The Honeymoon Trap (5 page)

He came into the hotel through the outdoor pool area of the hotel. Three large pools were heated to different temperatures. Seriously, it said so on the signs. Two spas, a poolside bar, a waterfall or two, this place was big on falling water, deck chairs, lounge chairs, chairs with tables and umbrellas and what looked like a small battalion of attentive staff. Definitely not the casino hotel. The Palace Venexiana was altogether more luxurious and low key, with the added benefit of having the beach on one side and the bay on the other.

The Zoey waif hadn’t been wrong about this being an upgrade.

The back way into the hotel took him past the sauna and massage rooms and on to a set of out-of-the-way lifts that he was grateful for. He made it to the room without attracting the kind of notice that always made him uncomfortable, and he looked to the daybed as he stepped inside, but there was no Zoey or bowl of strawberries there. She wasn’t on the bed either – that was a relief. Which only left the compact kitchenette or the bathroom. The louvered bathroom doors cracked open as he glanced at them, and Zoey’s face appeared, and then her smile.

‘Oh, good. It’s you. I’ve managed to get the dress off but I’m having a little trouble with the corset. Would you mind just—I’ve undone the ties but it’s still pulled tight. If you could just help me
loosen
it, I can do the rest.’

The doors opened wider as Zoey turned and presented her back and shoulders to him, the top of the purple gown pooled around her waist and snug against her skin a tightly laced white corset. Her skin was flawless, her neck slender. The ebony ringlets had been gathered up and pulled forward over her shoulder the better to give him unobstructed access to the corset.

He supposed.

‘Eli? Are you there?’

Yes, and swallowing hard. ‘What is it you want me to do?’

‘It laces from the top and there’s a puller loop halfway down. It ties at the bottom, this one, so if you just start loosening it from the bottom—’

‘Got it.’ He knew he sounded gruff. He knew the reason why. And as he hooked his finger into the bottom tie and tugged, he gained a new appreciation for the art of slow torture. He knew knots and ropes and could usually be counted on to be a deft hand with both, but this…

This was different.

‘How was the surf?’ Was it his imagination or did she sound a little breathy. Probably hard to breathe at all in a corset.

‘Fun.’

She chuckled at that, and moved unexpectedly and his knuckle brushed skin soft and smooth. They both stiffened, and then with quiet deliberation Eli continued with the task she’d set him, pulling the laces completely free of each eyelet as he went. Halfway up, he paused.

‘It’s just like a shoelace knot,’ she told him. ‘Undo it and the top will unlace just fine.’

Yes, but then what?

‘I won’t let it fall,’ she murmured as if reading his mind.

He worked fast after that, trying not to notice the little flinches when he touched her skin by accident, trying not to notice the criss-cross of red marks left on her skin as he peeled the corset away. He wanted to soothe them, smooth them away, and when the top lacing loosened he couldn’t resist sliding his thumb beneath the corset and down her spine, just once, as he tried to smooth the marks from her skin.

Only they didn’t go away.

He put both hands on her then and slowly worked his thumbs up either side of her spine. He knew the strength in his hands. Years of physical labor on the boats and around the marina had made him strong. He gentled his touch and she whimpered in appreciation.

‘How do you breathe in that thing?’ he muttered.

‘Far easier than I’m breathing now, what with your hands on me, healer,’ she offered raggedly. ‘Jesus, Eli. Want to role play?’

The hefty throb in his testicles told him that yes, yes he did. His thumb was at her neck now, stroking, learning. The delicate arc where shoulder met neck. The sweet curve of shoulder. He loved that she could be so bold and yet so soft to the touch. ‘Role play what?’

‘Warrior and healer? A lady and her stable boy? Honeymooners in the honeymoon suite? How about all of them?’

Greedy.

He liked that.

She still held her corset up in front of her, but she’d turned her head and he’d somehow moved closer, close enough for his lips to brush hers, eliciting a groan from them both. So soft and sweet and so very responsive, those lips. Daring him to take just that little bit more, and he wanted to – he was no saint – and no geek when it came to this. He’d loved sex, reveled in the slide of skin against skin, hungered for it still. His brother was right. Five years was a long time to go without, and Zoey was here, warm and pliant, and offering more and it was all too easy just to ease in and take more from the kiss, sliding deeper and deeper with each pass until he had the taste of her imprinted on his brain. A new taste, hot and heady.

