Deceptively Yours (Wanton Weston Women, Book Two) (4 page)

* * * * *

Laura sighed as she read about the romantic kiss between the vampire and the woman he’d almost bitten. But soon enough their worlds would come crashing down and tear them apart.

Sudden movement in the hedges drew her attention to the other side of the patio and started her heart pounding. She set her book on the chair then immediately wrapped a towel around herself and toed on her sandals. She grabbed the tongs from the outdoor grill as a weapon, just in case a wild animal threatened her.

There it was again. Something was definitely pushing its way through the bushes. She hurried over to get a better look and gasped at what she saw.

A man appeared to be spying on the house next door. Was he a peeping Tom? Most everyone on the island was here for the convention and from reading the agenda, it sounded as if the guests would be spending much of their time in the nude. So why bother peeping?

Had he been watching
her?
She had to find out. Her heart pounded at the frightening notion. She tightened her towel and loudly cleared her throat. “Hello? Can I help you find something?” She held the tongs behind her back, ready to strike if the need arose.

The man turned around and even through the foliage that separated them she recognized that face. Most of him was hidden by the greenery, but he certainly was handsome. Sea-green eyes ringed with thick lashes, a strong jawline and chestnut hair that almost touched his shoulders.

“Sorry to have disturbed you,” he said.

He started to step away.

Curiosity got the best of her. “Wait,” she heard herself say. “What are you doing over there?” Could it be a strange coincidence that the man who’d helped her when she’d fallen earlier was here now?

He climbed through the hedge into her yard and she got a look at the rest of him. She relaxed a little when she realized he held no weapon, but the binoculars hanging around his neck were consistent with her Peeping Tom theory. She tried to remember if he’d been wearing them when he’d helped her up before, but she couldn’t. Probably because she’d been practically mesmerized by those eyes.

Lord, he was big, tall with broad shoulders and powerful arms. A jagged scar above his left eyebrow gave him a slightly dangerous aura. Didn’t villains always have scars? They did in the romance novels she read. Maybe he
was
a weirdo. She licked her suddenly parched lips and took a half step back, afraid to be too near him, but tempted all the same.

He hadn’t seemed threatening at all when she’d first glimpsed him in the lobby, although the fact that he’d come to her rescue might have clouded her judgment.

He held up his hands in surrender. “Look, I apologize. I didn’t mean to scare you or intrude on you.”

She noticed a crimson slash under his knee. A trickle of blood started inching toward his calf. “You’re hurt.” She motioned to the spot and fought the familiar dizziness she always got at the sight of blood.

He gave his leg a cursory glance. “It’s only a scratch from the bushes, no big deal.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “So are you going to answer my question?”

He captured her stare with those blue-green eyes. “I was checking to see…if my friend had arrived yet. He’s booked the villa next door.”

She studied him, trying to decide if he was telling the truth. “Why didn’t you call your friend or ask at the reception desk?”

His jaw tightened. “I wanted to surprise him. And I did ask at the hotel. That was what I was doing in the lobby a little while ago, but they don’t give out that information about guests. It’s a privacy issue or something.” He quickly raked his gaze over her from head to toe.

Awareness stole through her. She took another step away as unwanted heat crawled up her neck and face. There she was in nothing but a towel and her underwear with no one in shouting distance. “Why should I believe you?”

“Why would I have helped you before if I meant you any harm?” His smile caught her off guard. He reached into his shorts pocket and she held her breath.

Did he have a weapon in there?

Then he took out a cell phone and offered it to her. “Call security if you want.”

Chapter Two

Guy prayed she wouldn’t take him up on his offer. He could talk his way out of a problem with a security officer but if she did call, he’d never see her again. The idea that he wouldn’t get to taste her full lips or comb his fingers through her silky hair depressed the hell out of him.

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth then shook her head. “That’s okay.” She pushed her glasses higher and glanced at his binoculars, then back up to his eyes.

