Between the CEO's Sheets / House Calls: Between the CEO's Sheets / House Calls

Gina nodded, recalling Wade’s determination to break the wild stallion his uncle Lee had captured in the mountains. After several bronc-busters had tried, his uncle Lee had just about given up and had been ready to turn the stallion loose. But Wade had been more stubborn than the stallion and had finally tamed the beast. “I remember that you had trouble walking the next day.” Then it dawned on her. Slightly panicked, she tried to rise up. “You’re not saying I’m going to feel like that?”

Wade placed a calming hand to her shoulder. “Hold still, honey.”

In one grand sweeping movement, Gina was lifted up into Wade’s arms. She automatically roped her arms around his neck. He carried her to the shade of an ancient oak.

He felt solid and warm and, when he peered down at her, she couldn’t miss the concern in his beautiful green eyes.

“You’re not as tough as you let on,” she whispered near his ear. “Sometimes, I see the man you were in El Paso, Wade.”

“I don’t think he exists anymore, Gina.” Wade pitched his Stetson and Gina watched the hat land near her mare’s hooves. It was so telling, so obvious what that toss of the hat meant. Wade didn’t want to go back. He’d moved into the role of a high-powered executive and was comfortable there.

She let out a quiet sigh. “A girl can hope, can’t she?”

Wade stared into her eyes for a long moment and nodded then lowered down to sit against the base of the oak, keeping Gina firmly in his arms and on his lap. “Are you hurt? Do you feel dizzy?”

She shook her head, “I’m not hurt at all. My head’s fine. You can let me up now.”

“I can’t,” he said.

Her brows lifted. “Can’t?”

“Don’t want to, won’t.”

He smiled, right before his lips touched hers. The brush of his mouth over hers sent warm comforting shivers throughout her body.

She wound her arms tighter about his neck and he deepened the sweet kiss, coaxing her mouth open. From there, Wade took complete control, mating their tongues in a slow fiery seduction while his hand stroked her face then her throat. Gentle fingers traveled lower, unfastening the top buttons of her blouse.

Wade had her in his arms, at his mercy. Gina couldn’t fight her desire any longer. She was where she wanted to be. The Wade she’d known was still there, inside, somewhere in the soft caress of his eyes, in the caring way he held her and in the coaxing brush of his lips. She wanted Wade Beaumont to return. She wanted the man she’d once loved. She’d do anything to bring him back to her.

He slipped his hand inside her blouse. She moaned when he touched her breasts, remembering those fingers, gentle yet rough against her skin. She strained against him. He took more, easing her bra down, cupping her, flicking her nipple until she moaned louder, feeling the pulse of his erection against her thigh.

When he broke off the kiss, they looked deeply into each other’s eyes. “Definitely feeling dizzy now,” she whispered softly.

Wade smiled again and spoke in a low, raspy voice. “You want me.”

It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact. One she couldn’t deny. “Yes.”

Wade kissed her again and palmed her breast until spiraling heat curled up from her belly.

“This is a long time coming, Gina.”

He pressed her down lower on his lap and, leaning over her, he slipped his hand under the waistband of her jeans, his fingers trekking slowly, teasing, tempting, until finally he reached her.

Gina welcomed him. His touch, the stroking of his fingers as they kissed, brought damp moist heat and an ecstasy she’d only known in his arms.

Suddenly, Wade froze, his head shooting up and he muttered a foul curse.

“What is it?” Gina asked, stunned by his quick abandonment.

“Security jeep. Coming from down the road. They must have seen the gate unlocked.”

He lifted her off him and together they stood facing each other, Gina’s clothes as disheveled as her mind.

“Get dressed,” he said. “I’ll go meet them. Explain who we are.”

No words came. She could only nod.

Wade plucked his hat from the ground, yanked it onto his head and strode over to his horse. Before mounting, he turned to her with deep regret in his eyes, as he watched her button her blouse. “One of these days I’m going to make love to you in a damn bed.”

Wade escorted Gina back to town, leaving her in front of the hotel. She’d been quiet on the ride back to the stables and then, as they walked back to the hotel, she hadn’t said more than a few sentences. Wade wasn’t in the mood for talking either. He’d had a few choice words for the security guards who needed convincing that he wasn’t a trespasser. Their interruption had cost him. His desire for Gina had gone unsatisfied and that made him want her all the more.

It irritated the hell out of him how much he wanted her. She couldn’t be trusted and he’d never forgive her for her betrayal, so why wasn’t he satisfied with all the other women he’d had in his life?

“Take a few hours to rest. We have a late lunch meeting. I’ll go to the boat and do some work. I’ll be back later to pick you up.”

Gina nodded, but kept her eyes from meeting his. “Okay.”

Wade cupped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Are you up for it?”

