by Linda Wisdom
Zach had known he was going to kiss Ginna. He’d known that since dinner as he listened to her instruct him in the fine art of being romantic. He’d sat there watching the varied expressions cross her face as she spoke and the animation that lit up her eyes.
He couldn’t remember ever before meeting a woman who was so self-assured and comfortable with herself. One of the few times he’d dated, he spent time with a woman who obsessed over every bite of food, worried about drafts when they attended a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. But what killed the date for him was her open disdain for some children who were attending the concert with their parents. When he took her home, she bluntly asked him when they could get together again. That was when he told her he had four-year-old twins. The woman didn’t bother saying good-night and he wasn’t invited in for a cup of coffee.
He didn’t think that would happen with Ginna. She came from a large loving family and had her share of nieces and nephews. And he felt guilty not telling her about the kids right away. He was proud of them. Loved them dearly.
If he thought she was perfect before, kissing her sealed the deal. She was more than he could have imagined.
Her mouth was soft and inviting. Her skin like warm silk under his touch.
He traced the seam of her lips with his tongue, silently asking admission, which was instantly granted. Her tongue wasn’t shy as she entered into the play, daring him to follow. A dare he was very happy to accept.
She draped herself around him the way a piece of silk caresses the body. If she was a perfect fit for a kiss, what would she be like if there was more? What if he lay her down on the sand and they—
He stopped his line of thinking.
They may be alone now, but there was no guarantee someone wouldn’t come along.
“Lady, you pack quite a wallop,” he said once he could catch his breath.
She tipped her head back, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. “Thank you,” she said huskily. She swayed in his direction.
Just as he feared, he could hear voices on the wind.
“I think we’re going to have company soon.” He took several deep breaths, but all he seemed to smell was her perfume. It wasn’t helping his peace of mind at all.
Ginna moved to his side and slid her arm around his waist. “Then I guess this would be as good a time as any to go back.” Her hip bumped gently against his.
The sexual tension between them heightened with every step. When they were alone in the elevator, Zach took advantage and stole a kiss.
Their steps slowed as they walked down the hallway to her room. When they reached her door, Ginna turned to face him. He planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, effectively trapping her against the wall. His head dipped and he kissed her again.
“I’m going to be a gentleman and not ask to come in,” Zach murmured against her mouth.
Her eyes were hazy with desire. But it was her lips he noticed that were curving upward.
“And what if I invite you in?” she said in a throaty whisper.
He already felt the mental kick to his backside. A kick he’d have physically done to himself if it were possible.
“As much as I’d like to accept, I’d have to be a gentleman and regretfully decline.” His mouth slid along the curve of her cheek until it reached her ear. His tongue toyed with her gold hoop earring. “Or at least take a rain check.”
“Damn.” Her curse came out on a soft breath. “And here I was going to lure you inside and drive you insane with passion.”
“I like your plan.” He was too engrossed in exploring her ear. He kept his hands planted firmly on either side of her shoulders, because he knew if he touched her elsewhere, he’d never leave. And he should. He wanted to prove to her, and to himself, this was more than just mindless lust. But he knew if he didn’t get out of there soon, he’d never leave. “I’m still trying to be a gentleman here. How about tomorrow?”
She pulled back as far as she could, the desire in her eyes starting to dissipate.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we are going too fast,” she said, sensing the truth in his words. “I think it might be better if I did something by myself tomorrow. Then we could get together the next day.”
Zach felt the blow. “Twenty-four hours?”
She reached up and kissed him lightly. “More like thirty-six hours. You’re proving too addictive, Mr. Stone,” she murmured. “I need to catch my breath and I’m already finding out I can’t do it when I’m with you. I’ll meet you for breakfast the day after tomorrow.”
“How about a drink two minutes after midnight? Or if you want to stick with breakfast, we have it at dawn?”
“Dawn? I don’t think so. You’re not dealing with a morning person here,” she explained. “The best I can give you is seven-thirty.”
“Seven-thirty, day after tomorrow. If I have to wait that long, I may as well have something that will hold me that long.” He pulled her back into his arms, and this time he didn’t hold back. He demanded everything of her.
Ginna moaned softly as she melted in his embrace. By the time they parted, they were both breathing heavily.
“Go now.” She pushed him away from her.
“A day away from you isn’t going to make any difference,” he warned her.
“It will if you happen to meet someone else who rings your chimes,” she said.
Zach reached out and traced the lush contours of her lips with his fingertip. “You ring my chimes just fine, sweetheart. I’ll see you at breakfast, day after tomorrow.”
As he walked back to the elevator, he realized that he was already counting down the hours until he saw her again.
It couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter Four
“What in the world can he talk to her about? She has to be all of twelve.”
Ginna stretched out on the lounge chair set out on the sand. She had the headphones to her CD player covering her ears, her sunglasses perched on her nose and her hat shading her face. Her skin glistened with sunscreen lotion that smelled strongly of coconut. Since it was only late morning, the colada she held was a virgin.
