’d hurt me. This was simpler, better. Except now the tour will be over in a month and they assume you’re coming back to San Diego.”
Ethan glanced over at the two drunks now licking the window in a distorted parody of French kissing. Her meaning sank in. “Oh shit. They’re matchmaking.”
Ana nodded. “Yep. But it’s fine. If we do have a fling, I’ll tell them it just fizzled out. And if we don’t, I’ll tell them the chemistry died. See? Easy.” Banging on the window had her sighing again. “I’d better get them back to the hotel.”
Pulling open the door, he held it while she shooed Franci and Chelle back and climbed in. Ethan closed it and stepped aside as the limo slid away.
Why did he think letting her go a second time was going to be anything but easy?
Chapter 3
“You guys going to be okay?” Ana snagged a bottle of Gatorade from the fridge in the kitchenette of their fourth-floor suite. The sun streamed in through the opened slider, along with the sound of the beach just steps away.
“Are you laughing?” Franci demanded. Both of them were sprawled on the couch, dressed in shorts and T-shirts, still looking pale with dark circles under their eyes.
“Not since six a.m.” Ana held up her hand. “Swear.”
“Bitch,” Chelle snarled. “That was evil.”
She poured the drink into two glasses. “It was funny as hell.” She really had set her cellphone for one of Savaged Illusions hard rock songs. It blared out at the stroke of six. The girls had begged her to make it stop. “I can show you, I videoed it.” She handed each of them a glass of the sports drink.
Savaged Surrender: A Novella Page 3
