Читать книгу Secret Seduction - Lori Wilde - Страница 9

AS DAWN CREPT IN through the window, Vanessa crept out of bed.

She pulled her dress down over her head and poked her arms through the sleeves, then realized she’d forgotten her bra.

Where was her bra?

Frantically her gaze fell on the bed where the blond Viking she’d picked up at Emilio’s lay on his belly, a pillow thrown over his head. What had seemed like a splendid idea in the heat of last night’s passion was looking more and more like a very big mistake by the cold gray light of morning. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed herself. They’d spent hours exploring each other’s bodies, giving and receiving pleasure after pleasure.

Her cheeks warmed just thinking about it.

It had been great actually. Maybe even the best sex she’d ever had. And he’d stirred something deep inside her. Something she couldn’t identify because it wasn’t like anything she’d ever felt before.

That was most unnerving of all.

Please let me get out of here without him waking up, she pleaded to the heavens. Dropping to the floor, she raised the bed skirt and searched underneath.

No bra.

It was probably in the bed with him.

She did find her panties on the floor and wriggled into them as quietly as she could. A quick trip to the other side of the room retrieved her high heels. She wondered how she had come to be the kind of woman who picked up men in bars for one-night stands. Wondered how she was supposed to handle this casual new way of being. She didn’t know if it was freedom or rock bottom.

Forget the bra. Get out of here. And go jiggling out of the hotel, dressed in last night’s now very rumpled dress? It would be a true walk of shame.

Embarrassing as that might be, she simply had to get away from the smell of their lovemaking and that weird sensation knotting her stomach.

She plunked down in the chair parked at the desk long enough to slip on her stilettos. Bra be damned, she was almost out of here. Once her shoes were on, she stood up, only to be confronted by the sight of the gorgeous Viking sitting up in bed stark naked.

His hair was sexily tousled and his eyes were half-closed, but he was awake and eyeing her as if she was his favorite dish of ice cream. She could almost feel his gaze reach across the room and stroke her.

Gulp.

“Running out on me?”

Inwardly she groaned and dipped her head, unable to look at him. She reached for her purse that had somehow ended up slung across the back of the desk chair. “Hmm, no, not at all,” she lied. “I’ve got a really busy day planned.”

A grin curled the corner of his mouth upward. “Uh-huh, sure you do.”

“I do. I have to get the oil changed in my car, swing by the ATM and take some movies back to Blockbuster.” That was the truth.

“Yeah, your day sounds jam-packed.”

“It is.” She could hear the defensiveness in her own voice. “Well, see ya.” She headed for the door.

“Wait.”

She stifled a sigh and turned around. “Yes?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Huh?”

He held up her bra, the thin strap of black material dangling from the tip of his big finger.

Vanessa went for it.

He pulled his hand back, holding the bra out of her reach.

She lunged and lost her balance on the stilettos and ended up tumbling headlong onto the bed.

Vanessa glanced up.

Tanner was looking down.

What she saw in his eyes stunned her. It was a mixture of longing, regret and sadness so deep she could feel it straight to her soul.

But in an instant, the look disappeared, replaced by stark sexual hunger and she almost believed she’d imagined it.

Almost.

The physician part of her brain told her that this man had been using her to salve some secret pain of his own, just as she’d been using him to forget about Carlo Vega. No need reading something more into this than there was.

But the urge to grab him and go at it again was so overwhelming she knew she had to get out of here. Stat.

Anxious to escape, Vanessa scrambled to her feet. But she wasn’t quick enough.

Tanner reached out a hand, encircling her wrist with his strong fingers. “I’d like to see you again.”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s impossible.”

“Impossible?” His touch burned her skin, sent heat flaring up her arm.

Vanessa sucked in her breath. She might be a lot of things but she was no coward. She’d been cornered. She’d tell him the truth.

“Look, Tanner…” she began and tried to tug away from him, but he wasn’t letting go. The man was like a snapping turtle and she found herself wishing for thunder.

“I’m listening.”

“Last night was great. A lot of fun. We met each other’s needs, and I thank you for being there. It’s just that—”

“I’m not good enough to be seen with you in the light of day.”

“No, no.” She shook her head. “That’s not how it is.”

“How is it?”

He had a way of looking at her that made her feel both guilty and empowered. It was an odd sensation.

She cleared her throat. “Look, I don’t normally do things like this. Picking up strangers in a bar.”

“And you think I do?” He wasn’t letting go.

“You don’t?”

He shook his head. “First time.”

His gaze never left her face. He looked so earnest, she believed him. “Okay, here’s the deal. I don’t have room in my life for a relationship.”

“You could make room.”

“Not much.”

