He picked up the drink and gave Violet a little smile. “Excuse me a moment.”
He unfolded his long, muscular body and walked over to the blonde. Violet couldn’t bear to watch, so she ruffled Winslow’s ears and fed him pieces of shrimp from her plate, her face stinging. She supposed this kind of thing happened to Dominick all the time, beautiful women throwing themselves at him. It put the crush she had on him in perspective. She was pathetic.
He was back in a couple of minutes, without the drink, which he must have drained. “Ready to go?” he asked.
She nodded and untied Winslow’s leash while Dominick left money on the table, along with the check. She shouldered her purse and left, walking slightly in front of him and fussing with the dog to hide the fact that her face was still burning. He’d probably made plans to meet the woman later.
Neither one of them mentioned the incident as they walked back. Anytime Dominick made the mistake of moving too close to Violet, Winslow let him know. When they reached the hotel, the dog latched onto Dominick’s jeans leg with his razor teeth.
“Ow!” Dominick yelped.
“Sorry,” she said, crouching to disengage the two. “Did he break the skin?”
“I don’t think so,” Dominick mumbled, rubbing at his ankle.
“He’s probably still out of sorts from all the travel,” she said. “Are we going to visit the sports school now?”
“If we can shake rabid Toto for a few hours.”
“Let me get him settled in my room,” she said.
“I’ll get the car,” he said irritably.
Violet smothered a smile as she carried Winslow onto the elevator. “You’re a bad boy,” she whispered.
The dog sighed against her neck. She petted him to keep her mind off the fact that she was racing in a glass box high above the ground. One of these days, she hoped to conquer her fear of heights.
In the room, she set Winslow down and put out water and a tiny bit of food. After scattering his chew toys around, she turned on the television and tuned it to Animal Planet, satisfied when the barking dogs on the show captured Winslow’s attention. While he was diverted, she grabbed her laptop bag and purse, and let herself out, closing the bedroom door behind her. She took the service elevator down to the lobby—the ride wasn’t as elegant, but it was safely enclosed.
Dominick was waiting for her in the car, sitting in the driver’s seat, tapping his hand on the steering wheel in time to the song playing on the stereo. She took advantage of the moment to study him, and she saw what every other female saw—everything about the man screamed sex, from his wild, shaggy hair to his lean, muscular body. It wasn’t a stretch to picture him doing all the extreme sports he was known to pursue. He exuded danger. Her midsection clutched with desire.
He saw her and waved. “Vee! Hey, I was getting worried about you.”
She smiled, striding toward the car. “Sorry. I took the time to grab my laptop. Is someone at the school expecting us at a certain time?”
“No. In fact, no one there knows we’re coming.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “Then how are we supposed to find out what you need to know?”
“I have a plan,” he said, then smiled. “You’ll see.”
Something in the tone of his voice made her suspicious, but she held her tongue. She was, after all, here to work for him.
The streets were clogged with cars and pedestrians that streamed in between vehicles. The half-naked bodies and shouts of laughter pushed her pulse higher, and the overhead sun was merciless. Violet squirmed and edged open her jacket to catch any breeze that might be moving. She was roasting like a Christmas turkey.
“I can put up the top if you’re too warm,” he offered.
“That’s okay,” she said, knowing that she was being a prude. She leaned forward and shrugged out of her jacket, hoping that her expanse of white skin didn’t cause an eclipse. When she settled back in the seat, she felt his gaze on the snug green halter top that cradled her breasts and dipped low enough to expose a deep valley of cleavage. Her breasts had always been the bane of her existence. Men seemed to be attracted to them, but the few guys she’d been with hadn’t known what to do with them.
She turned her head to find Dominick looking at her, although she couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark glasses he wore.
Then a sexy grin curved his mouth. “So that’s what you’ve been hiding under those suits of yours.”
