High-Powered, Hot-Blooded (11 page)

“Going to sleep?” he asked, his voice teasing.

“No. Enjoying the aftermath. Making love with you is pretty amazing.”

“Thank you. Amazing is much better than nice.”

She smiled, opened her eyes, then shifted so her chin was on his chest and she could stare into his eyes. “That’s not what I mean. The other guys I was with—all two of them—weren’t like you. Or maybe it was me. But I never felt…” She sighed. “It wasn’t the same thrill ride.”

He frowned. “Why not? Don’t take this wrong, Annie, but you’re easy.”

She sat up, pulling the sheet with her so she stayed covered. Easy? She’d been thinking love and romance and he thought she was easy?

He sat up as well, then raised both hands. “I take it back. I should have said responsive. I’ve been with women who are difficult to get over the edge. You’re not one of them.” He smiled. “That’s a good thing. Having you do what you do is the best kind of positive reinforcement.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“It wasn’t like that with the other guys?”

“No. Sex was kind of…uninteresting.” And she hadn’t been truly in love with them. She got that now.

“No fireworks?”

“Not even a sputter. I liked it, but I never got the fuss.” Now the fuss was perfectly clear. The fuss was her favorite part.

He shifted his pillow so it was behind his back, then leaned against the headboard. “Tell me about these guys.”

“There’s not much to say. I met Ron in college. He was studying engineering. I’m not sure he’d been with anyone before. I know I hadn’t. We sort of figured it out together.”

“Or not,” Duncan said. “If you weren’t happy.”

“I was happy.” She hadn’t known there was more. Not physically or emotionally.

“Satisfied, then.”

“I didn’t know what to ask for. He was funny and smart and we had a good time. I thought everything was fine.”

She and Ron had been together nearly three years. She thought she was in love with him and had assumed he felt the same way.

“At the beginning of our senior year, he ended things,” she admitted. “He said he’d met someone else. That he didn’t mean to hurt me, but she was the one. But that he and I should still be friends.” She wrinkled her nose. “I passed on that offer.”

“Smart move. And guy number two?”

Should there have been more men? Was two a small number? Duncan probably had dozens of women before and after Valentina.

“A.J.,” she said with a sigh. “He was the assistant principal at my school. I met him my first day. We went out right away. Everything was so easy.”

Duncan realized he’d made a huge mistake in asking about Annie’s love life. While he wanted the information, he didn’t like hearing about her with other men. The fact that the relationships had ended badly didn’t change his sense of annoyance. He wanted to find both Ron and A.J. and beat the crap out of them. How dare either of them hurt Annie. Not that he wanted her with one of them now. He wanted her for himself.

Until the holidays were over, he reminded himself. Nothing more.

“He was also funny and smart. He loved kids.” Annie shook her head. “I don’t know. It was as if we were destined to be together. Everything fell into place. No complications. We were talking about getting married by our fifth date.”

Something heavy seemed to fall into his stomach. He ignored the sensation. “What happened?”

“While I was dreaming about a June wedding, he got a job offer from a school in Baltimore. He wanted me to go with him. Jenny and Julie were seniors in high school and living with me. I couldn’t just leave them. So he went without me. We agreed to date long distance, seeing each other once a month.”

“Did you miss him?”

“Sure.” She shifted so she was sitting next to him, then leaned her head against his shoulder. “I thought everything was fine. Over Memorial Day weekend, he told me while there wasn’t anyone else, he wasn’t interested in dating me anymore. Time away had shown him he wasn’t as interested in me as he’d thought. But he would very much like us to be friends.” She drew in a breath. “I never knew what went wrong.”

He had a feeling she really meant to say what
she
had done wrong. But how to make her understand that none of this was about her? She’d found two stupid guys. It happened.

“Better to find out before you moved in with him rather than after.”

She looked up at him, her blue eyes wide with shock. “I wouldn’t live with him before we were married.”

He held in a smile. “But you’d sleep with him.”

“That’s different. It’s private. Living arrangements usually aren’t. I’m a teacher. What would it say to my students if I lived with a guy without being married to him? What would it say to my cousins or Kami? Children don’t learn by what we say, they learn by what we do.”

Not ten minutes ago, she’d been screaming in his bed. Annie was nothing if not interesting. He could go his whole life and still not know everything about her.

“You’re not giving up on Mr. Right, are you?” he asked.

“No. I’ll find him.” She leaned against his shoulder again. “I want to be married and have a family. I want to grow old with my husband, to be friends and lovers. I want to take care of him and have him take care of me. Which is all too traditional for you, huh?”

“I know how you enjoy your traditions.”

“You don’t believe in them.”

“I got a tree. That’s traditional.”

“At least it’s a start.”

He sensed she needed more—needed him to make some kind of a promise. But he couldn’t. He’d tried that once—trusting a woman with his heart.

Annie couldn’t be more different than his ex. If he’d met Annie first…But he hadn’t. And being what she needed, what she deserved, was impossible. He hoped she understood that. Nothing about their deal had changed. When it was over, he would walk away—and he wouldn’t offer to be just friends.

“I can’t,” Annie whispered, trying to look casual, but barely able to breathe.

It wasn’t the fitted evening gown that was constricting her breathing, or the four-inch heels that altered her walk. Instead it was the weight of the necklace and earrings. Not their physical weight so much as their value.

