Tango in Paradise (10 page)

“I’ll probably be working late tonight.” At the frown that creased his brow she added, “Even Señor Jack can’t solve all of the Cove’s problems in a day or two. Speaking of which, you should relax and enjoy what the Cove has to offer.”

“I thought I was.” April moved back slightly, but Jack reached out to hold her arm in a gentle grip. His voice was low and carried only as far as her ears. He didn’t hide his frustration. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded. If I truly thought you were just one of the Cove’s perks, I sure as hell would have worked off the sexual energy we built up in a much more enjoyable way than playing volleyball in ninety-plus heat.”

April’s eyes widened, causing Jack to smile again.

“You mean that’s why you …?”

“Yeah. For a whole hour. And if you keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna have to do laps next.” The shouts for Jack to return grew louder, but he kept his gaze on her. “You’ll be in your office later?”

“Yes, except for a few minutes before the nightly show. I usually greet the guests just before showtime and make several announcements about upcoming events.”

“Did you mean what you said earlier?”

April looked confused, then wary. “Probably. Which thing?”

“About not sneaking around.”

“I’m here on the beach with you, aren’t I?”

Jack’s grin broadened to a bright white smile. “Yeah, I guess you are. Then you won’t mind if I do this.”

Before she could answer, he pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. His kiss was hard, hot, and over entirely too soon.

“It was my turn, right?” he whispered in her ear.

April nodded mutely, but the whistles of a few of the guests brought her back to the present. A volleyball landed in a spray of sand at his feet and he stepped away. He toed the ball up into his hands and looked back at her.

She could have sworn that for a split second he’d been searching her face for signs he’d acted out of line. He hadn’t been. After all, she’d given him the green light earlier, under the tree. She smiled back at him and his cocky grin instantly surfaced.

He backed his way toward the net, his eyes flashing, a teasing smile on his face, popping the ball onto his biceps like a beach bum trying to impress his girl.

She couldn’t resist. She flashed him a big smile and said in a clear voice, “See you later, Moondoggie.” She had the satisfaction, as she climbed up the stairs leading from the beach
to the grounds, of hearing the other men razz Jack.

She grinned all the way to her office, amazed that she’d spent the afternoon behaving like a college kid on spring break, at her own resort no less! Her smile faltered as images of the far more mature activity she could have spent the steamy afternoon indulging in floated through her mind.

April entered her office and sat down behind her desk. The large room was a dozen degrees cooler than the beach, yet she felt hotter, uncomfortable.

Forcing the tantalizing images from her mind, she swiveled her chair and looked out the large window to the beach below. She didn’t bother to kid herself that she wasn’t hoping for a glimpse of him. She could see the volleyball game from here, but not enough to tell which one was Jack. She had no doubt she’d see him again tonight. The thought sent a thrill of anticipation through her.

Jack may have seemed more relaxed on the beach, but she knew it would take more than a volleyball game to truly unwind the tension and weariness that lay beneath the surface of his charming smile. It went far deeper than corporate burnout. Getting involved with Jack would not be light and easy. But nothing in her life, good or bad, had ever been either of those things. All that remained to be seen was which
category having a relationship with him would fall in to.

Jack crossed the moonlit lawn, enjoying the cooler midnight air. The grass was cool and wet between his toes and the evening wind whipped the dampness from his freshly showered hair. As he neared the entrance to the main building, he shifted the cooler in his hand and glanced down at the baggy chinos and print shirt he wore as he slipped on the beach thongs he’s bought earlier at the Cove’s gift shop.

He had a sudden wild urge to go back to the bungalow and put on something less … rumpled. A wry smile crossed his face. Since when had he cared how he dressed? Besides, April had already seen him wearing less.

His thoughts drifted to how she’d stared at him the day he’d caught her looking through the reception pictures. He’d only been wearing a bath towel, but at the time had been grateful for the coverage, considering his immediate response to her.

Now he paused and looked up at the windows at the top of the half dozen of so floors. Yellow light blinked between the slats of the blinds of a large corner office that wrapped around the back of the building. He headed into the lobby.

He immediately spotted the concierge. Surprised that he was still on duty, Jack nodded to
the dark-skinned man, then abruptly headed over to him. “
Buenas noches
, Dominguez,” he said in greeting.

“
Hola, Señor
Jack. What can I do for you?” He nodded to the small cooler Jack held in one hand.

Jack looked down as if wondering what had caught Dom’s attention. “Oh,” he answered, then glanced back up, “nothing right now. But I’m expecting some mail in the next few days. I’d really appreciate it if you could get it to me as soon as it comes in.”

“
Sí, sí
. No problem.” He grinned at Jack and nodded, flashing one gold-capped tooth.

Jack nodded back, then paused a moment, suddenly realizing that he felt uncomfortable about going to the lobby elevator. His destination would be all too clear to Dom and anyone else who cared to watch the illuminating numbers above the lobby doors as he rode to the top floor.

It was ridiculous. He’d never felt the need, or even had an urge, to protect the reputation of the women he’d dated. They’d all been sophisticated and intelligent enough to be responsible for their decisions. Which made the urge to protect April all the more confusing. Jack smiled briefly at Dom and moved a few steps away in the general direction of the elevator.

More than any of the other women he’d dated, April, with her achievements, certainly knew her
own mind. He paced over to the gleaming brass doors, his finger hovering over the arrow button. So why, he silently asked himself, especially in light of the statements she’d made to him that very afternoon, were his instincts still screaming at him to go slow, to protect, to take special care?