His comment flustered her—she felt caught between pleasure and modesty. To her horror, her nipples hardened, and without a bra, it was noticeable to anyone who looked. And Dominick was looking, which only made them harder. She sat perfectly still and tried to relax, but felt his gaze return to her as they rode along. To her dismay, the desire that she thought she’d sated in the lavatory on the plane simmered back to life. She felt foolish because she knew that Dominick was just being his teasing, flirtatious self. She kept reminding herself not to take his attention to heart, and exhaled in relief when they arrived at the Sunpiper Extreme Sports School. She put her jacket back on as they climbed from the car, glad to be back under wraps for the time being.
Violet recognized the front of the building and the lobby from the pictures on their Web site. It was basically a huge arena with climbing walls and other interactive games, detailed with lots of neon. High-energy music thumped in the background. An expansive retail store featured all kinds of gear—one reason why Sunpiper would be a good fit for Dominick’s sporting goods company, because it would give him an additional sales outlet.
“So,” she whispered as they walked up to the welcome counter, “what’s the plan?”
“It’s simple,” he said. “We’re going to enroll in some of the classes and find out, firsthand, what the school is like.”
Violet caught his arm, her eyes wide. “We?”
Dominick smiled. “Of course, we.”
Alarm seized her. “B-but I can’t do extreme sports. I-I’m not even an athlete. And I’m afraid of heights.”
“Even better to see how they handle beginners,” Dominick said smoothly. He angled his head. “Come on, Vee, this is the kind of research that I need to do. You don’t have to have any special athletic ability to do some of these activities. Besides, it’ll be fun.” His eyes danced with mischief. “You do know what fun is, don’t you?”
Her mind went back to Lillian’s comment that Violet didn’t seem to have any fun. She wavered. Dominick was paying her to help him do research—it was the purpose of their trip after all. She was the one who couldn’t seem to keep her mind on the business at hand, the one who was letting her longtime crush on him distract her.
He leaned in close. “Don’t worry, Vee. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Between the mesmerizing tone of his voice and his persuasive blue eyes, she was a goner. “Okay,” she murmured, relenting. She only hoped that he didn’t have something too extreme in mind…something that might scare her to the point of arousal.
A young man wearing a red Sunpiper T-shirt and a hat with reindeer antlers walked up to the counter. “Hi, I’m Tim. Can I help you folks?”
“Yeah,” Dominick said cheerfully. “My girlfriend and I are interested in signing up for a class.”
Violet jerked her head around to stare at him. Girlfriend?
He ignored her expression and put his arm around her shoulder. “We were thinking about couples bungee jumping.”
9
ADMITTEDLY, VIOLET was so distracted by the warm weight of Dominick’s arm around her shoulder that she almost missed what he’d said. But when the words sank in, she froze. Couples bungee jumping?
Dominick increased the pressure on her shoulder, drawing her closer to him. The scent of strong soap and talc filled her lungs, while being held against him made it harder to breathe.
“Have you jumped before?” Tim at the counter asked, reaching for forms.
“I’m an experienced jumper,” Dominick said. “This will be the first time for my girlfriend.”
There it was again—girlfriend. Her brain was sending out all kinds of confusing messages to the far reaches of her body.
“How high have you jumped?” the young man asked Dominick, in the way that men posture for bragging rights.
“Bloukrans River in South Africa is my tallest, um, legitimate jump.”
The young man’s eyes lit up. “No kidding? Dude, I hear that Bloukrans is the ultimate fall.”
“Yeah, it was a good time.”
“Going tandem now, huh?” Tim asked, nodding to Violet.
“That’s right,” Dominick said, giving her shoulders another squeeze. “What are our options?”
The guy checked his watch. “We have a bus leaving in twenty-five minutes for the last jump of the day. It’s a good one, from a bridge over an intercoastal waterway about thirty miles from here. Really nice views, and we use pendulum bungee technology for a smooth ride.”
“Is it a water pickup or will we be pulled back up to the bridge?” Dominick asked.
Every muscle in Violet’s body clenched in terror at the thought of slowly being hauled back up to the jumping-off point. Dominick must have felt her response because his hand lightly stroked her collarbone.