Second Chance Hero (31 page)

Oh Lord.

Cordelia heard the door open, heard a loud call of, “Hey what’s up, man? What took so long?” and tried to remember all of Irene’s advice.

One week of fantasy. That’s all this was. Mind numbing, sensory blowing, all out free for all instant gratification in the city that sin built.

She could do this.

But first she had to remind her still rubbery legs how to work.

Joe stood behind the grill and tried to keep his mind on the fact that burgers and blackened didn’t belong in the same sentence. But every time he started to focus on the grill, Cordelia would walk by and, hot damn, he was filled with thoughts of a whole different kind of fire. The kind that had nothing to do with cooking and everything to do with three alarm, down and dirty, let’s spend all night at this sex.

And those thoughts were a hell of a lot more interesting than the burgers.
 

Unfortunately, right this minute, the crew attending the party wanted their food and they wanted it now.

He flipped one barely charcoaled patty over and watched as Cordelia punched an inflated beach ball over a head and into someone else’s hands. Nearby, a model perfect woman with sun-bronzed skin wore a suit that left little to the imagination. She looked like every other blond bombshell the guys brought around, and next to Cordelia, she was barely noticeable.

Something about the whiteness of Cordelia’s skin, the flawlessness of it drew his eyes. And the way she kept the skirt wrapped around her waist, a teasing knot to the side just begging for his fingers to reach out and…

His friend Keith interrupted his thoughts. “Hey man, you’re burning the burgers again. Move over and I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Usually, those were fighting words. Their gatherings had few rules, but two that went unspoken because of their universality were plain and simple. You didn’t get between a man and his grill or a man and his girl.

Rarely did the girl part of the equation come into play. The girls brought to these parties were like amaretto truffles at a chocoholic’s convention. Pretty to look at, but gone in no time at all.

The women with standing invitations wouldn’t dream of dating any of the guys. Sleeping with, maybe. But not dating. No sense in pursuing useless causes with a bunch of grown men who liked to play with their million dollar toys and didn’t have time in their upwardly mobile lives for relationships.

Joe shook his head and lifted the first burgers off the grill. “Sorry about that. Just got distracted.”

He didn’t have to say with what. Keith just nudged and winked before shooting a longing look in Cordelia’s direction. “She is a looker, isn’t she? Not at all what I was expecting.”

Joe followed his friend’s line of sight and had to work at taking his eyes away from Cordelia afterwards. “Yeah. I wonder how well Irene knows her sister.”

As he answered, Keith put the new patties on the grill. “It’s kind of hard to believe they’re sisters. Irene’s so tall and out there, you know. Loud, funny, sexy. Her sister’s pretty enough, but she’s a little quiet.”

Joe just shook his head. “Well, you know what they say about the quiet ones. And pretty enough? Hell, the woman’s gorgeous.”

Keith laughed. “I’m just joking, man. Giving you a hard time because watching you watching her is like a study in psychology. She’s blown you away. It’s about time the mighty Joe Sterling fell.”

Joe waved off his words. “I haven’t fallen. This is fun. Temporary fun.”

Keith shrugged. “Yeah. It looks like fun all right.” He paused and Joe tried to pry his eyes away from the almost holy sight of Cordelia peeling away the green sarong that had covered her legs for most of the evening. All of the evening except for their kiss.

He held his breath as the material slid to the ground revealing legs that seemed to go on forever right until they ran into the traditional white bikini bottoms that looked a hell of a lot sexier than the thong Miss Bombshell wore.

And when Cordelia jumped in the pool with a laugh at one of the guys, he decided he’d seen enough. And so, apparently, had Keith since he chose just that moment to tap him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Sterling, you’re burning the burgers again.”

Joe handed the spatula to his friend before turning to the pool. “I’m going to take a breather, you got it covered?”

Joe wasn’t sure what Keith answered and to be perfectly honest, he didn’t care. Because just before she’d jumped in the pool, Cordelia’d sent him a searing look and crooked her index finger in a come hither move worthy of Cleopatra.

He was just a man, dammit. A mere mortal. She’d beckoned and now, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure neither of them cared about charcoaled burgers. And he had the perfect move in mind. Oh yeah.

