Flirting With Temptation (8 page)

“Hellooo,” she said, raising a hand and waving her fingers at her extremely talkative grandmother. “I’m right here, and I can hear you. And just so you—and Cecile—know, I’m not changing my hair for him. I simply want something new for my biggest Love Doctor challenge yet. That’s it.”

Granny Gert put a pink-tipped hand to her chest and mouthed, “Sorry, child.” Then she continued the conversation with their favorite hairdresser. “Yes, Cecile, she can come in an hour.” She looked at Babette. “You can, can’t you? That will give you enough time to eat some dinner first too. We’ve got all that spaghetti, you know.” She paused, then said, “Sure, Cecile. I’ll send you a plate with Babette.”

Babette nodded, still a bit miffed. “An hour is fine.”

“Hang on, Cecile. I’ll ask.” Granny grinned, and Babette’s irritation dissipated. How could anyone stay mad at this outrageous woman?

“What?” Babette asked, knowing Granny Gert was enjoying this way too much.

“She wants to make sure she’s got the color you want,” Granny explained. “Let me guess. I bet I get it right.”

The laugh that bubbled from Babette’s throat was unexpected, but welcomed. “You know me better than most everyone, so
I’m
betting you’re right.”

Granny nodded approvingly, then winked. “Back to her roots, Cecile. Her natural color. Fire engine red, with lots of wild curls. A spiral perm, I’d say. That’s her favorite look for the beach, and that’s where she’s going.” She nodded toward Babette. “Am I right, dear?”

Babette looked back at the mirror, remembered the first time she’d ever seen Jeff. He’d dubbed her “Red” and then he’d never seen her with fiery hair again, though he’d asked for it repeatedly when they dated.

Red. In truth, it was her favorite color, and as Granny said, it was the original hue. And the one that signified confidence and spunk, two things she’d need in spades if she was going to pull off a miracle and get Jeff back to Kitty.

She swiveled and announced with a single, emphatic nod, “Yes, red. Definitely red.”

Chapter 4

J
eff Eubanks hung up the phone after the bizarre call from his brother, stepped onto the patio of his Destin condo, inhaled deeply and welcomed the familiar scents and sounds of the beach. Salty air, crashing waves, laughing kids, giggling females—refreshing reminders that he liked it here, and that he liked where he was in his life right now, enjoying life and freedom and women, each to its fullest capacity. After the one-two emotional punches dealt by Babette and Kitty, it was amazing he was able to, but he was, and he was doing it quite well.

But thanks to Ethan’s call, Jeff now knew that his life was about to be turned upside down again by the most prominent women in his past. Babette was on her way to Florida to convince him that he should take Kitty back.

He shook his head, laughed at the absurdity of it all. First, that Babette would begin to think that she was an expert on love, and second, that Kitty would have the balls to think he’d take her back after she sailed away with Farraday. Hell, he must have dated two of the most brazen women in the country if they thought they could pull this off.

Wasn’t happening. Not now, not ever.

He glanced out at the beach, specifically at a young couple, probably newlyweds from the look of things, lounging on an oversized beach towel on the sand. The woman rolled onto her back and handed a brown bottle of tanning oil to the guy, who smiled as he took it from her hand. He drizzled the shiny liquid all over her stomach while she stretched on the towel, then ran her fingers through her long, red hair, fanning it out behind her. Taking one palm to her belly, he slid the oil across her abdomen, then slowly eased his hand toward her breasts, while his face moved closer to hers. He didn’t even attempt to kiss her, but merely looked at her, drinking her in, while his hand never stopped its seductive perusal of her flesh, and—from Jeff’s vantage point on the balcony where he could see—he slipped his fingers beneath the edge of her bikini top and teased the lower curve of her breast.

Jeff swallowed and moved his attention away from the heated exchange to two teen boys, tossing a bright orange Frisbee near the edge of the water. He focused on the orange disk, the way it caught the wind and the way one kid snagged it mid-air, then flung it back. This was what he should be looking at from his balcony, people enjoying a good time on the beach.