One he could get used to.

Her fingers touched the blade of his cheekbone and he pulled back hard, reality biting hard into the moment because that was something Simone had done too. Stroked his face when they kissed, made him feel ten feet tall with the little pleading noises she’d made. Zoey made those noises too only hers were softer, more abandoned.

Better.

He hauled back fast, heat and guilt uncomfortable companions as he stared into eyes that spoke of equal parts shock and lust. ‘Zoey, I don’t—want.’

‘Yeah, you do. But you’re conflicted. And I’m confused and being
way
too forward.’ She turned, holding the corset firmly in place with one hand as she put her other hand to his chest, burning a hole through it as she pushed him gently back a ways and shut the paneled door in his face. The other panel soon followed. ‘So thanks for helping with the corset,’ she said when she was completely out of sight. ‘I’m just going to take that bath now, okay? And try and figure out what just happened.’

‘Nothing happened.’ His body disagreed, so much so that he placed his palm over his swollen erection and pushed down hard in an effort to subdue it.

‘
Something
happened. Me, I’m thinking about calling it the hottest kiss I’ve ever had. Kind of a tragedy, really, what with you calling it nothing.’

Okay, so it hadn’t been nothing. ‘I don’t do relationships, Zoey. I’m not looking for one. And I don’t do sex without, uh…’

‘Intimacy?’ she supplied. ‘A health check? A reason? Good call. Neither do I.’ Water splashed, and then came the sound of water jets in the bath starting up. Moments later she spoke again. ‘These jets are almost as good as your hands. Possibly better.’

‘Yeah, they’re good,’ he muttered as an image came to mind of just what he and Zoey could get up to in a giant bathtub with water jets placed just so. ‘You’re taking this really well.’

‘I
am
.’ There was a smile in her voice that he couldn’t help but respond to. ‘It’s a little habit I picked up in my youth. Sort of like seize the day. I do that too. I probably should tell you, Eli, that I really don’t regret seizing that moment with you. I’m sorry that you do.’ She paused to splash at something, and then, ‘So why
did
you kiss me and then stop?’

She was so open, and that kiss… that kiss had been more his doing than hers.

‘I didn’t think it through,’ he offered gruffly. ‘I had a girl once. She died. You’re the first one I’ve touched, kissed—’
wanted
‘since then. And I’m not altogether good with that.’

The jets went off abruptly. The silence that followed pressed in on him like a vise.

‘I get it,’ she said quietly. ‘And I’m sorry.’

Z
oey took a
deep breath and slid the bathroom doors open. She’d swapped her gown for old jeans, modern underwear and a white cotton camisole top, and the loss of her gown and Eli’s revelation had left her feeling more exposed than usual. Still, she plastered an easy smile on her face as, gown over her arm, she made her way towards the wardrobe in search of a clothes hanger. She found one, hung her gown, and then arranged the hair extension she’d taken out in the bathroom over the other wardrobe door. Same colored hair as hers, just a little, okay a lot, more of it. Enough to make it seem as if her hair tumbled to her waist, when in reality it was mid-shoulder length at most. Eli stared at the dark fall of ringlets hanging over the door. Not a word.

‘Wait ‘til the eyelashes go,’ she murmured.

‘I didn’t think they were real,’ he admitted. ‘They couldn’t possibly be real.’

‘I have similar thoughts about you, yet there you stand.’

Eli looked away and swiped at the back of his neck with his hand. If he hadn’t been so tanned she would have sworn she saw him blush.

‘So how’d you manage to grow up so shy given the brothers you have?’

‘Easy. I just stood back and let them fight for the limelight.’

‘And they didn’t drag you out into it with them on occasion?’

‘Depends if I wanted to go. Apparently I can be stubborn.’

Zoey nodded. ‘I can believe that.’

His lips twitched. ‘Did you just insult me?’

‘Never. I merely acknowledged your right to own that particular character trait.’

‘My brothers are going to love you. How’d you get to be so gregarious?’

‘My early childhood demanded it. New people all the time and a really narrow window in which to make friends.’

‘Your family moved around a lot?’

‘They did, yes.’ Though it hadn’t really been by choice. ‘What do you want for dinner? And do you have any objection to having it with me?’ She kept her voice steady, trying not to let on for a second that a no from him would put a crater-sized dent in her confidence. ‘We could head back to the convention hotel and find some friends and have a drink and a meal with them.’

