Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) (16 page)

Consuelo patted the girl’s cheek. “Her closet is the size of my house. She doesn’t know half of what is in there. I will pick something for you that she would never think to use. A dress that will flatter you and the pretty necklace you wear. This will suit, no?”

Sunny didn’t like the idea of borrowing someone else’s clothes. Especially when she might accidently stain or tear them. “I don’t think this is a good idea,” she protested.

“Mrs. Helene, she won’t even recognize it as hers. I will have the gown cleaned and replaced by morning. You have not shoes either, no?”

Ashamed Sunny shook her head. There was no way she’d be able to wear her one pair of casual sandals with a formal gown. “I still think I should hide up here tonight. Even if you bring me something to wear, I’ll probably make all kinds of stupid social mistakes.”

“You will be fine. Just take a glass of champagne and smile at everyone.”

“What about the meal?” the girl asked bleakly.

“Just watch the others. When the food is served, use the silverware on the outside of the setting first and work your way in.”

“This is a really, really bad idea.”

“No chica,” Consuelo grinned again. “This is your own private fairy tale. Every woman wants to be Cinderella, si?”

Sunny shrugged her slumping shoulders. She was practical. She’d learned fairly early that dreaming about more than she could have could earn her a beating. Subsequently, she’d never been the fairy tale type. Sure, she wanted it all. She wanted an honest husband who loved her, kids, and enough money to pay the bills.
That
was her fairy tale. And there was no magic involved.

“Tonight you are Cinderella. I will be your Latina fairy godmother, si?” The older woman giggled like a girl. “What size shoe do you wear, chica?”

“Six,” Sunny answered.

“Do not worry. I will take care of everything,” the woman chirped as she went out the door.

Sunny leaned against the closed door, she’d just locked. She felt like she’d been through a Texas-sized meat grinder. She dragged a deep breath into her lungs and held it as long as she could. She blew the air out in a long, soft whistle.

“I want to go swimming,” Billy demanded. He could barely keep his eyes open. And he leaned heavily on the arm of one of the room’s twin sofas.

“You can go swimming after you take a nap.” It helped Sunny to have something to focus on besides the night to come. Going into full mommy-mode took her mind off her terror.

“I don’t take naps anymore,” he said with his lip poked out.

“Today you do.” Her tone brooked no argument.

Billy surrendered to the inevitable. He let her herd him into a nearby bedroom. She closed the draperies. She pulled back the thick duvet on the bed and settled him beneath the soft sheets. Sunny sat beside him on the edge of the mattress. She began an aimless humming that soon had the child sleeping. Quietly and carefully, she left the darkened room.

She felt dirty, sticky, and confused. All she wanted right now was a shower. A shower and some much needed time to try to gain her composure. She felt like her well-ordered life was swiftly spiraling out of control. Sunny didn’t like chaos in her personal life. And right now her stomach hurt, her wits were scattered to the four winds, and she was sure she was about to make a monumental fool of herself during the approaching evening.

Looking through the lavish bedrooms, she found a bathroom that surely belonged in a palace. It was as big as the dining room of Sea Glass Café. She admired the luxurious appointments. The place was awash with gold-veined marble and extravagant towels. There was even a plush robe hanging from a gilded hook. She walked closer and saw the McIntyre logo embroidered in white thread across one side of the garment. She felt like she’d been transported into one of those architectural design glossy magazines. The kind she’d promised herself she’d buy one day, when she had fifteen dollars to spend on reading material.

One feature of the bathroom really called to her. The shower. It took up the whole massive corner of the room. And it was unencumbered by walls of any kind. Just a river rock floor, and a multitude of various water and steam dispensers. Deciding to take advantage of this miracle of modern plumbing, she went back and locked the bathroom door.

