“Move away from me, Nick.” His scent penetrated her senses, rendering her wobbly kneed and excited. Spices from faraway islands intermingled with a sultry hint of myrrh. It all made her crazy. She closed her eyes and turned her face away from temptation.
“Shel.” He breathed her name like a big cat purring and brushed his chest against hers. “So, you want me bad enough to break into my place?”
Waves of shameless want rolled over her and her lips parted to let it spill free. A pulse in her tongue slowed her answer and she regained a modicum of dignity. “Your self-importance far overshadows your desirability.”
He shook his head and braced his hands on the wardrobe, framing her face. “What’s that? Should I pat you down or are we just going to jump right in the sack?”
“I took holy vows not to sleep with you again.”
He moved forward until his hips touched hers. “Come on now, Shel. I’m a nice guy. You’re a nice girl. We can discuss this.”
Time for her to leave before this hawk ate her for lunch. Time to stop the game and save herself some embarrassment. He made fun of her and she, being a weakling, would wind up giving in to anything he wanted before much more time passed. “There’s nothing to discuss except I need to use the bathroom.”
He looked at the ceiling for a split second before locking his gaze on hers. “Just as I suspected. You’re here to take something. Care to tell me what it is that made you sneak into my house.”
“Well, since we can’t agree on anything, I’ll use the bathroom and get my shoes.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“I said I have to use the bathroom.”
“Go ahead. I’ve heard you pee before.”
After a calculating glance, Nick stepped aside and she scurried into the marble and chrome bathroom. He tapped on the door before she had finished.
“Nick, I’ll be out in a second.”
“I’ll be in to help you if it takes any longer than that.”
Her hands were still wet when she pushed the door open and tried to rush by him. His wide hand caught her elbow and he ushered her into the living room and toward the door.
“I’ll just walk you to the door, Ms. Rand, since you have sticky fingers. I’d hate to lose my wallet.”
“Once again, Nick. You have nothing I want.”
“And you’re here uninvited, hiding in my apartment. You’re still pleading innocence?”
She found it useless to struggle against his vise grip on her arm. “Even you can’t blame me for avoiding you while I search for my things.”
He huffed with scorn. “Your things, again?”
She managed to free his key from the jangling ring in her hand. “Here. Take your key.”
He laughed aloud and shook his head. “No way in hell, lady. It’s going to be too much fun catching you in the act of plundering the place.”
Her face flushed with anger. “It will never happen again.”
“You can’t help yourself.”
“Okay. I’m leaving now.”
“I’ll open the door.”
“You’re too considerate.”
“And you’re too much.”
When her feet sank into the plush Chinese rug in his living room, Shelby dug her heels in. “My shoes.”
“What about your shoes?”
She eyed him with exasperation and jerked her arm against his controlling hand. “I left them in the bedroom.”
Nick maneuvered her across the living room floor and to the door, ignoring her gasp of indignation. “The door, Madame.” He pushed the brass handle down and the door swung open. “Goodbye.”
Her cry of outrage bounced off the walls of the hallway. “My shoes. Damn you, Nick.”
She stared at the solid barrier of mahogany until it re-opened and he passed her shoes out to her. His smile would have better suited a prowling lion.
“This could be an unending source of amusement. You won’t disappoint me now, will you?”
With as much majesty as she had left, Shelby stepped into her shoes and brushed at her hair.
“Nothing will ever get me back in that den of iniquity.”
“It has been on occasion, thanks to you.”
He gestured toward the elevator and she wanted to explode in his superior face. It sickened her, knowing she would always be crazy for the devil who knew every one of her favorite sins.
Chapter 4
The first of June arrived on clear skies and intense heat. Shelby wouldn’t let Nick see it, but he clearly wore her down with constant demands for re-measurements and re-counts of everything from paint to floor tiles. To hold up under his daily inspections, she took time each day to go back to her apartment for a quick shower and fresh clothing. The maddening routine sent her looking for places out of his line of vision where she could swallow aspirin.
