A Secret Worth Keeping?: Living the Charade / Her Shameful Secret / Island of Secrets

Waking up beside her, he hadn’t meant to have his hands all over her, and now he decided that it would be best to play the relationship game her way. So what if Caruthers had the hots for her? It was none of his business, as she had rightly pointed out. Now that he knew he wasn’t being used as a patsy to hide an affair it shouldn’t mean anything to him that the other man wanted her.

Had they ever been lovers?

Not wanting to head down that particular track he concentrated again on the rhythmic sound of their feet hitting the sand and the crystal clear waters of the South Pacific Ocean rolling onto the beach. The coastline reminded him a little of his house on Phillip Island, near Melbourne, although he knew the water there was at least ten degrees cooler and a hundred times rougher.

Miller stopped and started walking, her hands on her hips, and Valentino joined her.

‘You can keep going if you want,’ she panted.

He glanced at her. He could keep going but he didn’t want to. What he wanted was to stop thinking about the past and make her smile. Like she had back in their room. He wondered what she did for fun, and then wondered why he cared.

‘You work out a lot?’ he asked.

She glanced at him, and he tensed when her eyes dropped to his stomach as he used his T-shirt to wipe a line of sweat off his brow. He knew she was attracted to him, maybe even as attracted as he was to her, but he also knew it would be stupid to follow up on that attraction. Not only did she not want it—he didn’t either. And, while his body might have ideas to the contrary, his body was just an instrument for his mind, not the other way around.

‘I go to the gym three times a week and try to go for a run along the Manly foreshore on the weekend.’

She walked in a small circle to ease the lactic acid burn from her legs.

‘You do weights?’

‘Some. Mainly light weights. Although I missed every one of my workouts this week due to work, so no doubt when I start back Monday morning I’ll be a little sore.’

‘Do some now.’

She cast her eyes from the sparkling ocean to the sand dunes behind them. ‘I’m sorry, but if you see a weight machine anywhere around here you’re on your own.’

He laughed. ‘There’s a lot you can do without machines. Trust me. This is part of my day job. Why don’t we start with some ab crunches?’

He lay on his back and started curling his head towards his bent knees. He’d made it to twenty when out of the corner of his eye he saw her reluctantly join him. He wasn’t sure why that pleased him so much.

She kept pace for a minute, then fell back on the sand. ‘I’ve been running for a while but I’m still pretty new at the gym thing,’ she said.

‘Okay, now squats.’

Miller groaned. ‘I really don’t like squats.’

‘No one likes squats except bodybuilders.’

She laughed and the husky sound made his stomach grip.

‘Come on.’ His voice was gruff, unnatural sounding.

She jumped lithely to her feet and he couldn’t look away from the toned muscles in her thighs as she braced her legs slightly apart.

‘Raise your arms overhead as you go down. And keep your chest up.’ He cleared his throat, trying to concentrate on her technique rather than recalling the feel of her peaked nipple pressing eagerly into his palm. ‘Squeeze your glutes and extend through your hips as you come up.’

He’d need to dunk himself in the ocean at this rate, but at least his mind was fully focused on something other than racing again.

‘Am I getting a personal training session now?’ She grinned at him, but didn’t stop.

‘Maybe.’ He returned her smile. ‘I do aim to please.’

‘What’s next?’ She breathed deep and shook out her legs.

Tino could think of a lot of ‘nexts’ that involved her horizontal on the soft sand without the top and shorts, but he shouldn’t even be thinking like that.

He sucked in a litre of air and took her through a couple of other light exercises. ‘Push-ups.’

Miller grimaced. ‘Oh, great. You’re hitting all my favourites.’

She got down on the sand and started pushing herself up, her knees bent.

‘They’re not real push-ups,’ he teased.

‘Yes, they are!’ After twenty she collapsed and rolled onto her back. ‘Okay, that’s it. Those and the bench press are my weakest exercises.’

He absently noted how the sun had turned her hair to burnished copper, with some of the tendrils around her temples darkened with sweat. Her cheeks were pink from exertion, her chest heaving...

Don’t even go there, Ventura.

‘That just means you have to do more of them.’

