In Paradise (3 page)

"Are you hurt?"

"Only my dignity," she said in an undertone and wrapped her arms around his neck. "My dress. You didn't return my panties. Is that your dog?"

"What dog?"

"You know damned well what dog."

Jake looked over to Bo bouncing playfully beside them.

"Are you going to sue me?"

"Because of a torn dress? You've got to be joking."

"I've been sued for less." Jake wanted to say more. He wanted to deliver a lecture about the man she’d chosen to associate with on the island. The sight of her nakedness nearly undid him. On the plane he'd thought she was overweight, but in the bright light of day she seemed perfect, too perfect.

It would be so easy to take refuge in her
soft heat a second time.

As if she read his mind, she raised her face, bringing her
sumptuous lips close to his. Even with the smell of the sea on her skin, he distinguished her unique scent. He wanted to taste her, take his time tasting her until she begged for mercy.

The thought of Boyd Hatcher stopped him. "Boyd is
probably wondering where you are."

She stared up at him with eyes bluer than the ocean on a
clear day. "I shouldn't keep him waiting."

Jake carried her to the edge of his property, grateful she
hadn't somehow managed to lose her shoes as well. "I owe you a dress."

"So you do. I have an appointment with Raul in the
morning. Perhaps you can deliver it to me there."

Jake lowered her feet to the sand and stood in silence as
she turned her beautiful naked butt to him. She was a sight. Beyond perfection. Why did she have to be staying with his mortal enemy?

CHAPTER
3

Di let Boyd’s hairdresser, Raul talk her into cutting, highlighting, and straightening her hair. She had her eyebrows and legs waxed. When Raul suggested a Brazilian bikini wax, she agreed, without having a clue what it entailed.

It took only seconds
into the process to change her mind on that one. Instead, she opted for a more traditional wax…which still hurt like nothing she’d ever experienced.

She was manicured, pedicured, tortured and pampered until she didn't recognize
herself anymore. She kept his staff hopping.

When Raul finished, her ha
ir had been lightened to a beautiful blonde. The kink had disappeared. In place of her old do hung relaxed curls fanning around her head and shoulders. The cut was magnificent, but she didn’t have clue if she could duplicate it at home.

Rau
l’s staff showed her how to apply makeup. For the first time in her life, she felt beautiful. Raul could hardly contain his excitement over what he claimed was the success of his career.

Just as they finished, Jake Forman walked into the salon carrying a large box. She watched him walk past her twice without realizing she sat in front of Raul. On his third pass, she took pity on him. "Is that for me?"

Jake shook his handsome head in denial and then did a double take. "Are you by any chance missing a dress?"

"Your damned dog ate my dress and you know it. It didn't just happen to go missing. Is that my replacement?"

He stilled and looked closely. "What happened to you? And don't you think it's about time I knew more than just your first your name?"

"Raul happened. Di Stowe. How did you know my size?"

"Don’t you mean Paradise Stowe? You can return it if it doesn't fit. It's meant to be a token. It's my pleasure."

“Please don’t call me that. The name is Di…period.”
Everyone in the salon seemed to take an interest in the exchange. Several even moved closer. Di had never been the center of attention. In fact, she went out of her way to avoid it at all costs. It unnerved her.

However, this all would
soon end and she'd go back to her boring academic life, so she controlled her nerves to the best of her ability.

"Let me see." Raul waggled his eyebrows before he swept
up the box Jake held toward her.

Jake looked like he wanted to protest.

Raul pried the lid off the box before he pulled the garment from the tissue and held it up. What little there was of it. The dress was much too short and bright coral, almost orange.

Raul gave it a nod of approval and shoved the dress into
her lap. "This is good. Put it on."

"Now? I don't think it's a dress. Not really. It's a token—you
heard him say so yourself. As tokens go, that wouldn't begin to cover my—"

"Di!" Raul barked. "Don't you dare think of walking out of
here in that old thing you're wearing."

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Raul huffed. "Nothing if you're eighty."