And damn if he didn’t witness the same spark of interest in those blue eyes that he felt in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to get to know her—in all the senses of the word. “I’m a good guy. Scout’s honor.” He raised a hand in a mock salute, though he’d never been any kind of scout, except in his childhood fantasies. He took off the binoculars and set them on a chair. “Those are for bird watching. Rumor has it that speckled sea doves nest here before they head to Central America for the winter.”

Speckled sea doves?

He hoped that sounded more plausible to her than it did to him.

“You’re with the convention people, though, right?” She might be attracted to him but her furrowed brow told him she was also still wary of him.

“Yeah, I am.” He clasped his hands in front of him, hoping the non-threatening stance would assure her he meant no harm.

“Sure you weren’t using your binoculars to get a close-up view of the nude beach party going on down there?” She motioned toward the shore.

“What would be the point? I could just go hang out there and get an eyeful if that was my intention.”

You’re the only woman I want to see nude right now
.

She shrugged. “I suppose. It’s kind of odd to find a man in my hedges. You can’t blame me for being…curious.”

He smiled. “Curious is good. I’d wonder about you if you weren’t.”

There was the smile he’d glimpsed so briefly before. It lit up her face. Even though she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup, her skin was peaches-and-cream perfect and her lips a deep, kissable palette of rose. Were her nipples the same comely shade? His cock twitched to life at the thought.

“I didn’t properly thank you for what you did for me before.” Some of the starch in her shoulders eased. “I’m a bit of a klutz.”

His throat thickened with emotion. He wished she wouldn’t put herself down. He’d had two left feet when he was a kid. That, along with being the skinniest kid he knew and one of the few at school who had neither a mother nor father, made him fair game for bullies. He wondered if she’d had similar problems, hoped she hadn’t.

“That wasn’t your fault. The jerk wasn’t watching where he was walking and I’d lay odds that he’d been drinking.” The convention people seemed to be at least tipsy from the time the sun came up.

“Maybe, but I take at least half the blame. That stuff happens to me all the time.”

“If he was a stand-up guy, he’d have apologized instead of telling you to watch where you were going. No way could I have missed someone as pretty as you.”

A lovely pink hue rose on her cheeks. She moved her arm out from behind her back and he wondered why she was holding barbecue tongs.

“Cooking something?”

She glanced down at the implement. “No, it was just… Never mind.” She cracked a sexy grin and his pulse spiked along with his libido.

Was the utensil her idea of a weapon in case he’d been bent on hurting her? The poor woman would be toast against someone like Harry.

Harry.

How had he forgotten his mission so quickly? Could the beguiling woman before him be a clever diversion, someone to distract him from searching for the fugitive? She was certainly pretty enough to be one of Harry’s model-caliber blonde girlfriends. The criminal had used them more than once to facilitate his swift exits.

The scumbag had proven himself extremely clever in escaping detection since he’d jumped bail more than a month ago and Guy wouldn’t put anything past him. Still, the woman seemed so defenseless and unassuming.

A bee neared her head and he swatted at the air to shoo it away. She gasped and swung the tongs at the pesky bug, nearly clipping the side of Guy’s head. “I hate bees. I’m allergic yet they always seem to seek me out.”

He grasped her shoulders and moved her away from the flowering vine where the bee apparently wanted to go. The contact ignited another jolt of arousal. His pulse spiked but he reluctantly let her go. Frightening her was the last thing he wanted.

“Thank you.” She blinked several times then tightened the knot at the top of her towel.

Focusing on that knot, he took in the hint of cleavage, the smooth, creamy skin of her chest and throat, the column of her neck. He wished he was still holding her, but he had to be sure she wasn’t associated with Harry in any way. He ventured a glance over her shoulder toward the house, racking his brain for a reason to go inside so he could hunt for signs that Harry was there or that he’d be coming soon.

Wincing in mock pain, he crouched and swiped a drop of blood from the scratch on his leg. He showed her his red-stained finger. “You wouldn’t have a bandage and some peroxide, would you?”

“Um…” She teetered and her complexion paled.

