For a second she stopped and pulled back a fraction, staring into his eyes.
“The best part?”
“When your eyes flutter shut as you sink into the kiss.”
She struggled to stop the bubble of laughter welling up in her chest, but nothing could contain it. She giggled in his face.
“Flutter shut? You’ve been watching way too many movies.”
…
Josh didn’t bother arguing with her. He’d gotten her precisely where he wanted—relaxed and off guard enough to not expect his next move. The seduction plan was going way better than he expected. He swiftly leaned in and captured her mouth with his. At first her lips were rigid against his, but her eyes widened and her mouth yielded beneath his, turning soft.
She could deny it all she wanted, but there was chemistry between them. It fizzed and sparked right beneath the surface. She tasted of spicy pizza with the sweet edge of wine still on her lips. Caroline made a soft, appreciative sound deep in her throat. Had she been a cat she might have been purring. He’d fantasized about kissing Caroline plenty of times—planned out such an encounter to the last nth of his imagination—but never actually been in a position where such a thing was possible. Kissing Caroline was better than any fantasy. The warmth of her, the scent of her, was as intoxicating as any alcohol, giving him a buzz that set him off-balance and made his blood rush fast and hard.
He checked that her eyes had not fluttered shut. They were half lidded and sexy as hell. If his erection got any harder he was going to need to seek medical help.
She placed a hand on his cheek and broke the kiss, staring deeply into his eyes. “You’re overanalyzing it, Josh. If you aren’t totally in the moment when you kiss a girl, she’ll know it.”
He pulled back, his breath ragged. “I was in the moment. Trust me.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to ease the throbbing pressure in his dick, and glad the countertop hid the very obvious tent in his pants.
“Girls can tell. You were trying to figure out where to put your hands, worrying about if you were doing it right. You weren’t in the moment. Next time you kiss a girl, know ahead of time where your hands will be. How you want her to react. What the kiss is for.”
“What do you mean, what the kiss is for? Isn’t a kiss just a kiss?” He’d actually kissed quite a few women, but nothing that had made him feel like he did now. She ticked off the options on her fingers. “Are you trying to get her attention, or make your mark? Do you want her to kiss you back or are you just teasing her?”
He sat back. “You plan this out?”
She shrugged and hopped down off the barstool. “For some people it comes naturally, but for others it doesn’t. In your case, you need a plan so you aren’t analyzing the kiss in the middle of it.”
He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Does that mean you’re going to practice with me some more until I get it right?”
Caroline shook her head as she walked toward the door. “Not tonight. Likely, not ever.” She opened the door. “Good night, Josh.”
He watched her leave without even saying good-bye. Josh found himself thinking about how easy it was to talk to her. Kiss her. It felt…natural. No matter what she said, or how hard she analyzed it, and it wasn’t something he’d encountered before. He sensed she wasn’t as neutral as she led him to believe, because while her mouth was saying one thing, her body was communicating another. It sure felt like it had when he’d kissed her. His desire to have her in his arms, in his bed, was escalating. He needed to work her out of his system, but maybe that plan would prove to be harder than he thought…
…
Across the hall Caroline belly-flopped onto the bed in her hotel room, grabbed one of the overstuffed pillows, and screamed her frustration into it. How had she let him get the best of her? Why hadn’t she picked up on the cues of what he was going to do and avoided it?
Because you wanted him to kiss you. Just to see what he had going for him.
Perhaps.
Maybe.
Well. Yes. But only to gauge a starting point.
How would she tell him what to practice on if she had no idea where the starting line was for him? At least that’s what she said to convince herself.
The bigger problem was that Josh was a good kisser, better than she’d anticipated. Sure, he’d gotten nervous because she’d begun to respond to him, which was out of character for her. But he’d taken command of the moment with such confidence at the beginning that her annoyance and shock had quickly melted into a heat that worried her far more.
She enjoyed the kiss, began to crave more than just a kiss, which meant she’d veered way off course. This was about revenge, about saving Connor, wasn’t it? She bit her lip. Now she wasn’t so sure.
Caroline rolled over, clasping the pillow to her torso and stared at the ceiling.
“What am I going to do?”
Tomorrow she was going to put her game face on and pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
…
They arrived at the staging area near the dunes at 9:00 a.m. to meet the rental company. Caroline had already arranged for both their safety cards and the gear.
All around the square blacktop of the parking area, the Oregon dunes arced into rolling tan hills shaped smooth by the wind. It was like looking at the landscape on Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine except that he could see the wide expanse of blue of the ocean in a clear, sharp line just over the horizon. Along the eastern edge of the dunes and in some of the deeper swells were islands of dark green fir trees. Not something seen on Tatooine.
The person from the rental shop gave them some basic instruction. Josh was only half listening. He was too entranced by the way the salt-laden wind whipped the dark strands of Caroline’s hair around her face and neck.
At the end of the session she glanced at him. “You ready?”
“Where are we riding to?”
She held her helmet between her hands. “To the ocean. Keep to the rounded side of the dunes where the wind blows. The other side is usually a steep drop-off. Follow me.”
