Читать книгу Between The Sheets - Jeanie London, Jeanie London - Страница 9

SOMEHOW APRIL had gotten it into her head that a man who commanded as much respect in his field as Rex Holt had to be middle-aged with a serious type A personality.

Wrong-o.

The Rex Holt she’d been sent to baby-sit was about the last man on earth to need a baby-sitter. He was laid-back, very charming and positively drop-dead gorgeous, which meant that every time he turned that dark chocolate gaze on her, she went straight to pieces. Every time he spoke with that rich silk voice, her insides fluttered and her memory echoed with the sound of his voice as he’d calmly discussed sexual positions from the Kama Sutra Sports Set.

Ladies’ Luxury Laptop and the Sexy Slam-Dunk.

She was in so much trouble here.

To add insult to injury, Rex Holt had to be a gentleman, too. He hadn’t said a word when she’d arrived at the airport late this morning, even though he’d been specific about the time to meet. He hadn’t asked for an explanation either, which was good because April hadn’t wanted to explain how she’d accidentally packed her purse in the frenzy to get out the door, which had meant searching through all her suitcases while the taxi waited….

As they moved through the line toward the ticketing counter in the airport, he kept eyeing her rolling luggage.

“Can I help you with all those bags?” he asked.

“I’ve got them, thanks,” she said again. Granted, he’d packed light by comparison. But he was a man. A garment bag, suitcase and laptop case might outfit him for their Atlanta stint but she wasn’t so lucky. Glancing up, she met his gaze. Mistake. One glimpse into those eyes made her breath catch.

“You’ll check them?”

“Except the ones I need on the flight,” she said around that trapped breath. “I want to use the downtime to review the product line.”

Learn the product line was a more like it, but April couldn’t tell Rex Holt that. She’d spent the entire weekend immersed in Market Analysis 101 to learn what acronyms like ESOMAR, ANOVA and CAPI meant so she could play a convincing marketing research assistant.

There’d been so much to learn that she hadn’t had a chance to even glance at the Sensuous Collection, an oversight that was bound to blow her cover if she didn’t get a grip on the product line PDQ.

The product line wasn’t the only thing she had to get a grip on. She chanced another glance at Rex, who was still frowning down at her luggage, an expression that didn’t minimize his good looks one tiny bit.

And he looked so good with his deep russet hair and olive skin. Too good. Even though she wasn’t conducting an investigation, this man was technically a suspect until cleared of complicity by in-house security. She cautioned herself that suspects were suspects no matter what they looked like, but Rex’s mouth kept doing her in. He grinned wickedly. He frowned intensely. He made a woman who’d sworn off relationships that involved disastrous sex think about what she might be missing.

That mouth could make her imagine the soul-deep sort of ache that would build and build toward a mind-blowing climax, an explosion of the senses that could eradicate reason and make a woman swoon—or so April had heard. She’d never actually experienced the phenomenon firsthand, had never been able to relax long enough to reach the finishing line.

Oh, she wasn’t incapable or anything like that. She had absolutely no problem satisfying herself when she was alone. Being alone with a man was the problem. She got so nerved out that the experience always ended up in disaster long before she or her partner ever reached fulfillment.

Exactly what had happened with poor Jeff.

Then there’d been Vic. He’d wound up with a dislocated shoulder and a sprained ankle when a foray into light bondage had ended with a broken bed frame, a mattress on the floor and a trip to the emergency room still locked in the handcuffs that had done him in.

He’d been convinced she could relax if she was in control.

Wrong.

Kenny had wound up in surgery to repair torn ligaments after an unexpected make-out session in the front seat of his classic Firebird. He’d totally wiped out his knee wrenching it between the gearshift and the steering wheel.

He’d been convinced spontaneous had been the way to go.

Wrong again.

The memories only reaffirmed that she’d made a logical decision to give up sex, which also reestablished that she was in way over her head on this case. That fact had been obvious the instant Rex Holt had stepped foot in the conference room at Luxurious Bedding Company’s corporate headquarters yesterday.

