On the Verge of I Do

by Heidi Betts

  When was the last time she’d had quick, sweaty sex? she suddenly wondered. Or any sex at all.

  It had been a while, to say the least.

  Let’s see… She’d dated Bradley pretty seriously back in college, and they’d experimented with each other in ways that could still make her blush. At the time, she’d believed they would get married and live happily ever after. Too bad Bradley had had other ideas—along with every cheerleader on the pep squad.

  It had taken her a while to get over Bradley’s betrayal, so for a few years, celibacy had been the name of the game. Then she’d met Christian.

  She’d had no delusions that Christian was the man of her dreams, but he’d been funny, good-looking and knew how to show her a good time. The sex had been decent, and she’d enjoyed it, knowing everything about Christian was temporary with a capital T.

  And that was it—her two claims to sexual adventure. The last of which had ended some time ago.

  Meanwhile, Eli’s last relationship had ended only a handful of days ago.

  With her sister. Her sister, her sister, her sister. She really needed to remember that.

  “I only see one bed,” she pointed out, holding his coffee-brown gaze even as she wanted to look away and take a cautionary step backward. “Where, exactly, am I supposed to sleep?”

  Lifting a hand, he brushed his fingers over her cheek and into her hair, tucking a loose strand behind one ear. “You worry too much, darlin’. Now stop frettin’ so we can enjoy our weekend and get a little work done.”

  Oh, it was so simple for him. Obviously, he didn’t have an entire race of tiny alien creatures tap-dancing on his nerve endings the way she did.

  She opened her mouth to argue, but a chime sounded near the elevator. Dropping his hand, Eli moved around her and went to deal with it.

  After he pressed a button on the panel beside the elevator, the doors whooshed open to reveal the same bellhop who’d taken their luggage standing behind a cloth-draped room service cart.

  “Mr. Houghton,” he greeted Eli with a respectful nod.

  Eli inclined his head in return, waving an arm to welcome the young man into the suite. He pushed the cart to the center of the sitting room, smiling at Kara as he passed.

  “Would you like me to open the champagne for you, sir?”

  “No, thank you, Julio. I can handle it.”

  With that, the young man moved back to the elevator. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” he asked.

  “Not right now, thank you.”

  “Enjoy your stay, sir,” Julio said before stepping into the elevator and disappearing from sight.

  Eli lifted the champagne bottle from the ice bucket and wrapped it in a pristine white cloth napkin.

  The cork fell from the champagne bottle with a small pop, and he picked up one of the crystal flutes and began to pour.

  With both flutes now filled with the bubbly, he held one of them out to her. Kara stayed rooted in place for a moment, feeling as torn as Eve must have been when tempted by the serpent.

  Oh, she could spot a neatly baited trap when she saw one. Come closer, my dear. I won’t bite.

  She’d heard that before, hadn’t she? And from Eli’s very own soft, seductive lips. Never mind the wolf’s razor-sharp teeth glittering in full view.

  And yet she found herself moving forward, feet dragging even as she reached for the champagne he was offering. She lifted the glass only to have him stop her before she could take a drink.

  “Ah-ah-ah. Don’t forget the best part.”

  Taking a strawberry from the bowl sitting on the room service cart, he brought the ripe, red fruit to her lips. She hesitated for a second, desire battling her better judgment…until desire won out.

  Opening her mouth, she allowed him to slip the tip of the strawberry inside, then bit down, letting the tart juices coat her tongue and drip down her throat. She was having trouble chewing, though, and when Eli put the same berry to his own lips, taking an even larger, more succulent bite…well, swallowing became all but impossible.

  Of course, he didn’t seem to be having nearly the same difficulties. He chewed his strawberry with gusto and just before swallowing, took a drink of the champagne, never taking his eyes from her face.

  Because she wasn’t sure how long she could keep the bite of berry between her teeth without choking to death—especially considering how tight her lungs were growing—she, too, began to chew.

  “Now take a sip,” he murmured, putting two fingers to the base of her glass and tipping it toward her mouth.

  She did as he encouraged, just barely managing to get it down. Not because there was anything wrong with it; on the contrary, both the berry and the bubbly were exquisite.

  But being this close to Eli, almost intimately close, in his own personal suite of rooms had her dangerously on edge. Her whole body was tense, vibrating with expectation. Though in expectation of what, she wasn’t certain.

  As soon as she’d swallowed, Eli was there again, holding another ripe, luscious strawberry up to her mouth, tempting her to give up. To give in.

  And, oh, how tempting it was.

  But she couldn’t let her heart run away with her good sense. Pursing her lips, she shook her head, refusing to let him ply her with any more intoxicating food or wine until she knew exactly where she stood with him.

  “What is this, Eli?” she blurted out the minute he lowered his hand, strawberry and all. “You asked me here on business, but this feels like something else. It feels,” she said in a much softer voice, “like a seduction.”

  He lifted one broad shoulder. “Maybe it is,” he said in a casual tone. “But then, who says we can’t mix a little pleasure with our business?”

  Seven

  Eli hadn’t intended to admit the more wily part of his plan so soon…or at all, frankly…but when Kara asked him point-blank what he was up to, he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.