She fingered the large diamond pendant hanging several inches below her throat. She didn’t know much about fancy jewelry, but this was the biggest stone she’d ever seen. There were smaller diamonds leading to the platinum chain that held the piece securely around her throat. Matching earrings dangled in her upswept hair.

The jewelry ensemble had been delivered by a burly guard who had made Duncan sign several official-looking documents before he’d handed over the velvet cases containing the treasures.

“You’re insured, right?” she asked quietly. “If someone attacks me or a clasp breaks.”

Duncan sighed. “I arranged for the jewelry because I thought you’d enjoy the pieces. I didn’t mean for you to be nervous.”

Probably true, she thought. A sweet gesture and one she really appreciated. Or she would, just as soon as she got over the burning need to vomit.

“Tell me they’re not worth a million dollars and I’ll relax.”

He winked. “They’re not worth a million dollars.”

That was too easy. “You’re lying.”

“Me? How can you say that?”

Better not to know, she told herself as they walked into the elegant hotel ballroom. Fine. She would wear the borrowed jewelry and be excited that Duncan had wanted to make her happy. His actions were thoughtful and sweet. Once she got past the need to throw up, she would feel all quivery inside.

The party was large, with at least two hundred people milling about and talking. As a rule Annie didn’t drink at any of the cocktail parties, but she might give in and have a glass of wine. With a crowd this big, no one would be having anything close to a serious conversation and she wouldn’t be expected to do much more than smile and nod. Which meant her chances of messing up were that much less.

Besides, a little wine would make the idea of wearing all those diamonds more fun than terrifying.

As they moved through the crowd, Duncan kept her close. He held her hand in his, guiding them through the crush at the entrance. She saw an open area to her left.

“There’s dancing,” she said.

“I thought dancing with me made you nervous.”

“Not anymore.”

Their eyes locked. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but she was remembering the last time they’d made love. When he’d made her feel things she hadn’t known were possible and she accepted the fact that she was in love with him. No maybe, no almost. Just totally and completely in love with Duncan.

Fire flared in his gaze. She felt an answering heat in her belly.

“We don’t have to stay long,” he told her.

“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice teasing. “I was thinking we’d be here at least three or four hours.”

He drew her close. “Fifteen minutes, tops. Or we could get a room in the hotel. The suites have jetted tubs.”

“And you know this how?”

“Duncan?”

The person speaking his name had a low, sexy voice—the kind that belonged on radio. Annie turned and saw an incredibly tall, beautiful woman in a sexy black dress standing next to them. The woman smiled warmly, her blue eyes sparkling with delight.

“I was hoping to see you here,” she said in her throaty voice. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Duncan stiffened. Annie felt the tension fill his body as he turned toward the woman. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The smile never wavered. “I came to see you, Duncan.” The woman glanced at Annie. “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

He hesitated, then released Annie’s hand. “Annie, this is Valentina. My ex-wife.”

“Why are you here?” he asked bluntly. “And spare me the bullshit.”

The smile broadened. “There’s no one quite like you, Duncan. My mistake was in thinking I could replace you.”

“You mean do better? That was the point, wasn’t it? Move up the food chain.”

“Well, I suppose. I remarried, if that’s what you’re really asking. Eric was charming, easy to get along with.” She wrinkled her nose. “Boring. I thought being rich was the most important thing in the world. I thought it gave me power and made me feel safe. I was wrong.”

“Thanks for the update,” he said. “I need to get back to the party.”

“Wait, Duncan. Aren’t you even a little happy to see me?”

He stared into her catlike eyes, then dropped his gaze to the full mouth that had known how to take him from zero to sixty in less than a minute.

When she’d first left, he’d been devastated. He’d retreated into anger, had vowed revenge, had understood the primal fury of a man longing to lock up the woman he loved. To keep her from the world. When the anger had ceased to burn quite as brightly, humiliation had joined rage. The knowledge that she had betrayed him, that he had been a fool, had kept him up nights.

He’d loved her. She had promised him everything he’d ever wanted and he’d believed her. That she would love him forever, that they would always be together. That he was the one.

Over time he’d accepted that he had been a means to an end. He’d looked back on their relationship and had seen her for what she was. The anger had faded, the wounds healed. A few days after she’d left, his uncle had told him that the opposite of love wasn’t hate—it was indifference. Now, staring at the woman he’d once married, he knew that to be true.

“You don’t matter enough for me to have any emotion on the subject,” he said.

“Wow. Talk about honest. So you didn’t miss me at all?”

He thought about those long nights when he’d lain awake, staring at the ceiling. He would have sold his soul for her return. Good thing the devil had been busy making deals with other people at the time.

“I loved you,” he told her. “Having you leave hurt like a son of a bitch. So what? That was three years ago, Valentina. I’ve moved on.”

“I wish I could say the same, but I haven’t. I know I was wrong and I know I’ll have to earn back your trust. That’s why I’m here. I still love you, Duncan. I never stopped. I want us to have a second chance.”

He heard the words, let them sink into his skin, then waited. Was there any part of him interested? Did a fiber or a cell long to be with her again? Were old scars still tender?

No, he thought with relief. There was nothing. Not a hint of longing or curiosity. She was nothing more than someone he used to know.

He started for the door. “Sorry. Not interested.”