At the moment, her drink was forgotten as she covertly watched Zach and a young woman standing down by the hut where sailboards were signed out by the guests. Her dark glasses hid her narrowed gaze.
“Honestly, Zach, I thought you had more sense than to fall for a pair of perky breasts,” she muttered. “Can you spell much too young? But then, how could your brain work when you’re facing a girl wearing nothing more than a few strands of colored dental floss? I’m sure she’s illegal in more than one state.”
The focus of Ginna’s attention was the kind of sexy young woman that caused any red-blooded man to salivate. Petite with curves in all the places, she wore a bright red thong bikini that left very little to the imagination. Glossy black curly hair tumbled down around her deeply tanned shoulders. She looked up at Zach as if he was he was the answer to all her prayers.
Ginna had no idea what Zach said, but apparently the young woman found it humorous, because she laughed and tossed her hair back. And managed to lift her chest at the same time.
Ginna curled her lip.
“I didn’t mean it when I said you might find someone who rang your chimes,” she ground out, slurping up the rest of her drink. She considered flagging down a waitress and asking for a non-virgin piña colada. “But if you had to find someone, couldn’t you find someone who doesn’t have a curfew?”
“Is anyone using this lounger?” A male voice sounded from her left.
She turned her head and looked up. And up.
Tall. Very tall. Maybe six foot, five inches. Surfer-blond hair. Blue eyes that rivaled her own. A tanned body that could easily grace the cover of a fitness magazine.
Any other woman would have melted into a puddle by now. By all rights, Ginna should be drooling uncontrollably, suffering heart palpitations and possibly stammering while making sure to show her bikini-clad body to it
s full potential.
Ginna wasn’t drooling, her heart rate was perfectly steady, and her speech, when she answered the man, was coherent.
In fact, she didn’t feel anything at all.
She could have been looking at one of her brothers.
WHO THE HELL IS HE? And what makes him think he can move in on Ginna that way? Zach might have looked as if he was listening to barely clad Kendall, but he was really focusing on Ginna.
He knew to the second the moment she took possession of the beach lounger, laying her towel over the surface, then settling down on it. He thought he’d die when she applied lotion to her exposed skin. Once finished, she popped a CD into her portable player and settled the headphones in place. He knew to the second when she ordered a drink. And damn, some surfer dude was trying to put the moves on her. Even from this distance, Zach felt blinded by the guy’s pearly whites.
He’d come down here with the intention of wearing himself out on a sailboard. What he hadn’t expected was sweet young Kendall Taylor to latch on to him.
“So how long are you staying here, Zach?” She looked up from under the cover of lush dark eyelashes.
“A couple weeks,” he replied in a voice meant to deter, but all it seemed to do was entice her.
“Really? So am I,” she purred.
Zach had never felt more of an urge to scream for help. This woman was way too dangerous for him.
Kendall wasn’t old or experienced enough to let her natural sensuality speak for itself. She tried too hard to behave in a sexy fashion, which turned him off, thank God. But he hazarded there were at least twenty men there who’d be willing to take what she was offering. He wasn’t one of them.
He snuck a quick glance in Ginna’s direction again. Mr. Blond and Beautiful took the lounger next to her. His gestures and grins were meant to look boyish and appealing. Zach figured them to be as fake as his gleaming teeth.
If she was crazy enough to fall for the toothpaste poster boy, he wouldn’t have much respect for her.
Dammit, she was smiling at the guy! That smile that instantly aroused Zach.
What could she be smiling about?
“Perhaps we could get together later for a drink,” Kendall murmured, moving in closer until the clean sea air seemed tainted by her musky perfume.
Zach felt as if a noose was slowly tightening around his neck.
Damn, he was glad he’d met Ginna. No matter what, he wouldn’t have succumbed to Kendall’s oh-so-obvious charms. He looked down at red-glossed pouty lips.
“Kendall, what are you—seventeen, eighteen?”
She straightened. “I am twenty,” she said haughtily.
He doubted her twentieth birthday was in the near future.
“Oh, honey, I have T-shirts older than you,” he said gently. “You should be off chasing some guy closer to your own age.” Like that surfer hitting on Ginna.
Kendall’s smile turned to pure sex kitten. “They’re nothing more than boys eager to show off their muscles.” She rested her hand on his arm. “I happen to like older men. They know how to treat a woman.”
Zach silently vowed to never again talk to any female between the ages of twelve and thirty.
“Yeah, but we also break down a lot sooner.”
Kendall studied his face. Her resigned expression told him she finally realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere with him.
“You’ll regret it, you know.” She propped one hand on her hip.
“I don’t think so.” He delivered the blow as softly as he could.
“Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be around.” She flashed him another sex-kitten smile and walked off with hips swiveling in a way guaranteed to catch any man’s attention.
Zach noticed she did just that. He had the urge to wrap a towel around her barely clad derriere.
At the same time a frightening thought hit him like a thunderbolt.
His encounter with the young woman gave him a glimpse of his future as the father of a teenager. In about thirteen years Emma would be the same age as Kendall, and he would have to play the heavy, scaring off hormone-driven teenage boys. He feared he’d not survive Emma’s teenage years.
