The Wedding Fling (13 page)

“You’re better at coercing a weak man than you probably realize.”

She gave him a beseeching look.

“I’ll think about it. Now we really need to get you back to Harrier.”

* * *

W
ILL
STOLE
A
GLANCE
at Leigh as he drove them along the gravel road to her villa, toward the setting sun. She was smiling. A small, tired smile, but a smile nonetheless. The tabloid business hadn’t broken her, thank goodness.

He looked back at the road, turning her offer around in his head for the thousandth time that hour. It was the worst kind of temptation, to accept money from the woman he’d come so close to hurting. But she wanted it, badly, and his agreement could make her happy. Or was that just the rationalization of a desperate, selfish man? She had him so mixed up, he honestly couldn’t be sure.

Will pulled around her drive and parked. She bit her lip as she undid her seat belt.

“What?”

“Would you like to come in?” she asked.

Will’s dick wanted that, for purely selfish reasons, and his heart wanted it as well, for the mere pleasure of being near her, clothes on or off. He met her gaze. “I meant what I said this morning, about you probably needing things to be simple right now.”

“I know, and thank you. I wasn’t offering to throw myself at you again. But would you like a beer? Maybe you could tell me more about the club, over dinner.”

He sighed, his resistance waning alongside his guilt. “Yeah, I would like that.”

She opened the door and climbed out. “There are prying eyes on this island. Better not tempt fate by leaving evidence of our lurid affair parked in plain sight.”

As he drove away, Will felt alive again. He felt infinitely better than he had that morning, the last time he’d said goodbye to her at her door. He could imagine what his old man might have to say about the situation.
Don’t waste your time beating yourself up over the mistakes you
nearly
made. Save that for when you screw up royally.

And Will had no intention of screwing things up with Leigh. He’d found something special with her, and though it likely would only last another week, he wouldn’t waste it. He wouldn’t let the chance to know her pass, and wind up regretting it once she’d flown home. All these years he’d spent determined to live without regrets.... Now wasn’t the time to start overthinking everything.

He dropped his truck off and struck out on foot. The deal she’d offered wasn’t something he could hang his hopes on, but it was enough to remind him that there was always another way. Enough to let him believe he’d done the right thing in telling that tabloid asshole where to stick his dirty money, and that maybe this new opportunity was the universe rewarding his decision. By the time her villa came into view, Will felt hopeful. He felt other things, as well, a fluttering in his chest, a quickening in his pulse.

Something in him was intrigued by the idea of them becoming business partners. The potential complications didn’t scare him—Will tended to attract rather passionate women, and he’d navigated his share of melodramatic breakups. The only thing that did scare him was to agree to her offer, then greet her in Bridgetown a year from now only to find she had a new guy in tow. Still, he’d never been a jealous man.

Okay, that was a lie—Will had gone insane with jealousy at thirteen when he found out his mother had remarried and had another son with her new husband. That had hurt as badly as being walked out on. But he’d never feel so awful again in his life—aside from the night his father had been shot. Certainly not over a woman. Love could never be counted on to live up to its hype.

Though it was nice while it lasted.

Will bounded up the steps to Leigh’s patio, noticing her hot tub was steaming. His good feelings shifted in a southerly direction. He knocked at her back door, spotting her impeccably remade bed through the glass. That would need fixing.

Leigh appeared with a glass of white wine already in hand, and slid the door aside for him.

“Why, good evening, Captain. What a pleasant surprise.”

He smiled, inviting the flirtation. “Saw you have your hot tub all fired up. Now this.” He pointed to her glass and closed the door behind him. “Am I interrupting your evening?”

“Even if you were, you’re welcome to crash my party. I owe you one. Can I get you a beer?”

“Wine’s fine,” he said, following her into the kitchen. “Think I ought to prepare for a toast, if you really are serious about backing my venture.”

“I’m very serious. And I’ll still be very serious tomorrow and next week and a month from now. But I promise I won’t rush the paperwork, so you’ll know I’m not making the offer impulsively.”

“You’ve made me other impulsive offers,” Will teased.

Leigh rolled her eyes as she poured him a measure of white.

“Thanks. When’s your interview? Tomorrow?”

“Day after. Tomorrow I’ll be shackled to the phone, finalizing what to say, and rehearsing it endlessly with my manager, making sure the satellite link works.” She beckoned for him to join her at the kitchen’s shiny marble bar.

