And then she spotted him. Every fiber of her being ached to run toward him, dive into his arms, never let anything come between them again. But she did, after all, have an image to maintain. She wasn’t going to humiliate herself when there was a chance he wouldn’t even want her back.
Sitting alone and sipping from a coffee cup, his wild hair tamed into a sleek professional cut, he looked different, but no less sexy. She wasn’t sure it was even possible to remove Zane’s potent sex appeal—and who would want to, anyway?
Her nerves had made her forget all the lines she’d practiced in her head for when she finally came face-to-face with him. Now she had no idea what to say, no clue how to act. Casual? How could she act casual when she’d just flown across the Atlantic to see him?
She made her way through the maze of tables to his and, without saying a word, she pulled out a chair. But before she could sit down, he looked up and saw her.
“Naomi!” Zane stood up from his chair, confusion registering on his face.
“I heard you were here and thought I’d stop by,” she said, smiling, praying he’d smile back.
“What are you doing in Rome?”
She couldn’t play it cool anymore. If she wanted him to understand the depth of her feelings, he had to know she’d flown here to find him. “I was looking for you,” she said, her expression sober.
“You didn’t come all the way here to find me…did you?” He smiled as if the notion were ridiculous.
He was right. It was. And she didn’t care.
“As your image consultant, I couldn’t let you take your first trip abroad since that princess scandal alone. I need to be here to make sure you don’t create any more international sex scandals.”
He gave her a look that said he didn’t buy a word of her story. “Tell me why you’re really here.”
“It was either come here or sit around waiting until you decided to grace Atlanta with your presence again to tell you that I love you.”
If ever there was an expression called smoldering, Zane wore it then.
“I wouldn’t be creating an international sex scandal if I kissed you right now, would I?” Instead of waiting for her response, he wrapped her into his arms, and she knew she was finally where she belonged.
“Definitely not,” she said, right before he covered her mouth with his.
His kiss, his embrace, warmed her to her very soul, left her without a doubt that her overpriced ticket to Rome had been worth the cost, that the riskiest move she’d made in her life had been a smart one.
When they broke the kiss, she saw that people were staring at them, and she didn’t care.
“So. Flying to Rome just to tell someone you love them—is this the kind of thing you’d recommend one of your clients to do?”
“Under the right circumstances. If it had the desired impact on their public image.”
“Is that what this is? Your own personal PR stunt?”
She smiled. “I don’t reveal my professional strategies to people who aren’t paying me.”
He gave her a look.
“Okay, maybe I was concerned about my image with you. So did my strategy work?”
He leaned in and kissed her again, this time long, slow and deep. When he finally came up for air, he smiled. “Definitely. The only other thing you could possibly do to improve your image in my eyes now is to get naked in my hotel room.”
Naomi’s body went on red alert. “That’s at the top of my agenda.”
He withdrew his wallet from his back pocket, tossed a few bills on the table, then took her hand and led her out of the outdoor dining area toward the hotel.
Soon they were inside the hotel again, and then in the elevator alone together, where he pinned her against the wall and kissed her all the way to his floor.
Naomi had a million things she wanted to say to Zane, to ask him, but suddenly her mind was blank, and she was driven solely by the need to have him inside her again. She’d nearly forgotten the powerful force of their physical attraction, but now that she was swept up in it again, she couldn’t imagine breaking away from it.
When the elevator doors opened, Zane led her off and down the hallway to his room, where he opened the door and pulled her inside. Alone now, he gave her one more kiss.
“I have to tell you,” he said, “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to all this image stuff.”
“Oh?” Her job was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. In fact, she didn’t want to talk at all.
“We’ve spent lots of time talking about how to improve my image,” he said. “But I’ve got some suggestions to improve yours.” His wolfish smile appeared, and she was suddenly interested.
“I’m listening,” she said, feeling a little breathless.
“These clothes…” He gestured at her outfit. “They’ve got to go. If you really want to project the image of being my ideal lover, you need to be naked, or at the very least, scantily clad.”
His ideal lover? This was getting more interesting by the second.
“I think I can accommodate you,” she said as she began unbuttoning her blouse.
“And your hair. It’s nice—if you’re about to go on the air to do the morning news. But if you want to project a sex-kitten image, you’re going to have to mess it up a little.”
She smiled. “Of course. Wouldn’t want you mistaking me for a news anchor.” Her shirt unbuttoned now, she let it fall open as she fluffed her hair a little, then shook her head.
“Is that better?” she asked when she flipped her hair over her shoulder.