Because, his mind responded, beneath that competent, efficient CEO face she presented to the world, a fragile layer existed, one he suspected she’d rarely allowed anyone to see. But he had seen it, had held her while she came to grips with whatever had caused it.

Jack shook off the questions shooting through his mind. Chances were good that he’d get his answers in the information he’d requested. Until then, there was no point dwelling on the reasons, when his time could be much better spent getting to know everything about April on a firsthand basis.

Resisting the urge to glance back to see if Dom was watching, Jack punched the “up” arrow. It would be foolish to even try to conceal his destination. Hotels were the same all over the world. The up-to-the-second information available through their grapevines had saved his butt more than a few times. By now the kiss on the beach was certainly old news.

The doors slid silently open and he stepped inside and turned around. Not a soul was paying
the least bit of attention to him. Jack smiled as the doors slid shut. April’s staff was well trained—efficient and, more important, discreet.

Once on the top floor, Jack headed toward the office that he’d noticed from down on the lawn. Cracking open the door, he stepped into an outer office. Glad that April didn’t have employees with her workaholic tendencies, he slipped past the unoccupied secretary’s desk and quietly leaned over to peek into the partly open door leading to her office.

He’d expected to see her at her desk, her dark head bent over a pile of paperwork. What he saw instead took his breath away and rooted him to the spot.

She stood with her back to him, gazing out the huge picture window behind her desk. Her silk caramel-colored dress was backless. He let his gaze drift down the delicate ridge of her spine exposed by the loose halter style, then rest for a moment on the narrow gold belt circling her waist. The slight flare of her hips could barely be seen above the low back of her chair. His pulse pounded when she shifted her weight slightly and a sigh whispered through her lips.

His hand went immediately to his chest, groping for the nonexistent camera. His need to capture the essence of this moment forever on film hit him so hard he had to clench his fingers in a fist
to keep from pounding them on the door frame in frustration.

So he did the next best thing and allowed the impact of her to flow over and through him. He responded fully to the moment, to her, wanting to enjoy the rush while it lasted. He had an insane desire to trace his tongue along the length of her too-rigid spine, then slip his hands in the sides of her loose top. His skin tightened as he flexed his muscles against the response his body had to thoughts of how her small breasts would feel in his large hands, what they would look like, taste like.

He must have made a sound, because she whirled around, one small hand clutching the very spot he’d been imagining his hand touching.

“Jack! You scared me to death.”

She’d been a million miles away, but the startled look on her face made it clear her thoughts hadn’t been of him. Jack yanked his eyes from the silky fabric clutched in her hands and the way it pulled the fabric tight over her obviously braless breasts. It took a moment longer to regain his voice. “Sorry.” The word was barely more than a rasp.

April fell silent, simply staring at him. He did the same. She lowered her hand as his gaze traveled over her.

He wished the front of her dress plunged deeply like the back. The gathered silk that fastened tight at her neck kept him from discovering if her pulse
was pounding as rapidly as his. Nonetheless, he found it next to impossible to pull his gaze away from that slender neck and focus on her eyes.

Surprise had been replaced by an open look of desire that rocked him to his knees. To look at her now—chin firm, those almond-shaped eyes meeting his gaze head-on—he couldn’t believe he had spent one second worrying about protecting her. Hers was the face of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.

In a reflex gesture he lifted the cooler in his hand. “Hungry?”

She didn’t even glance at the cooler. “Famished.”

Jack stepped into the office and closed the door.

SIX

“What are you doing here this late?” April’s voice was lower, huskier.

“I might ask you the same question. But I won’t.” Jack moved to her desk and put the cooler down on one of the chairs. April remained behind the desk. “I told you I’d see you again. Are you really so surprised?”

Until that moment April would have denied just how badly she had wanted to believe he would find her here. That she’d prolonged leaving for just that possibility. Now that he stood not two feet from her she could feel her entire body responding to him, the mere sight of him, the sound of his voice. She didn’t even try to deny it. “No, I suppose not.”

Jack moved around the desk. At the last second
April turned back to face the window, afraid she’d do something foolish. Like rub her body wantonly against him just to feel the satiny material of her dress scrape across her bare breasts as she pressed them against his hard-muscled chest.

His breath was warm on her neck as he moved behind her. She held her breath, wanting to scream from the intensity of the desire mounting in her body, knowing she would if he didn’t touch her. Quickly. All over. “Jack?” His name was a hoarse rasp, barely discernible even to her own ears.

“What do you want, April?”

Her only response, the only one she was capable of, was a shiver that ran the length of her spine and made her inner thighs quiver. She heard the soft rustle of fabric and then a click that plunged the office into darkness. The moonlight pouring through the open blinds provided surreal lighting.

“Do you want me to touch you,
mi tesoro
?”

Jack’s breath was warm on the skin beneath her ear. She nodded.

“Do you know that you affect me like no other woman? I’m intrigued by you, your control, your sensuality. Even when I arrived here half dead with fatigue, you got to me.”

Jack’s words were more excruciating than any caress and April thought she’d die from the mixture of wonder and need that laced his rough tone.
Please touch me
, she wanted to scream out loud. But she
trembled in silence, wanting to hear only his voice in the darkness as he orally stroked her.

His body was so close to her now she could feel his heat on her bare back; the slight brush of his shirt against her skin was almost unbearably sensitizing.

“Yet, I can’t figure you out,” he went on relentlessly, his voice even deeper now. “Something has forced you to hide your responsive nature. You maintain such a careful distance. And yet you respond to me. Totally. Why, April?”