“They sending anyone out to help you? PR people?”

“No, I asked them not to. They’ll be hovering plenty via the phone. It’s, um... I’m very easy to coerce, unfortunately. The more persuasive people I have around me, the more I lose track of myself and what I want. I just want to be myself during the interview. Not some groomed version of me. But I do need
some
plan, so I don’t get lured off topic by the host.”

“Right.” Will studied the condensation on his cold glass.

“Are you worried? About what I might say about the party?”

“No, not at all.” The worry he did feel right now was a pleasant one, utterly tied up in how much he cared for this woman. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. I hope it’s the first step on the way to getting your life into the shape you want it to be.”

She laughed. “Thank you. I’d actually love for it to not have any shape at all for a while, I’ve been corralled for so long. Would you like to toast?”

“I would.” Will sat up straight and raised his glass. “To whatever will come.”

“Whatever will come.”

They clinked and he tasted the wine for the first time. Refreshing. Clear and clean. The way his conscience was finally beginning to feel.

“So, the hot tub,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No need to sound so lurid. Friends can share a glass of wine in a hot tub,” she countered, way too innocently.

“What about business partners?”

“Even more so. So can pilots and passengers.”

“What about the two people who were in your bed last night?”

Finally, he got a blush out of her. “Those two are tricky. I suppose that remains to be seen.”

“Shall we find out?”

“I suspect we shall.”

When they reached her bedroom, she said, “Go ahead. I need to change into a bathing suit.”

“Make sure it’s one with a built-in chastity belt. We’ll need all the help we can get, keeping this professional.”

He left her and stepped out onto the patio. Cold drink, cool air, steaming water. “God bless you, Barbados.”

Will stripped to his underwear and sat at the edge of the whirlpool, dipping his feet into the water. Once they adjusted, he let his calves sink into the current, then slid onto the contoured bench, churning heat engulfing him to his chest. The hiss of the sliding door announced Leigh’s arrival. He turned to watch her, his scrutiny of her body in its bikini far from subtle.

“Yes?” she asked, dipping a toe in the water. “Oh my, that’s hot.”

“You look very nice. Don’t see a lock on that suit, though.”

“No, I was afraid it might rust. We’ll just have to take our chances.”

Will wanted to take far more than that. He smiled at the round O of her mouth as she dipped a foot into the heat.

“Too hot?”

“I’ll get there.” There was a rubber band on her wrist and she paused to wind her long hair into a sloppy bun. The only sexier look Will could imagine was to see it spread out across her pillow. Or his pillow. The carpet, the sand, swaying in the ocean waves. Anywhere.

“You ought to be used to this, what with your Hollywood lifestyle,” he said. “Doesn’t your manservant prepare your hot tub every evening?”

She smiled, sinking in the water to her hips. “I don’t have a hot tub or any servants, thank you. I’m not Elizabeth Taylor, you know.”

“What do you fill your Beverly Hills mansion with, then?”

Leigh laughed. “I hate to disillusion you, but my soon-to-be-former mansion is a condo. Though it does have a big whirlpool bath.” She winced as she took a seat across from him, on a lower bench that immersed her right up to her shoulders and hid Will’s view of her breasts. After a minute of painful faces, she draped her arms along the rim and sighed. “Okay, I’ve melted.”

The steam lent an alluring sheen to her complexion, and with her eyes closed and her skin flushed, she looked sexy in a way Will didn’t think he’d ever seen. There were so many facets to this woman, so unlike the entertainment industry visitors he’d grown accustomed to. Her desire to get out of that chaos really was genuine.

“Are you excited?” she asked, eyes still shut. Behind her, the sun sat at the horizon, edging her in a warm glow, as though she’d been dipped in gold. “Excited about the club getting off the ground? Or are you the type to withhold your excitement until things are official?”

“No, I’m not especially cautious. My dad says I’ve always been a dreamer.”

“I could see that.”

“Turn around, Leigh.”

She opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at the sunset. “Oh, wow.”

“Wow, indeed.”

“Why on earth would anyone
not
live here?”

Again he imagined her on the mainland, at the club so perfectly constructed in his mind’s eye. Laughing and drinking and dancing on the beach. Their beach. With her neck still craned like that, he saw her pursed lips in profile. She glanced back at him.