It wasn’t bad enough that the man was too good-looking to be allowed. No, he had to be charming, too. And so tall that she felt like a china doll standing beside him, those broad, broad shoulders taking up more than his fair share of space.

Inhaling deeply, April reined in her thoughts, only to find Rex still eyeing her bags, as if it was killing him to let her carry them unassisted. Which was just so gentlemanly, darn it.

Finally, the line shuffled ahead and they reached the ticketing agent, where all her plans to work on the flight were almost waylaid before they got off the ground. She had to fight to keep her carry-on bags and only won the battle after the ticketing agent made a big show of measuring the large one to ensure it would fit in the overhead compartment.

By the time she fell into step beside Rex for the walk to the gate, April wished she’d just checked the bags in the interest of time.

When airport security personnel swarmed the monitoring station while their carry-ons were undergoing inspection, April knew she should have checked the bags.

Whatever the problem was, it had to do with her luggage.

“What do you have in there?” Rex asked her.

“Just some work.” She didn’t volunteer any more information. She didn’t need to because two security workers were currently opening the bags to begin a search. Rex was about to find out exactly what she’d packed, along with everyone else within ten feet of the monitoring station.

A man standing in the line behind them complained loudly enough for them to overhear. “Now what’s wrong?”

Rex shot the man a frown, then glanced at her, brow raised in question. “The Fetish Collection?”

She only nodded, unable to do anything more than stare as the security people pulled out items from her bags, painstakingly examining each one before laying it on the immobile conveyor belt in full view of the crowd.

The black sheet set with pockets built into the sides to hold sexy goodies like…

The dual-temperature vibrator with a clear plastic casing that could be filled with ice water for a sensual experience guaranteed to earn a shiver…

The pair of Pleasure Pearls Ben-Wa balls that clicked together noisily in their clear plastic box….

“An impromptu consumer study. I wouldn’t have thought of it,” Rex said conversationally. “Got a notebook? You can start documenting peoples’ reactions.”

April didn’t bother answering what she assumed had been a rhetorical question. She didn’t bother looking at Rex either. She didn’t need to see his face to recognize his amusement.

But she couldn’t figure out what he found funny about the looks the security personnel kept shooting their way. Or their suggestive sniggers. Or the nearby passengers’ barely muffled comments about where they were planning to use those sheets.

“We’ll have to confiscate the handcuffs, sir,” a security worker said.

“Think we’ll be able to manage without them?” Rex asked.

Another rhetorical question she didn’t bother answering, not when his question was drowned out by the amused voices all around them and the sound of blood pounding hard in her ears. She just glared up at Rex, scowling her displeasure that he had all these people thinking the Fetish Collection belonged to them for personal use.

“We’re marketing consultants working on the launch of a new product line,” April explained.

Maybe it was her squeaky-voiced delivery. Or maybe it was the blush. But her explanation only drew more attention. The crowd inched closer to the monitoring station, every pair of eyes within ten feet darting down to assess the neatly packaged leather restraints, stainless steel nipple clamps and the—what on earth was that? Oh, that must be a cock ring.

The expressions ranged from shock to amusement and strongly suggested no one was buying her explanation. Rex only snorted when the impatient man behind them didn’t bother lowering his voice to make a crack about perverts sleeping with women young enough to be their daughters. A gross exaggeration as Rex was only thirty-two.

To Rex’s credit he didn’t seem bothered by the stares and lewd comments, although he would have been well within his rights to blame her for this whole embarrassing delay. He remained good-natured in the face of adversity, which showed a great deal of restraint under the circumstances.

She, on the other hand, demonstrated no such restraint. The security personnel took their sweet time cramming all the items back inside her bag and the attached case. By the time they’d made room for the Naughty Nipple Cream and the Kegel Balls and snapped the latch on the case shut, April was barely containing the urge to run back in the direction of the terminal.