Miller turned her head towards him and her eyes sparkled as blue as the ocean behind her. ‘Oh, darn. No bench press. What a shame.’

Tino smiled. So she did have a sense of humour.

Lifting from his sitting position beside her, he came over the top of her, before he could talk himself out of it, his body hovering far too close to her own.

Her eyes flew wide and her hands fluttered between them, the pulse-point at the base of her throat hammering wildly. ‘Valentino, what are you doing?’

He liked the way she used the full version of his name. Breathless. Husky.

‘Accommodating you.’ His own voice was rough again, as if he’d swallowed a mouthful of sand, and he hoped to hell she hadn’t noticed that he was already fully hard. ‘I’ll be your bench press.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

He braced himself on his arms and lowered his upper body slightly over hers. ‘Hands on my shoulders,’ he commanded.

When she put them there he barely suppressed the shudder that ran the length of his whole body.

She shifted beneath him. Swallowed. ‘This won’t work,’ she said, but she didn’t remove her hands. ‘You’re too big.’

Her eyes met his and the air between them sizzled.

She was wrong. This wasn’t silly. This was way beyond silly. ‘Ten reps. Go.’ He just wanted them out of the way now.

She pushed at his shoulders and he mentally worked his way through every component of a car engine as they moved in unison. He could feel her hot breath on his neck as she exhaled and he dared not look at anything but the sand above her head.

Of all the lame-brain things to do...

He paused when he felt her weaken, intent on pushing himself away from her, but he made the mistake of looking down into eyes that had gone indigo with desire.

The sound of seagulls squalling couldn’t even distract him from the hunger that burned a hole in his belly.

Her hands slipped down his arms, shaping his muscles, and her eyes drifted to his mouth. ‘Valentino...’

Her husky plea weakened him more than fifty reps with twenty-five-pound dumbbells could and, groaning deep in his chest, he lowered his head and captured her soft mouth with his own.

* * *

Miller was aware of every hard inch of Valentino’s male flesh pressing her into the sand. Her own body throbbing as if it was on fire, totally drugged by his heat, his smell, his taste. She couldn’t remember why this was a bad idea. No rational words remained in her head to rein in her pleasure-fuelled body. Her arousal with him in bed earlier had returned full-force.

Impatient with a need she’d never felt before, she swept her hands down his back and then smoothed them up under his sweaty shirt. He groaned approvingly and with his elbows either side of her face cradled the back of her head, angling her so that his skilful mouth could ravage her lips, his moist tongue plundering and duelling with her own in a way that made the ache between her legs become almost painful.

She felt his other hand drift over her torso, feather-light as if learning her shape, his fingertips moving closer and closer to the tip of one breast. Moaning, Miller twisted in his hold, her body begging for more of his touch. She felt him smile against her mouth, his lips drifting over her jaw and down the column of her throat.

‘Please, Valentino...’ she pleaded, her body craving a release she had never experienced during sex but which now seemed infinitely possible. Infinitely desirable.

Obliging her, his hand rose over her breast, cupping her, his thumb flicking back and forth over her nipple at the same time as his teeth bit down on the straining, sensitive cord of her neck.

Miller cried out, jerking beneath him. Her body was liquid with need, her hips arching towards his, her mind completely focused on one outcome.

His fingers plucked more firmly at her nipple and her fingernails unconsciously scored the tight muscles of his lower back.

He shifted sideways and she whimpered in protest. Then his hand slid lower, and she stopped breathing as he cupped between her legs.

‘Miller—’

She didn’t want him to speak. She just wanted to lose herself in these magic sensations. She dragged his mouth back to hers, her tongue instantly gratified by the warm wetness of his deep, soul-destroying kiss. Her body was close, so close, and she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.

‘Oh!’

His hand slipped beneath the hem of her shorts and knickers and then his fingers parted her and lightly stroked her swollen flesh. He groaned into her mouth, pressed deep at the same time as Miller pressed upwards, and that was all it took for her to tumble over the edge. She gripped his shoulders and wrenched her mouth from his, gasping for oxygen as her body disintegrated into a million wonderful pieces.