“You want the good view, don’t you?” Will slid over a few feet, making room on his side. Leigh stood and sloshed across to sit next to him. She was close...though just now, she could never be close enough, not unless they were mouth to mouth, chest to chest, legs tangled. Not until he was actually inside her.

As they watched the sun sinking, Will’s body roused. The sky went from shell-pink to blazing red, to orange, to sea-green and finally indigo, without a single word spoken between them. When the first star winked to life above the ocean, Leigh’s knee glanced his. Just that tiny contact struck like lightning.

They turned to face one another. Leigh’s parted lips, swollen from the heat, were the sexiest thing Will had ever seen. All that separated them were six inches of hazy air—no more guilt, no more regrets.

9

S
HE
STARED
AT
W
ILL
’
S
handsome face, feeling scalded by his gaze. Hotter than the water... And for the first time in months, Leigh was hopeful. She beamed up a prayer that he’d let her invest in his club. This man was everything she wished she was herself, his life and his dream a compelling hybrid of wayward and dutiful. Helping him might uncover her own ambitions and dreams...or perhaps the mere helping was a worthy enough cause. In either case, she wanted to be a part of it so badly, it felt as if the longing would burst through her ribs.

And she wanted other things just as much.

She took his jaw in her hands and kissed him. His lips tasted of wine; his skin was warm against her palms. He let her lead, and Leigh didn’t waste the opportunity. She kissed him deeper, her mind filling with carnal questions. Then he took over, the strong hands on her shoulder and neck making her body hum. His tongue slid against hers, hot and hungry, and she wondered how he would feel, giving her what she’d ached for when he’d knelt before her in the shower.

Her breath caught as his hand slid to her breast. His touch had been eager both times they’d fooled around, but he felt different tonight—possessive, with no trace of hesitation. As he palmed her inside the cup of her bikini top, their kissing became a distracted press of lips, light grazes and shared breath. He made her feel all those things she’d missed out on. Breathless first love—the real-life kind, with no script dictating the experience.

She ran her hand down his chest into the hot water, before taking the caress lower. He was hard behind the cotton of his shorts, just as she’d known he would be. His touch tonight was self-assured and fearless, and she couldn’t wait another minute to discover how that would translate to the rest of his body’s demands. She pulled away.

“Let’s go inside.”

Will smiled. “As you wish.”

She straightened her top, switched off the tub and climbed out, skin tensing in the cool air. An electrifying sensation, like Will’s proximity. She padded to the entrance. His wet hand alighted on her side as she slid the door open, chills turning to heat in an instant.

He nearly shut the door before seeming to recall her request from the night before. He opened it again, inviting in the smell and sounds of the ocean.

“So. We’ve defiled your beach, your shower, your hot tub, your bed.... Anywhere else you want to have your way with me?”

She put a finger to her chin, pretending to consider. “We’ve covered all my bases. What about your truck? Cabin of the plane?”

He stepped close, smiling.

“Your hammock?” she suggested. “Or whatever it is you sleep in.”

He kissed her and Leigh lost the will to banter. They both knew it was bed or bust. She let the idea percolate a moment...
honeymoon suite
. Sans husband, which only made it more forbidden and thrilling. She pulled back again, grinning at him.

“What?”

“Hang on.” She returned to the patio, fetching their glasses. Carrying them inside, she passed Will and headed for the kitchen. “Follow me.”

She poured out their chardonnay and opened the fridge, sliding the bottle of champagne from its special slot in the door.

He watched as she unwound the metal cage from the cork, then he put his hand out. “That’s a man’s job.”

Leigh passed it over.

“Before I open this, what are we toasting?”

“My honeymoon.” For a second she wished she could take it back, wanting to give Will no reason to think he wasn’t the only man on her mind. But he merely grinned.

“Your honeymoon?”

“Yes. To it going far better than expected.”

His gaze darted to the open bedroom door, and she knew he was imagining the same guilty pleasures she was. “If you’re willing to pretend to play the part of my husband, that is.” Why did the idea fill her chest with such a floating, weightless sensation? The wine’s fault, surely.

Will twisted the cork until it popped, vapor rising from the bottle. “At the rate I’m going, this may be the only honeymoon I get.”

“Don’t be stingy,” Leigh directed as he poured. They clinked their glasses and drank, the fizz of the wine just right, matching the excitement bubbling through her body.

They kissed between sips, and Leigh decided this was how champagne ought to be enjoyed—off the lips of one’s clandestine lover.