“You’ve done this before?”
She smiled. “When I was younger my family used to vacation here and ride.”
“The colonel let you and Connor ride on these things?”
“No. My mom’s brother, my Uncle Tony, took us riding.”
She twisted her shiny chestnut hair into a thick bundle at the nape of her neck and pulled her helmet on. All he could see of her face was her sparkling green eyes, dark lashes, and the bridge of her nose, and even those disappeared behind her mirrored goggles the minute she slid them into place. Josh followed her example and started up his ATV and pulled his helmet on. He was surprised at how tightly it fit around his face. Perhaps this is what the helmet of a rebel fighter pilot in an X-wing felt like, but he didn’t have time to ponder it too long. She revved the engine and kicked her ATV into gear, spraying up a rooster tail of sand behind her.
His pulse rose a notch. He’d always seen her as too polished and sophisticated to get on a machine and get dirty like this. Caroline was full of surprises. Josh smiled to himself, threw his machine into gear, and roared off after her. The ATV slid over the sand, the big black paddle tires giving him enough traction to speed up the steep slope of the dune where Caroline had disappeared ahead of him.
She waited down below in the sandy bowl created by the dunes. A strip of deeply rutted road led into the tall pale green wisps of sea grass that bordered their riding areas. She motioned to him to follow her, then headed toward the road.
Caroline stood up on her foot pegs, her legs bent at the knees, giving him a very impressive view of her ass. She seemed to float over the ruts, her machine dipping and rising with the road, while she stayed stationary above it, letting her knees and elbows flex to absorb the violent movements. Josh tried to sit on his ATV and found his teeth jarred after the first few ruts. Maybe standing on the pegs wasn’t such a bad idea. He copied her
movements and found the ride a lot smoother, allowing him to speed up until he was riding side by side with her.
He glanced over at her. He couldn’t see her smile behind the helmet and goggles, but he could feel it. She gave him a thumbs-up. Josh pushed the ATV harder, the engine revving, then kicked it into fifth gear and shot ahead of her. He had no idea where he was going, and for once it didn’t matter. A loose, easy warmth filled his limbs and the wind tore at his clothes. Much to his surprise he realized he had a huge grin plastered on his own face.
So this is what having fun purely for fun’s sake felt like.
…
Josh was catching on fast, but Caroline was not about to be outdone by a client, especially on her home turf.
He zoomed ahead of her, reckless in his speed. The ruts evened out on the road, making it easier for him to gain an even greater advantage. A set of switchback turns caused him to ride up high on the edge of the road, nearly flipping his ATV out of sheer gravity. She held her breath as her chest squeezed tight with a rush of fear. Perhaps she should have given him a little more preparation before getting him on the ATV. They could easily roll over on you if you didn’t pay attention. For a second once they cleared the switchbacks, he turned his head over his shoulder and glanced back at her, then climbed the dune that rose up before the flat stretch of beach where land met sea.
He slowed at the crest, waiting long enough for her to gain the bottom of the dune before he went up and over the top of it, disappearing from sight. She should have known he’d have a competitive streak, even in something as physical as this.
Caroline roared up the dune and down the other side. Josh raced along the flat stretch of hard, wet sand compacted by the surf, stretching his lead. She did her best to catch up to him. While certain stretches were open to motorized vehicles on the Oregon coast, not everything was a free-for-all. She needed to stop him before he hit the markers that indicated protected beach.
She tucked herself down tight against the quad and slammed through the gears as fast as she could manage, ramping up her speed to over sixty miles an hour. The wind, spiked with salt spray and sand, stung her exposed cheeks and roared loud enough around her helmet that she couldn’t hear anything, not even the pounding of the surf on her right. She swerved to avoid the edge of the salt water as the waves lapped up higher. The tide was coming in.
Josh’s form grew larger the closer she got. She caught up to him only because he’d stopped his quad and pulled off his helmet and goggles, and was staring at the ocean. She pulled up beside him and cut her engine. Her hands were slightly numb from the vibration of her machine.
He grinned at her, a self-satisfied smirk that said he knew he’d surprised her. “Nice of you to join me.”
Caroline pulled off her helmet and tucked it beneath her arm, then shook out her hair. Damp tendrils stuck to her neck and forehead. “You know for a smart person, you can be really dumb.” The instant the words were out she bit her lip, tasting the salt from the sea air. It wasn’t something she would have normally said. In fact, she shouldn’t have said it at all. Criticizing a client when it wasn’t helpful didn’t help the client-consultant relationship any.
His dark brows drew together. “And how do you figure that?”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it can be to speed around those switchbacks like that? You could have flipped your quad. You could have been hurt!”
He spread his arms out wide and glanced down. “And yet here I am still in one piece,” he said calmly.
That only irritated her more. “You can’t take risks like that.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a knowing smile. “Ah, but see, that’s the difference between you and me. I take risks all the time. It’s all in knowing if the risk is worth it.”
She pinned him with a glare. “Worth it? What could you possibly gain by beating me to the beach?”
“A little respect.”