For a while nothing happened, and then she became aware of the sound of Valentino’s harsh breathing above her own panting breaths, the seagulls squalling overhead.

When she finally managed to open her eyes she found him looking down at her with an open hunger that made her feel instantly panicked.

Oh, God... ‘What have I done?’

‘I believe it’s called having an orgasm,’ he mocked, clearly understanding the horrified expression on her face. ‘Followed closely by feeling regret.’

Regret? Did she regret it? She didn’t even know. But all the reasons this was not a good idea rushed back like a blast of cold water from a hose.

Public beach. Playboy. Promotion.

If she could bury her head in the sand right now she would.

A seagull squawked close by and Miller jumped. ‘You have to get off me.’

‘I’m not actually on you.’

He was right. His body hovered beside her, shielding her from any prying eyes at TJ’s house some way along the beach, but he wasn’t holding her down.

Miller scrambled to a sitting position and looked over his shoulder. They were still alone. Thank God.

‘I said I wasn’t going to have sex with you,’ she spat at him accusingly. She knew full well that she was equally responsible for what had just happened between them, but was still unable to fully take in the sensations rippling through her body. ‘This never happened,’ she said firmly, her emotions as brittle as an empty seashell.

His eyebrows drew together and his features were taut. ‘Not part of your plan, Sunshine?’

‘You know it wasn’t.’ She hated the sarcastic tilt to his lips.

‘Believe me, it’s not part of mine either.’ He pushed himself to a sitting position and deftly removed his runners and socks. Then he dragged his T-shirt up over his chest and Miller’s insides, still soft and pliant, clenched alarmingly.

His easy acceptance of her brush-off was slightly insulting, and the illogical nature of that thought wasn’t lost on her in the heat of the moment. In fact, it only made her more irritable. But whether at him or herself she wasn’t sure.

She watched him jog down to the shoreline and gracefully duck dive beneath an incoming wave. Thank God she didn’t like him very much. She wasn’t ready to change her life for a man, and some deep feminine instinct warned her that being with him intimately, even once, would be life-changing.

She sighed. At least for her it would be. For him life would no doubt go on as normal.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TJ TIPPED his Akubra back from his forehead and rocked forward on his chair, and Miller knew the presentation she and Dexter had just delivered hadn’t gone well.

‘Miller, you’re a talented girl, no doubt about it,’ he drawled, in a condescending tone that set Miller’s teeth on edge. ‘But I told Winston International I’d give their show another shot.’

What?

Miller narrowed her eyes, sensing Dexter’s surprise without having to look at him.

The reason TJ had even approached Oracle was because he was disgruntled with the service he’d been receiving from Winston International.

‘I was thinking about it all last night, and it doesn’t seem right to trash our relationship after so many years. One of their boys is going to show me what they’ve got Monday morning. In the meantime why don’t you fix the concerns I have with your current proposal and get it back to me ASAP?’

Miller was thankful for the years of practice she’d had at pretending she was perfectly fine when she wasn’t, and schooled her features into an expression of professional blandness. Was this because she’d rejected his advances in the restaurant the week before? He might be ruthless and without morals, but he didn’t strike her as the vindictive type. But he did know Oracle was desperate for his business, so he had them over a barrel in that regard.

She had started to hate this aspect of business. The ‘anything goes’ mantra Oracle had adopted as the global economic crisis had deepened. In some ways she supposed it had always been there, but she hadn’t noticed it in her single-minded climb to the top.

Now that she was almost there, so close she could see her name on a corner office overlooking the famed Harbour Bridge and the soaring white waves of the Opera House, she felt unsettled. Nerves, she supposed. But also the acknowledgement that maybe she didn’t have the killer instinct that was required in the upper echelons of big business. Miller cared too much about business practice, and sometimes that didn’t play out very well.

‘Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I have guests waiting to play croquet on the south lawn.’

You could have heard a snail move as TJ pushed back his chair and ambled over to the door. ‘By the way, Miller.’ He stopped and held her unwavering gaze. ‘Tell Maverick to quit stalling on taking the Real Sport sponsorship deal, would you? My people don’t seem to be able to pin him down but I’m sure you can.’

And there it was. The real reason Winston International were supposedly being given a second chance.

