Temperatures Rising

She stopped walking and glanced over her shoulder. He stood there, braced against a table, his eyes unerringly on her. Her body responded. Just that simple. Just that easy. She wondered if he could gauge her response to him. “Yes.”

“White wine okay?”

She saw his gaze lower to her legs, and instinctively she smoothed the hem of her short skirt along her thighs. “That would be fine. Thanks.” She turned around and continued walking, knowing his eyes watched every step she took. A part of her wished he wouldn’t pay so much attention to her body. Then another part, the one that appreciated the fact she was a woman, didn’t mind at all; in fact, that part was glad he noticed. He was a man, after all. It would be up to her to stay in control and keep things in perspective.

Before stepping out on the balcony she glanced over at his bed once more, wondering how many women he’d had between those sheets and deciding right then and there that no matter how much sexual magnetism he transmitted, she wouldn’t be one of them.

With two wineglasses in his hands, Terrence moved toward the balcony then suddenly stopped when he glanced ahead and saw Sherri. She leaned against the balcony’s rail while the wind gently blew in her hair. He sucked in a deep breath, felt his body get hard and quickly decided it would be best to stay just where he was for the time being. No problem. She hadn’t noted his presence, which gave him the opportunity to notice hers.

She looked sensational, sexy and hot all rolled into one. She was tall, around five-eight, curvy, with a small waist and dark hair that billowed around her shoulders in soft, bouncy waves. Even now her outfit made sweat bead out on his forehead. She had the perfect legs for her short skirt and the perfect breasts for her low-cut blouse and he would love the chance to taste both legs and breasts. If ever there was a reason to call a woman delectable, then this would be it. He could just envision starting at the soles of her feet and working his mouth upward toward her lips, taking time to fully savor the feminine part of her in between. He knew that degree of lovemaking would come later. Right now he needed to work his way up to a simple kiss.

He smiled then, thinking that when they kissed there wouldn’t be anything simple about it. It definitely wouldn’t be anything close to a brush across the lips or a light smooch. He intended to make up for lost time. Work his tongue in her mouth in a way that she would know, would always remember, that he had been there.

Sherri turned when she heard the sound of Terrence returning. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. He was just a man. A man who, if given the opportunity, could change her life forever … but not for the better. She refused to let that happen. She had given one man total access to her heart and she would never do so again.

“Here you are,” he said, handing the glass of wine to her.

“Thanks.” She glanced back at the ocean. “This is such a beautiful view from here. So peaceful.”

He followed her gaze. “You should be here to see it one morning at sunrise.”

She looked at him over the rim of her glass. Was he issuing her an invitation? If so, it was definitely wasted. Instead of responding to what he’d said, she decided to change the subject. “Tell me about Terrence Jefferies.”

He lifted a brow. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me.”

He took a sip of his wine, and it was a few moments before he spoke. “My family lives in Atlanta. There’s my father, my older brother, Duan, who is thirty-six, and my sister, Olivia, who got married last month. Olivia is twenty-seven.”

“What about your mom?”

She saw the way his jaw tensed when he said, “I don’t have a mother.”

She felt bad for asking. Thinking his mother had evidently passed away, she said, “I’m sorry.”

He lifted a brow. “Why? You didn’t do anything.”

“I shouldn’t have asked about your mother,” she said softly.

He stared back at the ocean before meeting her gaze. “My mother isn’t dead, if that’s what you’re thinking. She and my father split when I was ten, Duan was twelve and Olivia was only three. She gave my father full custody of us, kept walking and never looked back.”

“Oh.” Sherri didn’t know what to say. Her parents were still happily married after thirty years, and she couldn’t imagine a woman not keeping in touch with her children. Deciding she needed to change the subject yet again, she said, “How long have you owned the club?”

“About four years. I purchased it right after an injury caused me to stop playing for the Dolphins and I decided to settle here instead of moving back to Atlanta.”

“What made you decide to remain in South Florida?”

“Close friends from college, Stephen Morales and Lucas McCoy. We attended the University of Miami together. Stephen is a deputy sheriff and Lucas renovates houses. Another reason I decided to stay is that I like the area, especially the beaches.”