What on earth had John been thinking? What had Wilhemina been thinking? They both knew better than anyone that she simply wasn’t cut out for fieldwork. Not even inside surveillance. And especially not to surveil a man who was so darned handsome that her tongue tangled in a knot every time he looked her way.

She was screwing up already and she wasn’t even out of Dallas. Not good. But she didn’t get a chance to dwell on how she’d just cost them another ten minutes before Rex touched her. One brush of his warm fingers on her hand, and she felt a jolt that zapped every thought out of her head.

“It’s okay, April,” he said. “There’s no law against sex toys in Texas. We won’t wind up in prison.”

And now he was on to her. She couldn’t decide if she was annoyed that he’d noticed her anxiety or touched that he’d made an effort to reassure her. Not that she could be reassured with everyone in a ten-foot radius thinking they liked kinky sex.

“I had no idea those gizmos would cause a problem,” she said as soon as she’d caught her breath and they were on their way again.

Several flights appeared to have arrived, slowing their progress by forcing them to pick their way through the crowds. “I even remembered to take my pepper spray off my key ring.”

He only shrugged. “It’s the tightened security measures. Slows down the travel process.”

“Well, we’re almost at the gate, hopefully with no more—”

April cut off abruptly when the luggage handle was ripped forcibly from her grasp. Spinning around, she realized that someone’s garment bag had snagged the wheel of her roll-on, sending it thumping along the floor and nearly tripping an inattentive passenger, who hop-skipped over it at the last possible second.

But not before he kicked the smaller case—which security obviously hadn’t reattached properly—and knocked it away. The latch burst open as soon as it hit the floor. There was a loud crack and the items spilled out.

Here we go again. April winced as the plastic casing on the vibrator shattered. The box holding the Pleasure Pearls exploded in a burst of clear plastic shards. The balls shot away in different directions.

“Another impromptu consumer study?” Rex asked.

April didn’t dignify that question with an answer, but leaped into motion, deciding damage control was the better part of valor. Diving for the case, she missed the ball she’d been reaching for when an errant foot kicked it away.

Suddenly Rex appeared at her side, shielding her from the crowd with his big body.

“Hey, lady, you lost your dildo.” Some jokester handed her the vibrator with the cracked casing.

April issued a weak, “Thanks.”

Rex plucked the vibrator from her hand and said, “Grab the rest of these things. I’ll get your bags back together.”

He sounded positively jolly and she glanced around to find him reattaching the case to her roll-on with a wicked grin.

April didn’t need to be asked twice. Lunging forward, she grabbed the leather restraints, which were still bundled inconspicuously in their packaging, handed the bundle to Rex and took off for a Pleasure Pearl Ben Wa ball that had landed under a newspaper dispenser.

It was while on her knees reaching for the ball that she noticed the sneakers. A pair of spiffy clean child’s sneakers attached to two sturdy legs. Lifting her gaze, April took in the fists jammed into the shorts pockets, the bright print Hawaiian shirt covering the solid body of a towheaded boy who couldn’t have been more than four years old.

People were whizzing past them at rush hour speed but he didn’t appear to have a parent nearby. Sure enough, one look at those round blue eyes revealed the little guy was positively terror-stricken.

Wedged in the shadows between two newspaper dispensers, he looked as though he’d been overwhelmed by the crowd and had sought the nearest hiding place. At the moment, April could completely relate with the need to hide.

“Hello.”

No reply. The child was clearly too scared to even cry and the sight of him toughing it out in the shadows tugged at her heartstrings. She could relate to losing parents. She’d lost two sets in her lifetime, though never at this little guy’s age.

Sitting back on her haunches, she met his gaze at eye level. “Did you lose your mom and dad?”

Still no reply, but she caught the flicker in those big blue eyes and knew she’d hit the bull’s-eye.