For now, he was going to take a sailboard out into the water and conquer the damn thing even if it killed him.
“WHAT DOES IT TAKE for someone to understand the word no?” Ginna grumbled as she marched down the hallway leading to the rest room. The only place she was certain he wouldn’t follow her into. “It comprises two letters, one syllable, and the idiot doesn’t get it. I swear whatever bleach he’s using on his hair has seeped into his brain.”
She’d spent the past hour convincing Tad that no, she wouldn’t meet him for drinks. Or have dinner with him. And a big no to going out on a boat with him at midnight to watch the stars. It was as if with each refusal, he grew more determined to tempt her into the perfect date.
He saw himself as the perfect catch for a woman.
She saw him as a man with an ego much larger than his brain.
She was about to push open the door to the ladies’ room when someone grabbed her hand and spun her around, setting her back against the wall. She was ready to fight back when she realized just who had hold of her.
“Did you ever think about saying a person’s name so you wouldn’t scare the hell out of them?” she gasped, pushing Zach away from her. He obligingly stepped back. He was still wet from his time in the water.
“You were too busy mumbling. Sounded like a curse on the male sex. What happened? Did Junior say a bad word?”
“The curse only involves one member.” She took a deep breath. “What happened to Miss Perky? Did her baby-sitter show up?”
Zach blinked. He laughed softly and shook his head as he recognized her tone.
“Perky?”
“Perky as in she’s not old enough to worry about gravity taking over,” Ginna said with a decided bite in her voice.
“You mean like the surfer hanging all over you?” Zach countered.
“Tad is an interesting conversationalist,” she lied.
“Tad?” he echoed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I would never kid about a name like that.” Ginna glared at him.
“Maybe we should introduce him to Kendall.”
“Kendall? And you made fun of Tad’s name?” She suddenly remembered their pact. “You have another fourteen hours, mister.”
“Too bad. No more of this seeing if there’s someone else who might ring my chimes,” he ordered.
Ginna arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “I don’t know, it seemed your little friend Kendall rang an entire chorus.”
Zach muttered a few swear words he’d never dare use around the twins.
“Look,” he ground out, “you thought we were taking it too fast. Fine, we’ll slow things down. I have no desire to go running after anything with breasts. I don’t know what’s going on between us, but I want the chance to find out. And I think you want the same thing. Unless Tad rang your chimes?” he challenged.
She blew out a breath of exasperation. “Oh, please. He was relentless in his hopes I’d go out with him. It got so bad I finally told him I was a lesbian to make him give up,” she said bluntly.
The corners of Zach’s mouth tipped upward. “What did he say?”
Ginna rolled her eyes. “He’s positive he’s the man who can convert me.”
He leaned in further. “Is he?” His breath was warm on her face.
“Well—” she drew out the word “—I always was a sucker for blonds.”
He moved in even closer until his chest brushed the tips of her breasts. Her nipples tightened in response.
“There is something to say about a man with experience,” she murmured. Her eyes gleamed like blue topaz gems. “The self-confidence that comes with it.” Her soft laughter was smothered by his mouth.
Instant heat flared between them as their mouths fused. Nothing mattered but the touch.
When they paused
for breath, Ginna stared blankly at her surroundings. She was amazed no one had come upon them. But then, an entire marching band could have gone past them and she wouldn’t have been aware of it.
“You are a dangerous man,” she said when she felt she could speak coherently.
“Must have something to do with the company I keep. So are we in accord? I’ll keep Little Boy Blond away from you.”
She smiled. “Tad’s pre-law.”
“They teach that in preschool now?”
“Be careful, Zach, or I won’t run interference with your junior miss,” she said, smiling.
He dipped his head and ran the tip of his tongue along her bottom lip.
“She’s twenty.”
“She’s sixteen if a day.”
“Then Kendall and Tad will make the perfect couple.”
Ginna pushed him back again before she did something totally insane. Such as drag him up to her room and have her way with him.
“I have to go. I have an appointment in an hour,” she told him.
He arched an eyebrow in silent question.
“For a massage and a few other pick-me-ups,” she clarified.
“Dinner tonight?”
“So much for our pact.” She gave a sigh. “I can’t be ready until around eight.”
“Eight o’clock. In the lobby.”
Ginna nodded and left quickly, while Zach strolled away in the other direction. Both had broad smiles on their faces.
GINNA KNEW she’d truly come to paradise. It had been several days since she and Zach decided time apart didn’t work for them. She’d met Zach that night after a relaxing session in the hotel’s spa. Just as before, they talked nonstop during dinner, then spent a few hours in the lounge, talking and dancing.
She didn’t want to think of their time together as having a time limit. The idea that their feelings for each other could change when they returned home was a thought she kept tucked away in a secure place where it couldn’t easily creep out and haunt her when she least expected it.
She and Zach had smiled when they first noticed the seductive and relentless Kendall advance on Tad with the kind of focus the military would envy. The young couple had been inseparable ever since.
