Twice the Temptation

by Francis Ray

  “Not another bite, please.” Ayanna placed her hand on her flat stomach and smiled at the chef. “You will have people begging to get a reservation. Your alliance with The Rafferty Grand will ensure that The Jade Room will create one of the most exciting dining experiences in the East.” She tipped her head. “My compliments to you and Mr. Rafferty.”

  Pointe’s thin nose tilted upward. He folded his arms. “I am in demand in my own right.”

  “Of course, but every star needs a stage, the right setting in which to create.” She glanced around the high-ceilinged room with silk wall coverings and authentic art. “You have it here. A feast for the eyes is as important as a feast for the stomach. You and Mr. Rafferty have worked together to ensure both.”

  Slowly the chef’s arms unfolded. “You are a wise woman.” He leaned closer. “If you ever get tired of him, I’m available.”

  Ayanna blinked.

  “That’s enough,” Tanner snapped, striding over to their table. “Ayanna, we need to talk.”

  The chef winked at Ayanna. Apparently he had wanted to get in one last jab at Tanner.

  “Ayanna?” Tanner repeated, his hand on the back of her chair.

  She extended her hand to the smug chef. She hoped he learned before it was too late that it wasn’t wise to bait a tiger, especially when your hand was in its mouth. “Thank you again.”

  Pointe took her hand. “You have a standing invitation to The Jade Room. I hope to see you often.” Inclining his head, he walked toward the back of the restaurant and disappeared through a swinging door.

  Ayanna made herself look Tanner in the eye and prayed her voice didn’t crack. “Tanner, I don’t think there’s anything to talk about and I need to get back to work.”

  His black eyes narrowed, then he turned and walked toward the open door. Ayanna bit her lip to keep from calling him back, thinking it was for the best. But instead of leaving, he closed both massive ten-foot double doors. She heard the distinct click of a lock.

  “You’re not leaving until we settle the issue. You’re not walking out on me,” he told her. He started toward her, a predator stalking its prey, a renegade who followed no rules but his own. It took all of her courage not to back up. He kept coming until he was so close she could see her reflection in his dark eyes.

  “I thought nothing could bother me more than letting you come between me and my work until I was faced with the possibility of never seeing you again.” His hands settled on her shoulders. “While I was trying to deal with that unthinkable possibility, Pointe was cozying up to you. I was so busy plotting his demise that I didn’t realize until minutes ago that, despite my poor behavior, you were trying to pacify him to help me.” He took the necessary steps until the heat of their bodies mingled. “You’re an incredible woman. Tell me what I have to do to see you again.”

  Ayanna stared up into his face. No one had to tell her Tanner didn’t ask for second chances or admit to being wrong very often. They were both dealing with emotions that were new and frightening to them. She could walk or do something she hadn’t dared in a very long time. She took a deep breath and said, “I never did get a tour.”

  He hugged her. “Thank you,” he said, as the chef reappeared, carrying a plate.

  “Now that you’ve stopped sulking, perhaps you will taste the food I worked since dawn to prepare,” Stephen said.

  Tanner took the peace offering, but his arm remained around Ayanna. “Ayanna has to get back to work and I haven’t shown her around.”

  The chef retrieved the eighteen-karat gold-trimmed plate. “Then show her. By the time you finish I will have prepared Ms. Hardcastle a few take-aways. Food should not be wasted.”

  “Tyrell, my cousin and the chef at Leo’s, will have a fit. Please don’t forget the steamed rice, the clams with black bean sauce, and the dim sum.”

  Both men laughed.

  Ayanna had been right in her prediction of Tyrell’s behavior when she came into Leo’s with a shopping bag half full of food. She had sailed on past him, ignoring his protests. Tanner was coming over around seven that night to help her finish off the food. All she could think about was nibbling on him.

