Seducing His Opposition (11 page)

For one thing, he was willing to admit that this was confusing him as much as it was confusing her. That shouldn’t turn her on, but it did. It made her want to wrap her entire body around his and make love to him here on her patio. But she wasn’t going to do that. She couldn’t.

Already he was starting to become more important to her than she’d expected him to be. She had to remember that she was leaving in a few weeks.

“About as much as I can control you,” he said. His hands settled on her waist and she looked down into his eyes.

There was something so pure about the color of his eyes and she felt like she could get lost in them. Get lost in the life that she once had and the life that she’d always dreamed of having. Dreams that had been swept away by Raul’s actions.

“I’m afraid,” she admitted in a soft whisper and put her head down on his shoulder.

“Afraid of what?” he asked, his hands moving smoothly over her back.

She didn’t know if she could put it into words but then the simple truth was there. “You…me. I guess I’m scared of the way you make me feel. I’ve been so focused on my career and I’ve found a way to live with the past and with my mistakes. But now you are making me want again.”

“Wanting is good,” he said.

She turned her head on his shoulder and kissed his neck. “Wanting is very good. But I’m afraid that it is changing me. I thought I knew who I was. I thought that the woman I’d once been was completely gone but being back here has made me realize I’m not sure who I am.”

He tipped her head back so that he could look down in her eyes. “You know who you are, you just didn’t want to admit that there was still a part of you that could be passionate about a man and about this place.”

She leaned up and kissed him hard on the lips. “Why do you think that?”

“Because it’s in your eyes. I don’t see a woman who doubts herself at all.”

“I’m not talking about confidence,” she said.

“What are you talking about then?”

“I’m talking about dreams,” she said. “I thought that I was the kind of woman who would be happy with a career and a life in the big city…not the city of my childhood but a new place. A place where I’d carved out my own life. But I think I just realized that I haven’t been living.”

“You haven’t?” he asked.

She shook her head, letting her hair brush over his hands as she leaned forward and kissed him gently. No matter what else came from her time with Justin she’d always be grateful to him for making her realize what had been missing in her life.

“No, I’ve been hiding and I’m just now realizing that I let Raul steal something from me. And you, Justin Stern, my
abuelito
’s silver-tongued devil, are slowly giving it back to me.”

J
ustin carried Selena back over to the lounger where he’d held her earlier. He’d had enough of talking. What he needed was something that made sense to him. Something he didn’t have to dissect and analyze. He needed to have her body, naked and writhing, under him.

He needed them both to get out of their heads and he needed that right now. He lowered her onto the lounger and sat next to her hip.

“What are you doing?”

“If you can’t figure it out then I’m not doing it correctly.”

She shook her head. “It feels like lovemaking.”

“Then that’s what it is,” he said. “I was hoping you’d say it felt like an erotic dream come true.”

“It’s more than that. Last night was so much more than I thought I’d find with a man…”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said.

“I’m glad. I didn’t expect to like you.”

“Same here. But I knew from the moment I sat down next to you in the zoning office that you were different.”

She smiled up at him. “Really. I thought you were just this crazy guy who thought with his libido instead of his head.”

She made him feel good and happy, he thought. It didn’t matter what the future held at this moment—he was more relaxed and turned on than he’d ever been.

He reached for the tie that seemed to hold her blouse together and undid it. He pulled the fabric open and found there was a little button on the inside that still had to be unfastened. But he was distracted from getting her completely naked by the one breast he had already uncovered.

She wore a nude colored mesh bra that was almost like a second skin. He growled low in his throat and caressed the full globe of that revealed breast, moving his fingers up to her nipple. “I love this bra.”

“I’m glad. I wore it for you.”

“What else did you wear for me?”

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable and I’ll show you?” She stood up and he moved so he was lying back on the lounger. Selena was innately sensual and despite what she’d said about not knowing who she was, he knew she was one of the most confident women he’d ever met. There was something very sure about her, as she slowly removed her blouse and dropped it on the other chair.

“So you like this?” she asked cupping her breasts and leaning forward.

“Very much.” Not touching her was torture but he
was determined to let her have this moment. And to let her seduce him.

She put her hands to her waistband and slowly lowered the zipper. Through the opening in her shorts he saw her smooth stomach and belly button before she slowly parted the cloth.

“I’m not sure you really want to see this,” she said.

“Trust me, I do.”

“Then take off your shirt.”

“Show me a little something and I’ll consider it.”

She turned around and swiveled her hips at him. She lowered the fabric of her shorts the tiniest bit so that he saw the indentation at the small of her back and the thin nude colored elastic at the waist of her panties.