Conditions worsened when he found out about the extra craftsmen she hired. He ran a background check on everyone having anything to do with his complex, quizzing her endlessly about the new hires.
The only thing he didn’t mention was her being in his apartment. She didn’t have to be reminded of her dumb trick or how much she regretted not tumbling into bed with him. Maybe she wouldn’t miss making love so much if she didn’t know how good it had been with Nick.
On more than one occasion, she considered spilling her guts to her father, but she knew he would be furious with Nick and the situation would only get more ugly. It remained her secret. When her father finally forced the issue and asked where Nick had been keeping himself, she had said he had business in Sedona, working on something new. His wry grin told her he didn’t buy her story, but Thomas Rand had never imposed on her privacy.
Shelby groaned softly and chewed the last bit of eraser from her pencil. Her gaze took in the mountainous heap of printouts on her desk. Every business associate had been crossed off her list as possible thieves. A pang of guilt hit her in the stomach. She had no associate that could ever be considered capable of such low dealings. She was guilt ridden for having questioned these decent men’s reputations. The answer wasn’t in her office. Maybe someone out in the field had heard something. Disgusted with herself, she shoved the printouts off her desk and into the wastebasket.
A snippet of murmured conversation wafting into her office from the reception area caught her attention. Shelby welcomed the diversion. Grabbing her cup, she went to the door and surveyed the scene unfolding at Kate’s desk.
A slow burn ignited in Shelby’s stomach, her displeasure riveted on the lanky man with razor sharp cheekbones leaning over Kate. Her normally sane secretary rummaged in her purse and pulled out several bills, which he yanked from his benefactor’s hand. Kate had always been an excellent secretary, but the woman a real wimp when it came to Mark Allworth, the man she handed her paycheck to.
Not wanting the pair to know she had witnessed what had transpired, Shelby walked straight to the coffee station and poured a cup. She heard the couple whispering, but didn’t turn around to look at them until Kate’s fiancé spoke to her.
“Morning, Ms. Rand.” He stuffed the bills Kate gave him into his pants pocket. “How’s tricks?”
“I wouldn’t know about that, Mark.” Shelby considered his words as offensive as the man himself. She stirred her coffee. “I see nothing has changed with you.”
He laughed a wheezing kind of laugh and patted Kate on top of her head as if she were a puppy. “Nope. I got me a real sweet deal going now. Won’t be long before Kate here can quit this job. You’ll have to do your own typing.”
Keeping the contempt from her voice took maximum effort, but she managed to speak civilly to the man she saw as a gutter rat. “I would hate to lose Kate, but while she works for me, that’s what I want her doing.”
A moment of tension brewed between Mark and Shelby. She locked her gaze on his face and refused to look away. His nostrils flared and his beady eyes narrowed. He didn’t like it when a woman stood up for herself and the glitter in his
small eyes sent a message to her. Hate. Pure and simple. Kate stirred beside her, gripping the arms of her chair, but Shelby didn’t break the stare down with Mark. He looked away when Kate ended the stony silence.
“Mark, you should leave.” Kate flushed red and motioned toward the door. “I have a ton of work to finish.”
“Okay, doll. I’m going.” He sauntered toward the door; hands jammed in his pants pockets, holding the excess material out to make them look like a pair of Dutch breeches on his skinny frame. He turned to leer at her. “I know when I’m not wanted. See you tonight, Kate. I’ll buy you dinner.”
“Sure,” Shelby grumbled under her breath. With her money. Kate’s talking penetrated her dark thoughts.
“He’s really a sweet guy.”
Shelby gave her a skeptical smile, but she listened to Kate’s pitiful description of the man.
“He’s having a rough time right now.” Kate fidgeted, fussing with a loose thread on her skirt.
Shelby sipped her coffee, enjoying the quiet time that seldom came in her office.