She shot him a look of defiance. “I came here to work, Wade.” She backed away, releasing his hold on her. “So yes, I’m up for it. But back there, that was a mistake. We’ve both changed. We’re not the same people we were when we knew each other in El Paso. You’re paying me to be your personal assistant. I don’t believe sleeping with the boss is in my job description.”

Wade tamped down rising anger. “That had nothing to do with business or the fact that I’m your boss. As I recall, you said yes and couldn’t wait for me to get into your pants.”

Gina’s dark eyes went wide. She lifted her hand and Wade warned her with a searing glance not to even try it. When she lowered her hand, she spoke with quiet calm, her words more potent than any slap to the face. “I thought I saw an inkling of the man you once were, Wade. The man I wanted above all else, the man who was kind and generous and caring. But I was mistaken, you’re nothing like him.”

Wade jammed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, watching her spin around and walk into the hotel lobby. Her words stung but he wouldn’t be played for a fool ever again.

No matter how much he wanted her.

* * *

Wade poured himself a whiskey on the rocks, something that always soothed his bad temper, and took a seat at his desk. He let the mellow rocking of the boat and the fresh sea breeze calm him for several minutes before opening his e-mail account. He punched in his password and viewed more than a dozen messages forwarded to him from Triple B.

As he went through half of them, all having to do with the Catalina project, Wade came upon one message he hadn’t expected, from Sarah Buckley.

He hadn’t spoken with Sarah in over six months. They’d always remained friends, but ever since that episode with Gina years ago, their relationship hadn’t been quite the same. He’d left El Paso shortly after that tumultuous summer to work at Triple B with his father. Maybe his imagination was in overdrive, but whenever he had visited his uncle and aunt in El Paso, he’d also made a stop in to see the Buckleys and, oddly, they’d been slightly distant, polite but not as friendly as he remembered. And Sarah, too, had seemed more cautious with him.

He punched in and opened the e-mail.

Wade, I know you’re out of town, but it’s important that you call me when you return. We need to talk.

Always,

Your friend,

Sarah

Wade sipped his drink, staring at the message for a moment, making a mental note to call Sarah once he returned to Los Angeles. Right now, he had enough to deal with, Gina being right up there on his list.

He realized his approach with Gina had been completely wrong. She wasn’t an easy female to figure out but he did know that when she was backed into a corner, she came out fighting. Though she was as headstrong and volatile as she was beautiful, Wade wouldn’t let her get away this time around. She had become nearly as important as the Catalina Project and both were challenges he fully intended to win. He finished his drink, took a quick shower and changed into different clothes. Before meeting Gina at the hotel, he had one important errand to run.

Gina glanced at the digital clock on the bed stand. It was ten minutes after two and Wade was late. It wasn’t like him to be late for a meeting.

She glanced at her reflection in the framed beveled mirror, straightening out her tan skirt and cream knit shell top. She tossed the short tailored jacket she’d donned minutes ago onto the bed and headed to the wraparound balcony for a breath of fresh air.

Her nerves had been wrought ever since she’d come to this island. The trip over here in Wade’s yacht had nearly done her in and she hadn’t thought things could’ve gotten any worse. But they had.

She didn’t know where she stood with Wade. He was her boss, that was a given. He wanted to be her lover. That’s where it all got confusing. She knew enough not to get involved with him romantically, yet when he kissed her and touched her tenderly, memories flooded in, sweet hot wonderful memories of the times they had shared in the past. Gina had succumbed to him earlier today and the heat of his touch still sizzled on her lips and other highly sensitive parts of her anatomy. Wade had left his mark on her body.

A light-hearted tap on the door surprised her. She strode the distance wondering who it could be. Certainly Wade’s knock had always been more commanding. When she opened the door to her suite, she stood in awe, looking at a smiling Wade, dressed in khaki shorts and a tan polo shirt, black beach sandals on his feet.

“Our meeting was cancelled,” he said, walking in holding a shopping bag. “I figured we both could use some down time.”

“Down time?” Gina asked, confused by Wade’s uncharacteristic light mood.

“Yeah, you know…relax, soak up some sun, enjoy the beach.”

Gina stared at Wade. “That sounds nice,” she fibbed. The last place she could relax was staring out at the fathomless ocean. “But I’m afraid I didn’t bring ‘down time’ clothes with me. Sorry, you’ll have to go it alone.” She sent him a small smile.

Wade lifted up the bag. “That’s why I brought this.”

Gina watched him set the bag on her king-size bed. “Oh, I was hoping that was lunch.”

Wade shot her a sweeping glance, his eyes raking in her body from top to bottom. “Depends on how you look at it.”

“What? What did you bring me?” Gina walked over to the white bag and tossed the contents onto the bed. Swimsuits, sarongs and fancy rhinestone flip-flops scattered. Gina lifted up a pure-white dazzling bikini. “A thong?” She turned to face him. “Not on your life.”

Wade laughed. “I had to try.” He gestured to the others. “What about the black one?”

