Eve took a deep breath. She wiped her face with her hands then dug in the backpack by her feet for the water bottle. “You meet all kinds. I usually handle things with more diplomacy. I just wasn’t prepared.”
“It bothered you what she said, didn’t it? Why? Why do you care what she—or anybody else for that matter—thinks?”
His tone was perplexed. Her mother and father never had been able to understand what drove Eve to excel at beauty pageants or why she chose such a high-profile career. Lately, she’d been asking herself the same question. And now she understood. The memory of that voice brought it all back.
“Some of it comes from being adopted,” she said simply. “You knew that, right? I was adopted at birth.”
He nodded. “It was in your file, but I didn’t give it much thought.”
You wouldn’t because you know where you belong. “You can’t understand, but there’s a part of me that finds validation in the attention. I know that sounds vain and shallow, but it’s true. It’s as if I need everyone to love me because at some level I’ve always felt unlovable. Why else would my mother have given me away?”
Matt reached out and gripped her hand. “I’m sorry, Eve. I shouldn’t have asked.”
She squeezed back. “No, it’s okay. I want to talk about it. I was thinking of going to a shrink when I get home. I don’t feel crazy, but I want to come to grips with these feelings so I don’t make any more stupid choices—like Barry.”
“Barry just happened to come along when you needed a change.”
Eve sighed. “I’d like to believe I did it for the right reason. Deeanna West. A young girl, with her whole life ahead of her, chose to end it because she didn’t think she’d ever be beautiful enough to be loved.” Her voice cracked and she looked down.
After a few moments, she lifted her face. “But now I’m afraid maybe it was more about me. About proving to my birth mother that I could do something good, something lasting. Something beyond beauty.”
Matt cranked the steering wheel sharply and pulled to a stop in front of a large, faded orange structure adorned with colorful blankets of unduplicated designs and patterns.
He rolled down the windows and switched off the engine. Turning to her, he used the hem of the towel to wipe away her tears. “I wish I knew how to make you feel better, but I don’t. I’m not even sure I understand, but I do know you are beautiful—inside and out.”
Eve took a shaky breath. His touch, more than his words, helped to heal her pain. A loving touch.
He playfully brushed the towel against the tip of her nose. “I think the real problem is shopping withdrawal,” he teased. “Didn’t you say it’s been months since you’ve been in a store?”
“Shopping?” Eve looked over his shoulder to the wall of dazzling rugs.
“It might not cure you, but it can’t hurt,” he said, a huskiness in his voice Eve didn’t dare think about. “You’ve got a purseful of pesos and we leave tomorrow, so you’d better go for it.”
Eve couldn’t repress the sudden lightness that replaced her anguish. Impulsively, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
For once, he didn’t complain about her gratitude. In fact, for a second, he hugged her back.
MATT TOOK ANOTHER SWIG of lukewarm beer. It stopped halfway down his gullet. Not surprising since he was scrunched like a folded banana in a rope chair suspended beneath the rafters of the warehouse-size building. Eve had wrongly assumed he liked the uncomfortable thing since he’d been hiding out in it the entire time she was shopping. To reward him for his patience, she’d bought him one to take home.
He gave the present—a paper-and-string-wrapped parcel by his feet—a nudge with his toe.
“You’ll have to hang it a little farther off the ground,” she’d told him when she presented it to him—happy as a child on Christmas morn. “You look a little scrunched.”
A little scrunched?
Matt closed his eyes. Watching Eve shop was akin to torture. With her fluent use of language, she haggled and teased, praised and pooh-poohed. Her effervescence shimmered despite the heat, and her voice wove into his thoughts like a subliminal messenger reminding him his world would return to its former pumpkin shape in about sixteen hours.
“What about this for Sara?” Eve asked, intruding on his thoughts.
She materialized before him holding a white cotton nightgown with delicately embroidered butterflies scattered across the bodice. “It opens in front so she can use it when she’s breast-feeding,” Eve told him.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, his tone gruff. “I’m sure she’ll love it.”