“I lost my mom and dad once, too. We were at Disney World. I wasn’t holding my mom’s hand because I was eating an ice-cream cone. All of a sudden I was alone.”

She smiled reassuringly. “I was really scared, but I knew my mom would come to get me. So I tried to remember exactly what she’d told me to do if I ever got lost. She’d said to find a policeman or someone with a name tag that worked close by. And she told me not to talk to strangers. Did your mom tell you something like that, too?”

He blinked, which April interpreted as a yes.

“Great. Well, since I’m a stranger, you don’t have to talk to me, but how about if I ask one of the airport people with the name tags to call your mom and tell her where you are so she can come get you. I’ll bet she’s looking for you right now.”

He managed a small nod.

April kept smiling and stood, hoping to flag down a passing airport employee. She had no intention of leaving this little guy alone and wouldn’t traumatize him any further by forcing him to leave his hiding place to go in search of help. She turned to find Rex right behind her.

“Oh, Rex. I’m glad you’re here. Would you mind—”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said, indicating that he’d overheard the exchange. He parked her roll-on beside her and headed back into the crowd.

“That’s Mr. Rex,” she explained to her new charge. “He’s a friend of mine so he’ll go get someone who can find your mom.”

The little guy kept his hands jammed tightly in his pockets but April noticed the Star Wars light saber attached to his belt. John’s grandson had one like it, so she struck up a one-sided conversation about how she and little Joel liked to play Jedi knights.

She hadn’t yet heard a page over the intercom system before a woman burst through the crowd. “Jake!”

One glimpse at the petite blonde and the little guy dissolved into tears. So did the panic-stricken mom.

Rex appeared a second later with an airport security officer and a man who was obviously the dad, judging by the two other towheaded children hanging on to him.

It turned out that Jake’s family was on their way to a vacation in Hawaii—a fact corroborated by their matching Hawaiian shirts. While Jake was still too traumatized to smile, his mom and dad offered profuse thanks.

“Glad we could help,” April said, grabbing her roll-on bag, afraid to look at her watch because the chances of making their flight after this delay were slim. “You all have a nice time on your trip.”

She wasn’t quite sure what she could say to Rex that might make up for causing so many delays, so she just held up the Pleasure Pearl and said lamely, “Got it.”

Turned out no explanation was necessary. Rex led her to the gate, explained the situation to the agent, grinned that killer grin and managed to make arrangements for the standby list on the next flight to Atlanta.

“We’ve got an hour to burn,” he said. “Let’s get coffee.”

He didn’t come out and say he needed a cup, but April got the distinct impression he did, especially when he stood at the counter and ordered five additional shots of espresso.

She had the most amazing effect on people. It was a gift.

After receiving her own decaf cappuccino—heaven knew she didn’t need any caffeine—she sat across from him at a table, used a stirrer to swirl the foam and contemplated what she wanted to say. This morning had not gone according to plan. She’d needed to slip smoothly into this man’s life, not convince him he’d been saddled with a total idiot for an assistant.

April knew she’d be okay if she could just get a grip on her nerves. Unfortunately, Rex Holt was exactly the kind of self-assured man who made her a nervous wreck. He was just too personable, too charming…. She should have stood up for herself and insisted that John send Sherry on this case.

“You handled that boy very well,” Rex said.

“Oh, thank you.” She glanced up into dark chocolate eyes that studied her curiously. “The poor little guy was terrified.”

Rex nodded and reached for his coffee. He had long, tanned fingers with neatly trimmed nails, and she followed them as he tipped the cup to his lips.

“Sorry we missed the flight,” she added.

“We have some breathing room.”

“Thankfully.”

She must have sounded too relieved because he arched a dark brow. “You don’t go out on assignment often, do you, April?”

Definitely the last question she wanted from him. “Actually there’s another assistant who does most of the out-of-house work, but she’s…on maternity leave,” April lied, seeing a pregnant woman walk by and spouting the first thing that came to mind. “Why do you ask?”