With that thought, he shrugged off his shirt and making eye contact with the raven-haired vixen, he jumped.

Cordelia watched as Joe moved closer and wondered if she should continue treading water or head in the other direction.
 

She’d tried calling out to him to ask how much longer until time to eat, but he hadn’t heard. She’d never expected him to jump in the pool for crying out loud.
 

Or maybe that’s exactly what she’d expected. Because the closer he swam, the harder her heart pounded, the warmer the water seemed, the smaller the universe felt. The less she cared about food.

Lord, the man left her breathless. Just watching his arm muscles flex as he moved almost silently through the water left her hot and bothered and more than a little excited.

When he finally moved next to her and smiled, Cordelia felt the world stop. In her life she’d heard hundreds of stories about time standing still and she’d laughed.

But the power of Joe Sterling’s sexy smile, his blond hair darkened by water, combined with the impish sparkle in his eyes made a believer out of her. For the first time in her life she understood what Irene meant when she said a man rocked her world. Because that’s exactly what this felt like.

Joe Sterling rocked her world, and man oh man, did it feel good.

She was willing to stay right there in the tight little cocoon the water made around them, silently appreciating the masterful creation of this man, and she might have done just that if he hadn’t had ideas of his own.

“You called?”

She laughed, shivering as his deep voice washed over her in a way that had nothing to with water. “I just wanted to know when we were eating. I didn’t expect you to jump in.” But man, oh man, am I glad you did.

“And now, here I am all wet. Might as well not waste that, hm?”

For just a moment, as Cordelia watched him flirt with her, she felt a little as if she’d fallen into yet another out of body experience. The real Cordelia floated above the pool watching the imposter tease. But then his hands on her shoulders brought her back into the here and now. Lord she’d been waiting for this.

Or that’s what she thought until his fingers closed around her upper arms. She held her breath in expectation not caring at all that they were fixing to give a whole new meaning to public displays of affection.
 

And then he ruined everything as he lifted her from the water and tossed her in the air.

As the water covered her head, Cordelia tried to gather her wits. Here she’d been looking forward to another kiss and he’d dunked her. Of all the nerve!

She came up sputtering, her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “You. Dunked. Me.”
 

He just shrugged, not looking a bit repentant. “I did. You going to come return the favor?”

She couldn’t believe the sly smile he sent her way, as if this were some prehistoric mating ritual.
 

That might be how they handled this kind of thing in Las Vegas, but no way was that how her fantasy week was playing out. No way, huh-uh. When a girl gave up her aversion to PDA and was rewarded with a dirty trick like that, there was some serious retaliation in the works.
 

Fortunately, she knew just how to strike back. She hadn’t jealously watched her sister play her games for nothing.

Arching her back, she dipped her hair into the water and smoothed it back before sliding him a smile of her own. One full of secrets and sin and all the tools of the bad girl’s trade. Or at least all the tools she could think of. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

For a second he didn’t say a word. When he did speak, he’d moved closer. “You don’t?”

She worked on her best bad girl innocent look. “It’s pointless, Joe. I don’t stand a chance against you. I mean just look at us.”
 

She kept the I-have-a-secret-and-you-definitely-want-to-know-it look on her face as she watched him. Yep. It was working. His hot gaze nearly seared her skin.
 

Turn about’s fair play, Mr. Sterling.

She lifted her arms above her head and stretched just for him as he spoke. “You never know. What if this is a game and I let you win?” His voice was soft and liquid leaving her just a little on the breathless side.

She arched an eyebrow and lowered her voice. “Oh it’s a game all right.” She hoped the words sounded as suggestive as they felt. Judging by the way Joe nodded and swam even closer, they must.

She felt the side of the pool against her back and lifted herself up, stopping when the water fell directly below her chest, barely an inch of skin showing beneath her suit.

She knew she had him when he stopped right in front of her and asked, “What game are we playing, Cordelia? I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Cordelia lowered herself back in the water and ran a finger up and down his warm, wet arm, finally settling both hands on his shoulders.
 

“You should know, Joe.” She threw him a victorious smile as she sidled ever so slowly closer and whispered. “After all, you started it.” And just like that, with one tiny push, she sent him under water. ###

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