“We could take off one afternoon and go kayaking. Or you could call me on those nights when you’re watching movies all alone. I could bring the popcorn.”

It was so tempting. Too damned tempting. Panic fluttered, turning in her chest. “I don’t like popcorn.”

“Sure you do. Everyone likes popcorn. We can even rent Dark Victory.”

“Look, I’d just rather not, okay?”

Abruptly, he let go of her wrist. Vanessa, who’d been pulling against his grip, stumbled backward at the sudden release. She breathed a sigh of relief, even though her skin still tingled from his touch. “Thank you for letting go.”

“Have a nice life,” he said.

“You’re mad.”

“No,” he said. “I’m disappointed.”

“Disappointed?”

“I thought—” He paused. “Never mind what I thought.”

He’d thought they had a special connection? It would have been laughable except for the small knot in her stomach that whispered, I thought we had a special connection, too.

Vanessa had to get out of here before she crawled right back up into bed beside him.

“Take care of yourself, Tanner,” she said, grabbed up her purse and ran out the door.

And you claim not to be a coward.

“SO WHERE WERE YOU last night?”

It was an innocent enough question. Vanessa was supposed to have called Elle last night to make plans for Julie’s birthday, but she’d forgotten. To Vanessa’s ears, Elle’s question sounded like an accusation. She shrugged, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to admit where she’d been. “I got caught up in something.”

“A man’s arms perhaps?” Julie Demarco asked with a teasing gleam in her lively blue eyes.

“You’re such a die-hard romantic,” Vanessa said, effectively dodging her comment.

All three friends worked at Confidential Rejuvenations. The cloistered hospital had been built fifteen years earlier on the banks of the Colorado River. It was owned by a group of private physicians with high social standing and powerful connections in Hollywood, the Austin music industry and Texas politics. It was the place where anyone who was anyone came to receive the very best in specialized medicine and cutting-edge health care.

While their jobs held a degree of glamorous cachet, they were also stressful. To deal with the demands of their professions and the secrets the job forced them to keep, Vanessa, Julie and Elle had formed an after-hours club where they could get together and vent. Sharing their hopes, dreams and fantasies with one another. Today, they were meeting for lunch at a cozy tearoom that also served as an antique store in a genteel area of Austin. Vanessa appreciated her two best friends, but sometimes—like now—she wished that they weren’t so perceptive.

“How are things in the E.R.?” Vanessa asked, hoping to throw Elle off the scent. “Has it calmed down any after what happened with Mark?”

A few months earlier, Elle’s ex-husband Mark Lawson, who had also been one of the co-owners of Confidential Rejuvenations, had been murdered by the gangster he’d been doing business with, selling designer party drugs on the black market. Elle and Dante, an undercover FBI agent who’d been investigating Mark, had barely escaped with their lives.

Elle scowled at the memory. “Things were improving. We’d stopped seeing kids come into the E.R. with overdoses, and we thought all the petty vandalism was over, but last night someone sliced all the tires on the cars in the employee parking lot.”

“Oh, gosh,” Julie said. “The hospital saboteur strikes again?”

Elle blew out her breath. “Apparently.”

Besides the issues with Mark, over the past few months several odd incidents had occurred at the hospital. From anonymous leaks to the press about celebrity patients to an arson fire in the laundry room to items stolen from the kitchen and central supply. Taken one by one, the occurrences were nothing more than criminal mischief, but put together they seemed suspicious, especially with all the security cameras in the hospital. It seemed odd that the perpetrator hadn’t been caught on the monitor.

“Dante told me the hospital board hired a new head of security,” Elle said. “Let’s hope this puts an end to this mess. Confidential Rejuvenations had taken a big financial hit from the fallout over what Mark did. The last thing the hospital needs is more scandal.”

Vanessa nodded. She knew all too well how scandal could ruin lives.

“Anyway,” Julie said. “Back to Nessa’s boyfriend.”

“There is no boyfriend,” Vanessa corrected.

Elle eyed Vanessa speculatively, running a hand over the beige linen table cloth. “I don’t know, you look different somehow.”

“Must be the lighting in here,” Vanessa said, embarrassed to think she had that freshly and well-laid look about her. She picked up her menu. “I’m having the curried chicken salad. How about you guys?”

Elle leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes. “No, it’s not the lighting. Your skin is glowing and you keep glancing off into the distance and smiling as if you have a sweet secret. And when you walked in, your step seemed peppier than usual. You’ve had great sex.”

A waitress brought over a communal bowl of bread-and-butter pickles, the house specialty, and took their orders, but the momentary distraction offered Vanessa no reprieve.

As soon as the waitress left, Julie rubbed her palms together. “Oooh, something juicy’s up with Nessa.”

