Operation Saving Daniel (Entangled Covet) (6 page)

Chapter Six

A handful of steps led down to the pool at the Spanish villa and Lissa hesitated at the top. Below her, Daniel lay stretched out on his stomach on a sunbed, his head resting on his folded hands. Sophia perched beside him, rubbing suntan lotion into the golden skin of his back. Her scarlet bikini showed off her perfect figure. Curvaceous in all the right places, she made Lissa feel like a stick by comparison.

“Bitch,” Julia muttered from beside her. “Look at her smug expression. She thinks she’s caught him.”

“She has.”

Sophia glanced up and met Lissa’s gaze. Her hands slowed, her movements becoming sensual, gliding lower to slip beneath the waistband of Daniel’s dark blue swim shorts.

“Excuse me while I go lose my lunch,” Julia muttered.

“I might join you,” Lissa replied. The sight of Sophia touching Daniel, as though she had every right to, made her nauseous. She wanted to stride across, drag the other woman away from him, and toss her overheated ass into the pool. Sophia obviously needed cooling down.

Daniel must have sensed something because he shrugged off the hand, rolled over, and sat up.

Whoa. Where had those muscles come from? He was totally ripped. “Has your brother been working out?” she asked.

“I guess he must have been.”

His skin stretched taut over the smooth swell of muscles. His shoulders were broad, his hips narrow, his stomach flat, almost concave and ridged with muscle.

Something nudged her in the side, and she jumped.

“You’re gawping,” Julia murmured. “Not that I blame you. When did my brother get so hot?”

“I don’t know.”

He’d always been good-looking, but this was way beyond handsome. He was…mesmerizing. She’d felt that hard body against hers the other day but seeing it in the bright sunshine was a completely different matter.

“You’re still gawping and I think The Evil One has noticed.”

Lissa shook her head and kick-started her brain. She dragged her gaze from the truly drool worthy sight of Daniel in nothing but a pair of swimming shorts and looked at the woman at his side. And wished she hadn’t. Sophia’s body matched his flawless physique—and Lissa hated her.

The perfect couple.

She turned her attention back to Daniel and found him watching her. Holding her gaze, he lifted his hand and rested it on Sophia’s shoulder, curled his fingers around her neck, and pulled her close against his body.

Sophia snuggled in, turned her head, and kissed him full on the mouth. Daniel’s other hand came out and he cupped her chin and deepened the kiss.

For a second, Lissa’s hands clenched at her side, and then she relaxed her fingers one by one.

“Yuk,” Julia muttered.

“Isn’t it sweet?” Pamela, Julia’s mother, came up behind them with a tray of cocktails, and Lissa thankfully turned from the show in front of her. “I’d despaired of Daniel ever settling down and finding someone to love and now it’s happened.”

Lissa couldn’t convince herself that love came into this little scenario anywhere. She glanced back at the couple. They were still kissing, but as she watched, Daniel opened his eyes and stared straight at her. His expression was totally detached. As though he felt nothing.

Finally, he drew back and put Sophia from him. She pouted but rose from the bed, and went to stretch out on the one next to him, bending one knee and posing like a model.

Ignoring his girlfriend, Daniel still watched Lissa, and she stared back as she untied the belt of her robe and shrugged out of it. Beneath it, she wore a one piece she’d bought on her shopping trip with Julia. The saleswoman had called it a mono-kini—a very skimpy bikini with a diagonal strip of material that crossed her belly.

It suited her. While she was still a little too thin, she’d lost a lot of weight with that last bout of malaria; at least the slimness emphasized her breasts.

She strolled toward him, dangling the robe from one finger. When she came up level, she dropped it onto his lap.

“Hello, Daniel.”

“Lissa.” Had he really kissed her? His tone gave nothing away. “I like the haircut,” he said.

