Nick had put up with her tantrums, diva antics and bratty ways for too long and now he figured she just might never grow up. Not enough to suit him anyway. She was as different from Keyonna Hayes as night was from day. Keyonna might be an infuriating tease that got under his skin far too easily, but she was all woman in ways that fired his blood.
He could no longer deny it.
He’d probably wanted her from the first time he’d seen her several months ago. It had startled him how much he’d reacted to her physically and even now he couldn’t really understand it.
It had taken all he could to conceal his true response to the tall, curvy and intelligent woman. That kiss on the balcony had brought to life a raging fire within his loins in ways that had never even glimmered in all the time he’d been engaged to Rachel. Yes, Rachel was undoubtedly beautiful and many men would consider the slim blonde sexy but Nick felt himself drawn to Keyonna in ways that perturbed him. Keyonna was definitely more of a woman and minute after minute, he began to discover that he liked the thought of her being his woman too much.
“Well, she’s more than welcome to you,” he heard Rachel say with chilly composure. He let her go with disgust even as she added with a sneer, “I’m sure that once she knows how much you’re worth, she’ll be all yours. No doubt she’d love to take my vacant spot as the future Mrs. Vitale.”
Now it was two days after and Nick chuckled out loud to himself as he looked down at pages and photos in the file his investigators had compiled on Keyonna Hayes. He picked up a particularly eye-catching shot of her, taken by the beach where she’d gone sunbathing with a few of her friends just days ago. She was clad in some kind of ruffled black bikini that played off her curvy figure to perfection.
The camera had caught her just off the side and her curves were well exhibited, reminding Nick how it had felt having her luscious body pressed up hard against him. From memory, he knew she hid a caseload of molten heat beneath an exterior he’d once thought of as calculating and detached.
She’d been assigned to major design contracts involving a few of his estate development structures in both the housing and corporate sectors in the past. He’d been impressed and startled how a young woman such as herself had been able to get involved in such high-level projects – but then he’d believed that with her looks, she probably used her many feminine talents to make her way.
He knew for a fact she was linked to many top shots and he’d seen her on the arm of a few moneybags he knew both socially and in business. He’d gotten the impression she was very ambitious and determined to climb to the top of her game. And there was nothing wrong with that so why had he held that so much against her from the beginning?
The few times they’d come in contact before that fateful dinner party, something must have told him she was a woman who could pierce his defenses quite easily. And her fiery kiss had proven that.
There was no way he’d soon forget how that first unexpected touch of her juicy, generous lips had felt – and what it had done to his ramping hormones.
But was that enough to take Rachel’s catty suggestion seriously? Nick told himself it was certainly something to consider in closer scrutiny than ever before…
Chapter Five
“Tell me it isn’t true!” Natasha Price, Keyonna’s close friend and confidant, cried on the other end of the phone line. Natasha also happened to be the editor of a popular society magazine which was nothing more than a glorified gossip sheet on the rich and mighty. She was around the same age as Keyonna, and both girls had looked out for each other over the years, while trying to inch their way up their respective career ladders.
Keyonna sighed dejectedly. “I wish I could.” She slumped back into her seat as she pushed a catalogue of designs to the far edge of her desk. “But I can’t. I really did jump Nick Vitale with a kiss at the tribute dinner of my military ex-boyfriend. I’m almost afraid to ask how you heard about it.”
“Phew. I was almost certain it was all just a hoax,” Natasha breathed with expressive relief that Keyonna found not in the least reassuring. Natasha was the kind of girl who had ears and eyes everywhere. She knew anyone who was anyone and rubbed shoulders with people from all walks of life thanks to her confident and winning personality.
Keyonna’s eyes rolled heavenwards. “Always the incurable gossip, aren’t you?”
“It’s all part of my job description, honey,” her friend cooed. “And yet when that nasty female showed up at my office with the scoop you could have knocked me over with a feather. To think that her fiancé of over a year, the dangerously hunky Nick Vitale, has been given the boot. Well. I couldn’t believe any woman would be demented enough to let him go – even if he was caught necking with another woman. And when I found out that woman was you…damn girl I almost died. I thought it was either the bitch was lying or it wasn’t the same Keyonna Hayes I knew.”