by Sun Chara
Cade sidestepped her blow, every sinew in his body taut, a mocking tilt to his mouth. “So, you can wear something else besides the sack.”
Her short shorts showed off her tanned legs, the roundness of her tush. He blinked…was that a belly button ring glinting from beneath the crop top barely covering her breasts, rising and falling with her agitation? When had she pierced her navel, and who’d done the job? Who was she dressing up for? Like heck it wasn’t him.
“What were you doing at the village plaza?” he snarled.
She shrugged, and that infuriated him more.
“A secret assignation with the bartender?” The words crackled white-hot between his clamped teeth.
“No!”
“Why were you exchanging money?”
“None of your business,” she spat, and turned her back on him.
“Wanna bet?” He spun her around and seized her shoulders.
She made to kick him.
He stepped beyond her reach and cocked a brow. “Nice sandals too.” Then he jammed her hard against his chest, her heartbeat knocking his askance, her breath whizzing from her mouth teasingly.
It stoked the inferno inside him, and he lowered his head, crushing her mouth with his. She wiggled in his grasp, but as he deepened the kiss, she became pliant in his arms, kissing him back. Every muscle corded his torso, and he gathered her closer into the curve of his arm, his hand sliding around her midriff, his fingers dallying at the trinket on her navel, then higher, barely brushing her breasts on his way to cup her cheek.
Her intake of breath, a confirmation she wasn’t immune to his touch … or to him.
He nipped her bottom lip, signaling he wanted entrance into her mouth. Bunching her hair in his hands, he held her head in place and readied for the sensual onslaught. She purred, a sexy sound, and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him access. He licked…nibbled her lips, then slipped his tongue inside, tasting, stroking, waltzing with hers…a mating ritual… heaven.
Hell.
Taunts bombarded his brain, and he fought against the near combustion of their heat. Every pore in his body oozed sweat, and he could feel the dampness beneath her own clothes, her scent an erotic catalyst to his senses. He gripped her shoulders, his mouth fused with hers, still reluctant to pull away.
A knock on the door, and he blinked awake from the fantasy in his arms.
“One hour, Mr. Sloan.” The security guard called from behind the closed partition.
Cade grunted his response, and with every fiber in his body resisting, he pulled away from her, his pulse booming at his temples, blood rushing to his male counterparts. He drew in a heavy breath and it fizzled between his gridlocked teeth. Battling the betraying thoughts, he stroked her cheek and cupped her chin in his palm, his thumb brushing her half-parted mouth.
“Cade?” she whispered, her eyes dark with passion.
Or was that deception?
When he didn’t answer right away, she let her arms slide from his neck, and stepped back…a wobble of a step. “Is something wrong?”
He arched a brow. “You tell me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She straightened her shoulders, standing strong, but fluttered her lashes, not quite meeting his eyes.
And that had a growl building inside him. What was she hiding?
The woman was a chameleon and he had to unveil the real Nina Sloan before it was too late for her…him…them.
He pulled an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket and hurled it at her feet, the contents spilling on the floor.
She blanched, and barely glanced at the photos, her hand fluttering to her throat, her eyes wide with alarm. “Why did you do this?” She raised her head, her glare bouncing off the icy sheen in his eyes. “Have me followed, have me restricted, have me—” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed the rest of her words.
“Who is he?” He trapped the photo of her with a man, his face hidden in the shade of a trellis of grapevines, beneath his boot. He wouldn’t fall for her innocent deception, her ploys, her—
In a ruthless motion, he cemented his thoughts midstream, all but one. Everything pointed to her—the one who brought him down, now living under his roof. Nina Sloan. His insides blistered, then iced over at the possibility.
Nina, who moments ago sizzled with him in an erotic waltz of the senses. The image had every muscle in his body tensing, his pulse pumping at speed, her betrayal detonating his sphere.
“No one.” She shook her head, and if it were possible, seemed to become a shade paler.