“Nothing’s up,” Vanessa denied, but her voice was higher than usual, totally giving her away.

Elle’s eyes widened and she chuckled. “Omigosh, you were with a guy last night.”

Apparently it wasn’t going to do her any good to deny it. Vanessa took a deep breath. “Yes, okay, I met a guy last night. But it’s not a big deal. Don’t make anything out of it.”

Julie rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her upturned palms. “I want every detail. Since I’m sans boyfriend, I have to live vicariously through you and Elle.”

“There’s nothing much to tell. I think I’ll have the fruit cup as well as the chicken salad.”

Julie and Elle exchanged glances and for one brief moment Vanessa thought they were just going to let the topic drop, but no such luck.

“What’s his name?” Elle asked.

“What’s he do for a living?” Julie quizzed.

“You guys,” Vanessa sighed in exasperation. “It’s nothing. Seriously.”

“Are you going to see him again?”

Pretending she hadn’t heard the question, Vanessa reached for a bread-and-butter pickle and munched on it.

“Come on, Nessa, throw me a crumb,” Julie begged. “I need details. My love life is in the toilet.”

Vanessa chewed the pickle, determined not to make a huge hairy deal of a one-night stand. She didn’t regret it, but neither was she particularly proud of it. She wouldn’t be seeing Tanner again. It had been a glorious, blissful, one-time-only thing. Besides, she didn’t even know the guy’s last name, so that settled it right there.

“How cute is he?” Elle asked, her eyes twinkling.

Vanessa sighed. “You’re not going to let this go are you?”

Julie grinned. “Nope.”

“We met, we danced, we had dinner, we got a hotel room. End of story,” Vanessa said in a rush. She shifted in her seat, looked out past the restaurant to the antique section of the store. “Is that armoire new? I don’t remember seeing it the last time we were here.”

But Julie wasn’t having any of it. “You had a one-night stand?” Her voice was filled with a mixture of shock and admiration. “I’d never have the courage for something like that. Weren’t you scared?”

“Actually,” said Elle who’d broken a few rules in her affair with Dante. “That was probably part of the charm. Right, Vanessa?”

Julie sighed. “Not to me. I love being romanced too much for a one-night fling. With those you don’t get any flowers or chocolates or tickets to a Longhorns game.”

“Sometimes,” Vanessa said, “all you want is someone to help you wash away your troubles.”

Elle sat up straighter and narrowed her eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling us, Vanessa?”

She met her friends’ interested gazes. How could she tell these two women about her secret past? A past she was so ashamed of that even fourteen years later she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it to the two people who meant the most to her in the entire world.

Knowing it was the only way she was going to get out of this conversation, Vanessa forced a grin. “You guys, please don’t read anything into this. It’s cut-and-dried. I just needed to get laid.”

“AMANDA BET ME that you would come,” Texas State Senator Robert Garcia said as he turned the steaks on his backyard grill. He was a little over six feet and narrow of face. His thick salt-and-pepper hair was combed back off his forehead. He flashed the megawatt smile that had helped him get elected. “Now I’m going to have to let her buy new draperies for the living room.”

“That’s what you get for gambling,” Tanner said to his uncle-in-law and took a sip from the beer bottle the senator had pressed into his hand. Was Robert still his uncle-in-law, now that Maria was gone? he wondered.

“Seriously, this is the first time you’ve been to our house since—” Robert snapped off his sentence.

Since Maria died.

The words hung unuttered in the air.

“I had a reason for coming,” Tanner said. “Besides the barbecue.”

Robert closed the grill, hung the tongs from a hook and turned to look at him. “Oh?”

“This job you asked me to do for you.” Tanner put his palms to the back of his head. “I can’t do it.”

“Of course you can. It’s all set. Everything’s been arranged.”

“I’m not talking about the head of security position at Confidential Rejuvenations. I’m talking about being Vanessa Rodriquez’s bodyguard,” he said.

Robert cast a surreptitious look over Tanner’s shoulder. His wife and some of their guests were standing on the other side of the patio admiring the new garden landscaping. Robert leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “What do you mean you can’t do it?”

Tanner drew in a deep breath. How did you tell your late wife’s uncle that you’d slept with the woman he’d hired you to watch? “I just don’t think I’m the best man for the job. I can recommend someone else.”

“Are you kidding? You’re the best bodyguard in the business. You were guarding the governor until—” Robert stopped again.

Until Maria had been killed in a convenience store robbery while Tanner had been out of town on a security detail.

He still hadn’t forgiven himself for not being there when she’d needed him. “This just doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?” Robert kept looking over Tanner’s shoulder, keeping an eye out for his wife. He was definitely keeping something from her.

