Nautier and Wilder (16 page)

She hadn’t seen her mom in a few weeks, was surprised she hadn’t popped into the store.
Her mother always managed to show up during bike week. Elena wondered where she was,
though tracking her mother down was something she’d long ago given up hope of ever
being able to do. Though she had a cell phone, she rarely answered it and often lost
it. For a grown woman, she often acted like a child.

Elena had long ago given up hope of ever changing her mom. Her mother enjoyed her
free-spirited lifestyle, the ability to pick up and charge headfirst into whatever
new adventure caught her fancy. It was probably why Elena chose to be so grounded
in one place, in one career, determined never to live with her head in the clouds.

Dusk had settled over the ocean, the sun sinking fast over the vast array of hotels
to the west. She made a quick turn and headed back to her apartment, took a shower
and dried her hair and surveyed her closet, trying to decide what to wear to dinner
tonight.

No dress since she’d be riding a bike. Now there was a departure for her. She was
going out with a biker tonight, one of her strict taboos.

But oh, what a sexy biker he was. And it was just dinner, right? She could deviate
from her hard rules for just one night.

THREE

E
lena Madison was one sexy package of slender curves, tanned, long legs and a perfect
face with mesmerizing green eyes all rolled into intelligence, wit, charm and—oh yeah—the
most kissable full lips Jed had ever seen.

And she was hands off because she was General Lee’s niece.

Didn’t that just suck?

But he was in, had done the job of getting his foot in the door. Now he just had to
stay there. He’d had his eye on her for a full day, watching the shop, monitoring
her clientele and how she related to them. She was no nonsense but nice to her clients.
She took her lunches on the rooftop of her business, which doubled as her living quarters.
Nice digs, too, with a beach overlook.

The general had set him up right next door at this kick-ass condo with a balcony view
directly onto her shop and apartment.

Considering some of the assignments he’d had with the military and the FBI, this one
had definite benefits.

And now he got to take the hot girl out to dinner?

Beat the hell out of eating sand or being bored to death by paperwork.

Except for that whole “hands off” thing. But he’d deal.

He left the condo, climbed on the bike and rode the short distance to Elena’s shop,
curbing the bike on the side street. He went to the side door and rang the bell. She
came outside and everything that made him a man tightened.

Some women instinctively knew how to dress for riding on a Harley.

Elena wore skinny jeans, a white T-shirt and a short leather jacket along with a pair
of leather boots. She’d pulled her hair back in a ponytail, and it swung back and
forth as they walked toward the bike.

“What?” she asked as he handed her a helmet.

“You look hot.”

Her cheeks stained a blush. “I do not. Did I dress right?”

“Perfect.” He tightened her chin strap and climbed on the bike. She got on behind
him and snugged her thighs against his, wrapping her arms around him.

Yeah. Perfect fit.

“Ready?” he asked, slanting her a look over his shoulder.

“Ready.”

He started the engine, goosed the throttle and headed out, rolling out past the myriad
of hotels on Atlantic Avenue. He wanted to get them out of the tourist area.

Bikers were out in force already, and he blended in, weaving in and out with them
as they moved along with the flow of traffic. Elena was quiet and he wondered what
she thought of all this. She hadn’t moved since they’d taken off. Her legs were still
pressed along his, her arms still wrapped around his middle. He reached down to touch
her leg and she reacted by squeezing her thighs against his and leaning forward.

“This is wonderful,” she said.

He grinned and picked up a little speed once they got past the heavier traffic. He
took them out onto Highway 1 and toward Ormond Beach, finally pulling into a seafood
grill he’d read about.

Elena climbed off and took off her helmet, shaking her hair free of her ponytail.
“Great choice,” she said as she wound the ponytail holder onto her wrist.

“How was the ride?”

“Surprisingly exhilarating.”

“Surely that wasn’t your first time on a bike.”

“No, but it’s been a very long time. I’d forgotten how fun it could be.”

He smoothed a few stray hairs away from her cheek and tucked them behind one ear.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Let’s go eat.”

They went inside and got a table right away since he’d made reservations. He ordered
water since he was driving. She ordered a glass of white wine.

“Are you sure you don’t want a glass of wine or a beer?” she asked.

“Not when I’m riding.”

“Oh. Good point. Aren’t you the careful driver.”

“Not always, but with the rally in town there are enough people boozing it up and
getting on their bikes. I like to keep a clear head.”