"This is too short."

"You have dynamite legs," Jake said.

Everybody stared twice as hard. Raul rubbed his chin as he
looked back and forth between the two of them and then snapped his fingers with dramatic flair. "Girlfriend, it would seem you've already captured the interest of both of our famous island authors. How did you do it without me?"

Raul spun her chair in a full circle. "Is she not
ravishing? Perfect?"

"She was ravishing before. Now she's perfectly ravishing.
Too bad she keeps such bad company." Jake turned and stomped toward the door.

"Aren't you going to see how she looks in her dress?" Raul
called to Jake's back.

Jack raised a hand and kept walking. "I don't think I can
handle it."

"Omigod, he's got it bad," Raul said.

Jake stiffened as he reacted to the words. He slammed the door behind him.

"Quick, Nicole, see where he's going." Raul turned back to
Di and pointed his slender index finger at her. "You get this on and model it for him. And don't tell me you aren't interested in him. You started glowing the second he came into my salon."

Di gulped. She was glowing? It was one thing to have a
vacation fling, but quite another to get her complexion involved. Glowing? That wasn't on the agenda. Di had an elderly mother who depended upon her.

Di had
responsibilities.

She also had thirteen days left and she wanted in the
worse way to feel another orgasm like the one Jake gave her on the plane, without the part where she passed out. If there was any way possible to make that happen, she had nothing to lose. No way would she spend the rest of her life pining about a lost opportunity.

Jumping
up, Di hugged the dress as she tried to figure out where she should change.

"Way to go, g
irl! There’s a bathroom that way, through the door." Raul pointed with an exaggerated hip thrust. "Hurry."

Di made a dash for the restroom.
She took off all of her clothes. If she was going after Jake, she wasn’t about to let him see her old and worn undergarments. It took far too long to get into the dress, since she kept stopping to look at herself each time she caught her reflection in the mirror. The garment fit like a glove, but way too short. It hit mid-thigh and accentuated her full curves.

"Hurry," Raul called again from outside the door. "He's
eating a late lunch at the diner up the street."

Di opened the door and Raul moaned.
"Fabulous. He doesn't stand a chance. But those shoes. They're all wrong. Nicole?"

Nicole came running.

"Her shoes!"

"What size do you wear?" Nicole asked.

"Tens."

Nicole gasped and then gave Raul a shrug.

"Don't worry," Raul said, before he went back into the main room and clapped his hands. "Attention, ladies. We need a pair of size tens, worthy to catch a hunk and accent this dress."

"How about mine?" an attractive woman with her foil in her
hair asked.

"Perfect." Raul went to retrieve the high-heeled mules
right off the woman’s feet.

"Just leave them here with Raul when you're finished with
them. And make sure to tell Raul everything. That's the price you have to pay for borrowing them. And maybe—do something
naughty
in them?"

"Naughty?" Di thought
about arguing, but figured Raul would have the last word. "What should I do?"

Raul gave a
larger-than-life gasp and put his hand on his hip. "You poor thing. You will be my special project.
First
, get over to the diner. Run, don't walk.

“
Second
, smile at every man there on the way to Jake's table. He's so predictable. He always sits at the back.

“
Third
thing on the agenda, thank him for the dress and tell him I said it's a sure-fire lure way to get lucky. Ask him if that's what he had in mind."

That didn't sound so hard and, as Di walked into the
diner it became easier by the second. The faces staring at her communicated their appreciation, bolstering her confidence to an all-time high. She didn't even wobble in her borrowed heels, too much.

She only hesitated once, when she spotted the elderly
woman who'd sat across the aisle from her on the plane.

Small world.

* * * * *

Jake watched his new neighbor wend her way toward him
like a drunken sailor and wondered what had possessed him to buy her a dress certain to make him so hard he wouldn't be able to walk either.

But
, it wasn't just the damned dress. Raul had transformed her into the proverbial swan and the dress had only gilded her fucking golden feathers.