“You’re getting antsy, aren’t you? I’ll hurry.”
“No,” he said sharply. Matt cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Take your time.”
Shrugging her shoulders, she pivoted and walked away. Matt followed her with his gaze until she switched aisles. Shaking his head, he softly groaned. The sexual tension between them was practically a living entity.
“Look at these booties, Matt!” Eve gushed, sliding to a stop in front of him. “Aren’t they precious?”
She held two pairs of embroidered booties, one pink and one blue, to her cheeks. Even in the dim light, Matt could see the joy in her eyes.
“Do Sara and Ren know the sex of the babies?”
Eve frowned, her lips pouting so becomingly he had to cross his legs, not an easy task given his pretzel-like contortions. “Good point. I’ll get the red, white and blue ones. They’re cute, too.” Decision made, she dashed away.
An hour later, Matt loaded her purchases into the car—including an extra suitcase to accommodate everything. As he pulled the car onto the highway, Eve let out a long sigh. “You didn’t overdo it, did you?” he asked.
She pivoted in her seat. “I’m pooped, but it’s a good pooped.”
Matt understood. “Does that mean you’re ready to take on Atlanta?”
“Yes.” She wiggled back in place and reclined the seat. “But I am tired. Mind if I grab a power nap?”
Matt smiled. That was their code name for her periodic snoozes. She’d gone from six a day to one. “Good idea. If you feel up to it, I thought we’d check out La Buena Vida in Akumal tonight.”
“I’d love to—on one condition.” Her smile seemed innocent enough.
“What?”
“Tell me what happened to your knee.”
Matt sighed. There was no reason not to tell her—she could find out the details by calling Ren once they got home. He’d put off telling her because he hated people to feel sorry for him.
“I told you I was a cop. I was working undercover stakeout when the dealer we were watching got spooked. He was a junkie, too, and nobody knows exactly what happened, but he grabbed his three-year-old daughter and bolted. There were other cars in pursuit, but I was closest.”
His mouth went dry and he gripped the steering wheel recalling all too vividly the moment the man dropped an object out his window. A doll. Let it be a doll, Matt’s mind had cried, but he couldn’t take the chance and he’d desperately cranked the wheel away from the tiny form on the street.
“He tossed the kid out the window. I totaled my car and my knee. The doctors replaced it. I’m practically bionic now.” He tried for levity, but he could tell she didn’t buy it. “Unfortunately, I developed an infection that destroyed some of the connecting tissue. The bottom line—desk job.”
That’s it. Short and not so sweet. He kept his gaze on the road.
“We’re alike, aren’t we?” Eve said softly.
“How do you figure?”
“We spent our whole lives chasing our dream jobs, then lost them.”
Was that it? Matt wondered. Is that why I feel so drawn to her? He wished it were that simple, but it wasn’t. He was falling in love with her, which might be the biggest mistake of his life.
“I’M THINKING ABOUT cutting my hair when we get home,” Eve said apropos of nothing.
They’d been sipping their drinks and staring out the wide-open window at the shimmer of nearby lights on the water. Half a dozen sailboats bobbed in the quiet cove. Their table was on the upper floor of the two-story restaurant, which featured a bar with swings for seats.
“Really?” Matt said, wishing he was close enough to touch the silky black locks. “Why?”
She shrugged one bare shoulder. Her dress was an ankle-length black halter style made of a microfiber that inspired wild fantasies when she breathed. Matt had nearly swallowed his breath mint when she’d first come downstairs. An elegant white shawl embellished with Mayan figures gave her a virginal look in direct contradiction to her sexy dress. Angel or temptress? The answer tormented him.
“I’ve made up my mind about a few things, my career, my goals and ambitions. I think I need to project a new image—more businesswoman than sexy reporter.”
“Well, cut it if you must, but as one of your fans, I’d like to vote for a compromise.”