She tilted her head to the side and took a sip of her wine. “So tell me about yourself,
Jed Templeton.”

“What would you like to know?”

“Oh . . . everything.”

And this was where he’d have to make up a pack of lies. Now all she’d have to do was
take the bait. “I was born and raised in Dallas. Pretty middle-class stuff. Average
neighborhood. Only child. My dad was an engineer, my mom stayed at home. I went to
college at UT, studied business and graduated decently. I tried the whole corporate
thing but I was bored, so I went to work for a private investigation company down
there. I was always into gym stuff so I liked the physical aspect of the work more
than the paperwork side and I became a P.I.”

“A P.I., huh? I’ll bet that was interesting.”

“It was. Lots of lowlifes, cheaters and scammers. Never a dull moment.”

“I can imagine. Is that how you got into the security business?”

“Yeah. We had a client who was a little too zealous in wanting the goods on his ex-wife.
She wasn’t doing anything wrong, so we dropped the client but he didn’t drop the harassment.
I didn’t like the guy at all—he was scum, and since we initiated the contact, I offered
protection for the ex-wife on the side. I installed a state-of-the-art security system
for her and bodyguard services. She had a restraining order on him and we caught him
breaking and entering at her house, so he went to jail.”

“A good day’s work for you, I’d say.”

“Yeah. I felt bad about that case, and my boss at the P.I. firm kept taking clients
on like that because money was money to him, so I left him and started my own company.
I’m a little more selective about the clients I take on. I do more thorough background
checks.”

She leaned back and swirled her wine around in the glass. He liked the way she looked
at him. When a woman looked at you like that, it made you glad to be a man. Too bad
this was an assignment.

“So tell me about your life, Elena Madison.”

She shrugged. “Not much to tell other than what you’ve already seen. I own my shop
and run it. It pretty much consumes most of my days. We’re open Tuesday through Saturday.
And when we’re not open, I’m usually out shopping for new inventory by meeting with
artists, or doing paperwork. My life isn’t exciting.”

“I don’t know about that. You love what you do, and that’s always exciting. So how
did you get into the business?”

“I like art. Always have. Especially unique pieces that reflect the area, like sand,
water, air. It calls to me.”

“Understandable. Family?”

“Just my mother.”

“Does she live nearby?”

She smiled over the rim of her wineglass. “She comes and goes as she pleases.”

He cocked a brow. “Not sure what you mean by that.”

“My mother is what you’d call a free spirit. She’s not really grounded in reality
or things like a permanent job or a home. She chooses to eschew the establishment
and go her own way.”

“Oh, so she’s a hippie.”

She choked out a laugh. “Yes, I guess you could say that. She’s a holdover from days
gone by.”

He held out his water glass in salute. “Good for your mom.”

“You wouldn’t say that if it was your mother. You didn’t have to be raised by her.”

“Was it hard for you?”

She shrugged, but he could tell it bothered her. “Sometimes. When there were events
in school that required parental attendance, my mother would be off painting, or she
was chasing a band, or an art show, or she’d forgotten because she was at the beach
engrossed in the sunset and had to get the colors just right for the latest sculpture.
And sometimes she’d go off for weeks at a time and I wouldn’t know where.”

He frowned. “She didn’t leave you alone when you were a kid, did she?”

“No. She had lots of friends and she left me with them. I was well taken care of.
There was just no . . . stability.”

“I’m sorry.”

She lifted her gaze to him and smiled. “Don’t be. I survived it just fine.”

He reached across the table for her hand, covered it with his. “Yes, you did, but
it still couldn’t have been easy for you.”

Elena looked down at Jed’s hand covering hers. “No, it wasn’t easy. At times I resented
her for it.”

“I would have, too. What about your dad?”

“He took off when I was a baby, and they divorced. He was in a band, wanted to work
on his career, didn’t much want to be saddled with a wife and kid. Mom got full custody,
he signed off on it, and that was that.”

“So you don’t know him? He’s never come back and tried to find you or get in touch
with you?”

“No.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “I got over the no-daddy-in-my-life thing a long time ago. My mom and
I did just fine.”

“No other family members to help you?”

“No. It was always just me and my mom.”

He took a drink and studied her, wondered if it bothered her more than she said. “You
didn’t even have anyone to complain to about the way she abandoned you.”