His gaze flickered down over her body and something shifted behind it. She caught a brief flash of expression—hunger, need—then it was gone. But the look was enough to send a wave of heat washing through her body. Her nipples tightened, not good considering her clothes or rather lack of them. She peeked down and saw them pressed up against the material of her swimsuit. Glancing back at Daniel, she found his gaze had followed hers and he was staring at her breasts. It was hard not to remember the feel of his hands touching her only days earlier. Heat curled inside her, and any moment steam would pop out of her ears.

She turned around and dived into the water.

After swimming the length of the pool underwater, she came up gasping for air. Unfortunately, the water was tepid like a warm bath and did nothing to cool her down.

…

Daniel paced his room. He wanted to be away from here so badly. He’d had all he could take of Sophia for one day. For one lifetime actually. But they needed to at least make the pretense they were a happy couple.

Sophia lay on the bed, head propped on one hand. Her lips pursed in a scarlet pout.

All evening he’d had to spout insincere drivel to his parents while she drove him insane. He’d never hit a woman before, but Sophia tempted him sorely.

As he stared out the window, lights glinted off a small boat on the Mediterranean far below. He wished he were on it, sailing somewhere far away. Preferably with Lissa beside him.

Daniel clenched his fist. He had to stop thinking that way. Sophia was already suspicious. That’s what the touchy-feely stuff was about—she was making sure that everyone knew he belonged to her. But her touch made his wolf claw at his insides. Every minute in her company, he had to make a conscious effort not to give in to the violence his beast craved. He couldn’t help but wonder if one day he would lose that restraint, along with his humanity, give in to the urges that drove his wolf. But not this weekend, he hoped.

“Lay off pawing me,” he said.

“I’m only trying to convince them that we’re in love.”

“Well, it won’t convince them if I throw up all over you, will it?”

She pouted again and stretched out, arching her back and thrusting her full breasts into the air while gazing at him through half-closed lashes. “Really, Daniel, do you find me so unattractive.”

He let his gaze stray down the length of her body. “I find you totally repugnant. The thought of touching you makes my skin crawl. Is that clear enough for you?”

Rage flashed across her face, and her eyes glittered with malice, followed by what he guessed was satisfaction. This wasn’t about desire for Sophia; it was about power. Proving that she had the power to make him stand in line. And she did.

Jesus, he was supposed to be trying to convince her there was nothing between Lissa and him, that’s what this whole charade was about. And he was hardly going about it the right way. He didn’t understand what was the matter with him.

“I’m betting you don’t find your Lissa repugnant. On the other hand, I’m sure I could arrange some little accident that might make her that way.”

This time, the fury flashed through him. In two paces, he was across the floor and standing over her. He leaned down, put his hands on either side her body, and shoved his face close to hers.

“If you arrange anything, I swear I will kill you. I don’t care what Ethan threatens, I
will
kill you.”

Maybe her face paled slightly, but he couldn’t be sure. She must be aware it was an empty threat, because he would never risk his family. Straightening, he turned away from her. His head ached viciously, and he ran his hands through his hair, rubbing his scalp, trying to ease the pressure. He took a deep breath, and another, before he turned back to face her.

“I’ll do my part,” he said. “Just don’t lay it on so thick. My family aren’t stupid. I’m not that good an actor, so cool it or they’ll get suspicious.”

She sat up and swung her legs around so she faced him. Her eyes were bland, but her hands were fisted at her side. “You’d better hope they don’t become suspicious,” she snarled and her otherworld energy seeped into the room. Great, the last thing he needed was Sophia to go wolfy on him. “And you’d better make sure your little Lissa keeps her hands to herself. You make sure she understands you’re my property now.”

“She’s not
my
Lissa,” he said. And she never would be. “She’ll keep her hands to herself. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Sophia rose gracefully from the bed and stood beside him, close, so close that she could reach out a finger and stroke it down his chest. She toyed with one of the buttons of his shirt and he had to hold himself still so he didn’t back away. Then she peered up at him from under her lashes. “But I do worry. And if I worry, Ethan worries.”

He knew the words were a not-very-veiled threat and suddenly, weariness washed over him. “Well, I’ll leave you to worry alone.”

