Immediately Lucas slipped an arm around Mac. “Not at all. This lady is my wife.”
The man’s glance slipped to Mac, then back to Lucas. “Your…I’m sorry, sir. I just thought…”
“You thought wrong.”
“My apologies, Mr. Wainright. I…I’m sorry to have disturbed you. I hope you’ll let me know what the staff can do to make your stay more pleasant.” With a brief nod, the man turned and walked away.
The moment he was out of earshot, Mac spoke on a bubble of laughter. “‘This lady is my wife!’ How did you manage to say that with a straight face? I don’t think he believed you.”
“No, he didn’t.” Lucas kept his eyes on the man’s retreating back until he was out of sight. “He was trying to do his job.”
“He was going to throw me out, and you saved me. It was just like in Pretty Woman when Richard Gere brings Julia Roberts into that swanky Beverly Hills hotel. He doesn’t let them throw her out either. Instead, he hires her for the whole week. Now there’s a fantasy. How about it? Would you like to hire me for a week?”
Her hand was burning its way up his thigh again. Lucas covered it with his own, and when he turned to face her, he found that she was very close. It wasn’t just her hair that was different. Her mouth was too—slicked with red the color of wild raspberries. It took all his willpower not to sample. “What I’d like to do can’t be done here—” he tore his gaze from her lips “—unless you want to get us both thrown out. Let’s take this to the room.”
She smiled at him. “I’m not done yet.”
Before he could prevent it, her hand slipped from beneath his to cover his erection.
“Ever fantasize about having sex in a public place?”
“Doc…” The word was barely audible. He couldn’t breathe, didn’t dare to move.
“I’m Sally, remember?”
Beneath the table, he grabbed her wrist and removed her hand very carefully. “This fantasy is over. We’re getting out of here.”
“Not until you kiss me. I’ve been dying for you to kiss me. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Lucas gazed into her eyes. The teasing light was gone. In its place was something hot and needy. Was it Mac talking? Or Sally? And just who had brought him nearly to completion with her touch? At the moment that his mouth covered hers, he wasn’t sure he cared.
CHAPTER SEVEN
KISS ME. The words had slipped out before she could prevent them. She hadn’t meant to say them. But touching him, feeling the strength of his desire fill her hand had changed the fantasy into a desire so sharp she couldn’t resist.
She hadn’t even had time to blink before his mouth had crushed down on hers. The memory of their last kiss shattered as new sensations streamed through her. She welcomed the heat, the urgent demand, and wanted more.
The feelings racing through her were as exciting as the first time one of her theories had proven to be true in the lab. There was that breathless rush of pleasure, then the exhilaration that came with knowing that the results were just the beginning. That they could be taken to the next step and the next.
Touch me, she wanted to cry out. Please touch me.
And then he did. His hands were hard—and rough. One had clamped like a vise on the back of her neck. The other was running down her in a smooth, possessive stroke until it reached the top of her thigh. When he scraped his teeth over her bottom lip, a bolt of pleasure shot through her. She could feel everything—the soft give of the cushioned leather at her back, the hard line of his body pressing against her, and the beating of her own heart—so fast, so hard, she was sure it was going to pound its way right out of her chest.
And all the while, something inside her was beginning to boil like hot molten rock at the earth’s center.
More. She arched toward him, and suddenly his hand was just where she wanted it to be. Right at the center of her heat.
“Excuse me.”
The two words didn’t register at first. All she was aware of was Lucas’s abrupt withdrawal. First, he pulled his mouth from hers and then his hand. But he kept one arm around her as he turned.
“What is it?” Lucas’s voice sounded like a snarl, and the perky little waitress took a quick step back from the table. At least he could talk. Mac’s lips felt as if they were vibrating. She wondered if she could ever use them for forming words again.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said with a faltering attempt at a smile. “But my manager sent me over. There’s a call for you at the main desk. He thought it might be important.”
Mac could almost feel Lucas put a clamp on his anger. His voice was much milder when he said, “We’ll take the bill.”