That was the word that always lived in the back of Elena’s mind—the word she never
gave voice to. One dinner and a short conversation, and Jed had it pegged.

Abandoned. First her father, and then her mother. Her father she never knew, so she
never cared. He couldn’t hurt her. But her mother had abandoned her for most of her
life. And she couldn’t believe she’d just spilled all that to someone she didn’t know.
She never talked about her family.

“Well, enough about that,” she said with a smile. “I’m very excited you bought the
mermaid today. I hope you’ll let me see how it looks at your condo.”

“I’ll be glad to invite you to my place to see it. Maybe you can help me organize
the furniture there. It needs a woman’s touch.”

And he easily let her back out. He was her hero tonight.

Their food arrived and conversation turned to less touchy subjects, like the bike
rally.

“Have you been to the rally before?” she asked.

“Not this one.”

“You go to others?”

“I’ve been to plenty around the country.”

“The one here is rowdy and attracts hundreds of thousands of bikers. It gets crazy.”

“Do you get a lot more business during the rally?”

“I do, though my shop doesn’t really attract the biker clientele.”

He laughed. “Hey, I’m a biker.”

She lifted a forkful of rice to her lips. “You’re a unique kind of biker. Most of
them want commemorative T-shirts and biker-type souvenirs, not one-of-a-kind pieces
of art. But yes, we do get bikers popping in to check things out.”

“I’ll have to send some people your way, then.”

For some reason, she believed he would. “Thank you.”

Elena didn’t quite know what to make of Jed. He was nice, polite, easy to talk to,
and he listened when she talked. And of course he was also sexy, so hot her toes curled,
and he rode a Harley like it was part of his body.

He was quite possibly perfect, which meant there had to be something wrong with him;
otherwise there would be some woman stapled to his side at this very moment. He looked
to be early thirties, and no way a man this good-looking and this nice could have
managed to escape the clutches of a woman for this long.

Which meant he was probably a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy.

That would work out well for her, since she wasn’t looking to settle down now. Or
ever.

He probably only wanted sex.

And good God, she really needed sex. She’d really like to have sex with Jed. A delicious,
no-holds-barred, all-night-long sex session with someone like Jed should hold her
for the next six months or so. Then she could concentrate on her work again.

She wondered if he’d go for it.

Duh. He was a guy. He had a penis. Of course he’d go for it.

They finished dinner and Jed paid the check. They went outside and she started for
the bike, but he grabbed her hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Okay.”

He led her across the street to the walkway by the ocean. They strolled in silence
for a few minutes, the only sound the crash of the water hitting the shore.

“I can see why you like it here,” he said. “I like the sound of the waves.”

“I leave the door to my balcony open as often as I can just so I can hear them.”

He turned his head toward her. “Probably not the safest thing.”

“Probably not, but I’ll take the risk to hear the beauty of the ocean. No manufactured
ocean waves sound can duplicate the real thing. It lulls me to sleep every time.”
She stopped and moved in front of him. “Put your back against the wall here.”

He did.

“Now close your eyes, and just listen.”

She moved into him so she could get closer and whisper in his ear. “Couldn’t you fall
asleep to that sound every night?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his arms wound around her waist and drew her
against him. He bent and whispered in her ear. “Honestly, it’s hard to concentrate
on the ocean waves when your body is pressed up against mine.”

She laughed. “You’re not paying attention.”

“Sorry, you’re distracting.”

He opened his eyes, and she was again struck by the utter masculinity of his features.
She reached up and traced her fingers over the slight beard stubble that gave him
such a bad boy look, but his face wasn’t a pretty boy one to start with. He had too
many harsh lines and angles. His jaw was too square, his nose a little too wide. He
was the kind of man to grab onto a woman and hold her tight, just like he was doing
now.

“Jed.”

“Yeah.”

“Would you come home with me tonight and sleep with me?”

His lips curved just a little. “You mean like a slumber party?”

“No. I mean like have sex with me.”

That teasing little curve to his lips disappeared. He threaded one arm all the way
around her waist. The other dove into her hair the second his lips touched hers.

She was going to take that as a yes. And oh, God, the kiss. An explosion of sensation
that sent Fourth of July fireworks skyrocketing through every nerve ending. Her lips
tingled, and when he deepened the kiss and tightened his hold on her, her nipples
throbbed, and her sex pulsed and moistened with need and expectation.