  Grinning, she slipped the food into one of Leo’s oversized refrigerators, then went to her office to work. Somehow she made herself not glance at the clock every few minutes, but it was hard. By five she was heading out the front door. After a quick stop at a corner flower shop, she was on her way home, formulating in her mind a romantic evening. She didn’t know where the relationship was going, but she wasn’t frightened anymore.

  Arriving home, she put the food away, lit candles, then went to take her bath and get dressed. Instead of setting the dining room table, she prepared a place for them in front of the red brick fireplace, then lit fat white vanilla-scented candles on the hearth and brick mantel.

  Her doorbell rang exactly at seven, and she opened the door before the musical chime had ended. Her heart skittered. “Hi,” she greeted, her voice slightly husky.

  “Hi,” he said, closing the door behind him and taking her in his arms. His mouth unerringly found hers. It was a long, leisurely kiss that made her body hum. Lifting his head, he stared down at her. “You taste better every time I kiss you.”

  “So do you,” she said. Watching his eyes darken, she knew if they didn’t eat now they might not for a long time. “Come on, I have everything ready.” Taking him by the hand, she led him into the den and gestured for him to sit on the blanket in front of a sky-blue linen tablecloth. “I thought it would be cozier this way.”

  “Works for me.” Unbuttoning his cream-colored, lightweight sports coat, he sat on the floor and drew his long legs under him. When Ayanna started to the place across from him, he caught her hand and tugged. “You’re not moving out of arm’s reach.”

  She moistened her lips. His gaze followed and heat spiked through her. “It might be wiser.”

  “I’d still want to make love to you,” he said bluntly, feeling her pulse leap beneath his fingertips. “But I can wait, now that I know you’re willing to give us a chance. I want you close to me.”

  She sank down beside him. “I told you a woman couldn’t say no to you.”

  Palming her face with hands that weren’t quite steady, he turned her toward him. “When I’m with you, when I look at you, I can’t remember another woman.”

  The words were said with such aching sincerity that tears came to her eyes. It would be so easy and so very foolish to forget this wasn’t forever. “Oh, Tanner.”

  “If you keep looking at me like that I’m going to kiss you again, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to turn you loose until I’ve made you mine.”

  Ayanna warred within herself. She wanted to make love with Tanner, but it was too soon. She picked up his plate. “Everything is good. You’re fortunate to have Stephen.”

  “So he keeps telling me,” Tanner said without rancor as he took his plate. “I was afraid Tyrell might toss all this out.”

  “He wanted to.” She leaned forward to pick up her plate and gave a yelp when Tanner drew her into his lap. “We only need one plate. Now, say grace, then you can tell me about your day while we eat.”

  She stared at Tanner. He stared back.

  She could attempt to get off his lap or argue about it, but in the end she’d lose because she would be fighting against herself. There was no place else she’d rather be. She enjoyed looking at him, touching him, being with him. She even admired his relentless determination to have his way.

  He’d never be an easy man. He was a renegade, but he touched a responsive cord within her no other man ever had. Bowing her head, she blessed their food.

  SEVEN

  Tanner and Ayanna went to a political fund-raising event on Tuesday, a gallery reception on Wednesday, and a charity function on Thursday. By Friday he was getting polite inquiries about Ayanna from business associates and acquaintances. Oddly, he wasn’t pleased. He wanted to keep their relationship quiet. He was used to be
ing in the spotlight, but he wasn’t sure how Ayanna felt about it.

  From the conversation he’d overheard her having with Sheri, he knew Ayanna hadn’t been dating lately. He only had to look at her or recall the number of men trying to get her attention when they were out to know that it was by choice. On the other hand, the newspapers had made much of his romantic liaisons, and his past escapades were making it difficult to gain her trust. He didn’t want her to think of herself as just another woman in a long line of them. She definitely wasn’t. Her vulnerability and intelligence, as much as her beauty, drew him to her.

  He’d never cared about what others thought of him in the past, but with Ayanna it was different. It wasn’t just so they could be intimate, although if he didn’t make love to her soon he might go out of his mind, it was because her opinion of him mattered. He wanted her to be proud of him when she introduced him to her family and friends.