Miller heard the door snick quietly closed but hadn’t realised she was staring at it until Dexter muttered a four-letter word under his breath.

Miller swung her stunned gaze towards him.

‘You didn’t know?’ He raised a condescending eyebrow.

Miller felt her face heat up, not wanting to add to her cache of lies. ‘No,’ she admitted reluctantly. She’d had no idea one of TJ’s subsidiary companies was professionally courting Valentino. Why would she?

Dexter swore again. ‘Some relationship you’ve got there. Does lover boy have any idea he’s put a multi-million-dollar contract in jeopardy?’

‘Valentino didn’t do that.’ Although she was silently spitting chips that he hadn’t had the decency to inform her of TJ’s overtures so she could have been more prepared. ‘TJ did.’

‘TJ’s just doing business.’

‘Unethically.’

‘Stop being so precious, Miller. Business is business. Getting this account will boost Oracle’s reputation—not to mention yours and mine.’

Miller’s stomach felt as if it had a rock in it and she methodically stuffed her notes back into her satchel.

‘So, do you think you’ll be able to convince Ventura to do it?’

Miller strove for calm. ‘I wouldn’t even try.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because courting favours is not the way I do business.’

‘TJ Lyons’s is the biggest account in the country and you want it as much as I do. Maybe more. Why wouldn’t you use your influence? It’s not like it’s any skin off Ventura’s nose. In fact, I’m quite sure TJ is offering to pay him a pretty penny for the use of his pretty face.’

Miller tried not to let her distaste show. This was a side of Dexter she hadn’t experienced before.

‘Maybe you could give him a little more of what you gave him on the beach this morning. To sweeten the deal,’ he said snidely.

Miller felt her whole body go rigid and knew she wouldn’t be able to hide her reaction from him this time.

‘You know, Miller,’ he continued softly, ‘I expected more from you than to see you romping on the beach with your lover in full view of the house.’

Ignoring Dexter, she slammed the lid of her laptop closed and fervently hoped she hadn’t broken it.

She didn’t have to explain herself to Dexter, but she knew if he repeated any of this back at the office it would jeopardise her promotion. It was hard enough being taken seriously at this level, despite the pains she took to always to appear confident and professional.

Dexter tapped his pen on TJ’s antique desk. ‘It won’t last, you know. You and Tino.’

‘Whether it does or not is none of your concern,’ Miller fumed, barely keeping a lid on her anger. ‘And while we may have known each other at university, that does not give you the right to comment on my personal life. I’m here to do a job. That’s all you need to think about.’

Dexter looked disgusted. ‘Then do your job and remember that this isn’t a school camp. And another thing.’ He put his hand on her arm as she turned to leave. ‘If we lose this campaign because of your lover, it will be your reputation that suffers, not mine.’

Glaring at him, Miller shook her head. ‘You know, Dexter, earlier this week I could have sworn we were working on the same team. My mistake,’ she finished coolly.

She heard something skitter across TJ’s desk as she let herself out of the study—presumably the pen he’d been madly tapping the whole time.

‘Miller! Dammit, we have to talk!’

Miller didn’t stop. She had no idea what had gotten into Dexter, but she needed time and space to work out what to do next.

* * *

Tino was sitting on the bed when the door opened. Miller stood in the doorway like Medusa on a mission. He was on the phone to his sister Katrina, who was doing her best not to talk about Sunday’s race and thereby placing it front and centre in both their minds.

Miller stepped into the room, her eyes sparking fire and brimstone in his direction.

Man, she was something else when she was riled—passionately alive—just like on the beach earlier. Not that he was thinking about that. He’d been honest when he’d told her it wasn’t part of his plan, but watching her come apart underneath him had been possibly the most sensually arousing experience of his life, and as such it was damned hard to put out of his mind.

‘Kat, sweetheart, I’ll ring you back.’ Glad of the excuse to end the conversation early, he dumped his mobile on the quilt cover beside him, reminding himself that he was supposed to be keeping his distance from Miller. ‘Bad day at the office, Sunshine?’

She stalked across the room and dumped her computer bag and satchel on the small desk against the wall. Then she turned on him, hands on hips, her large aquamarine eyes shooting sparks.