He sat back in his chair. The grin was twitching around his mouth and she was struck again by what a handsome man he was.

She really didn’t need to be testing out her field skills in front of this man.

“You seem nervous,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out if it’s you, me or the situation that’s making you feel that way.”

He was much too gallant to come right out and say that it would be a long few weeks of working together if she couldn’t relax. He didn’t have to. April had known that from the instant she’d laid eyes on him.

“I assume all the responsibility,” she said with forced lightness. “I’m pretty high-strung on the best of days.”

“So you’re okay with the logistics of us working together? I can get you a separate hotel room. We’ll manage.”

She was so tempted to accept. The absolute last thing she needed was to be sharing a suite with this utterly attractive man. She’d never maintain her composure having conversations about the kinds of items that had been rolling all around the airport today.

But accepting Rex’s offer wasn’t even an option. She needed to be close to see what he was up to. She couldn’t get much closer than sharing a suite.

Unless she was sharing his bed.

That thought appeared totally out of the blue and April squelched it as images of the broken vibrator and the leather restraints popped into her head. She had enough against her without letting her imagination run wild. “The logistics are fine, Rex, but thanks for the offer.”

He nodded and his hair caught the light overhead, drawing her attention to the glimmers of rich russet in brown hair not quite as dark as his eyes. Such an unusual color. Such an attractive color.

“You’re okay with our topic of study?” he asked.

“Of course. What’s not to like about dual-temperature vibrators and nipple clamps?”

He chuckled. “I’m going to take the Fifth. Given the responses we’ve gotten today, I’m hoping this isn’t indicative of the consumers’ reactions to all the lines. Amusement and shock don’t translate into high-gross sales and I don’t want to be called a dirty old man again.”

“Which part bothered you—the dirty part or the old part?”

Her question earned a full-fledged laugh and April felt the sound straight down to her toes, another example of the way this man was affecting her. And shouldn’t be.

“Both.”

“Forget it. That guy had to have been blind. We look like businesspeople, certainly not a couple having a May–December romance. You’re not old enough for one thing. And I’m not young enough.” She frowned before adding, “That’s a dismal thought.”

He cocked that brow again, as though not quite willing to debate the point, and set his cup on the table. Leaning forward, he closed the distance between them. “I found your impromptu consumer study very interesting. We got some varied reactions.”

She only nodded, thinking him very gallant to find something positive in that debacle.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us trying to figure out how to market this product. If what I saw today was any indication, establishing a baseline about who’ll be receptive to the sexier sheet sets isn’t going to be easy. There was a middle-aged woman nearby who couldn’t stop laughing. I’d have pegged her as the one to call me a pervert.”

“The guy who did the honors couldn’t have been much older than you are. His younger girlfriend probably just left him.”

“I hope he didn’t offend you.”

“At least he didn’t call me old, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed.” That was saying something. April Accidentally was very familiar with embarrassment.

“I’m surprised you brought along the whole collection. The literature wasn’t enough?”

“I suppose it would have been if I’d have thought about it. But I didn’t want to forget anything so I just stuffed everything in my bags.”

“You’ll do just fine on this job, April. Try to relax.”

She’d heard that before—from John just a few days ago, in fact. She forced a smile, but there was something about Rex, a perfect stranger—a suspect, for heaven’s sake—making the effort to reassure her that touched April someplace deep inside.

As deep inside as Rex seemed to see with his melting dark eyes. He’d seen right through her to recognize she was completely nerved out about doing her job, even if he didn’t know exactly what that job was.

It wasn’t enough that this man was so gorgeous she couldn’t forget she was a woman who would never have a normal relationship or a mind-blowing orgasm or a happily-ever-after. No. Rex Holt also had to be so nice that he made it difficult for her to remember that he was a suspect.

So she sipped her cappuccino as the million-dollar question roared through her head: just how was she supposed to conduct inside surveillance when observing the suspect made her think about what they could be doing between the sheets?