She smiled. “What’s that?”
“Maybe clip off a few inches but not the whole thing.” He shrugged. “What do I know? I’m a guy.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” she said with an appreciative hum.
Matt polished off the last of his wine. “Do you want coffee? Or dessert?” He looked around for a waiter, but Eve reached across the table and put her hand on his arm.
“No, thank you,” she said, her gaze never leaving his. “But I do want to talk about something.”
Her tone was businesslike, but the look in her eyes connected on a level that didn’t need words.
“We should probably go. Big day tomorrow.”
“Matt.”
She took her hand away and faced him squarely—elbows on the table like a power broker deciding the fate of a multinational company. “You can run, but you can’t hide from this. I’m not alone in what I’m feeling. Am I?”
Matt could have handled the power look, but that little-girl Am I? did him in. “It’s not a good idea, Eve. I’ve never been a one-night-stand kind of guy. I sure as hell don’t want to start with you. You’re vulnerable and hurt and I’d be as bad as Barry if I took advantage of that.”
Her grin rocked him to the core. “It’s that honor and sense of duty that drives me wild,” she said, her tone teasing. Her expression changed and she traced a pattern across the back of his hand. “I know this may sound selfish, but I need you, Matt. I need you to prove I’m still attractive, desirable.”
He choked on a protest. “You don’t need me for that, Eve. Look in the mirror. You’re as beautiful as ever. Your eyes are alive and excited about life. That’s the biggest turn-on of all.”
“Then why won’t you kiss me?”
“I have. Twice.”
“Baby kisses.” She shook her head to make her point, and her hair shivered.
In his nightly fantasy, Eve’s hair sheltered them from the world—a silken tent. But fantasies weren’t a part of his life. He was a responsible adult. He’d given the casual-fling thing a try and it had brought hurt and pain to a woman he’d truly cared about. He wouldn’t risk that with Eve. He sighed and rose. “I’ll kiss you good-night when I walk you to your door,” he said, bowing slightly. “In Atlanta.”
Eve pouted. God, he loved her lips. He’d had fantasies about them, too.
“I want more than a kiss, Matt. I want you to make love to me.”
The bold statement made Matt’s knees buckle. He sat down hard. “No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do. I know you and trust you, and I think we’d be good together. When I get home, I’m going to be too busy—and too wary—to let anyone get close. I’ll go my way and you’ll go home to your daughter. That’s the way it needs to be. I understand that, but there won’t be anyone there for me, Matt. I’m going to be alone for a long time.”
Matt understood her emphatically. He was in the same fix. He had no romantic prospects on the horizon. He had a new business that would take all his attention to get off the ground, and he might be going back to court to fight for Ashley. Her offer was tempting.
“Nobody needs to know, Matt. If you’re afraid Bo will think you’ve compromised your professional integrity or something, I promise not to tell. The bottom line is—we can make it less complicated if we’re both up-front about what we want from this.”
Matt cocked his head. For some reason, he had to fight off a grin. “What do you want, Eve?” He held up one hand. “Before you answer, I have to be honest. It’s been a while for me and I’m a little out of practice. So if you’re hoping for fireworks…”
She laughed and shook her head. “I could say the same thing, plus I have this skinny-waif look going, but that’s not what I want.” Her eyebrows leveled in a serious look he remembered from her television interviews. “I want equal parts passion and compassion. I want you to make me feel alive and worthy of being in the arms of someone as kind and generous as you are.”
Matt swallowed. He already knew what his answer would be, had to be, but he asked anyway, “And what do I get out of this? Besides one night of sex—no strings attached?”
“My undying gratitude?”
Although she said the words mockingly, Matt knew she was serious. She needed him, the way he’d once needed Karen, a woman who’d loved him knowing he didn’t love her back. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him as he said, “Okay, but I’m not promising razzle-dazzle. I might be a little rusty.”