Gina eyed him cautiously, before picking it up and scanning it over. The bikini had a tad more material than the thong, she noted. She shook her head. “You don’t know my size.”

Wade stepped closer to her and looked into her eyes. He spoke softly, with confidence. “I know your body, Gina. They’ll fit.”

Heat rushed up, warming her throat and blistering her face. Once again she thanked the Almighty for her olive complexion. At least she could hide her blush from Wade, if nothing else. She set the suit down. “I’d really rather stay in.”

Wade folded his arms across his middle. “Okay, we’ll stay in.” He glanced at her then the bed. “What do you suppose we can do in here all afternoon?”

Gina flinched. “I wasn’t inviting you.”

Wade took a seat on the sofa, his arm spread along the top cushion. “Gina, what are you afraid of? We’ll go down, have lunch at a café, then relax on the beach for a few hours.”

“You know I don’t like the water.”

“You traveled twenty-two miles over that water to get here.”

“I know. I’m dreading the trip back.” Just the thought brought shivers.

Wade pointed to the clothes on the bed. “Try the red one, Gina. It’s a one-piece.”

Gina glanced at it and frowned. “With more cutouts than Swiss cheese.”

“You noticed that, too?”

Wade didn’t even try to hide his amusement. “Come on, Gina. You must be starving by now.”

Gina’s stomach rumbled quietly. Thankfully, Wade didn’t seem to hear. She was hungry and it seemed the only way to get Wade out of her hotel room was to leave with him. “Okay, fine. I’ll wear the red one.”

Gina grabbed the swimsuit, a multicolored sarong and sparkling rhinestone flip-flops and stomped into the bathroom, ignoring Wade’s satisfied chuckle from the sitting area.

She knew he’d be right. Everything he bought would fit her.

Perfectly.

Gina sipped her piña colada, the coconut-and-rum tropical drink sliding cold and smooth down her throat. Wearing the cherry-red swimsuit underneath the sarong cover-up, she faced Wade from her seat at the beachfront café, surprised at his casual demeanor. He’d dominated the conversation, opening up to her about his time at Triple B working with his father, learning the business, then taking over after his father died and Sam remarried and started a new life at Belle Star Stables. He’d filled her in on his life from the time he left El Paso to the present. Of course, she was certain that he’d left out choice bits about his love life and he’d skirted the issue about their onetime hot and steamy relationship.

If he’d wanted her to relax, he’d succeeded. The two empty piña colada glasses in front of her might have had something do with it as well, but Gina wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“So what about you? What did you do once you landed in Los Angeles?” he asked, his tone light, his eyes holding nothing but curiosity.

Gina had always wanted Wade to understand what her life had been like before and after she met him. There had been so many things left unsaid. Perhaps now was the time, after all this time, to come clean, at least partly. She’d always wanted Wade’s trust and maybe this was the first step in gaining it back.

“I’d always liked Los Angeles. Sarah and I roomed at UCLA for four years together. We were girls from two different worlds. Though I was raised in Austin, my parents were city folks. They owned a small Italian restaurant. My mother was a terrific cook.”

“As I recall, so were you.”

“Thank you. It was a family-run operation. I worked there until I left for college.”

“And after college, when you left El Paso, what did you do?”

Gina peered at Wade. He’d just polished off a sandwich and was working on the fries and his second beer. Because she didn’t find any sign of resentment, any hint of a trap, she continued. “I looked for work and did some odd jobs here and there. Nothing too stimulating, but all the while I’d been working on clothing designs. That’s when I realized I’d probably wasted four years of my life in college. I should have been following my heart. I entered the Fashion Institute and loved every minute of it. When I got out, I ventured into my own business. Or at least, I tried.”

“What do you mean, you tried?” Wade asked. “What happened?” He plucked another fry up and shoved it into his mouth.

Gina took a deep breath and surged on. “I didn’t have any money, so I took on a partner. A man. He seemed to have more business sense than me, some really good ideas. We took out loan after loan to fund our venture. I…trusted him.”

Wade took a pull from his beer. “Mistake?”

“Big, big—huge—mistake.”

Wade set his beer down and leaned in, his elbows braced on the table now. “I’m listening.”

“He stole my designs and every bit of money we’d borrowed. I have no idea where he is or what happened to him.”

Wade studied her a moment as if sorting something out in his mind. “Were you involved with him?”

Gina paused, hating to admit this to Wade. She’d been such a fool. “Yes. He was charming and so easy to be with…a charming con man.”

Wade sat back in his seat, looking at her. “I get it now. Why you took the job working for me.”

“I’m in debt, Wade. I owe a lot of people a lot of money.”

“You shouldn’t have to pay it all back.”

Gina bit her lip, and swallowed. “Some of the loans were in my name only—a good many of them.”

Wade nodded and had her gratitude for not telling her what a gullible fool she’d been.

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