Within moments, Sunny shed her black dress, shoes, and sea glass necklace. She loosed the messy braid that was her hair. She set a temperature on a small digital screen inside the shower. She made choices from the myriad shampoos and soaps decorating the counter. Taking them, she slid underneath the amazing cascade of a perfectly heated waterfall. For a very long time she just stood there, savoring the experience. As she finally began to wash her long hair, she wondered what it would be like to take a shower in this place with JD McIntyre.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. It would, no doubt, be a most decadent experience. If JD was as masterful as she imagined, as she’d enjoyed twice before, he’d make a common everyday shower earth-shattering. She could almost feel his slow fingertips roaming over her heated flesh. Seeking out the very core of her femininity. Sunny recognized something low and dark clench between her thighs. In that place where she was most female. She moaned as she imagined the way his mouth would caress her throat, then her shoulder, and then the tiny conclave spot right below her collarbone. His searching hot lips would scorch a burning trail lower to tease her aching breasts. Even thinking of him had her nipples cresting.

It was what she wanted. What she’d always wanted. To share the most intimate human act with JD McIntyre. And she knew, if she did, it would be her destruction. And to her dismay, she just couldn’t seem to stop inexorably hurtling towards that very outcome. With him.

A sudden explosive rapping at the door of the bathroom startled her. She immediately shut off the water. She stepped, dripping, out of the shower. Taking a few tentative steps towards the door, she called out, “Who is it?”

“JD, I just wanted to make sure you’re happy with your rooms.”

Sunny quickly dragged the robe off its hook. She jammed her arms through the sleeves. Even though she knew he couldn’t possibly see her, she wanted to be fully covered.

“The rooms are fine… they’re great,” she hated how distressed she sounded.

“Open the door, Sunny.”

She shook her head. Long wet strands of hair slapped her face. “I can’t. I just got out of the shower.”

“Open the door,” he drawled.

Sunny took a little too long deciding what she should do. She heard a key scrape in the door’s lock. “No, don’t come in,” she begged. To no avail.

The door eased open, revealing a tall, arrogant man. “You look good enough to eat,” he said in the deepest voice she’d ever heard. It set off a burst of fireworks low in her belly.

Sunny tugged the big robe tight around her wet body. The material clung to her perfect curves like a lover. She swept the wet hair off her face with a nervous hand. Then she extended the same hand out to him. “Give me the key.”

He surprised her when he complied, with no argument. He dropped it into her palm. Then he made it a sensual act by placing a burning kiss into the very center of her open hand. He slowly and gently curled her fingers around the thing. And he didn’t let go.

“Thank you,” she said breathlessly.

“You’re welcome, gorgeous. In fact, you’re welcome to anything in this house. Including me.”

He crowded her back into the steamy room. He didn’t stop until he had her flush against the wall. When her back hit the solid surface, he propped one hand above her head trapping her with his body. He lowered his head. He whispered a scant breath from her lips, “You’re still wet.” He began, with exquisite slowness, to lick and savor each stray drop of water that drifted down her face. “You’re sweet. You’re just so damned sweet.”

It was the most erotic thing that had ever happened to Sunny. A sensual lethargy settled over her. She was pliant in his arms. And he wasn’t even kissing her. Though she ached for his kiss, and she wanted JD to take a long time teaching her all about making love. Except for the fact that for him, it wouldn’t be love. He hadn’t spent the last five years yearning for something, someone, like she had. He couldn’t have. He’d been out there doing what he was doing right this moment with her, with any other willing woman. With every willing woman. And Sunny knew, with JD, they were always willing. She’d just be one more nameless body in an endless string of sexual conquests. She’d managed to convince herself, her earlier capitulations to this man, five years ago on the beach and a few days ago in her home, were just a form of stress induced temporary madness. That panting, hungry woman was not Sunny Murphy. Sunny Murphy was a pillar of the community. She was a business owner. She taught toddler ballet classes, for goodness sake. She was not a highly sexed, emotionally unstable bimbo. No, she was not.