“Yeah, but we may need to roll around in bed some before it really achieves the right look.”
Naomi took her shoes and pants off, then stood before him in her black lace panties and bra, the very same ones she’d bought to wear for him. “Is this scantily clad enough for you?”
His gaze traveled over her, warming her up to the boiling point. “No, I was wrong,” he said as he closed the distance between them. “You definitely need to be naked to project the image I’m looking for.”
Then he slid his hands around her waist and up her back. He found the clasp of her bra, opened it, and she let the bra fall to the floor.
Her body, bared to him, ached for more of his skillful touch.
“How am I doing now?” she asked, enjoying his game, but wanting to hurry up and get it over with so they could move on to the real reason they were here.
“This still isn’t quite what I have in mind. You need to lose the parochial-school posture…thrust your hip out and tilt your head a little like the vixen I know you are.”
Naomi did as he instructed, feeling with the change of posture a change in her attitude, as well. She’d gone from Naomi Tyler, image consultant and senator’s daughter, to Naomi, horny babe in need of hot sex.
Zane was pretty good at this image-makeover stuff.
“If you don’t shut up and take your clothes off,” she said, “I may have to take matters into my own hands.”
He stripped off his shirt in record time, then kicked off his shoes and started working on his pants. “That’s a pretty tempting threat,” he said.
And in a matter of seconds, he was naked, except for a hurriedly donned condom—pressed against her, then on top of her on the bed. He spread her legs wide and ravished her mouth with a hungry kiss as he pushed himself deep inside her.
Naomi arched her back and savored the delicious pressure of his body enveloped by hers, the sweet invasion that she’d been aching for since the last time they’d been together. She never wanted to ache so badly again, never wanted to wonder again if she’d have Zane in her life.
As if he’d been reading her mind, he paused, still buried deep within her. “There’s something we need to settle,” he said as he propped his head on one hand and gave her a smile that was maddeningly calm for the sort of situation they were in.
But he was right.
“Which something?” she said, her voice breathless.<
br />
“I can’t let you fly all the way to Rome and not tell you what I should have told you before I left.”
Her throat constricted, and she only managed a whisper. “What’s that?”
“I love you, too, Naomi.”
She smiled, then laughed. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d needed to hear those words.
“And I love you. Now could we please get on with this?” She squirmed beneath him to make her point.
“I’ve had a lot of time sitting around alone in hotel rooms to think about things—about us—lately.”
He traced his finger along her jaw, a sensual smile playing on his lips.
“So have I,” she said.
“I hope you’ve come to the same conclusion I have. I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I don’t want to lose you, either.”
“I think we deserve to give us more than just a chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you may have thought you were making me over,” he said, his brown eyes darkening in a way she’d never seen before. “But that’s not what you were doing at all.”
She was almost afraid to ask, “What was I doing, then?”
“You were showing me what I was missing. You were showing me the possibilities.”
She had a feeling she knew what he was talking about. He’d felt that same overwhelming force that had pulled her across the ocean to find him. It was the satisfying clink of two polar opposites finding each other and coming together.
“I know what you mean,” she said, unsure what else to say.
“I don’t think you do. I’ve been all over the world, met all kinds of women, and I’ve had my whole life to figure out exactly what I want.”
He dipped his head down and kissed her.
“I want you,” he said. “Forever.”
Naomi blinked away tears. Again he’d spoken the words she hadn’t known how badly she’d wanted to hear.
“You do?” she finally said, her voice barely a whisper.
“This is going to sound crazy…”
She smiled. “Crazy is good.”
“Marry me, Naomi.”
Suddenly, the sensual agony he’d put her in for this conversation didn’t matter. She’d never expected their conversation to take this turn, but now that it had, it seemed the most natural thing in the world.
“Okay,” she heard herself say. “Let’s do it.”
He began moving inside her again. “You’re such an impatient girl.”
“No,” she said, laughing even as she wanted to sigh with the sheer magic he worked on her body. “I meant let’s do it—as in get married.”
He was right. The words managed to sound both crazy and perfect even as she heard herself say them.
Crazy and perfect—two words that described not just their decision, but their relationship, too, and even their love. Zane was perfect for her in that absolutely imperfect way she never could have understood before she met him.
Their relationship had shown Naomi that her wild, wanton alter ego could find some balance with her good-girl side—that the two parts of her nature could even coexist in harmony. And she’d never been so happy in her life.
Zane kissed her again, then said, “You want to get married right now?”
“No, right now we have a more urgent task to take care of.”
He glanced down at her naked body. “Oh, right,” he said. “You flew all the way to Rome to have sex with me, didn’t you?”
