“Ummm, no. I don’t know anything about your birthday.”
“Damn. I was gonna thank the hell out of somebody.” His eyes rake my naked upper body and chills break out across my chest, reminding me that it’s probably extremely inappropriate for me to be carrying on a conversation with a perfect stranger when I’m in the tub.
But other than propriety, which I’m evidently not too concerned with right now, I can’t think of one good reason to ask him to leave. Not one.
“I’m Weatherly O’Neal. My family owns this vineyard. Who are you?”
One black-as-night brow shoots up. “I’m Tag. My family works this vineyard.”
Every cheesy book and movie about a rich woman and the cabana boy (chauffer, gardener, handyman, and a whole slew of other clichés) scampers through my head. Now I understand. Now I understand how it happens. Now I understand the draw. It doesn’t matter that our stations in life are worlds apart. It doesn’t matter that my father would have a conniption. It doesn’t matter that it could never work out. All my body and my mind are thinking is that the way he’s looking at me sets my blood on fire.
And I love it.
“Well, Tag,” I say, enunciating the name that somehow suits him perfectly, “I guess I’ll be seeing you around then.”
He’s still smiling. I don’t think he’s stopped since he showed up in the doorway. “I look forward to it. Very. Much.”
With that, he skims me once more with his smoky silver eyes and then turns, very slowly, to leave.
When I hear the door to my bedroom click shut—the door I forgot to close—I rest back against the cool ceramic and exhale. I smile, too, as I think to myself, Yep. This little getaway is going to be just what I needed.
TWO
Tag
So this is Weatherly O’Neal, I think as I watch the stunning raven-haired beauty slide onto a lounger by the pool and tip her face up to the sun. She’s wearing a tight camisole-type thing in red and a breezy wraparound skirt that shows off her long, slim legs when she sits down. Her skin glistens with a healthful glow after her bath. I can all but smell the sweet scent of her flesh from all the way over here.
It’ll be a long time before I can get the vision of her out of my head, particularly the one of her in the bathtub. I watched her for a few seconds before I spoke. Her eyes were closed, her head resting against the curved edge of the tub, and her slim fingers were teasing the most perfect nipples I’ve ever seen. They were rosy and hard and my mouth waters just recalling the way they poked wetly from the lush mounds of some seriously great tits.
Damn.
I didn’t get as good a look at the rest of her. Once I spoke and she sat up, all I could really focus on was her face. Heart-shaped, pale skin, plump lips just the right shade of pink. And her eyes . . . God, those eyes could make a man beg. If that body, with its round breasts, flat stomach, and smoothly shaved everything, wouldn’t do it, those eyes would. They’re a rich blue. Almost violet. They have an exotic shape to them that makes her look like she’s turned on all the time.
That or she was turned on.
I grit my teeth.
Double damn!
Yeah, her arrival is definitely not going to make things any easier for me. But nothing worth having is ever easy.
And I’d be willing to bet having her would be worth a lot of trouble.
I saunter down the dappled path to the patio that surrounds the pool. Weatherly’s head snaps toward me the instant my boot hits the hard surface and alerts her to my presence. Her mouth drops open the slightest bit and, for a second, there’s nothing but steam between us. Hell, I’m surprised the pool water isn’t evaporating.