“Are you okay?” He took her arm and led her to a deck chair. What the hell had he done? He mentally smacked himself for being turned-on by her even when she looked so helpless, as if she could pass out any second.

She crumpled onto the cushion and the tongs dropped to the ground with a small clang. “I don’t do well with blood, sorry.” She bent over and held her head between her knees. “I’ll be better in a minute. This always happens to me.”

He pulled in a breath laced with her coconut scent, probably suntan lotion, but on her it was more enticing than expensive perfume on a lesser woman. He had to smile at her electric-pink toenails, a stark contrast to the drab, frumpy outfit she’d worn earlier.

He thought about rubbing her back to soothe her but she’d likely see it as an invasion of her personal space. Her thick hair parted over the back of her head, exposing her long, graceful neck. He licked his lips, hungry to taste her skin. Even her arms were sexy with smooth skin and just the right amount of muscle.

If he had to guess, he’d say she was completely unaware of her sex appeal. His body reacted to that hotness despite his attempt to think about something else. He clasped his hands in front of his obvious erection so she wouldn’t think he was some sort of pervert.

She heaved a loud sigh then sat up. The color had returned to her cheeks.

He should leave now that he knew she was okay, but his feet refused to cooperate. Why was he so drawn to her? Sure it had been a while since he’d made love to a woman, but that hardly explained the irresistible pull she had on him. “Better?”

She gave him that sunny smile again, but too quickly, she straightened and squared her shoulders as if she was afraid to let down her guard. “Yes, thanks.” She was silent for several seconds and he wondered if she wanted him to go.

“I’m sure they’ll have first-aid supplies back at the hotel. I hate to bother you.” But he hoped she’d argue so he could do more than bother her. He wanted to get under her skin.

And under that towel.

First things first, though. He was confident she wasn’t associated with Harry Turiano in any way, but he had to be positive or Rick might accuse him of not doing his job. “Want me to go get you a glass of water or something from inside?”

Even behind those tinted shades, he glimpsed the apprehension in her expression. “No, thank you. I’m fine now.”

He glanced down at the cut on his leg. The blood had run down to the top of his white ankle sock and left a deep-scarlet stain. “Maybe I’ll take you up on your offer of first aid.”

An offer she’d never made.

She knitted her brow and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she decided whether she could trust him. “I…uh…I’m not sure if there are any such supplies inside. I’ve just arrived on the island. I haven’t been here an hour and I have no idea how well the villa is stocked.”

He waited, let out a forced groan of pain. “I’m sure it’ll be fine on the hike back to the hotel.”

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth for several notes of the reggae music in the distance. “Give me a minute. I’ll check and see if I have anything, but you’ll have to apply the bandage yourself, obviously.” She strode to the glass door leading into a bedroom and went inside.

He had a hard time keeping his eyes off her rear view, the way her hips swayed under the towel. He imagined himself kissing a trail up her calves, along those creamy thighs to her most secret spot. His balls constricted with need and a wave of intense heat gripped him.

The click of the lock told him she didn’t trust him, at least not yet. But why would she? Better that she was cautious with the real possibility that Harry could be moving in next door.

She met his gaze through the glass and held it for several seconds before easing the drapes shut, blocking his view. Just as it had in the lobby, her stare had set his pulse racing.

He shielded his eyes from the glare of the late afternoon sun and tried to make out the other rooms that faced the pool but there was no sign of anyone else inside the house.

Besides, she was one of the hedonists, not the mistress of a wealthy fugitive. She’d been headed to the conference registration area back at the hotel.

The door to the bedroom slid open and the woman stepped out onto the patio, her arms loaded with first-aid items. She’d put her frumpy dress back on.

Brushing aside the disappointment that she’d covered up all her enticing curves, he hurried over to relieve her of the ridiculous amount of supplies she’d carried out—bandages in several sizes and shapes, two kinds of liquid antiseptic, paper tape and antibiotic ointment. “I guess they do keep the place well stocked.” He crossed the area to a glass table and set everything on top. “This ought to do it.”