Pierce smiled, and it pulled her from her thoughts. “You must be starved. I’ll cook you dinner. I’m a wicked good cook, believe it or not,” Pierce said.
Her body went rigid again. Cook her dinner? At his place? No. No, no, no. She’d already been unable to keep from slapping her lips on to his and nearly swallowing him whole. She honestly hadn’t kissed a man in years. Not since her mother’s diagnosis turned terminal. She stepped back and drank him in one last time. He wore his thick, shiny dark hair brushed back, away from his face, but when she was groping him, a few strands had fallen forward, giving him a younger, less edgy look. How could a man look one minute like he walked out of GQ and, with a few wayward strands of hair, then look like he belonged on the front of a rugged outdoorsy magazine?
That was totally unfair.
And totally made her knees weak.
The idea of going back to her car sucked, but as much as landing in his bed, beneath his magnificent body, with those bedroom eyes looking down at her and his powerful thighs pressed against hers—Stop it!
No.
“Well?” he asked, and she realized she was spacing out. He picked up her heels from the grass and went down on one knee. She pressed her fingers to his shoulders as he placed a hand on her calf, sending a shiver up her thighs. He slid her foot into her shoe, and then he gently set that foot down and ran his hand back down her calf as he lifted her other foot. How was he turning her inside out by simply putting on her heels? His other hand grazed the back of her knee. Rebecca imagined him doing all sorts of dirty things while kneeling before her. She had no idea that putting on heels could feel so erotic, and she couldn’t help but wonder…If he could make this feel so good, what would it feel like to be beneath all that power, that confidence, that sexual prowess?
“Um…I…” She couldn’t think clearly with him touching her like that. “Actually, I have to be…” Oh God. He slid his hand down her calf and then rose to his full height again. “Up early tomorrow to go to the gym, so I’d better take a rain check.” Gym? Idiot. Fool. I bet you could give me a great workout.
Stop it!
“A rain check?” He arched a brow.
Great. Now I’ve invited myself on another date with him. Okay, time to leave. “Listen, I’ve got to go.” Before I kiss you again. “I’m sorry. I had a great time.”
He took her hand in his. “I’ll walk you back to your car. Is it parked at the Astral?”
You mean my temporary residence? Oh yeah, it’s there. “Yes, in the garage.”
They walked back around the lake, and Rebecca struggled to ignore the way her body was reacting to him. Her stomach was fluttering like a schoolgirl, she was breathing like she was still kissing him, and between her legs certain parts that had been hibernating for three years were suddenly begging to have another bear in the den.
A Pierce bear.
Good Lord, woman.
She felt her cheeks flush and was glad it was dark so Pierce couldn’t see them pink up.
“What was it like caring for your mom? Was she at home with you?”
“Yeah. She was. She refused to go to the hospital at the end. She was always worried about—” Finances, and leaving me with too much debt. “She didn’t like to be away from home. And we couldn’t really afford to have full-time home health aides, so I took her to her treatments and appointments. That’s why I went from job to job. It turns out that most employers don’t like when you can’t show up for work because your mother had a really bad night, or she needed to go to an unexpected medical appointment. That’s why it’s taken me so long to finish my degree, but I don’t mind. It was really only the last two and a half years or so that things got really bad. But even near the end she’d say things like, Mi dulce niña, this is nothing. A blip on your radar screen of life, or, When I get to heaven, I’m going to pull all the right strings so your life is amazing. Just you wait and see.” Rebecca shook her head. “It’s funny. Sometimes I still spin around when something happens, and I want to share it with her. Then I remember she’s gone, and…” She stopped herself from saying more. She couldn’t believe she’d revealed so much already, but Pierce was so easy to talk to, so attentive and interested. She felt comfortable with him, but she didn’t need to break down in tears. She’d done that so often in the last six weeks that tonight had been a much-needed—deserved?—change.