“Whatcha got for me, Justin?”

He stood up; being passive wasn’t in his nature. He toed off his loafers and started unbuttoning his shirt. He let it hang open as he came up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and bent to taste the side of her neck.

“This is what I have for you,” he said. Taking her hips in his hands and drawing her back until her buttocks was nestled against his erection. He rubbed up and down against her.

She shivered delicately and tossed her hair as she turned her head to look back at him. “That’s exactly what I need.”

“I’m glad,” he said, nibbling against her skin as he talked. He moved his hands over her stomach, feeling the bare skin. He dipped his finger in her belly button and her hips swiveled against his.

He pushed hands lower into the opening of her shorts and cupped her feminine mound in his hand. She was humid and hot and she shifted herself against his palm.
He pressed against her and she swiveled her hips again, this time caressing him.

He loved the feel of her against his erection. He pushed her pants down her legs and then reached between them to open his own pants and free himself.

He groaned when he felt the naked globes of her ass against his erection. She had on a thong.

“God, woman, you are killing me,” he rasped in her ear.

“Good. I have thought of nothing else but you and me like this since you dropped me off this morning.”

“Me, too,” he admitted. He kept caressing her between her legs and used his other hand to push the thin piece of fabric that guarded her secrets out of the way.

She moaned his name and parted her legs, shifting forward so that he could enter her more smoothly. He held her hips with both of his hands as he pushed up inside her. He started moving, listening to the sounds she made.

He loved her sex noises and had a feeling he’d never tire of hearing them. Her velvety smooth walls contracted around him with each thrust he made. He felt his orgasm getting closer with each thrust into her body.

Everything started tingling, and then he erupted with a deep pulse. He heard her cry out as he emptied himself into her. She slumped forward in his arms and it took all of his strength to keep them on their feet. As soon as he was able to, he pulled out and lifted her in his arms, carrying her into the house.

“Where’s your bathroom?” he asked. She liked the way that sex roughened his voice and made it low and raspy. At this moment she felt like the other things she spent all day worrying about didn’t really matter.

“Down the hall, first door on the left.”

He carried her down the hall, but she hardly paid attention to any of it. Just kept her head on his shoulder and thought about how nice it was to have a big strong man to carry her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t take care of herself because she could; it was that she didn’t have to do anything right now.

She felt safe and…cherished. That was it. She’d never experienced it before. He made her feel like she was the most important person in his world at this moment. And she wasn’t going to allow herself to analyze it and dissect it and figure out why she shouldn’t just enjoy it.

He set her on the counter. Her bathroom had a large garden tub with spa jets. He turned the tap and adjusted the temperature.

He was a very fine-looking man. She’d be happy to watch him move around naked all day long.

“Bubble bath?” he asked.

“Under the sink. I can get it,” she started to hop down.

“No, stay where you are. I want to do this for you,” he said, standing up and coming over to her. Wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her close to him for a hug.

She rested her head against his chest and had the fleeting sensation that this wasn’t going to last. Like she should hold on to him as tight as she could right now. She squeezed him to her and he pulled back. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Ready for this bath.”

“Me, too.”

He found the bubble bath and poured it into the running water. Soon there was a sea of bubbles as he
turned the faucet off. He lifted her up and then stepped into the tub.

He sat down in the water, which was the perfect temperature, and cradled her on his lap.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” she asked.

“I was like an animal out there. You turned me on and I couldn’t think of anything except having you. Damn, just thinking about it is getting me hard again,” he said.

“I thought men of a certain age took a little longer to recover,” she said.

“Not with you around,” he admitted. He pulled her back against her, moving his hands over her body.

“Why aren’t you staying here?” he asked after a moment. “The real reason.”

“I told you…it doesn’t feel like home,” she said. “And to be honest every time I’m here I remember all the bad things that happened. It makes me feel guilty and sad.”

He hugged her close, and he was so sweet in that moment that she felt her heart start to melt. She knew she couldn’t give in to that and let herself start to care for him—hell, who was she kidding, she already cared for him or she wouldn’t have cooked for him. She was starting to fall for him and that was more dangerous than anything else she could do.

“I hope you will be thinking of me in this place now,” he said.

“I definitely will be,” she said. And that was a big part of her problem. He was slowly making himself a part of her time here. Making her want to stay in the one place she vowed she’d never make her home again.

They finished their bath with lots of caressing and
touching and Selena felt very mellow after they dried off. She found the dressing gowns that her grandmother kept in the closet for guests who rented the house and they put them on. He led her back outside to the pool and she wasn’t surprised when he offered to clean up the dinner dishes for her.