“Have you set a date yet?” She knew what to give Kate for a wedding gift. Money, a much better choice than a chrome toaster.
“Just as soon as his business gets off the ground. He had a bad start, but it’s going to get better.” Kate gripped her coffee mug, and averted her gaze.
“Business? I didn’t know he had started one. What’s his line of work?”
She didn’t hear Kate’s answer. The telephones sprang to life and the incessant ring and blinking switchboard took Kate back to her tasks. Back in her private office, Shelby sank into her comfortable chair and thumbed through the day planner. The phone rang and she punched the speaker button. The monotone voice of Nick’s personal secretary flowed over the line.
“Ms. Rand, I am calling to remind you of the interview scheduled for tomorrow morning at 6:00 A.M. at Channel Five.”
Shelby had not forgotten the appointment. The fact Nick’s super efficient girl Friday had been used to jog her memory infuriated her. He used outsiders to communicate with her.
After the call concluded, she walked calmly into her powder room and closed the door. With cold deliberation, she turned both faucets on full blast in the washbasin and flushed the toilet, then screamed to ease the growing rage that ate away at her stomach lining. Nicely recovered with the release of several teeth clenched choice curse words, she washed her hands and went back to her desk.
The idle indecision stopped and she began to lock up her personal files. “Okay.” She pushed a button on the intercom and leaned back in her chair. The soft affirmation of her idea accompanied by several new tasks she issued to Kate. “I’m going to be gone for the rest of the day, Kate. I don’t want to hear from or be found by anyone except the contractors. Is that clear?”
There followed a second of silence before Kate answered. “I understand, but Mister Gualdoni is on line two.”
“Let him wait until I’m out of the building. Then you can see what he wants.” Shelby had her keys in her hand and pretended not to see her secretary’s worried expression. “I’ll be in at the regular time tomorrow. After the interview.”
Twenty minutes later and several miles away from the churning of downtown, Shelby lay in luxurious state of bliss in her mud bath and herbal facial mask at her favorite spa and beauty salon. After the mud treatment, she had scheduled a little touch-up to the streaks in her hair. The stylist had promised a surprising change for her to enjoy. Somehow, those words hadn’t worried her.
Whatever she came out of the spa looking like was immaterial. Her desire to make Nick squirm quelled any fear she may have had. He would be the one wanting to scream at 6:00 A.M. tomorrow morning.
* * * *
Nick hadn’t gotten over the shock of holding a gun on Shelby or the cold terror he had put in her eyes. Damn. The woman made him nuts. And now, he worried about what her next move might be or how it would affect his sanity. Another scare like that and he would leave the Midwest a broken, old man.
At the moment, a new situation loomed in the form of an interview with a local television station. Public interest crap. Worse, it had to be a dual interview shared with Shelby. His shoulders bunched in dread of the half hour they would be in the same room with witnesses.
Maybe she wouldn’t show up. Sure, just like India ink didn’t show up on a white shirt. She’d be there if for no other reason than to make him regret his insensitive treatment of her. He still had visions of her staring at him in wide-eyed fascination while he held the Colt. Christ. His suspicions would be proven true and she would probably make him look like either a brute or a fool.
Knowing all that, he would keep the appointment. It meant publicity and a chance to promote the desirability of his complex of luxury apartments and prima shopping. Lord. The damned thing couldn’t be finished fast enough to suit him.
He yawned and steered his car into the television station’s parking lot. Damn. Only 5:45 in the morning and he was sweating the ferocious battle of emotions Shelby always set off in his gut.
If he had any luck, she wouldn’t show and he could get the hell out of town for a long weekend with a couple of buddies for some serious fishing in Colorado.
His sixth-sense kicked in the moment he walked inside the television station. The hair above his collar bristled. She must be near. The air super charged with her presence and he could smell her. That soft sensuous scent, like a wild spring storm.
“Mr. Gualdoni.”
