Seven Nights (13 page)

“Not until you say my name again,” he said, soft and low in her ear as he continued to thrust over and over again. The sweet embrace they’d shared when he’d first entered her was barely a memory now. Now they were fucking. Plain and simple and absolutely fabulous.

The intense pressure began low in Leah’s stomach, the tingle of pleasure that would roar into an out of control flame. Sean thrust, then pivoted his hips to grind his pelvis against her swollen, sensitive clit. It was all too much and she let out a cry. Her hips shivered wildly. Nothing had ever felt so good and she never wanted to be without this, without him, again.

“Now, baby,” she moaned as she kissed him.

Sean stiffened inside of her and then pumped hot as he braced his weight on the wall behind her and groaned out his own utter pleasure.

For a long time, he simply continued to balance her against the wall, resting his damp forehead against her equally damp shoulder. Finally, with a smile, he lifted his head and pressed a kiss against her neck.

“There is no one like you, Leah. No one else in the world.”

“Is that a compliment?” she asked as he lowered her to the floor. She was surprised her knees could hold her weight after that earth shattering experience.

He smiled as he bent to kiss her lips with the gentleness of a boy with his first crush. “The best one I could ever give.”

Her heart soared with emotion as she gazed up into his eyes. Eyes she knew could easily steal her heart if she let them.

Even though she knew she couldn’t let him, the prospect was more than tempting.

Chapter Eight

Morning sunlight streamed across the impossibly blue Caribbean waters and sparkled off the golden sands. Leah took a sip of her coffee and enjoyed the view from the
Escapades
breakfast terrace. It was early and she was alone.

By choice. She had to keep reminding herself that her solitude was by choice. If Sean had had his way, she would have still been curled up in his bed. After their second round of lovemaking in the spa the night before, he’d asked if she would come back to his room.

And she’d refused, no matter how much she wanted to spend the rest of the night safe in his arms.

“I’d never leave,” she murmured against the rim of her cup as another wave broke on the beach below.

“A lot of people feel that way,” said a masculine voice behind her. “But we do have an off-season.”

Leah turned to find a stranger standing behind her. He was tanned and handsome, older than Sean by about ten years.

“You must be the famous Will Todd,” Leah said, rising to her feet to extend her hand. “I recognize you from your interviews. I’m Leah Prescott.”

He laughed as he shook her hand. “Well, don’t believe everything you’ve heard in the travel magazines or from Sean Dalton. Most of it is exaggeration or just plain lies.”

Leah smothered a giggle. “For the worse or the better?”

“Well, for the travel magazines we like to exaggerate my good qualities. And with Sean… well, it’s all for the worse.” Will leaned back and rubbed his chin playfully. “He’s just jealous that my pretty face is on all the magazine covers.”

Leah motioned to her table. “Would you like to join me?” she asked. “I have a few questions for my article.”

She winced as she thought of the article she hadn’t bothered with for nearly two days. Until she’d seen Will Todd, she’d sort of forgotten an article had been what brought her to Sean’s island in the first place. Ok, totally forgotten. But now that it was on her mind again, she had to focus.

“The article, eh?” Will arched an eyebrow as he took the chair across from hers and looked out over the ocean with a sigh. “I’d have thought Sean would have more than answered your questions by now.”

Leah snorted as she dug into her bag for a notebook and pen. “I think you and I both know that my article isn’t exactly on the top of Sean’s mind.”

She blushed at her careless admission. Maybe Will didn’t know about Sean’s real purpose in brining her here.

To her relief, Will didn’t seem surprised at all as he motioned to a waiter. “Coffee, please. No, Miss Prescott, just getting you here seems to be what’s been on the top of Sean’s mind for some time now.”

“Leah,” she corrected, even though her heart fluttered with Will’s statement. “You can call me Leah.”

“Leah.” The older man’s smile was wide and genuine, but she could feel him searching her face, looking for… something, though she wasn’t sure what he wanted to find. He was as unreadable as her ex. “But I admit, now that I’ve met you, I can see why he would go to so much trouble.”

She blushed despite herself and fiddled with her pen as she tried to find her reporter’s detachment. It was one thing to lose it around Sean, quite another to have to search for it in this man’s presence.

“Pretty compliments won’t get you out of the tough questions, Mr. Todd,” she teased.

He laughed. “Fire away.”

She struggled to forget Sean, forget that this man knew an awful lot about him she didn’t. This conversation was supposed to be about her article, not the past and certainly not the foggy future.

“The resort is new. In fact, this will be its first full year in operation. How do you feel like the season is going? Do you think you’ll find financial solvency in this risky economic environment?”

Will leaned back with a look of surprise. “Wow. And here I thought you were going to ask me about the resort’s activity schedule. I don’t think any travel writer has grilled me about the finances before. The Wall Street Journal did once.”

Leah paused. It
was
an odd question. One she’d never asked in any of her other interviews. Though financial solvency was always a prevalent issue in the travel industry, her articles were meant to be an overview of why someone would want to visit a destination.

“Does that mean you’re opposed to answering?” she asked as she dipped her head to dodge Will’s pointed stare. He knew why she’d turned her attention to finances, and if she was honest with herself, so did she.

Sean. It mattered to her whether or not he succeeded. And not because she was a snob who depended on her mate’s success to define her own. It was because it would crush him if his dream fell apart.

And that was just another piece of evidence that her feelings for him were coming back. Not just the old feelings, but new ones, too. Her heart tingled with an emotion that was richer and deeper than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. No matter how much she tried to push it away, it was there, changing everything. Changing her.