“Thanks.” She beamed a smile at him, then waited until he signed it and handed it back to her.
Mac didn’t look at Lucas until the waitress left. He was studying her, and there was nothing on his face that gave away what he was thinking.
“You’re trouble,” he said.
She could have said the same about him and meant it. She didn’t kid herself for one minute that she’d been successful at sustaining her fantasy for even a second after Lucas had begun to kiss her. One taste and Sally might just as well have been vaporized. She was the one who’d been kissing Lucas, wanting Lucas. And she hadn’t wanted to stop.
He slid out of the booth and held out his hand. “We’re getting out of here before we’re arrested.”
“I think I’m glad I’m with the owner of the hotel,” Mac said as she grabbed the bag that contained his present, then tucked her free hand in his.
Lucas’s lips twitched. “I’m glad I am the owner of the hotel.”
They were both laughing as they walked out of the lounge.
THE LOBBY WAS CROWDED. Some people were clustered in groups, others wove their way toward the bank of elevators or up a curving sweep of stairs to the second level. The sun streamed down on them from a skylight as they circled a fountain in the open atrium.
At any other time, Lucas might have taken a moment to just mingle and observe how smoothly the staff was running the place, but two things were on his mind—the woman beside him and the phone call waiting for him at the desk. No one knew he was here at the hotel. Even if Tracker had guessed, he would have called him on his cell phone. After he solved that problem, he would have to figure out what he was going to do about the doc.
If he could just predict what she might do or suggest next, he might be able to get a handle on that. Clearly, his first priority was to get her back upstairs to their suite before she got them both arrested.
“Lucas Wainright,” he said to the well-groomed young man at the reception desk. “I was told there was a call for me.”
“Yes, sir. Just one minute, Mr. Wainright.”
While he waited, he glanced over to where Mac was leafing through one of the brochures stacked on a nearby table. She’d kicked off one of her high-heeled sandals, and he found himself wanting to slip her out of the other one.
Odd, but he’d never been particularly attracted to women who dressed in clothes that screamed casually available sex. He preferred his dates to wear elegant but conservative styles.
The outfit Mac was wearing was even more eye-catching than it had been in the dimness of the lounge. As he watched, the gaze of more than one passerby locked on her. One man stumbled, nearly falling into the man ahead of him. Another lurched into the woman at his side. Yet the doc seemed totally unaware that she was causing traffic mishaps.
Instead, she was totally engrossed in the brochure. Clearly, he was looking at Dr. Lloyd. His eyes narrowed. But there was a Sally lurking inside her. And he was beginning to think he was fascinated by them both.
He planned to have both of them in his bed tonight.
He let his gaze wander down the length of her legs. She’d taken off both sandals now, and she was rubbing the back of one foot against the calf of her leg. Evidently, the doc wasn’t in the habit of wearing hooker shoes.
Very soon, he intended to have her out of the rest of her hooker outfit too. The tank top would go first. First one strap, then the other. And then he would slide the fabric down slowly until he could cup her breasts in his hands. Then he would—
“Sir, I have your call ready.”
Turning, Lucas picked up the receiver. “Wainright here.”
“Are you enjoying your vacation?”
Lucas recognized Vincent Falcone’s voice immediately. “Very much. Are you enjoying the wine country?”
Falcone’s laugh sounded relaxed in his ear. “You’ve been keeping tabs on me, I see.”
And you’ve been doing the same with me. Lucas didn’t like it one bit, but he didn’t say the words aloud. He said nothing at all. A long time ago, he’d learned that silence was often more effective than a direct question in getting the information he wanted. While he waited, he let his gaze sweep the lobby. Did Falcone have a tail on him even now? He noted that Mac was chatting with the bellhop who had shown them to their rooms. In a moment, the young man was going to drool all over his uniform.
“You’re much harder to locate than I am,” Falcone said. “I heard a rumor that you were off to the Keys. I thought naturally of the Wainright Casa Marina, but I didn’t really expect my call to strike pay dirt.”