‘Do you know anyone back there?’

‘Give me five minutes. I’ll even buy my Friday afternoon gaming buddy a beer while we’re at it. What do you say?’

‘And the kiss?’

‘A very fine memory. Sadly, you don’t want to do it again, but I’ll live. No regrets, Eli. Can you do that for me? Try not to regret it too much?’

His eyes said probably not, and Zoey’s heart bled for him just a little, but he summoned up the echo of a smile. ‘Not a problem.’

A lie, she thought, but a lie in service to the greater good so she let him have it. ‘Friends, then. We can do this. Too easy,’ she murmured and met his smile with a rueful one of her own.

‘Yeah,’ he offered gruffly. ‘Friends.’

Eli showered and dressed quickly, more of the usual jeans and a plain old T-shirt for him, and then he stood by the big bay window and watched with no little bemusement as Zoey flitted around and found the right shoes, brushed her teeth, painted on lip gloss and basically got ready to go out. The eyelashes stayed on, he kind of adored the eyelashes, fake or not, and then she grabbed a weirdly shaped grey jacket and slipped it on and immediately turned elfin. She brushed her hair but left it down – there was less of it now but it still curled obligingly and it still made him want to reach out and see if it was as soft and silky as it looked. She reached for a cherry red satchel that probably contained a computer and slung it over her shoulder. ‘I’m ready,’ she said.

So was he. Going out for dinner with the elfin Zoey spouse was preferable to staying in the fancy, romantic hotel room hands down.

They took advantage of the chauffeur-driven limo to get them to the convention hotel. The bar and grill that Zoey steered them towards was neon lit, packed tight and there was a waiting list for future tables. Within minutes they’d been teamed up with three college students – also waiting on a table, one a mathematics graduate and the other two studying science. Gamers all, and there was common ground between them all and Eli felt himself responding to the easy camaraderie and anticipation of what tomorrow’s convention might bring. Zoey was in her element, brightly vivacious, her face and those eyelashes more than a match for any virtual heroine. Plenty of interest in the pretty girl gamer from the other three. Eli felt the tug of possessiveness and damped it down hard.

Still, when one of the others leaned forward, the better to expound on his favorite gaming weaponry and player preferences, Eli fixed him with a cool grey stare that had the boy grinning and easing back and dragging his two quieter friends back into the conversation fast.

Zoey didn’t miss much. She turned and fixed him with a speculative green gaze. ‘Did you do that?’

‘Do what?’

‘Intimidate my new friend.’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Could be just that you never learned to share.’

‘Hey, if I wanted to keep what belonged to me I had to guard it fiercely. Brothers.’

She leaned forward, got up in his space and her breast brushed his shoulder as her lips neared his ear. ‘I don’t belong to you, healer. And you don’t belong to me. We’re just friends, remember. So play nice and leave the puppies alone.’

He didn’t like the idea of her hooking up with someone else at this convention. He didn’t like the idea of her hooking up with anyone else period. ‘I will if you will.’

Her eyes flashed and he had a feeling it was with heat rather than anger. ‘Possessive,’ she murmured. ‘Also kind of sexy and a little out of line. You’re giving off a lot of mixed messages, Eli.’

‘So are you.’

‘No.’ Her gaze strayed to his lips and he felt it like a caress. ‘My message is dead simple.’ She lifted her heavy lidded gaze to his. ‘I’m attracted to you. Physically. Mentally. Emphatically. I’m in if you are. Now. I do believe I promised you a drink.’

‘I’ll get them. What will you have?’

‘A half of beer and a shot of whisky and you can probably keep them coming. You going to object to that too?’

No, he decided as he asked the others what they were drinking and went to order the round. He was going to join her.

Half an hour later their table was still not ready and the three college amigos, who went by the name of Bay, Jay and Sam, had grown on him. Four gaming laptops cluttered the little round bar table as Zoey ran them through the basics of her favorite role playing game, the one they so often played on a Friday. Zoey’s cheeks were a little flushed, her ringlets slightly looser now, but the pleasure she took in the game and the way she automatically included him in the play had him wishing that he could find something to dislike about her, fast, before he did something stupid like cut out his heart and lay it at her feet.