“I’ll answer if you’d like.” Will stared at her evenly, his blue eyes pinning hers. “Though we are a new resort, and our resources have been tapped by the expansions and opening expenses, I can reassure anyone who’s interested that I believe we’ll succeed. Between us, Sean and I have spread the word to several key clients. Now that we’ve got a reputation with them, we’re hoping articles like yours will let the general public know that we can make them feel every bit as important as the Trumps and Gates and Hiltons who have visited before them.”

“So you feel a combination of upper class spending and middle class escapism will keep the resort in the black?” she asked as she scribbled notes on her pad. This guy was good. Sean had made the perfect choice in a front man.

“Yes. That, and the personal attention Sean and I give, especially to our most important guests.”

She glanced up. “Like the boat tour you were giving the past couple of days. It’s unusual for the owner of a resort to do something so personal.”

Will nodded. “That was Sean’s brilliant idea. He and I trade off on host duties. In fact, today it’s his turn to play guide. Two very important guests arrived last night. Sean hosted a special dinner for them and today they’re going fishing in the marina.”

“So Sean will be out today?” she asked, as innocently as she could muster.

Will shrugged. “For a few hours, at least. I have a fantastic idea, though.”

“And what is that?” Leah asked with a smile. She liked Will. It was obvious he looked out for Sean and really believed in him as a businessman.

“Since you’re writing an article, I think you ought to go along with Sean and his party. That way you can personally attest to the kind of one-on-one attention we give our guests.”

Leah bit her tongue before she could admit she’d already experienced Sean’s ‘personal touch’.

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said with a smile. “Anything for my, uh, work.”

“Sean feels the same way.” Will winked. “And I’m sure the couple in question won’t mind, either. Both of them are pretty press hungry.”

“Who are they?” She took one last swig of her coffee and stood to walk with Will into the main dining room.

“Jack Price and his current wife… is it wife number four? Anyway, Jack Price and Melanie Green.”

Leah’s mouth dropped open. “The Academy Award winning actor and the supermodel?”

“Those are the ones.” Will laughed. “I told you we have high class clientele. Anyway, you’ll get to see Sean hard at work. He’s a real pro in these situations. They’ll be eating out his hand by the end of the day. So, will you meet them at the docks around ten?”

“I’ll be there.” She reached out a hand and Will shook it. “It’s really been a pleasure meeting you. I can see why Sean has so much faith in you.”

Will smiled down at her. “Leah, I have faith in Sean. This whole place is his dream, I just shuffle the papers to make it fly.” His smile faded. “He’s a good friend. I’d hate to see him get hurt.”

Leah felt the power of his statement. It was clearly directed at her. Only she knew that her former fiancé had more power to rip her apart than she could ever hope to hold over him. That was the way it had always been.

“Have a good time,” Will said as he turned away and hurried out of the restaurant.

Leah frowned. He’d said Sean was all business when it came to these guest outings. Maybe that was best. Trapped with him in a situation where their passion wouldn’t have a chance to overflow, she’d have a chance to let her investigative mind take back over. She had to get her detachment back somehow. Before it was too late.

***

As if these stupid guest outings weren’t hard enough, Sean had to watch Leah sit on the deck in a black halter-top bikini. Black. Halter-top.

It was his own fault. He’d been the one who’d chosen the swimwear. At the time it had seemed like a great idea. But when he’d picked it, he’d imagined her wearing it for his eyes only. He’d envisioned them alone on one of the resort’s secluded beaches. Slipping the knot at her neck loose and revealing her perfect breasts. Breasts he’d suck on for hours while she writhed beneath him, begging for his cock.

He’d never pictured her wearing it when he couldn’t touch her. Or wearing it in the company of leering Jack Price, a ridiculously rich actor who was ogling her like she was the dessert cart after a fantastic meal.

Leah laughed at something the Oscar winner said and her blond hair shivered against her bare back.

“This is a great view, Sean.”

Sean turned to watch supermodel Melanie Green sashay across the deck and take a spot beside him on the terrace. She looked down below to where her husband was grinning like an idiot. All he was missing was a little droplet of drool in the corner of his mouth when he looked at Leah.

“I guess Jack is enjoying it, too,” she mused as she lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. “Does it bother you that he’s hitting on your wife?”

Sean shook his head. “My wife?”

“Isn’t Leah your wife?” Melanie blew out a circle of smoke between pouty, collagen-enhanced lips. “I assumed she was by the way you two look at each other. People that stupidly in love almost always make the mistake of getting married.”

Stupidly in love. Sean sighed. Maybe he was, but Leah didn’t seem to have reached that point. He knew full well she’d enjoyed making love the night before. Yet she’d refused his offer to spend the night with him. That stung. To make things even worse, this morning she’d been coolly polite, almost aloof. She’d definitely behaved more like a reporter and less like a woman who’d spent a few passionate hours in the arms of a former lover.

“Sean?”

Melanie was staring at him like he’d sprouted a second head. It was evident she wasn’t used to being ignored. Sean forced himself to stop staring at Leah and put his attention back on his guest.

“So, I take it you’re stupidly in love then, yourself, huh?” He laughed, but it sounded hollow.

“Me?” The model cackled as she pushed a long wave of brown hair off her shoulder. Her red highlights glowed unnaturally in the bright sun. “Nah, I don’t believe in love. Jack and I are a business merger. I’m not saying we don’t have our fun, but…”

She trailed off like the rest of her sentence was self-explanatory. Sean supposed it was. They had a good time in bed, but there was no love lost between them. He sighed. It wouldn’t have been that way with Leah. If they had married when they’d planned all those years ago… well, he knew it would have been a happy union.