When they set their empty glasses aside, she offered Will a mischievous look and started toward the bedroom.

“Wait, wait, wait.” He jogged to catch up. “You’re skipping the most important bit.” He caught her behind the knees, hauling her up into his arms.

“Oh yes, the threshold. You’re awfully good at this. You’re sure you haven’t been a groom before?”

“Quite sure. But it never hurts to practice.” He carried her through the door and dumped her unceremoniously across the bed.

“Not the smoothest landing,” Leigh teased, sitting up.

“Emergency situation. Very urgent. Do we have any...?”

“Bathroom, top drawer.”

Will returned with a fistful of foil-wrapped condoms.

“Ambitious,” Leigh said.

He merely smiled, setting them on the nightstand. He looked around the room for a moment, spotting the shelf above the other bedside table, arranged with candles. He got the pillars lit and switched off the lights.

“You don’t have to seduce me,” she teased. “I’ll go without a fight.”

“On the contrary. This is your honeymoon, Miss Bailey. Or are you Mrs. Burgess now?”

“No, you’re Mr. Bailey. We’re a very progressive couple.”

“That’s Captain Bailey to you, Mrs. Burgess.”

Crawling over the bedspread, Will covered her body with his. Everything felt right—the heat coming off his bare chest, her wet swimsuit against the dry linens. He planted his knees between hers and nudged them wide, dropping to his elbows, their faces so close their noses touched.

Leigh wished she knew the perfect thing to say...something intimate, something like “I love you,” but for casual lovers. She settled for, “This is very nice.”

He kissed her chin. “Yes, it is.”

“I...I’m very fond of you.”

He pulled back enough to let her see his broad smile. “Are you? You must be terribly drunk. I like that in a woman.”

She swatted his arm.

“I’m very fond of you, too,” he said, then lowered to swipe his lips against hers.

Satisfied on the sweet-nothings front, Leigh let more carnal needs assert themselves. She ran her hands down his back, relishing the feel of his shoulders, the twin ridges of muscle flanking his spine, the firm shapes of his hips and backside. He brought their bodies closer, close enough for his erection to brush her mound and set her pulse pounding.

“Will.”

He kissed her, deep, sensual sweeps of his tongue that matched the stroke of his cock. As she wrapped her legs around his waist, his moan warmed her lips. He angled his hips, his hard length taunting her through their damp layers. She slid her hands under his waistband to memorize the motions as he thrust, and imagine how he’d feel when he was actually making love to her. No, no—having sex with her, she corrected. Very, very fond sex.

“What do you want?” he whispered.

“Just you.”

“That’s encouraging. But we’re not in any hurry....”

“What about you? You can have just about anything you want, Will.”

He pushed up, bracing his arms by her sides. “What I want is to wreck you for every other man you’ll ever meet. Any tips on how to go about that?”

She laughed. “You’re a pilot living in a tropical paradise. You’re quite tough to top as it is.”

“What’s your favorite thing? In bed?”

She frowned thoughtfully. Having Will here, excited and exciting, was the greatest turn-on she’d ever experienced. “I’m not especially adventurous, to be honest. I just like feeling all...crazy, with you. And making you pant. That’s very sexy. Tell me how I can drive you insane.”

“The fact that we’re not naked yet is a good start. But if you mean the good kind of insane, I say we lose the clothes and roll around. And when it looks like you’ve made me wait so long I might have a heart attack, then you’ll have reached your goal.”

Liking this idea, Leigh arched her back and angled her arm to get her top untied. Will lifted it away and tossed it to the floor. For a long minute he spoiled her with caresses, thrilled her with his hungry gaze. When he finally bent down to take her in his mouth, her need went from romantic to aggressive in an instant. She held his head and stroked his hair, admiring his face, so placid with his eyes closed. She tried to imagine another expression, the one he’d wear when he took her, and the seconds before his pleasure came to a peak. All those noises she’d heard when she’d been before him on her knees in the sand. The memory of how he’d tasted from the ocean had her mouth watering.

Will slid farther down the bed, trailing kisses from her ribs to her navel, her hip bone, the outside of her thigh. His touch felt at once familiar and new as he dragged her bottoms down her legs. Settling on his forearms between her knees, he slipped one hand beneath her butt, the other grazing the crease of her innermost thigh. He brought his mouth mere millimeters from her sex, so close she felt his warm breath when he spoke.

