High Stakes Seduction (3 page)

She smiled. God, she loved her job that allowed her to be home when most people were working. Monday through Friday she gave classes in the early mornings and then again in the evenings, but the middle of the day belonged to her. Saturday was her busiest day, when she ran back-to-back classes from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Of course, since she owned the studio, she popped in from time to time to make sure everything was running smoothly, but she hired good people. There weren’t many problems.

For all her mother’s traipsing from town to town, state to state, Eva had learned one thing. She was a water baby, through and through. Being around water made her happy. It didn’t matter if it was ocean or lake, river or pond, or even just a swimming pool, whenever she was near water, she felt balanced.

Her best friend Zoey told her it was because she had Aquarius rising in her horoscope. Eva didn’t even know what that meant, but she did know that surf, sun and sand made her feel extraordinarily alive and she loved living in San Diego.

She closed her eyes behind her shades, felt the wind skim the fine hairs around her navel. Ah, peace and quiet.

Then an odd prickling sensation tugged at her stomach. Someone was watching her. She could feel it.

Eva opened her eyes.

A man stood poolside staring down at her, a white trash bag in his hand. He was well over six feet tall with broad, ruler-straight shoulders and solid biceps bulging at the seams of his navy blue T-shirt. He wore white shorts that hit just above tanned knees, and running shoes. He looked both comfortable in his own skin and utterly in charge of the space around him.

For a second or two, she thought that he was a mirage, conjured up by her sun-softened brain. Then she realized that nope, this hunk was the real deal.

She was suddenly aware of how she must look to him, lounging on the float in her bright red bikini, her blond hair tumbling about her shoulders, her body slick with perspiration. She took a deep breath, envisioned pulling her navel to her spine as she taught her students in yoga class, and then tugged the earbuds from her ears, pushed her sunglasses up on her forehead and met his gaze.

“Like what you see?” she drawled impishly.

His steady gaze heated her up like a hot lick. “Sorry,” he said, not looking the least bit apologetic. “I didn’t mean to stare…”

“And yet here you are, still staring.”

Was it her imagination or were the tops of his ears turning red? But he did not look away. Embarrassed and bold. An unexpected combination that gave him a charming vulnerability.

“I just moved in and I was wondering where the Dumpster was located.” His deep voice seemed to blow the words across her skin like a child’s breath at a dandelion bloom.

Why did she have a feeling that taking out the trash was simply a ruse to come down and say hello to her? She felt flattered, but immediately squelched the emotion. No more jumping willy-nilly into superficial relationships with good-looking men. She was twenty-nine now. She had to start thinking about the future.

She cleared her throat. His intelligent dark brown eyes swung back up to sharpen on her face. He came across as calculated, measured, self-assured. His equanimity both unnerved her and piqued her curiosity.

“The Dumpster is that way.” She pointed toward the back of the complex. “Just beyond the laundry room.”

“Thanks,” he said, but he didn’t move. He just kept standing there.

Eva felt self-conscious and wished her cover-up wasn’t spread across a lounge chair on the opposite side of the pool.

He dropped the garbage bag, and she watched it fall because she simply couldn’t continue holding his intense gaze.

Watch it. Remember you’re turning over a new leaf.
No more skimming the surface when it comes to relationships. From now on, it’s either all or nothing.

“Name’s Adam,” he said, “Adam Mancuso.”

Then with his hand outstretched, he moved toward the edge of the pool, the material of his shorts molding against his muscular thighs.

He leaned down. She reached up.

Their hands touched.

Sizzle.

There was no other word to describe the slam dunk of his forceful sexuality ramming into hers. She’d had many boyfriends in her life. Shaken hands with many a good-looking man, too, but she’d never felt anything quite like this jolt of instant attraction.

Involuntarily, she licked her lips. “Eva. Eva St. George.”

His hand lingered on hers. His gaze pinned her to him like a corsage to a lapel, but he said nothing.

“So, Adam,” she said desperate to fill the silence before she said something totally inappropriate like
my place or yours?
“What brings you to San Diego?”

“How do you know I’m not from San Diego?” He dropped her hand and straightened, but didn’t back off.

She shrugged, peered up at him, kept her belly sucked in. “You’ve got that East Coast vibe.”

“East Coast vibe, huh? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, you seem…” She paused. “Formal.”

An eyebrow shot up on his forehead. “You can tell all that about me in five minutes?”

“My mom moved around a lot when I was a kid. I’ve lived in thirty-three states.”

“Really? I…” He seemed like he was about to say something else, but then he just stopped, as if monitoring himself. “That’s interesting.”

“That’s East Coast, too.”

“What is?”

“Holding back until you get to know someone.”

“Maybe my holding back has nothing to do with the fact that I’m from the East Coast. Maybe it’s just my personality and I would be just as withholding if I’d grown up in Southern Cal.”

“Could be,” she agreed. “It’s probably something of a stereotype, anyway, that West Coast people are initially a lot friendlier, but you never get to see behind their masks whereas East Coast folks might be more standoffish at first, but once they accept you, you’re like family.”

“You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“I suppose I have,” she mused.

“What about Southerners?”

“They’ll kill you with kindness. Watch out when they bless your little heart.”

“And Texans?”

“They’re a whole breed apart,” she said, and then grinned. “I was born there.”

“Ah, so you chose to become a California girl.”