  In retrospect, perhaps the champagne and strawberries hadn’t been the best way to open the weekend. They were a bit obvious.

  Then again, he was relieved to have the truth of the matter out in the open. He would have felt like a heel if he managed to lure her into bed, only to be forced later to admit that had been his goal all along.

  So there it was. His cards were on the table, and now she knew that he had something more in mind for the weekend than simply talking event planning.

  How she would react to that admission, however, was yet to be seen. And he knew there were some tall hurdles to jump when it came to making Kara feel comfortable about engaging in an illicit affair with him so soon after his engagement to her sister had ended.

  Because she looked like a deer caught in the crosshairs of a hunting rifle, Eli made a quick adjustment to his plans. Returning his champagne and the uneaten strawberry to the room service cart, he took her glass and did the same, then grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the elevator.

  “Where are we going?” she asked after he’d pressed the button.

  “You’ll see.”

  A moment later, the doors slid open, and he pulled her inside, pressing the button for the lobby. He continued to steer her as they stepped out and crossed the wide-open space. The same two young ladies who had been behind the reception desk when they arrived were still there, and he offered them a polite, if distracted, tip of his head.

  Moving across the lobby and down a long, carpeted hallway, he led Kara to the main ballroom where the majority of their large-scale events were held. It was empty at the moment, literally empty of everything but thick carpeting, a centrally located faux wooden dance floor, and an immovable dais along the far wall.

  A row of French doors ran the entire length of the room, opening onto a wide verandah that overlooked the ocean. Several yards away, at the end of a grassy, peninsula-shaped bit of land surrounded by a rocky ledge sat a large white gazebo where many a wedding ceremony had taken place.

  “So this is our largest, most booked, a
nd most coveted area for events,” he told her, letting her enter ahead of him. “People enjoy the view and the breeze coming in off the ocean, and both the gazebo and verandah as a backdrop for pictures.”

  “This is lovely,” she said, beginning to wander around, taking in the details from all different angles.

  She no longer seemed distracted by the incident in his suite.

  “It’s perfect for weddings.”

  “We get a lot of those,” he agreed. As well as bookings for the honeymoons that came after.

  She moved to the French doors, standing in place for several long minutes. And while Kara studied the landscape, Eli studied her.

  She was stunningly beautiful, even turned away from him. Her auburn hair fell around her shoulders in soft, gently curling waves. The lightweight blouse and skirt she was wearing accentuated her feminine curves, from shoulders kept finishing-school-straight to the indent of her waist and back over the flare of her hips. She had great legs, too, whether she was wearing heels or flat sandals like now.

  Why did things have to be so damn complicated? he wondered with a silent curse.

  He wanted to sidle up to her, stroke the hair away from her neck and kiss the long line of her throat. Spin her around and kiss her senseless. Toss her over his shoulder and carry her back up to his suite, heedless of who might see them.

  From there, he wanted to do all manner of wicked, delicious things that would make her forget he’d been engaged to her sister…forget that their being together could be qualified as forbidden…forget everything but the feel of his lips on hers, his naked length pressed to hers, his body moving inside of hers.

  The very thought turned him semi-hard and had him shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

  But then, he’d always been of the mind that anything worth having was worth working for. If being with Kara were easy, he might not be as interested in her as he was.

  Sighing under his breath, he started forward, prepared to open one of the sets of French doors and escort her outside, show her around a portion of the grounds before leading her back to some of the smaller rooms used for lesser events. Only steps from reaching her, he was stopped in his tracks by his name being cried from the opposite doorway.

  “Eli!”

  He and Kara both turned to see Diane Montgomery swishing her hips as she rushed toward him. Standing on tiptoe, she hugged him a bit too tight, kissed his cheek a bit too close to his mouth.

  Long ago, when the plans for Ocean Breezes were first being set in motion, he and Diane had been involved in a short-lived affair. Considering their history, hiring her as the resort’s on-site event coordinator probably hadn’t been the wisest idea, even if her résumé showed her to be more than qualified for the position.

  At the time, she’d been unemployed and somewhat desperate, and she’d done a decent job up to now, even if she did get a little possessive with him and behaved with too much familiarity on occasion.

  Bringing Kara in for her professional input on making Ocean Breezes a premiere event location was sure to cause a few bad feelings and a slightly bruised ego for Diane. He only hoped she wouldn’t make a scene or do anything to scare off an already skittish Kara.

  “The girls at the front desk told me you were here, but I didn’t believe them. If you’d let me know you were coming, I could have made sure things were ready for you.”

  “Everything is fine,” he said without intonation, returning her greeting with much less enthusiasm.

  Pulling Kara up beside him and keeping her close, Eli introduced the two women. “Kara, this is Diane Montgomery. She’s been in charge of events here at the resort since shortly after we opened. Diane, this is Kara Kincaid.”

  He chose his words carefully, not yet wanting Diane to suspect that Kara might be her replacement, or to imply that she wasn’t doing an acceptable job. He also didn’t want Kara to know he’d been involved with Diane, even if the relationship was very much past tense.

  Kara held her hand out. “Pleased to meet you.”