  He was doing his best to go slow and give her time to learn to have faith in him and herself, but it was interfering with his concentration and thus the opening of the hotel. He kept catching himself thinking of her instead of working, like now.

  Fingers steepled beneath his chin, he leaned back in the desk chair in an office cluttered with a jumble of sample china patterns, swatches of bright fabric, and objets d’art that he’d promised the interior designer he’d have narrowed down by six that afternoon, and he knew if he didn’t get his act together he wouldn’t make the deadline.

  He glanced at the Seth Thomas clock on his desk. Five-fifteen. It was going to be a very long two hours and forty-five minutes before he picked up Ayanna to take her to a movie. Shaking his head, he picked up the fabric swatches for the bedspreads and curtains in the suites and began flipping through them. He hadn’t been to a movie in years. Maybe they could sit in the back and he could get in some serious necking.

  He frowned. It was becoming harder and harder for him to pull away. In a dark theater he might lose it.

  The phone rang, interrupting his troubled thoughts. Since he had asked his secretary to hold his calls, unless important, he picked it up. “Rafferty here.”

  “Tanner, this is George Marcel. How are you?”

  Rafferty immediately placed the ring of swatches on his desk and came to attention. Marcel didn’t make idle calls. He had ocean-front property on Hilton Head that Tanner had been trying to buy for three years. “Fine. I’m about to open another hotel. I hope you’ll be able to attend.”

  “Sounds as if you’re busy, but I’m hoping you can come down for a few days,” he said. “I think it’s time we talked again.”

  Slaughter had already reported that Marcel had lost heavily in the stock market, and he’d compounded the problem by borrowing money from his company, which he promptly lost to more bad investments. He was in financial quicksand.

  Excitement rushed though Tanner, but his voice was cool. “What date were you looking at?”

  “Tomorrow,” came the quick reply. “I’ll have my housekeeper prepare a room and we can play golf and discuss ways to keep both of us happy.”

  Tanner closed his eyes, cursed fate, and said the only thing he could: “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Ayanna had just finished her bubble bath and was smoothing on lotion when she heard the phone ring in the adjoining bedroom. She ignored it as Tanner would be there soon to pick her up for their date. Humming softly, she pulled on her terry-cloth robe and went to her closet.

  It was difficult to believe they’d only known each other for a short period of time. Whenever she talked with her mother and Sheri, both were quick to point out what a fabulous catch Tanner was. Ayanna always reminded them that catching him wasn’t the problem, it was holding on. Many women had tried and failed.

  They always laughed and disregarded her trepidations. Neither appeared to see the pitfalls of caring for a man like Tanner, a man with a love ’em and leave ’em reputation. It didn’t help that he had to travel a great deal. And wherever he went, woman would be waiting. The only way Ayanna could handle the situation was to guard her heart and not think about his past or about moving on. She was taking their relationship one day at a time.

  The answering machine clicked on as she drew out a long floral-print dress. Noah’s voice asked the caller to leave a message.

  “Please be at home, Ayanna. This is my second call. Your cousins don’t know where you are. I want to see you before I leave.”

  Tanner. She whirled, jerking up the receiver. “I’m here. Please tell me you’re joking.”

  “I wish I were. I’m at the front door; please let me in.”

  Hanging up the phone, she rushed to the front door and jerked it open. In an instant he was closing the door behind him. He gathered her in his arms, his mouth greedily devouring hers. She kissed him back with the same hunger.

  “You smell good and taste better.” He nibbled on her ear.

  “I just got out of the tub,” she said, arching her neck to give him greater access.

  He groaned and tightened his hold. “Guess that’s why you didn’t hear the doorbell. If I didn’t have to go, that robe would already be off.”

  She shivered. “When will you be back?”

  He lifted his head. “I’m not sure. The owner of a prime piece of property is finally ready to discuss terms. I have to go. But before my plane leaves in the morning I have several loose ends to tie up.”