Without waiting for her to say anything else, he turned on his heels and strode across the room. She spoke again as he reached the door.

“I hope you got me a nice ring.”

At the door, he glanced back. “Suits you perfectly.”

He closed the door behind him. For a minute, he shut his eyes, and leaned his back against the wall. How had his life ever turned into this mess? A big, bad, horrible mess that he could see no way out of. Well one way, but one that would mean going down a path that would see him relinquishing the last of his humanity. Becoming one of the monsters.

He pushed himself up from the wall and opened his eyes. Then groaned under his breath. Things had just gotten a whole lot worse.

Lissa stood about ten feet away, staring at him. She’d undressed for the night and was wearing a pair of black pajama bottoms and a camisole. The silky top clung to her small, rounded breasts and showed off her shoulders and the jut of her collarbone. Compared to Sophia, she was almost scrawny, so why did she make his heart beat faster?

With Sophia in the room behind him, he had to get Lissa away from here. He vaguely remembered that she and Julia were sharing a room. Well, why wasn’t she tucked safely in bed at this time of the night?

She stared at him out of enormous eyes. When had her eyes gotten so big? And she was leaning against the wall as though she couldn’t stand up on her own. As she caught his gaze, she lifted one unsteady hand and waggled her fingers at him.

Christ, she was drunk.

Just what he needed. He definitely had to get her out of here.

He strode toward her, coming to a halt foot away. “Have you been drinking?”

She pursed her lips. “I have been drinking sangria with your sisters. Lots of sisters and lots of sangria. They are a bad influence.”

“Funny,” he muttered, “I always remembered you being the bad influence.”

She sniffed. “I changed, matured.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

“You’d know that, if you spent a little bit of time with me. I’m a mature woman. I’ve spent the last ten years saving the world.”

“And I bet you did a wonderful job, but right now I think we need to get you to bed.”

“You do?” She smiled as she reached up with a shaky hand and tugged at a strand of his hair. “You used to have long hair, now it’s short.”

“Yeah.”

“So’s mine. We have so much in common.”

He bit back a smile; he didn’t want to encourage her. Her hair was extremely short, black, and glossy like a raven’s wing. It suited her, made her thin face more feminine, emphasizing those gorgeous eyes, golden like dark honey. The eyes he was gazing down into in a most inappropriate manner. She blinked and fluttered her lashes. Was it on purpose? Was it part of the “plan”? But he reckoned she was too drunk to think about any plan at this moment.

“Is that Sophia’s room?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on him. “Your hair is mussed, but you don’t look like you’ve been making love. You’re still all buttoned up. She touched a finger to one of his shirt buttons, much as Sophia had earlier. With Sophia, he had felt nothing but a vague revulsion. When Lissa touched him, it was like a jolt of lightning shooting along his nerves.

Lissa licked her lips, and he groaned inwardly. She appeared to think for a few seconds, her head cocked on one side as she considered him. “You kissed me.”

“It was a weak moment. It won’t happen again.”

Oh God, he hoped it wouldn’t happen again. It couldn’t happen again. He tried to tell himself he didn’t want to kiss her, but her lips were so pink and full and kissable. This would be so much easier if he didn’t… He broke off the thought.

“It won’t?” she asked.

She sounded forlorn. Perhaps she wanted him to kiss her. He’d been so busy thinking about his own feelings, his somewhat unique problems, that he hadn’t given much consideration to hers. Why had she really come back? Had Julia called her up and said,
We have a problem with Daniel. Can you come back and save him from himself?

Did she want him? She hadn’t exactly fought him off the other morning. In fact, she had kissed him right back. At the memory, his cock jerked in his pants and heat settled low in his belly.

He glanced back the way he had come. Sophia’s door was still shut tight, but who knew how long that would last. She had excellent hearing—they all did—far advanced from a normal human. He needed to take Lissa somewhere they’d have company so he wouldn’t be tempted to give in to the almost overwhelming urge to drag her back to his room and make mad passionate love to her.

“Come on,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and turning her gently. “Let’s get you out of here and back where you belong.”