Why did she have to know Boyd? Not
just know him, she was close enough to stay at his house.

How close was that? Was she sleeping with him? Did he dare
just come out and ask? "Are you sleeping with Boyd?"

Di's stopped in front of him, her blue eyes wide. She
blinked once, then twice. "No! I've never. No, I'm not." Her mouth snapped shut.

Relief. He believed her. "How do you know him?"

"I met Boyd in New York City, when he called the college where I work asking for advice on a painting he was interested in purchasing. This compulsion to talk about Boyd borders on obsessive."

Jake didn't want to go there. Boyd was the one with the
obsession. Wasn't he?

"You gave him advice about a painting? What is it you do
, exactly?"

"No
business talk. I'm on vacation. Two weeks in paradise, and I want to remember this trip for as long as I live. I'm looking for someone to show me a good time, no strings attached. I thought I'd found that man. Was I wrong, neighbor?" She gave a look around as though not comfortable making a public declaration.

Neighbor. There was the rub.

She moved closer. "Are you up for the job?"

Jake smiled. Not only was he up, he was harder than
granite.

"If he turns you down, put my name at the top of the list,"
one of the locals sitting at the next table said loudly.

“What’s your name?” she asked as if she had every attention of adding him to her to-do list.

Jake didn't want to think about anyone else taking her up on her generous offer. "Two weeks in paradise, huh? With me? And your roommate is okay with this?"

"Boyd is busy writing. He says he's creating the next New
York Times bestseller about the art world and doesn't want to be disturbed on penalty of death."

Jake huffed
and ignored Boyd’s delusions of grandeur. He wanted to concentrate on Di. "I've never been anyone's two weeks in paradise before. I don't know if I can live up to it."

"Did I say thank you for the dress?" Di
did a slow turn. Her shapely ass begged for his touch, but somehow Jake controlled himself. Her legs were impossibly long and toned to perfection, despite being glowing white.

"You're welcome.
I think. If you start a riot in it, I'm not responsible. Have you eaten lunch?"

"I don't think I can sit in this thing, let alone eat."

"Then let's walk." Jake laid his napkin on his half-finished plate and stood to reach for his wallet. His appetite for the same old tuna sandwich he'd eaten more times than he could count had just changed to a different sort of hunger. He didn't trust he might not jump her right here and now.

"Walk?"

"Not far. I promise." Jake took her hand and headed out of the restaurant. When she teetered on her heels as she stepped beside him, he understood and changed his destination. "I'm parked over there."

Jake helped her into his Jeep and leaned over to buckle
her in. Once again her unique fragrance nearly brought him to his knees. He had to kiss her.

The initial touch of their lips
ignited a fire inside him burning hotter than anything he would have imagined.              

What was it about this woman? Next
thing he knew, he'd be writing romances, for crissakes! Two weeks in paradise might be his complete undoing if he wasn't careful.

Di threaded her fingers around his neck and burrowed
against him, opening her mouth to invite him inside. Jake deepened the kiss and had the unmistakable sensation of free falling. His spirit soared while he struggled to breathe. He wanted
in Paradise
Stowe again.

His desire for more of her barreled through him like a
runaway freight train.

"Hurry," she whispered into his mouth.

Hurry where? He wasn't about to take her in an open Jeep parked along the busy street. Or could he? Nah. They'd get arrested for certain. Jake pulled free from her lips and dashed around to the driver's side.

Five minutes later, Jake pulled into his compound and
drove down to the beach...his private, secluded beach.

When he helped Di out, she slid into his arms, physically
reassuring him she hadn't changed her mind.

"Are you still in a hurry?"

She nodded.

He ran his hands down over her rump and squeezed her
up against the hard evidence he could deliver. When she raised a leg, her dress slid up and exposed the fact she'd forgotten her panties—again. All he had to do was unzip to bury his cock in her wet warmth. He wanted inside her right now. It was all he could think about.

She rained kisses on his neck, then began to tug at his ear
lobe. "Please?" she whispered. "I'm on fire."