He seized her wrist and hauled her up against him, so close he could see the blue of her irises darken. Bitter taste scoured his tongue. “Answer the question.”
“No.”
He shuttered his eyes, his mouth a grim line. “No?”
She shoved him back and twisted away, rubbing her wrist.
He let her go, and regret rippled through him at the imprint of his fingers on her flesh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hold on to you so hard.”
Heck, he wanted to do more than hold onto her. He wanted to feel, touch, taste her—even now at the prospect she might be linked to the crackpot who’d stolen from him, he wanted her—wanted to—
He crushed the temptation by the power of his will, but his pulse pounded like a steel hammer. War raged between his heart and his mind … common sense. But there was no peace in sight until he knew the facts, the total truth about her.
Nina and the man in the photo.
She backed away and collapsed onto the bed, eyeing him with suspicion.
Cade nearly laughed out loud. She was the one under suspicion not him.
“If you won’t talk now, you will certainly do so later.”
“A threat, Cade?” She sprang to her feet, her body language a challenge.
“No threats, Nina.” He curled his lip in derision. “Truth.”
He allowed his gaze to drift over her; from her ponytail to her sandal encased feet, and then bounced back up, pausing at her cleavage. Her intake of breath was razor sharp in the confines of the room. He lifted his sights a tad higher, and smacked into her accusing eyes. But he persisted; each word an ice pellet shooting from his mouth.
“What were you doing at the kafeneon?”
She blew a stray hair off her face. “Having coffee.” She nipped her bottom lip with her teeth.
His abs turned iron-hard. Her taste still lingered on his tongue, her perfume clinging to his shirt; his reaction to her sexually was nearing explosive levels. A muscle battered his jaw. He lowered his lids a fraction, studying her for any cue that his suspicions were unwarranted.
“You exchanged money.”
She eyed him back, her voice overly sweet. “I paid for it.”
“Nina…” Her name like sandpaper on his tongue abraded the air, the warning tone unmistakable.
“I had coffee, I paid for it,” she snapped. “What do you want me to say, Cade?”
“The truth.” He collided with the blue fire in her gaze.
“The truth?” Nina murmured almost to herself, then chuckled. “I went shopping.”
“For?”
A smile curved her mouth, but didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Why, for our dinner date, what else?”
“What else indeed.” He rubbed his nape. This woman drove him to the brink. But he’d get the truth out of her one way or the other. “Well then, you’d better get dressed.”
She kicked off her sandals and paused, her hand on the snap fastening of her shorts. “Are you going to watch?”
“Thirty minutes max,” he growled, and stalked out.
CHAPTER SIX
“How ever did you land him, darling?” The woman raised her pencil-thin eyebrows and twisted her scarlet mouth in disdain. “Certainly not with your fashion sense.”
Nina gave the gossiper a coquettish smile. “By saying no.”
If she was going to play the role at this gala opening the famed Wine Festival, then she might as well
go for an Academy Award. She placed her hands beneath her breasts as if adjusting her bra, squirmed in her too tight leather mini, trailed her fingers over her hip and downward, and adjusted the top of her thigh-high boot.
The woman and her cronies gawked, the men ogled, Nina winked and reached for a flute of champagne from the waiter passing by. Cade stood several yards from her deep in conversation with his uncle and, she was sure, not missing a thing.
Soon after they’d arrived, he made the quick intros and left her to the devices of the gossip squad. Every female eye had tracked him crossing the room, before turning a critical eye on her. His potent sexuality and devil-may-care attitude didn’t go unnoticed by the female set.
And the scowl he now tossed her way didn’t detract from it.
He’d glowered at her ever since he walked back to the shack from the barn, dressed in evening attire. Compared to him, she looked like a high-class call girl strutting the hotel foyer—exactly what she aimed for.
He’d nearly gone ballistic.
“No…oh no.” He’d given her the once over, swept up several outfits strewn on the bed by the hearth and tossed them to her. “Get into something else or—”
“Sure, Cade,” she murmured, an impish edge to her words. “Will this do?” She held up a skimpier outfit than the one she wore, then scooped up another, dangling it in front of him. “How about this one?”