“I’ve been imagining this for ages.”

“Since two nights ago, you mean.”

She could just make out his smile. “Feels like an eternity.”

Any reply she had evaporated when his lip touched her clit. She fisted his hair, earning a noise of distinct, happy approval.

Leigh shut her eyes, filled her head with fantasies. As Will’s tongue traced the seam of her sex, she conjured the vision of his naked body, of soapy water sliding down his chest and stomach. She’d dated few men, all of them sexy in their own ways, but none like Will. He had no constructed style, no self-conscious image, and he only seemed more like himself with his clothes off. She’d never gotten so hot, merely picturing a man’s bare body before.

As his tongue teased her clit with firm, slick sweeps, she imagined him above her, penetrating her. She’d gotten a taunting taste the night before of how he might be—frantic yet masterful—and she hoped it was an accurate preview. Remembering what he’d said, she felt a flush of pride to believe he’d never done this before, been in one of the villa’s extravagant beds.

Will kept his tongue teasing, and the hand that had been idly kneading her thigh inched closer, closer, until she felt his fingertips at her entrance. She heard him suck in a breath, evidence of his surprise or excitement when he found her wet for him. Her body gave no resistance as he slid two fingers inside, then a third. He eased them deep, then drew them out, over and over, and she replaced them with his cock in her mind’s eye.

“I want you,” she murmured.

This time when he spoke, his breath felt cool against her overheated clit. “I want you, too.”

She smiled to herself. “It was supposed to be me who was driving
you
crazy right now.”

He laughed. “You don’t think you are?”

“Prove it.”

Will spoiled her rotten with his mouth for another minute, then rose to his knees between her legs. The bulge in his shorts looked hard and heavy. He smiled at her and ran his hand along his ridge. “This enough proof for you?”

“More than enough.” More than enough waiting, as well.

Will seemed to agree. He got out of bed, easing his shorts over his erection and kicking them away. His body was gorgeous in the warm light, strong and sexy and perfect.

He knelt before her, and for a dangerous moment, she imagined this
was
her honeymoon, this man really her husband. He would never bore her, never steer them into a life governed by bills and obligations and the other hallmarks of a typical, mundane existence. He’d keep her on her toes, fly her wherever she wished to explore. He’d take her to bed in some remarkable little home on the mainland, a tropical breeze pushing the curtains in. Swimming, laughing, being lazy, making love.

Love
. A scary, wonderful word she didn’t dare assign to a man she barely knew. No, this was infatuation—the hottest of new loves, more thrilling than a mere crush, more primal and urgent than the slow transformation of friends to lovers.

Will’s face had changed in a most alluring way...that heaviness in his lids, that parting of his lips.

“Are you crazy yet?” she asked.

“Certifiably.”

She reached to the bedside table and handed him a condom, keeping her eyes on his ready cock as he wrestled the rubber from its fancy foil packaging. Even the way he sheathed himself was a perfect seduction, three seconds that felt like an hour’s torturous wait. As he lowered his body to hers, time stood still. Every tiny detail—the dip of the mattress, the smell of his skin and the lubricant of the condom, the heat of his breath—coalesced to make this the most erotic moment of her life.

“Ready?” His tone was soft and sincere, with no teasing for a change.

She nodded. “I’m ready.”

“You’re
nearly
ready,” Will corrected. He turned her head on the pillow and tugged the elastic from her bun, then mussed her hair. “There. Perfect.”

Leigh ran her hands down his body, paying extra close attention to the firm crests of his abdomen and the groove of his hips. She swept the backs of her fingers along the underside of his cock and Will groaned. He reached between them to fist his shaft, guiding himself to her lips.

“Will.”

He eased the first two inches inside.

Longing turned to lust in a flash, and she drew her short nails up his back. His hips bucked, giving her half his length as he swore.

“More,” she whispered.

He drew himself out, the second taste of penetration as hot as the first. This time he gave her more, enough for her to be sure she’d never been with a man this big before.

“Feels amazing,” he murmured, his attention fixed between their bodies.

She tugged at his sides. “More.”

He withdrew and took her to the same depth again, again. Finally, when her nails bordered on clawing, he sank deep, until they met utterly, belly to belly, hip to hip. She shut her eyes and steeped herself in the moment, memorizing the tiny pulsations beating between them.