The woman striding in his direction didn’t seem to notice the pre-dawn and smiled at him with her porcelain caps and collagen lips. How the hell could she do that to herself? He grinned when she gripped his hand and pumped with amazing strength. He read off her nametag.
“Ms. Tangier.”
She looked him over without coy lash fluttering. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Your photos don’t do you justice.”
He heard it in her voice and saw it in her heavily coaled gray eyes, an invitation. Of course he was randy as a goat or he wouldn’t have noticed. He yanked himself back to the moment when he realized Ms. Tangier had him under hard scrutiny.
A party-like commotion down the hall drew Nick’s attention to where a vision in a crimson suit strode toward him. The expression on Shelby’s face reminded him of a queen on her morning walkabout for the commoners. Hell fire, what a looker. His groan ached for release, but remained deep and silent, borne of his feeling of inadequacy, at his inability to rise above his physical desires.
He started from his musing when Ms. Tangier grabbed his arm and tugged him toward a set of doublewide glass doors. The melodic symphony of female laughter followed after him and his possessive escort. He turned his head to look back at the lovely scene of women being soft and just being women. She must have felt his hot stare and turned to look his way.
Shelby shook her healthy mane of pale blonde hair over her shoulder and gave him a gaze of challenge. She looked like a fine, sleek young lioness, bent on a romp and he could feel the sting of his ears being swatted. It had begun. Whatever she had planned was about to unfold and he would be her victim. What the hell? He looked forward to being mauled by Shelby.
After a brief session of being stuffed into a makeup chair meant for a much smaller man, Nick, eager to get on with the damned interview, caught the sleepy-eyed makeup girl’s arm to avoid a plop of powder being applied to his face.
“But, Mr. Gualdoni, your face will shine.”
“Let it.” He smiled at her. “I’ll go natural.”
He followed her to the set where the interview would be taped and found Shelby already seated and being amused by the camera crew that played court jester to her majesty. The two buffoons fussed with her mike and the lights while she smiled indulgently at their fumbling.
Bracing himself against the urge to kick the asses of both jerks hovering over her, Nick slipped into the chair next to Shelby. What had she done to herself? She looked totally relaxed and obviously
getting plenty of refreshing sleep.
He could be wrong, but her breasts looked several inches higher and her waist a hand span smaller. The pale pink glow of her skin grabbed his attention. He wanted to lick the soft skin beneath her ear and gnaw on her sweet neck. He drew in a ragged breath and laughed at his reaction to her.
He was saved the discomfort of asking Shelby how she intended to chop him up by a brisk bit of direction.
“Mr. Gualdoni, would you not lean so near Ms. Rand? You’re throwing a shadow.”
Nick rubbed his jaw and shielded his grin. “Wouldn’t want that.” He leaned back and sat with his legs in a comfortable spread. He gave thought to crossing them after he noticed Ms. Tangier looking at him with a smile and licking her lips before her gaze dove to the front of his pants again. He had to know. With little pretense of doing something else, he lay his hand on his crotch to reassure himself his fly wasn’t open. He caught Shelby’s sidelong glare and grinned.
Like he figured she would, Shelby smiled over her insult. “You don’t have to advertise. I believe she knows where it is.”
Nick prodded her anger further with his knowing grin. “The least I can do. How about you?”
“How about you don’t speak to me again? And by the way, don’t ever try to converse with me through that ramrod secretary of yours.”
She whispered, yet the words ping-ponged around the set with bull horn clarity. He brushed her shoulder with his and murmured near her ear.
“Jesus, what a grouch.”
They ended their hushed conversation and sat back in their chairs, leaning away from each other.
The hostess settled into the chair behind a small glass topped desk and put on a smile that Nick swore would rival a chipmunk’s. He had enough time to thank God for man-sized furniture and solid wood before the director hissed from somewhere in the shadows.
“Three, two, one and we’re taping.”
On it droned and he wondered if this son-of-a-bitch interview had an end.
Hot For Nick Page 4