But his voyeuristic impulses took over and his eyes turned back to the couple, now lip-locked, with the man’s hand no longer visible, hidden within the shadow of his body over hers and apparently paying homage to a lower part of her anatomy now.

Jeff had thought spending a little time on his balcony before his date arrived would get his mind off the woman currently en route to his condo, but watching the couple’s heated exchange only reminded him of a very similar experience he’d had. Except in his case, the female had been the one distributing the tanning oil. Babette had also heightened the interaction by whispering what she’d do to him as soon as they were away from watchful eyes.

He turned his attention away from the couple. No need for reminders of sex with Babette now. Soon he’d see her, and that’d be plenty reminder enough. He hadn’t spoken to or seen Babette in a year, and he was fine with that. In fact, from the day Kitty had entered his world, the two of them had been so “into” each other that he’d hardly thought of Babette. Kitty, quite frankly, hadn’t given him time to think of anyone else. And, unlike Babette, didn’t leave anything to the imagination. Jeff knew from the first date that she was “smitten” and that she could see herself with him for a “long, long time.” Her words. Before Babette, he’d have been long gone if a woman came on that strong, but after years with a woman who seemed to forget he was alive, who could take him or leave him, having someone like Kitty dote on him was exactly what he needed.

Of course, the fact that Kitty ended up sailing away with Farraday merely a month before their wedding didn’t exactly make for the ending he’d planned. He smirked. At least he was back in the realm of reality again. Women couldn’t commit, a fact proven by Babette and Kitty. And he’d finally worked his way back around to the life he’d lived before them, the life where he enjoyed the moment and whatever female happened to be sharing it with him. No strings, no commitment, no headaches. Or heartaches.

He left the balcony, returned to the condo and glanced at the clock. He’d left work early, opting to spend the afternoon working at the condo and enjoying the beach scene. Little did he know that Ethan’s call would cause his traditional viewing of the beach to be jolted by memories of sex with Babette. At least he didn’t have to worry about beach sex memories with Kitty. Kitty was Kitty Carelle, socialite, after all. And while she never minded grasping his arm in public, or smiling at his side, or broadcasting that she’d “love this man until the day she died,” she wasn’t the type to do anything that would get her name in the paper in an unflattering light.

Ethan had mentioned that their broken engagement had finally hit the Birmingham papers. No doubt Kitty would cringe at the negative publicity. He wondered if that was what had prompted her to enlist a love doctor to mend their relationship. And he wondered what she’d do if she knew that the love doctor she’d selected used to sleep with him.

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. To have been a fly on the wall and have watched Babette’s face when Kitty asked her to get him back. Surely Babette knew him well enough to know his response to Kitty’s request would be something along the line of, “Go to hell.” No, he wouldn’t be that cruel, but a firm “not interested, not now, not ever,” would sum it up.

Turning on the television, he decided to relax for a while. Work would keep, and he had a few hours before his date with Kylie Banks.

Unfortunately, the commercial in progress was advertising the most notable Day Spa in Destin, and more specifically, the current special they were running for Buff and Bronze sessions.

He flipped the channel, but it didn’t matter. In his mind he still saw Kitty on the day of their engagement, when she’d returned to the condo after a celebratory shopping trip.

“After I finished shopping, I went to the spa for a buff and bronze,” she’d said.

“A buff and bronze?” Jeff attempted to sound as though he didn’t know what was involved with that procedure, even though Babette had described it to him in detail, and that description had led to one of their hottest afternoons ever. He waited, wondering if Kitty would describe it too.

“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “So I need a shower, but after I’m done, why don’t you meet me in the bedroom and we’ll celebrate our engagement properly?” She closed the distance between them, kissed him softly, then turned and retreated to the bathroom.

Jeff had started to ask her to stop, forgo the shower and get started with their celebrating right there in the living room, with the balcony door open, sounds of the beach creeping in, and the slight risk of someone catching a glimpse of the two of them making love. But he didn’t want to ruin the moment, and with Kitty, making love with the risk of getting caught wasn’t exactly what the doctor ordered.

So while she showered, he went to the bedroom, stripped out of his clothes and waited for her on the bed. Unfortunately, while his body was waiting for Kitty, his mind was recalling Babette’s detailed description of a buff and bronze.