“You know how we’ll be together, don’t you?” he said against her soft mouth. “Incandescent, surface of the sun firestorm doesn’t begin to describe it.”

His bronze fingers began to play with the knot she’d fashioned at her waist to hold the robe in place. Everything in her wanted to surrender. Billy was asleep in another room in the suite. No one ever need know she’d succumbed to JD’s sensual persuasion. She could have everything she’d always wanted, and nobody would castigate her. They most likely wouldn’t anyway. Not for taking a fleeting, satisfying intimacy for herself. With a man she shouldn’t love, but was truly terrified she did. No one would ever guess. But she’d know, she realized in a startling moment of clarity. She’d know she’d given herself away with no promise of love or even passing affection. What did that make her? It all seemed suddenly cheap and tawdry.

“No,” she said.

“No?” he growled. He leaned slightly back so he could see the intent on her face.

“No.”

“You should know, honey, I don’t ask twice,” he lied. He’d ask her a thousand, no a million times until she agreed to be his lover. Until her perfect little body cooled the rampant lust that continually plagued him.

“Don’t call me honey,” she rebuked.

“
Sunny,
I don’t ask twice
.
” He took his hands off her. He folded his arms across his chest as if he hadn’t a care in the world. His pulse was hammering through his body, especially through one particular part of his body. His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath. “If you tell me to walk away now, I will,” he lied again. “And I’ll never look back,” he lied a third time.

She tugged at the belt of the robe. It held fast, just as she knew it would. She inched her way around him. She walked to the door. “I’ll say this one more time. I want a purely platonic relationship with you as we decide how we’ll plan for Billy’s future.”

JD snorted and shook his head. “No real man and woman can ever have a purely platonic relationship.”

“I only want you as a friend, JD,” she said, though it was patently untrue. She wanted him with every straining inch of her being. In any way she could have him. At least part of her did, the unrestrained, stupid, happily-ever-after part. But Sunny knew that wasn’t what this man was offering.

“I want a lover,” he replied succinctly. “I want you. And if my memory serves me, you’ve wanted me, on more than one occasion.”

“For how long? A night, a few days?” She purposely ignored his statement about their earlier trysts. She had no adequate answer for her uncharacteristic, outlandish behavior on those occasions.

“For as long as you’ll let me have you.”

Sunny shook her head and took a chance. “I’d want forever.”

This time it was JD’s turn to shake his head. “I don’t do forever. And even if I did, you wouldn’t want me on those terms. Nobody would.”

“Your fiancée obviously did.”

His smile was cruel. “Yeah, Sunny, she did. But Leanne knew from the start, our marriage would be a temporary business arrangement.”

Her shock showed in her gaping mouth. “You call marriage a business arrangement?”

“Mine to Leanne would have been. We’re not engaged any longer.”

“Who broke it off?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re done.”

“It matters to me. You’re trying to get me into your bed. Just a few days ago, you were standing at an altar making vows to another woman.”

“Just a few days ago, you came apart in my arms. Why have you suddenly discovered your inhibitions? And I told you it wasn’t like that with me and Leanne.”

“So you never slept with her. I find that hard to believe.”

His dark laughter swirled around her. “Grow up, Sunny. Life is not some silly, romantic movie where two star-crossed lovers end up finding some perfect life in an hour and a half. Of course I slept with her. But it didn’t mean anything. It was just a physical release for the both of us.”

“I’m afraid that’s all sex with me would mean to you too. A physical release.”

“What’s wrong with that? I didn’t hear you complaining either time I satisfied you. Aren’t you the least bit curious about how much more powerful it’ll be when I finally take you? We’re both healthy adults.”

“I can’t do that. I… I thought I could. I’m sorry if you feel like I led you on. I wasn’t trying to tease you. I can’t… don’t feel that way about lovemaking. It’s not… it can’t be a casual thing for me. It means something,
everything
. When I give my body, it’s got to mean something.”