She laughed. “Yeah, so you’d better make this spectacular.”
“With you, my love,” Zane said, “it couldn’t be anything but.”
Epilogue
Six months later…
“WE INVITED YOU out to dinner tonight because we have a little announcement,” Talia said.
Naomi glanced over at Zane and tried not to smile. If Talia and Ken thought their engagement was some big secret, they were sadly mistaken. For one thing, the two-carat rock suddenly present on Talia’s ring finger was a dead giveaway.
“We’re getting married,” Ken said, his smile infectious.
Naomi tried to act surprised. “That’s wonderful!”
“Congratulations!” she and Zane said simultaneously.
Talia’s eyes narrowed. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
“Well, sort of,” Naomi admitted, eyeing the diamond ring, and Talia laughed.
“I couldn’t take it off. It’s just too pretty.”
“This definitely calls for at a toast,” Zane said, lifting his glass. “To happy beginnings.”
“And happy endings,” Naomi added as everyone clinked their glasses together.
She may not have been surprised by the engagement, but she was thrilled for Talia. Seeing an end to her best friend’s never-ending pessimism about men was an event she’d hardly expected to witness, and now that she had, she felt a little overwhelmed by optimism.
She felt like anything could happen.
Zane sat his drink back on the table and slipped his hand across her thigh until he found hers. He twined their fingers together in a habit that had become second nature to both of them. Naomi looked at him and smiled.
Zane’s hair had grown back to its wild, untamed style—a little too long and unruly—but it was perfect on him, and Naomi wouldn’t have dreamed of suggesting he change it again. He’d also slipped back into the habit of wearing black T-shirts and jeans, along with that ancient leather jacket, and she didn’t complain, because she preferred him that way.
Sure, her makeover might have turned him into a polished professional, but that wasn’t exactly who Zane was.
Thank heaven Mediacom had quickly realized the same thing. Maybe it had been all the comments from viewers—half of America loved the new look, and the other half wanted the old Zane back.
His makeover had definitely given her business the boost it had needed, and it had given Zane’s career an unexpected boost. After all the uproar, Mediacom executives decided Zane was their hottest commodity after all, and they’d offered him a weekly news talk show of his own.
Underwood Reports had just started airing a month ago, but already it was at the top of the ratings for talk shows. Zane was happy because he got to discuss whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted, and Naomi was happy because the show was filmed in Atlanta, so she had him home with her every night.
“I’m afraid we won’t be much help with the wedding preparations,” Naomi said, and Talia dismissed her comment with a wave.
Naomi and Zane had surprised everyone—including themselves—by deciding to elope in Italy. They’d gotten married in an unofficial Italian ceremony on the Amalfi Coast, then spent the next three weeks wandering around Italy in a rental car that had no air-conditioning.
Their honeymoon had been far sweatier—and more fun—than anything she ever could have imagined. They’d even found a deserted beach where she could wear her white bikini for Zane’s eyes only.
“Don’t elope,” she said. “You’ll just piss everyone off, especially your families.”
Naomi’s father still hadn’t completely accepted that she was married, but he’d get there in time. Her relationship with him had been damaged, but they were slowly working it out. She wasn’t in any big hurry.
Having finally figured out how to be her own woman, she was having too much fun doing just that to worry about the stick up her dad’s ass.
Her mother had surprised everyone by coming back home just in time for Naomi and Zane’s stateside reception—held after they’d made their marriage official at the courthouse—then announcing that she’d retired from missionary work.
Zane might have thought his story would damage Naomi’s family, but rather the opposite had happened. It had become the catalyst for positive changes, by opening up the door for her parents to start healing and for Naomi to work on having a closer relationship with her mother.
“I don’t care who I piss off. I’d be happy eloping,” T
alia said.
“We’re not going to elope,” Ken said. “I want everyone to see us get married.”
Naomi almost expected something to go flying across the table at Ken’s head, but instead, Talia smiled and shook her head.
“We’ve been having the same argument all week, but I think I’ll let him win this one. After all, it might be the last argument he ever wins with me.”
“Don’t count on it, babe,” Ken said, and Naomi saw instantly why they were perfect for each other.
They were equals. There weren’t many guys out there equal to Talia, but by some miracle, she’d found one.
Naomi took a sip of her drink to hide her shameless grin. If Talia could find her happily-ever-after, then Naomi believed anyone could.
Absolutely anyone.
Look for the next red-hot read from
author Jamie Sobrato coming
in November 2005 from Harlequin Blaze
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