Her hair had been short and black, not his favorite, since he preferred Babette with long, red curls, but hell, on her, short and black was sexy too. She’d entered the apartment looking like she had a secret and was dying to share. “There’s something I need you to help me with, a little problem with that buff and bronze session,” she said, crossing the threshold to the bedroom. She glanced toward the open window and inhaled the Gulf breeze filling the room and causing the drapes to flutter. Then she looked at Jeff and lifted her brows. “You want to help me?” She stepped closer, so close he could feel her breath against his neck.

“What do you need my help with?” he asked, while she unbuttoned his pants, then slid the zipper down.

She pushed them to the floor, moved her hand to his erection and gently stroked it as she spoke. “You see,” she said, “while I love the fact that I can get a perfect tan with the buff and bronze, every now and then, the women leave a smudge.”

Jeff blinked. “Women?”
Smudge?

“Yeah, so I thought that maybe you could, you know, check me over and make sure I’m smudge-free,” she said with a seductive smile.

“Women?” Jeff repeated, all blood having vacated his brain and headed south.

“Yeah. That’s the way they do it, you know,” she said, taking her hand from his penis and putting both palms against his chest, then easing him back toward the bed.

“The way they do what?”

“You know, they mentioned to me today that a lot of guys are really turned on by the process, and I wanted to see if it did that for you. And then you can check me over—thoroughly—for smudges.” She moved her hands to the top button of her flaming red sundress, slid it through the hole, then pulled it open to reveal the sweet hollow between her breasts.

She slid another button free, then pulled the two halves of the dress apart to reveal her breasts, bare and beautiful. Her nipples were taut little buds, like always. Babette often joked about her small breasts, but Jeff thought they were perfect, incredibly sensitive to the touch . . . to
his
touch.

“So I thought I’d tell you about it. Do you want to hear?”

He nodded. What else could he do?

“They slather this sugary lotion over their hands, and then they rub it in tiny circles all over me,” she said, working on the next button. Her skin was so silky smooth that it glistened, and Jeff wanted to kiss it, touch it, lick it.
Sugary
lotion?

“That’s the buffing part, they move that gritty lotion all over my skin to make sure it’s as smooth as absolutely possible.” Her hands neared the button at her waist now, merely two buttons to go, and Jeff was all but drooling. “And they rub it everywhere.”

His imagination shifted into overdrive, and his mind did a rapid transition to another image, not of Babette standing before him undressing at the side of his bed but of her in a spa, with two women rubbing lotion all over her and preparing her for . . . what she was doing right now. His cock moved, and she licked her lips.

“That does turn you on, doesn’t it?” she asked, eyeing him boldly.

“Yeah, it turns me on.” He’d have to be dead not to be turned on.

She’d finally reached the last button, and she undid it, then let the dress fall to the floor. A buffed and bronzed Babette stood before him wearing nothing but lacy high-cut red panties.

“And then, they take me into the shower.”

His imagination again overpowered the current scene. “They go with you—into the shower.”

“That’s part of the treatment, making sure they rinse me clean before they apply the bronzing solution.”

He swallowed. Hard. “
They
rinse you?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “They run their hands all over me and rub all of the gritty lotion away.”

“O-kay.” He saw Babette and two women who, in his mind, were almost as beautiful as her, in a rub-fest in a shower, and he wondered how long it was going to take for her to join him on this bed and let him put his current state of mind into action.

“After that, they dry me off, and then they coat me, thoroughly, in bronzing lotion. That part is basically like any massage, except . . .”

“Except?” he asked, while she moved her hands to her hips and then removed the panties—and Jeff realized that she hadn’t merely been buffed and bronzed today. She’d been waxed as well.

“Except you have the option to wear these tiny disposable panties, nothing more than a wisp of fabric, or . . .”

“Or?” he asked, while she climbed on the bed and straddled him.

“Or you can go nude and let them buff and bronze you everywhere. And since I was already letting them do this”—she motioned to the bare area between her legs, and then to his absolute delight, she guided his cock into her slick, wet heat—“I decided to go nude.”