“You don’t have to do that. Why don’t you mix us some drinks while I take care of those,” she said.

He went to the bar, stopping along the way to pick up his cell phone. She suspected he was checking his email and she didn’t like it. It was like he was going back to the businessman he essentially was.

She wondered if the sweet guy stuff was an act. Was that part of how he was playing her to make sure that she went along with all of his suggestions?

She piled their dinner dishes on a tray and took them inside to the kitchen putting them away before rejoining Justin.

When she got out on the patio, Justin had put his pants back on and was buttoning his shirt.

“I’m sorry but something has come up and I have to go.”

She nodded. “No problem.”

He stared at her for a minute. “Okay, good. So I will see you in a couple of days to start our meetings with the tenants of the marketplace.”

“Sure.”

It felt to her like he was running away and she didn’t want to let it upset her but it did. It bothered her that she’d spent the evening with him, seduced him and shared the secrets of her past with him and now he was running out the door as fast as he could.

“I wish I could stay,” he said.

“It’s not a big deal,” she replied. If he truly wanted to stay he’d stay.

“It is. Listen, I can’t ignore this page,” he said. “Are you spending the night here or at the hotel?”

“The hotel, why?”

“Let’s meet for a nightcap. Say, eleven?”

“Why?” she asked again.

“I don’t want you to think I’m the kind of man who runs away.”

She wrapped her arm around her waist and then realized what it was she was doing and dropped it. “I don’t know what kind of man you are.”

“Yes, you do,” he said. “I will remind you when I see you later tonight.”

He kissed her hard on the lips and walked through her house and out the front door.

Justin didn’t have an emergency waiting for him—he was a businessman not a surgeon—but he’d had to get out of there. Had to breathe and remind himself that as far as Selena was concerned they were having a vacation affair.

And he needed to remember that. He wasn’t looking for the future Mrs. Justin Stern. He wasn’t getting married ever and if he did change his mind…well, that wasn’t going to happen, at least not now.

He drove aimlessly, finding himself in the parking lot of Luna Azul. Sitting in his car he wondered why he was still here. Cam didn’t need him in Miami to continue helping to run the company. Not like he had in the beginning when they’d all three bonded together and did every job they could themselves to cut costs.

He could be anywhere else he wanted to, even New
York. But he knew he wouldn’t leave. He couldn’t leave. This place was in his blood. This was home.

Someone knocked on his window and he glanced up to see Nate standing there. He turned off the car engine and got out.

“What are you doing?”

“Thinking.”

“I guess I can see why you were alone. Takes all your concentration, right?”

“Ha.”

“Ha? Damn, man, you don’t sound like yourself. What’s up?”

He shook his head. No way was he going to tell his little brother that he was confused and a woman was responsible. Nate would laugh himself into a stupor if Justin admitted such a thing.

“Do you ever miss baseball?”

Nate shrugged his muscled shoulders. “Some days, but I don’t dwell on it. It’s not like I’m going to ever be able to go back.”

“What about that high school coach from Texas who made the majors in his forties?”

“He was a pitcher, Jus. I’m not. Plus I like this life. I don’t know that I’d be committed enough to work out every day and do all the traveling,” Nate said then tipped his head to the side. “Besides, you’d miss me.”

Justin smiled at his little brother. “I would. I never thought we’d all end up working together.”

“I didn’t either, but I bet Cam knew,” Nate said.

“What are you doing out here?”

“I …I have a date.”

“With Jen? I thought you were engaged, so dating was a thing of the past.”

“She likes it when we meet up after she gets done with work and then we have a little alone time.”

“Alone time? Seriously. You crack me up,” Justin said but to be honest he was envious of his brother and his fiancée. Until this moment he hadn’t realized that he wanted what Nate had found. And he knew it was because of Selena.

“I still have to head out after our ‘date’ to schmooze more celebs but this gives us a little time together.”

“Sounds nice,” Justin admitted.

“Thanks, bro. So are you going inside?”

“No. I have to head back to my office. I want to review some notes I made earlier.”

“At this time of the night? I know Cam is a bit of a pain about this marketplace project but I think he’d let you have a night off.”

“You know he doesn’t want me to take any time until this is all wrapped up.”

Nate arched one eyebrow at him. “You’re not big on vacations.”

“No, I’m not. I’m a workaholic so I guess it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m heading to the office.”

“Normally no, but I’ve never caught you sitting in the parking lot before.”

Justin realized that his brother was now concerned. “I’m just looking at all we’ve accomplished.”