His dark look seemed to settle in the grooves of his face. “Find something more decent or I’ll find it for you.” His words crackled, his eyes zeroing on the plunging neckline outlining her bosom. He squinted at the gold chain circling her throat, most of it hidden beneath the back of her dress. “Your necklace seems to have snagged—”
“No.” She tottered back a step on her stiletto-heeled boots and slammed her hand at the risqué neckline. The last thing she needed was for him to discover she kept her wedding ring, even if only on a chain around her neck.
He took a menacing step closer. “I’ll help—” A snap of his fingers. “Ring.” His hawkish gaze glued on her left hand. “Where—”
The sound of the chopper landing smothered his words. Disgruntled at the intrusion, he pivoted, and the momentum fluttered his hair, revealing the gold loop at his earlobe. The proud tilt of his head was so uniquely his and so masculine it had her heart thudding.
The man was too darn attractive, oozing a sexual magnetism that could snare her emotionally and physically if she wasn’t on guard.
“I-I have something that might do.” She sucked in a breath, and the wardrobe samples slipped from her fingers, pooling on the floor.
“Gotta go.” He cast her a censuring look, grabbed her wrist and dragged her with him out to the chopper. “Behave yourself.”
Raucous laughter pierced her thoughts, and Nina blinked at the woman who’d flung her the burning question. Sensing monster-size envy from her and her circle, she followed their line of vision back to…Cade.
Cade dressed in black trousers and matching evening jacket with his half-open white shirt offsetting the humid night, stood head and shoulders above the other men. A modern swashbuckling pirate, and she could imagine the fantasies zipping through the female faction, because she had her own x-rated fantasies about the man she married. A sigh struggled from deep within her. And that’s what they had to remain. Fantasies.
At that moment, the Bouzouki band in the main salon struck up another melody, and the crowd applauded the folk dancers. “Opa! Bravo!”
Nina smiled. The party was in full swing. Waiters scurried in and out of the open glass doors, the aroma of lamb roasting on the outdoor rotisseries filled the air and made her mouth water. In the hotel foyer, a champagne waterfall cascaded over ice crystals, misting orchids floating upon the golden pool and charging the ambiance to full throttle.
A couple whirled their way onto the terrace to dance beneath the star-studded sky, spotlighted by the crescent moon hanging low on the horizon. In the distance, Limassol Harbor glittered and a sea breeze sailed in like a lover’s caress.
Nina gulped down a sigh. It’d be so easy to cast her cares to the wind and fall in with the romantic fervor. So easy to yield to him. But if she did, she’d be lost; her heart, her career and her chances of extricating her father from those who ruined him.
The champagne bubbles fizzed, and she stared deep into her glass, her shoulders drooping at the monumental task ahead. But she had no recourse. She’d come too close to turn back now. She’d have to return to the village kafeneo; but how to do it with Cade and his honchos watching her every move?
She lowered her lashes, keeping Cade point-blank center of her narrowed focus. He bent his head to listen to his uncle’s query, and then tightened his fingers around the glass of ouzo, a traditional anise flavored liqueur. Deep lines etched his face. He tossed the drink back in one gulp, and slammed the glass on a sideboard beneath a mirror on the wall. He turned and clashed with her gaze, his eyes glittering with fury.
She flicked a strand of hair off her shoulder, the motion making her earrings jangle, and purposely batted her eyelashes.
Of course that infuriated him more.
Oblivious to the undertow between Cade and herself, the women at the party munched on bourekia—fried dough canapés stuffed with cheese or meat, and swallowed wine like it was water. They jostled her along, their laughter a shrill sound across the crowded room.
Toying with the stem of her glass, Nina glanced about for an escape route and stepped toward the patio. At the same moment, someone touched her arm, and she twisted around. Fear darted through her, but at his reassuring nod, she flashed him a smile and fell into his arms.