They were nearing the casino parking lot and Rebecca slowed her pace, not wanting the night to end. Even if she’d still been living in her apartment, she wouldn’t have wanted it to end. She liked talking about her mother, but she never allowed herself to do it.
“You know, this is going to sound strange, but I don’t think that the people we love, the ones we’re really connected to in a spiritual sense, ever really leave us. I think they’re physically gone, but I can’t believe we aren’t still somehow connected.”
She looked up at this man who was slowly rocking her world off balance and wondered how he could know what she felt, and was too afraid to fully believe?
“I feel her around me all the time,” she admitted.
He nodded, as if he understood. “My aunt Adriana died more than thirty years ago, and her husband, my uncle Hal, the one who lives in Weston, swears she’s still around.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I do believe that some loves are so strong that nothing could ever sever the connection. So who knows? Their lives might have been so deeply rooted to each other that she is still around him.” There was much more to Pierce than met the eye. He was certainly more than a businessman looking for a good time. He was too interested, too open, to be just that.
“It doesn’t sound crazy to me at all, and my uncle would attest to just how sane that belief is.” Pierce looked up at the garage. “What floor is your car on?”
“The fifth.” She wanted to keep talking, and she liked that he held her hand. When they stepped into the elevator, he pulled her in front of him and placed his hands on her hips again, and she liked that a hell of a lot more than hand-holding.
“Go out with me tomorrow night, Rebecca.” It wasn’t a question, and it wasn’t a command. He obviously knew how to take control without overstepping the invisible gray line that could make him come across as arrogant.
Everything about him had her body humming with anticipation. “I have to pick up my paycheck tomorrow night, but I’d like to go out afterward.”
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor, and she wanted to reach over and push the Stop button so she could stay right there against him for a few minutes longer. Hours. A few hours. Or maybe for the night.
He didn’t move when the elevator doors opened, and when he spoke, his voice was serious. “What time are you picking it up?”
“I think he said he’ll be in around six.”
“I’ll pick you up at five forty-five and we can go together.” The elevator doors closed and began a slow descent toward the first floor again. The edge of his lips perked up and his eyes darkened.
“Okay,” she said in one long breath.
The elevator stopped on the first floor, and another couple joined them in the elevator. Rebecca tried to move to Pierce’s side, but he held her in place. He leaned forward and whispered, “Stay with me.”
His voice sent a shiver down her back, rooting her to the floor. He was a man with a dangerous edge. A man who was used to getting what he wanted. She could tell he had the power to slice a woman open with his voice and take every sweet piece of her he desired. His eyes were as dangerous as a wolf. His swollen desire against her hips said python and wolf. Hadn’t he said as much when he hadn’t disputed being a womanizer? Why, then, was she sensing that beneath that practiced, expert facade, lay a purebred, fluffy, loyal Labrador heart?
When they reached her car, Pierce leaned his hip casually against it and dragged his eyes down her body, causing another full-body shudder. Damn it to hell, and sleeping in her car, she couldn’t even pleasure herself to take the edge off of her newly awakened desires.
“Where could you possibly keep your keys?” he asked.
She turned her back, reached into her bra, and withdrew a single key. “Voila.”
His eyes darkened. “Makes me wonder where you keep your cell phone.”
“Secrets are a girl’s best friend.” She put the key in the lock and he moved behind her. Sensing his heat before his hands touched her hips, she closed her eyes. He brushed her hair from one shoulder, and his hot breath whispered across her skin.
“Where should I pick you up tomorrow?”
Shit. What was she doing? Oh, pick me up right here. In fact, just climb in my car now. I’ll have my way with you in the backseat and we’ll pretend we’re fifteen years old. Then I can realize you’re my biggest mistake—biggest, most delicious mistake—right before you realize the same thing.
She turned to face him and—Oh God—that was worse. He was looking at her like he really liked her, not like she was a piece of ass, as she was trying to convince herself.
“Why don’t we meet here, in the lobby? You work here, and I have to be in the area anyway.” Since I live here.