  She understood the trip was necessary. She just didn’t like it very much. “You’ll probably be up most of the night.”

  “I’ve already had my secretary call several of my key people to meet me in my office by seven,” he told her. “I don’t suppose you’d consider going with me to Hilton Head for the weekend?”

  Much as she wanted to, she pushed herself out of his arms, then picked up a tapestry throw pillow from the sofa and hugged it to her chest. “I can’t. I guess you have to take a lot of unexpected business trips.”

  “Occasionally,” he said, frowning at her.

  She nodded. “You’d better get going. You’ll be cutting it close as it is to make it back by seven. Thanks for coming by when you could have called.”

  He didn’t move. “Did I miss something here?”

  Ayanna hugged the pillow tighter to her churning stomach. “I respect what you do, but my father was gone a great deal. His work came first. I’ve always promised myself that I’d never be in a relationship like that.”

  “I can’t change who I am,” he said, his expression unfathomable.

  “I didn’t ask you to,” she said.

  “Didn’t you?” he said, his voice taking on a bit of an edge. “My time isn’t my own, just like yours isn’t with Leo’s. We both do what we have to do. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

  “Would you if you could?” she said before she could stop herself.

  “Would you?” he countered, his gaze intense.

  Leo’s had been her salvation. Tanner’s hotels were his passion. It was impossible to weigh one more heavily than the other. “No. Have a good trip.”

  “How can I when you’re letting it come between us?” he said, his voice tight.

  “I don’t want it to,” she whispered.

  “Then don’t.” He took the pillow from her, tossing it back on the sofa, and took her in his arms. “If it wasn’t important I wouldn’t go.”

  How many times had she heard her father say those same words? Without another thought she repeated what her mother always said, “Be safe and hurry back.”

  His eyes were dark and narrowed. “I will. I’m calling you the minute I know I’m on the way back. Pointe will cook us another dinner.”

  She tried to smile. “I’ll be waiting.”

  “If I kiss you again I may not let go,” he said, his voice tight with suppressed longing.

  “Have a safe trip,” she said.

  “Good-bye.” Turning on his heels, he opened the door and walked to the waiting limo.

  Ayanna watched the car pull away fr
om the curb, then went to her room and sat on the side of the bed. This was not how she had planned to spend her evening. But if she continued to see Tanner she might as well get used to spending the evening alone. The phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She planned to ignore the call until she heard her mother’s cheery voice.

  “Hi, sweetheart. I know you’re getting dressed for your date with Tanner, but I wanted to see if you wanted to go shopping with me in the morning. It will probably be late when you get in so call—”

  “Hi, Mother.”

  “Ayanna, I didn’t expect you to pick up,” her mother said, surprise in her voice.

  She pulled her legs under her. “Tanner had to cancel. He’s leaving in the morning on a business trip so he has to work tonight.”

  “I know you’re disappointed, but at least he called,” her mother consoled.

  “He came by,” Ayanna told her, no happier about the situation.

  “That was very considerate of him. Your father was the same way,” her mother said. “He didn’t always get a chance to come home, of course, but he always called. I wasn’t always happy, but I knew he was a policeman when I fell in love with him.”

  “Dad loved what he did.”

  “Yes, he did, and he was good at it. He had a very high percentage of solved cases,” she said proudly. “He was dedicated, honest, and hardworking. It always amazed me when some of the other wives became upset when their husbands had to break engagements. A lot of the officers’ marriages broke up needlessly because of their work. The women were upset by the same qualities in their men that had attracted them in the first place. Isn’t that silly?”

  Ayanna’s brows knitted as she remembered her conversation with Tanner. At the time, she had thought she was being reasonable about his out-of-town trips, but now she wasn’t so sure. Even if she could, she didn’t want to change him. Her head fell forward. In her own selfish need to come first, she had forgotten the type of man Tanner was.