“What can I say? I love the fair weather.”

He hummed a line from a Beach Boys’ song about California girls. That was unexpected, too. He didn’t seem the kind of guy to spontaneously burst into song. Intrigued, her gaze strayed to the ring finger of his left hand.

Bare.

She struggled not to grin. A bare ring finger didn’t mean anything. He could still be married or in a committed relationship. He could be a flirtatious playboy after as many notches on his bedpost as he could collect. But that wasn’t the read she was getting on him. Then again she wasn’t exactly a great judge of character— Keith a case in point. Eva jumped too easily into relationships and she knew it. Even her baby sister knew it. She’d taken after Angie in that respect.

“You’re starting to get a little pink.” He waved at her shoulder. “Just above your collarbone.”

“Oh.” She touched her shoulder. It did feel a bit hot and achy. “I must have missed a spot with the sun-block.”

The bottle of sunscreen lay on the chaise with her cover-up. He went for it. “Float on over here and I’ll rub you down.”

Suggestive words if she’d ever heard them, but he delivered them with such a straight face she couldn’t decide if he was playing coy or not.

Did she dare?

Before she could make up her mind, he snagged one end of her float with the toe of his sneaker and trolled her toward him.

His eyes met her. They were an amazing shade of earthy-brown—the color of autumn, a season that didn’t exist in San Diego. It made her think of warm wooly sweaters and football games and fall festivals and bonfires all hot and crackly.

Her stomach fluttered.

Stop it.

“Here we are.” His low, deep tone feathered over her ears, raised the hairs on the nape of her neck. He was so close.

Too close.

Intimate.

She breathed faster, anticipating his touch. The bottle of sunscreen made a soft whooshing noise as he squeezed out a ribbon of milky white lotion and the aroma of fresh coconut scented the air.

“Lean forward,” he instructed.

Compelled, she leaned forward, positioning her shoulder closer to him, and pulled her hair back off her neck. Why was she obeying him? She was annoyed with herself but she just kept sitting there with her torso cocked forward, giving him access to her back.

His hand slipped over her shoulder, the cool balm soothing her heated skin. His breath caressed the top of her ear. Her muscles tensed at his touch.

“How’s that?” he murmured, massaging in the cream.

“Mmm.” She meant to say, “Mmm, that’s enough.” But after the
mmm,
the rest of the words stuck in her throat and the
mmm
just hung there sounding all sexy and encouraging when she hadn’t meant it that way at all.

His broad fingers spread out over her shoulder. The watch at his wrist ticked softly. He smelled crisp and clean, like fresh cucumbers and spray starch. Her float bobbled on the water.

The whole thing felt like some weird, languid dream. Had she fallen asleep on the float and conjured him up in her slumbering mind? Why else was she allowing a stranger to stroke sunscreen across her shoulders?

Annoyed with herself, she put a hand on the cement lip of the pool and pushed away from the edge. “Thanks,” she said, feeling breathless and out of sorts. “You saved me from a sunburn.”

“Happy to help.” He straightened and wiped his palms together, massaging the remaining lotion into his hands.

She chanced a glance at him. He looked as rattled as she felt and she had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t the kind of guy who normally went around offering to lather up strange women. So why her? Why now?

“Well…” he said.

“Well,” she echoed.

He leaned down, picked up the trash bag. “See you around.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

He walked away and Eva let out the breath she hadn’t even been aware she’d been holding. Adam. Hmm. Adam and Eva. She couldn’t pair up with this guy if she wanted to. Their names were just too cutesy together.

Pair up? Are you nuts? Here you go again, closing your eyes and jumping into quicksand with both feet. Snap out of it.

Snap
. She was snapping out of it. No more fantasies about…

Adam walked past her again on his way back from the Dumpster. Her thoughts trailed off and she cocked her head to get a better look at his backside. Hard, defined, the perfect size. Yum!

He strode with military bearing, straight-backed, stiff-legged and confident. His stride proclaimed that he was accustomed to being in charge. She sensed something more. He was alert, intelligent, the kind of reserved yet responsible man that a woman could trust. A shiver passed through her. Was he Navy? She had a few Navy guys take her yoga classes. They usually showed up because someone had told them they had trouble letting down their guard and relaxing and had suggested yoga.

“Hey,” she called out.

He stopped, turned in her direction. “Yes?”

“If you ever want to loosen up, I teach yoga at a studio just down the street. First class is free.”

“Loosen up?”

Why had she said that? Why was she inviting him to her yoga class? What in the hell was she thinking? Adam and Eva.

Oh, God, stop it.

He stalked back toward her, his brown eyes murky and unreadable and at the same time incredibly magnetic. “Do I look like I need to loosen up?”

“Um…no, no,” she lied as goose bumps spread over her body. Goose bumps. The guy was giving her goose bumps.

Remember Keith? He was good-looking and made you go all goose-bumpy the first time you saw him. That didn’t last long.

“I’m just trying to drum up business,” she said.

A spark of amusement flared in his eyes as he gazed down at her. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll just take you up on your offer and come learn Downward-Facing Dog.”

Then he walked off leaving her with the delightful image of Adam Mancuso with his scrumptious butt in the air.

Eva lowered her lashes. Hmm. With him moving in next door and her determination to lay off casual affairs, it was shaping up to be one very long hot summer.