“Level with me,” Tanner said. “Why are you putting a bodyguard on Dr. Rodriquez?”

“I told you. Carlo Vega was released from prison yesterday. The man is a cold-blooded criminal. I fear he’s going to come after her for putting him away.”

“And she testified against him?”

“Correct.”

“She witnessed him murder a man in a fit of rage, right?”

“Yes. Vega went up on second degree manslaughter.”

“How did all this come about?”

“Look, is this really important? All that matters is that Vanessa stays safe from Vega.”

“You’re sure he’s going to come after her?”

“He threatened her fourteen years ago and now he’s out of prison.”

“That’s just it.” Tanner clenched his jaw. “Why do you care about Vanessa Rodriquez so much that you’d foot the bill for her personal bodyguard?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

Tanner placed a palm to the back of his neck. Maria had loved and admired her uncle Robert. As far as Tanner knew, he was a good man, but something about this whole thing didn’t add up. He swung his gaze around to take in Amanda, the senator’s wife. She was a slender woman, still quite lovely in middle age. Her skin was well pampered. She possessed almond-shaped brown eyes and a short cap of curls highlighted with stylish streaks of red and gold.

“Are you having an affair with her? Is that it? Is Vanessa Rodriquez your lover?” The thought made him sick to his stomach, but he had to ask the question.

“No.” Robert growled. “God, no. Why would you even think that? I love my Amanda. I would never cheat on her.”

Relief coursed through Tanner at the senator’s denial. It was bad enough that Tanner had slept with the woman he was supposed to be guarding, but to know that she was also Robert’s mistress…well that would have been too much for him to handle. “So why the interest in her?”

Robert swallowed. “Let’s walk.”

“Where are you going, honey?” Amanda called out to them.

“To show Tanner the koi pond.” Robert raised a hand. “Could you keep an eye on the steaks?”

“Will do.” She smiled gaily.

They walked toward the back of the senator’s five-acre lot, flush with native trees—pecan, red oak, elm and cedar. The pathway was made of quaint cobblestone, and around the perimeter of the place stood six-foot-high privacy hedges.

“Vanessa is from my hometown,” Robert said when they were out of earshot from the house. “From my old neighborhood. I knew her family, her mother, but Vanessa doesn’t remember me. She wasn’t even born when I left El Paso.”

“Why don’t you want Vanessa to know you hired me to guard her?” Tanner asked.

“Because after what happened with Carlo Vega, I paid for Vanessa’s way to medical school. I felt sorry for the poor kid. She needed a break and I could give it to her, so I did. No one knows about it. Not Amanda, not Vanessa. Only you.”

“Why the secrecy?”

“It’s not an altruistic act if people find out about it, now is it?” Robert asked.

They came to a halt beside the elaborate goldfish pond. It was a fair argument, and Tanner wasn’t sure he believed that explanation, but he let it go. “Whatever your reasons are for wanting to protect Vanessa from this Vega character, I don’t think I’m the right man for the job.”

“Now who’s hiding secrets?”

Startled, Tanner met the senator’s gaze. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not like you to renege on an agreement.”

“I’m not reneging. The truth is I think I might have blown my cover.”

The senator put his hands behind his back and leaned against the trunk of an impressive old oak tree. “What makes you say that?”

“She went to a bar last night. I followed her, but I stood out in the place. She spotted me. She came over. We danced.”

And we did a lot more than that.

“But that’s good,” Robert said.

“How do you figure?” To avoid the senator’s probing glance, Tanner bent to pick up one of the flat red river rocks landscaping the area and skipped it across the pond. It skimmed four times before sinking below the surface.

“She trusted you enough to dance with you. I think that’s a good sign. Vanessa’s pretty cautious.”

Shows how much you know her. From what he’d seen of the sexy Dr. Rodriquez, cautious was not an adjective that popped to mind.

“The fact that you were able to get close to her gives you an edge in guarding her,” the senator said.

You have no idea how close.

Tanner inhaled deeply. “I’m going to be honest with you Robert. I can’t guard Dr. Rodriquez because I’m physically attracted to her.”

Robert made a noise of surprise. “But that’s good, healthy even.”

“You think so? Because I sure don’t.” Tanner chuffed in a breath.

The senator laid a hand on his shoulder. “Maria would want you to move on. You’ve been grieving hard for four years. It’s time to let go. Letting go doesn’t mean you didn’t love her.”

“Yeah, but the first time I’m attracted to anyone since I lost Maria and it’s with someone I’m protecting.”

“It just means you’re not dead below the waist.” Robert tightened his grip on Tanner’s shoulder. “And just because you’re attracted to Vanessa doesn’t mean you have to act on your feelings.”