Caroline snorted. “Is that what you think you did?” She flung her helmet onto the seat of her quad and stomped toward him until they were chest to chest and she was looking up into his face. “What you did was scare the hell out of me.” She thumped him in the chest with her index finger for emphasis.
His mouth lifted into a sexy grin. “So you were worried about me?”
“Well, yeah! How is it going to look if you get killed out here?” She lifted her hand and drew an invisible line in the air as she spoke. “I can just see the headlines now: Image Consultant Kills Client.”
“Aren’t you just being a tad bit dramatic?”
Her gaze locked on his. He thought this was one big joke. Caroline snapped her lips shut and froze as those words seeped into her veins. That was what the colonel had said whenever she showed too much emotion or he felt she was getting out of hand. He’d said it to shut her up. He’d said it to belittle her behavior. But Josh was not her father.
She reined herself in, taking in a deep breath through her nose and out her mouth. “Just think about it. Getting out of hand isn’t going to serve you or anyone else well if it happens out in public. This isn’t about changing your image. It’s about changing how people perceive you. They already know you’re a risk-taker because you’re a wildly successful entrepreneur, but that doesn’t mean it comes with respect.”
Josh put up a hand. “I got it, I got it. But wasn’t this all about having fun? And I was having fun…”
She shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, but—”
“You have to understand there’s a competitive streak in me a mile wide.”
Yeah. She’d noticed. Hadn’t he always been willing to sacrifice other people, her, Connor, whoever else got in his way to achieve his objectives? He was a man of business first and foremost. And to get where he had you had to be competitive. She stuffed the spurt of bitter feelings down and nodded at him.
“Being competitive is how I blow off steam,” he said.
She sighed. “I can work with that, but you’ve got to be willing to follow my lead.”
Caroline shifted her weight to her other foot.
“Beautiful view.”
“What?”
Josh gestured at the waves—a pale greenish-blue that merged into frothy white foam then washed ashore, darkening the sand to a deep caramel color. She’d been so focused on catching up with him that she’d hardly noticed. He stepped a little closer to her, his shoulder brushing hers. Body heat rolled off him. A shimmer of awareness raced through her veins.
Caroline ruthlessly suppressed it. The fact that Josh looked more charming and roguish than he did yesterday was a lot of determined effort on her and the stylists’ part. But she had more work to do. At least he was having fun, and that was the goal of this outing. But she had much further to go before he could fall from grace before the eyes of millions and she could discover where he was keeping the building plans for Aeon’s first complex.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, even if it is at my expense,” she said.
“You’re doing a great job.”
She glanced at him, noting the mischievous spark in his blue eyes, now easily visible without the glasses in the way. “As long as you know the dangers out here, and avoid them, you can do almost anything you want. Just keep in mind your machine isn’t as stable as you think, especially when the incline gets high on those steeper dunes. It could roll right over you.”
He nodded. “You know fun isn’t supposed to be stable, right?”
She retrieved her helmet from the seat of her quad. “Perhaps in your world. You just watch yourself out there, Joshua Martin. It’s fine to have fun, but I’m not having a perfectly good client maul himself on my watch.”
He laughed. “Race you to the top of that dune.” He pointed to the tallest dune they could see from their vantage point.
She knew she shouldn’t bait him, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “You’re on.” She pulled her helmet and goggles into place, then straddled her quad and started it, pulling it around
so she was facing in the direction back where they’d come. She revved the engine menacingly.
Josh’s smile lit up his face. He got his gear on and started up his machine, maneuvering it until it was side-by-side with her ATV.
“On the count of three. Ready?” she shouted over the roar of the machines.
He nodded.
“One…two…three—” She’d barely gotten the entire syllable out before he’d popped his quad into gear and taken off like a shot across the sand.
The roar of Josh’s machine grew louder and she heard the momentary rev of his engine as he kicked into top gear a second before he blew past her. Sand kicked up by his machine scoured her cheeks. Behind her goggles, Caroline narrowed her eyes and her hand closed tight around the throttle, pushing the ATV as hard as it could go. She came up level with him, and they were racing side by side. But he didn’t know the bends in the road she’d long ago memorized.
She positioned herself on the inside of the turn, and the second they came out of it pulled slightly ahead of him. But she miscalculated the shifting dunes that had encroached on the road since she’d been there last. Her right front tire rose up, tilting her quad at a dangerous angle. She leaned into the tilt, trying to balance out the weight of the quad, but it weighed far more than she did. The instant she knew the machine was going to roll, she jumped off in the opposite direction of the roll.
Her teeth slammed together as her shoulder and hip took the brunt of her hit into the hard-packed sand, which had the same amount of give as concrete. For a second she couldn’t breathe. Then came the flash of white-hot pain and the throbbing.
She groaned and rolled to her back, staring up at the clear blue of the sky. A second later Josh’s face came into view.
Chapter Six
“Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
The panic in Josh’s voice came through loud and clear as he knelt beside her. He was surprised his voice worked at all given that his heart was firmly lodged in his throat.
Caroline weakly waved a hand at him. “I’ll be fine, just give me a minute to lie here.”
The Geek Billionaire Makeover Page 6