Cade frowned, and barely caught the last of his uncle’s words.
“…caught the culprit?”
“Closing in.”
“Perhaps I can help?”
“I don’t need your kind of help.” Cade shot him a lethal look and refastened his sights on Nina. But in that split second shift, he’d glimpsed both regret and censure in his uncle’s eyes that hurled him back ten years to their explosive confrontation in the Sloan and Sloan boardroom. Cade flexed his shoulder blades, and refused to dwell in the past, preferring to stand grounded in the present.
“Hardheaded as ever,” his uncle muttered, then grinned, following his line of vision.
Cade ignored the bait, and watched the stranger waltz Nina out to the terrace. A battering ram struck center of his solar plexus, and he tautened every muscle in his body to offset the unwelcome reaction. Nina, his wife, his—he nearly gagged, but managed to siphon a gallon of oxygen into his lungs—dancing away with this man—his suspect.
“My, these Greeks do enjoy life…kefi, they call it.” His uncle tossed back his drink, placed the tumbler on a passing waiter’s tray and reached for another.
“Yeah.” Cade straightened the cuffs of his jacket sleeves and made to stride past him. “If you’ll excuse me, uncle.”
A feather-light touch on his forearm halted him.
“Come, introduce me to your lovely bride.” A woman in her fifties looped her arm with his uncle’s, her words almost a query.
Cade barely glanced at her, but he caught the wobble in her voice.
A memory nicked his thoughts. He was unable to grasp it, and it dissolved, leaving in its wake a gaping hole. Instinctively, he knew some day he’d have to find out what caused it, but it wouldn’t be today.
“Some other time,” he said, his words gruff. A shard of ice poked his chest. Shaking his head at the unexpected jab, he strode onto the terrace and at the sight of Nina, the ice melted.
She was alone.
Relief blasted through him, then a myriad of other feelings. Not wanting to plow through the reason his heart thudded like a sledgehammer on steel girders, he pushed them aside. She was leaning against the banister, staring out to sea, and he wanted to wrap his arms around her; toss her over his shoulder and march to his lair, to keep her close, feeling her against him, to—
Caveman tact
ics would not work here, Cade.
A raw sound burst from him, and he stepped nearer.
She spun around and practically choking the champagne flute between her fingers, made to sidestep him.
“Running away already?” he challenged.
She laughed, a brittle sound. “Hardly, with your hounds on the prowl.”
He didn’t pretend not to understand what she referred to. “Just ensuring my asset stays intact…er…stays put.” He tempered his words with a grin, but his unyielding tone didn’t go amiss.
“I did not break the deal.” Once more, she made to push past him but he stepped up at the same moment so her breasts bumped his chest.
She drew in a sharp breath.
He expelled his in force.
“You did,” she accused.
He lifted a brow in query.
“Don’t play the innocent,” Nina fired, attacking the enemy. “I heard you on the phone the day of our wedding.”
He shook his head. “That was over a year ago.”
“Let me refresh your memory.” Her mouth felt dry and her pulse raced. But she didn’t care. She was out to let rip what she’d been holding in for far too long. She licked her lips.
His brows knitted, and a cyclone brewed in his eyes.
Danger crackled in the air.
“Then it’s true,” he baited, his hips touching hers.
“What?” The word a breath of sound, the ocean breeze a balm to her tattered nerves.
She’d sensed him the moment he stepped up behind her; the subtle scent of his cologne a trigger to her emotions. Prickles erupted on her spine and spread all over her body. Her stomach did funny things, her lungs ached for oxygen and her palms dampened. A droplet slid between her breasts, seeping into her bra. She wanted to both lean back into his powerful frame and run from him.
“That women don’t forget a thing.”
“You’re the expert.”
He cocked his head to the side.
“Your mug was plastered on the front page of practically every New York magazine with your latest conquest.”
“Media’s out to sell copy. Scandal sells.” He grazed his cheek with the back of his hand. “Don’t believe everything you read.”
