His eyes glimmered with desire. Anger. Satisfaction. He looked pleased with himself, like he believed he’d won this round. And truth was, he had.
“Remember this.” His voice was low, tinged with danger. “Because the next time you flaunt yourself in order to get to me, it won’t end with just one kiss. And believe me, I won’t be as gentle.”
Ellie forced her mouth closed. Gentle? What on earth was his definition of gentle? The way her body still ached from his erotic assault, she wondered, what did he consider rough?
And a better question—did she even want to know?
Chapter Six
“It’s time for Plan B,” Ellie announced the next morning. She turned to Vivian with a look of steel in her eyes.
“What’s Plan B?” Vivian asked, her expression distant as she stirred the iced-latte in front of her with a plastic straw.
Well, this was odd. Ellie had never seen her boss look as distracted as she did now. Vivian was the epitome of cool, calm and collected. Always alert, always ready with a sharp comeback. Not today, though. Ellie had a feeling she could declare aliens had landed in her backyard and demanded she board their ship and Vivian wouldn’t even blink.
But Ellie definitely understood distraction. Her head had been all over the place since the moment she’d opened her eyes this morning. Not only that, but she’d had to take a cold shower. A cold shower. It was seriously sad that twenty-four hours after Luke’s kiss she still needed to cool the desire raging her body. Even sadder that the shower hadn’t helped at all.
She’d hoped going into town with Vivian might help her organize her thoughts and regain focus. So far it hadn’t.
They were seated in the outdoor patio of a little Mexican restaurant Ellie loved. Overhead, the sun dominated the clear blue sky, its heat sweeping through the main tourist strip of San Valdez in the form of a balmy breeze. Most of the shop owners had rolled out racks of merchandise onto the uneven sidewalk and were beckoning the occasional August tourist to stop by and examine their grossly overpriced goods.
Normally Ellie got a kick out of seeing the pale-skinned, Hawaiian-shirt-clad people barter with the shop owners. This morning, though, her sense of humor eluded her.
“Subtle isn’t going to cut it anymore,” she declared, then lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip of ice water. She slammed the cup down on the stained wood table, causing the ice cubes to whirl around and collide into each other.
“Okay,” Vivian said, finally snapping out of whatever funk she was in.
“I need to bring out the big guns. Throw all my cards on the table.” She pursed her lips together in thought. “I’m going to tell Luke I want to sleep with him.”
Vivian raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yep. I think it’s the only way I can get him to leave.”
But do you want him to leave?
The little voice in her head was seriously annoying her today. Of course she wanted him to leave. Unless she agreed to come home, Luke would continue to hang around and pressure her, and she was sick of being pressured. So what if his hot mouth had felt wonderful against hers? So what if her lips still tingled from his kiss?
“Where is all this coming from?” Vivian paused. “What exactly happened last night?”
Ellie suppressed a groan. “Luke happened.”
Vivian’s face lit up for the first time all day. “Ah, so the plan worked. Seeing you with Miguel succeeded in making him jealous.”
“Oh yeah.” She blew out a sharp breath. “He kissed me.”
Kissed her? Wasn’t that the understatement of the year. More like he’d greedily devoured her.
“I see. Well, did you like it?”
She moaned. “Yes.” Not only had she enjoyed it, but the second Luke’s lips had crushed over hers she’d felt as though it had been meant to be.
She’d pined over the guy for so long it was almost ridiculous. He’d been her first crush. The star of her early sexual fantasies. The guy she’d wanted to lose her virginity to. God, how incredible would it have been if Luke was her first. But he hadn’t been, of course. Scott had. Sometimes she still wished she’d acted differently, never gotten involved with Scott, waited for the right man.
But how was she supposed to know Scott would throw her away like a piece of garbage after—
Don’t think about it.
“What’s wrong?”
The urgency in Vivian’s voice snapped Ellie out of her thoughts. She found her boss’s green-eyed gaze searching her face with concern.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she said quickly.
“Then why do you look like you’re about to cry?”
“I…I’m fine.” She took a breath. “I was just thinking about…the past. That’s all.”
Vivian reached a manicured hand across the table, grasped Ellie’s hand with it and held it tightly. “You’re white as a ghost, honey.”