  Diane took her hand and gave it a quick shake, but whether Kara noticed it or not, Eli saw the other woman giving her a thorough up-and-down examination. He could almost see the wheels in her head turning, wondering who, exactly, Kara was, what she was doing there and what she meant to Eli.

  He certainly wasn’t going to enlighten her. Not here, not now…maybe not ever, since who he chose to spend time with was none of her business.

  “I was just giving Kara the grand tour,” he said. “But I will need to speak to you while I’m here.”

  Apparently picking up on his all-business tone of voice, Diane glanced at him, then Kara, and back again. The corners of her mouth turned down in a slight frown as she took a step away from them.

  “Fine. I’ll talk to you later, then.”

  She turned on her heel and stalked from the ballroom.

  “Does she know I’m here to consult on her position?” Kara asked as soon as the other woman was out of sight.

  “No,” Eli answered simply. Taking her elbow, he led her through one of the unlocked French doors onto the wide verandah.

  “I’ll tell her when the time comes, if need be. But until you’ve given me your opinion of the operation here, and how we can improve, I don’t see the point in borrowing trouble.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Thank you,” he said with a grin, slipping his hand down her arm to link their fingers.

  He expected her to pull away, to show the same uneasiness she had back in his suite when he first brought up the idea of turning business into pleasure. Instead, she not only let him twine his hand with hers, but gave him a gentle squeeze in return.

  It surprised him how much that small gesture warmed him. Gave him hope that he would be successful in his plan of seduction, after all.

  He took her out to the gazebo, which was designed with giant American Beauty roses climbing in a deep blush pink all around the railing and up the posts toward the circular, sloped roof. They didn’t go inside, but stood closer to the rocky ledge that overlooked the ocean. A hundred yards below, waves crashed against the shore, sending a salt-tinged breeze up to stir Kara’s hair and plaster their clothes to their bodies.

  Though the view was breathtaking, Eli didn’t normally spend a lot of time on this side of the resort. He didn’t like the strong, sometimes violent wind whipping at him, blowing in his face and hair and making it difficult to keep his eyes open.

  But experiencing it with Kara suddenly made him see it from a different perspective. Despite the number of weddings they hosted, he’d never considered Ocean Breezes particularly romantic before.

  Maybe because he hadn’t been paying close enough attention. Or hadn’t been standing in the right place, looking out over the churning sea with the right person.

  Kara made him feel romantic. She made him want to order strawberries and champagne, not just because he thought it was a wisely calculated move on his path of seduction, but because she deserved strawberries and champagne, and he wanted to spoil her.

  He wanted to take long walks on the beach with her, when the idea of sand in his shoes had never appealed before. He wanted to gaze at her across a candlelit dinner table while they spent three hours paying more attention to one another than their meals.

  At that very moment, though, more than anything else, he wanted to reach out and brush the hair away from her face, tip her head back and kiss her.

  So he did.

  Giving in to temptation, he speared the fingers of his free hand into the hair at her temple, smoothing it back behind her ear, then away from the side of her throat. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to the pulse pounding there. Quickly, erratically. At the same rate his own pulse was pounding in his ears…and lower.

  When she didn’t pull away, he moved his mouth farther down, to her collar bone, letting his tongue dart out to skim the sharp jut of that sexy protrusion. Then back up, continuing to push her hair out of the way ahead of hi
m so that he could kiss around to her nape, along her shoulder, down toward her shoulder blade.

  “Eli.”

  Her voice came to him in a whisper, one he barely heard over the crashing of the waves below and his own arousal thrumming in his ears.

  “Eli,” she said again with a reluctant moan.

  “Hmm?” he replied without pausing in his exploration of skin that tasted of flowers and honey.

  “What are you doing?” she asked on a hush of exhaled breath.

  “Kissing you,” he murmured against her skin, “what do you think?”

  “Why?”

  That nearly made him chuckle. It did make him grin.

  “Because ever since the kiss we shared in your foyer, I haven’t been able to think of a damn thing other than kissing you again,” he told her, trailing his mouth over every speck of skin he could reach.

  “Because I couldn’t resist a minute longer.” He nipped the lobe of her ear and traced the line of her jaw.

  “Because kissing you is the only thing I can get away with out here without scandalizing guests and starting the rumor mill running at full throttle.”

  Grasping her chin, he turned her face the last inch to meet his and finally kissed her the way he truly wanted to. His mouth covered hers, grazing her lips, teasing with his tongue until she opened beneath him.

  His fingers tunneled into her hair to hold her in place while the kiss deepened. At the same time, he took half a step closer, pressing them together from chest to knee.

  A moan rumbled up his throat at the feel of her breasts flattened against him, her legs brushing his, her belly and the apex of her thighs molding to his growing erection through the double layers of her skirt and his trousers. Slipping one hand from the knot of her hair to the small of her back, he tugged her tighter, letting her feel just how much he wanted her. Right here and now, if she would agree…and if they weren’t bound to have an audience within a matter of minutes.

  Realizing just how true that could be and that they might very well be attracting an audience already, he forced himself to lighten his grip, lighten the pressure of his lips on hers and begin to pull away.