Her laugh set his blood singing through his veins. “I knew all that snorkeling wasn’t a good idea. Should I check for barnacles, too?”
His hoot drew the attention of neighboring diners, so Matt stood up and held out his hand for Eve. She rose to her feet like a dancer and slipped into the curl of his arms as if she’d been cleaved from his body.
Matt leaned down and pressed a kiss atop her shimmering, fragrant hair. This might be all wrong, but it felt all too right.
FOR ALL HER reputed worldliness, Eve was not in the habit of asking men to sleep with her. Her cheeks burned the whole trip back to the beach house, but so did other parts of her at the mere thought of Matt’s hands and body touching hers.
“You can change your mind at any time,” Matt said softly as the car nosed to a stop outside their door.
He was looking straight ahead. They’d left the outside light on and in profile his features were strong and harsh. His black eyebrows were scrunched, his jaw tense.
Eve’s heart jumped—partly in expectation, partly in fear. “I want to do this, Matt, but I think I should apologize in advance in case it’s not all that great.” Her blush intensified and she was grateful for the darkness.
He leaned over and kissed her. A warm, wine-flavored kiss. Eve was hungry for more. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
Slanting her mouth to his, she parted her lips and tasted him. “Mmm,” she said, closing her eyes to savor the moment.
He deepened the kiss, his tongue exploring her mouth. “You have beautiful teeth,” he told her between kisses. “They feel good.”
No one other than her dentist had ever complimented Eve on her teeth. “Thank you. No fillings.”
“Really? Let me see.” He pulled her closer and she opened her mouth.
He ran his tongue around her lips then across her teeth. Eve smiled.
“Stop smiling. I can’t reach those molars,” he whispered against her lips.
Eve burst out laughing. “You’re crazy. I think I love you.”
He pulled back abruptly at her words. “Whoops. I didn’t mean that,” she said quickly. “I could love you, but it’s too early to know. Right?”
His face was only inches from hers—she hadn’t scared him too badly. His dark eyes were serious, his breathing uneven. “I don’t know what to tell you, Eve. I want you. I’ve wanted this almost from the moment we met.”
Eve pushed him away. “Don’t lie, Matt. I don’t need to hear that.”
“It’s the truth.”
/>
“I was half-dead, filthy and delirious.”
He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Fragile, hurting, sick, but still beautiful and feisty.”
His fingers played some kind of music down her arm, raising a trail of gooseflesh in their wake. He leaned down and planted tiny kisses on her bare shoulder. How had she gone from seducer to seduced?
“Is this wrong, Matt? We’re adults. No commitments. No one gets hurt. We can have safe sex.” Even as she said the words, Eve’s heart sank. She’d gotten into the habit of carrying condoms in her travel bag but couldn’t remember seeing any. Had she thrown them out? “Can’t we?”
His frown didn’t look encouraging. “I think so. There used to be some condoms in my suitcase. But I can’t guarantee how new they are.”
While the frank talk took a little of the sizzle away, Eve appreciated his honesty. It made her feel adult and responsible, not like some hormone-crazed teen—even if her hormones had been acting very youthful all week. “Let’s go hunting. Surely the sex gods will smile on us,” she said, faking optimism she didn’t feel. She grabbed his hand and started leading the way to the house.
Oh, please, oh, please. Oh, please let there be one tiny little foil package in my suitcase.
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Matt was having a debate with himself. He had an out—a lack of condoms. None had shown up in Eve’s luggage, or his.
All he had to do was say sorry. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. No matter that it was the smart thing to do, the prudent thing. The look of disappointment on her face was more than he could handle. He sank down beside her on the settee and gently massaged her shoulders.
“Eve…”
She turned to face him, her cheeks a deeper hue of blush. “I didn’t want to discuss this. I mean it’s bad enough that we’re not exactly doing this in the throes of spontaneous passion, but the fact is I haven’t had a period since Panama.”
Something About Eve Page 17