Tino lounged back against the bank of pillows behind him. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s eating at you? Or is this one of those times when a woman tries to make a man’s life truly miserable by making him play Twenty Questions?’

Her gaze narrowed. ‘You’ve got that wrong. Women do not make men’s lives miserable. People do that to each other.’

He stared at her and could see she was mentally wishing her words back. He wondered who had hurt her. It was obvious she didn’t like talking about herself. Something they both shared, and that protective instinct she seemed to engender in him tightened his gut.

She drew in a breath as if preparing to go into battle, but her words were resigned when she spoke. ‘It would have been nice if you’d told me that TJ was trying to recruit you to represent his Real Sport stores.’

‘Ah.’ That was where he knew TJ Lyons. TJ’s people had been hassling his publicist to get him to become Real Sport’s public representative for about six months now.

‘First—’ Miller’s voice brought his eyes back to her ‘—you don’t tell me that you’re the legendary lothario Valentino Ventura and nearly make a fool of me. Now you neglect to tell me that my client wants your face and body for his online sports brand and succeed in making a fool of me.’

‘Miller—’

‘Don’t Miller me.’ She stalked towards him and stopped at the foot of the bed. ‘You’ve been having fun with me right from the start of this silly charade and I’ve had enough. I am not here as your resident plaything and nor am I here to alleviate your boredom.’

Irritation blossomed inside him. ‘I never said you were. And might I remind you that this is your silly charade and I’m actually trying to help you.’

‘Some help when TJ all but told me the only way we would win his business is if you “quit stalling” and give him what he wants.’

Tino rubbed his jaw. ‘Sneaky bastard.’

His response seemed to knock the wind from her sails because her shoulders slumped a little and her hands dropped from her hips.

‘Quite.’

‘I’m sorry, Miller. I didn’t deliberately withhold that information from you. I get over a hundred requests of a similar nature every week and my publicist handles that side of my business. Yesterday, when I met TJ, I was aware that I knew him from somewhere but assumed it was a race meet since he was such a fan.’

She swore lightly and retreated to sit on the velour window seat, and Tino found himself fascinated by the play of light on her thick, glossy hair.

‘What did you say to him?’ he prompted when she remained silent.

She scowled and he noticed that her face was slightly paler than usual. ‘Nothing yet. It was his parting volley.’

‘A strategic tactic.’

She looked surprised that he would know such a thing, and he didn’t like the fact that she still thought he had the IQ of an insect. ‘You can stop looking at me as if you’re surprised I can string a sentence together.’

‘I don’t think that.’ She paused at his disbelieving look and had the grace to blush. ‘Any more.’

He grinned at her honesty.

‘Anyway.’ She sighed. ‘I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of acknowledging it.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because his weapon of choice is to ask his current consultants to re-pitch for the job, but if they had any good ideas they would have already given them to him.’

‘They might have something new up their sleeve.’

‘Nothing as good as mine.’

Tino chuckled. He enjoyed her superior confidence and kick-ass attitude. It reminded him of himself when a rookie tried to come up against him on the circuit.

He noticed her eyes were focused on his mouth, and when she raised them to his a spark of red-hot awareness flashed between them.

Clearly not wanting to acknowledge it any more than he did, she turned to face the window.

Silence filled the room so loudly he could hear the gentle ticking of the marble clock on the desk two feet away.

‘Dexter saw us on the beach this morning.’

Her voice was soft, but he heard the disappointment edging her words.

Tino rolled his stiff neck on his shoulders and swore under his breath. That man was dogging his every step and he was getting beyond irritated with him.

‘Are you telling me or the seagulls?’ he asked pleasantly.

Miller swivelled her head around, a frown marring her alabaster forehead. ‘I’m not in the mood for your ill-timed humour, Valentino.’

‘What about my well-timed humour?’

She shook her head but a smile snuck across her face. ‘How is it you can make me smile even when this is deadly serious?’

‘Deadly?’

She sighed. ‘Maybe I’m exaggerating slightly.’

Tino sat forward and regarded her silently for a moment. ‘Relax. At least he no longer thinks we’re faking it.’