As he spoke, she noticed his gaze had shifted from her eyes to her lips. A second of silence passed before he said in a deep, husky tone, “There’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since the first day I saw you.”

She fought to quell the sensations flowing through her. “What?”

“This.” And then he lowered his head, skimming her lips lightly a few times before capturing them fully with his.

She felt the room tilt when he masterfully deepened the kiss, deliciously tempting her to submission. She moaned when his tongue roamed freely everywhere in her mouth before grasping hold on hers, toying with it, mating with it, feasting greedily on it. Her control crumbled in the intense and sensual assault of his mouth.

She felt the hardness of him pressing against her middle, and at that very moment her senses, the ones still operating, were thrown into overdrive, and her body felt like it was actually overheating. As shards of pleasure cascaded through her, her stomach tensed. Her nipples pressing against his chest ached. Heat flared between her legs and her pulse beat relentlessly.

When he finally pulled his mouth away, she dropped her face to his chest and stifled another moan. Her defenses were all but shattered as the result of one kiss. She hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t been fully prepared for it. Her mouth had yielded for him in a way it had never yielded for another man.

She lifted her head and met his eyes. The look he gave her was intense. Deep. Sensual. The air surrounding them actually seemed to thicken. She didn’t know what sort of tactics he’d used when he played on the football field, but here, right now, he was using his own sensual weapon to advance and he clearly was determined to reach the goal line with her before the night was over. She opened her mouth to tell him that it was not going to happen when she heard a doorbell.

“Our dinner has arrived.”

His words filtered through her chaotic mind, and before she could say anything, he had taken her hand and was leading her back inside.

He intended to invade her territory.

Although Terrence figured she wouldn’t like it, it would be done. He had gotten a taste of her, a taste that even a full-course meal later, he couldn’t let go of.

Their conversation over dinner he’d dismissed as chitchat. She’d told him about being an only child with a lot of cousins and the only one of them interested in following in her uncle’s footsteps by working in radio. She’d told him about her best friend, Kim, who had decided to move to the Keys with her. She’d told him how she intended to go shopping for a new car by the end of the year. One thing she hadn’t mentioned was her love life, specifically the guy her uncle had mentioned, the one who supposedly had broken her heart last year.

He glanced across the table. After a long, drawn-out silence while they’d enjoyed another glass of wine, he decided to stir up conversation again by coming out and asking point-blank, “Do you engage in affairs?”

From the way her head snapped up and the surprised look on her face, he knew his question had caught her off guard. He watched as she regained her wits and released a long, slow breath. He even felt when the shiver passed through her.

Then he saw a slow smile touch her lips when she said, “I understand that you do.”

She hadn’t answered his question but had made a comment instead, one he fully intended to answer. “Yes, I do,” he murmured truthfully. “Short-term affairs. I don’t do long term.”

“Commitment phobia?”

“Not necessarily. I just decided very early in life that I would die single. Matters of the heart are not for me.”

There was no need to tell her he felt that way because of the pain he’d seen his father endure after his mother had walked out on them for another man, nearly destroying their family in the process. Nor would he mention how as a child he had watched a once happily married man learn to cope as a divorced husband and a single father. A man whose life was filled with pain and sadness and for whom the only thing that mattered in his life was his children. Terrence was convinced to this day that his father had never gotten over the betrayal of his wife.

Just like he had never gotten over the betrayal of his mother.

“Then what about that article I read in the newspaper the first week I arrived? The one about your broken engagement.”

He glanced over at her and decided to set the matter straight. “There was never an engagement. I don’t ever plan to marry, and she knew it. I can only assume that she was hoping I would change my mind.”

Deciding he needed to make sure Sherri fully understood so there would never be any misunderstanding, he held her gaze and then added, “That is one thing I don’t intend to ever change my mind about. I will never marry.”

Sherri could only nod. Terrence was making his position absolutely clear to her, and she appreciated it because she now knew how to handle him in the future. Virtually the same way she’d been doing in the past. She didn’t regret having dinner with him. It had been both enjoyable and enlightening.

It would be easy if she were the type of woman who had no qualms in engaging in the same type of affairs that he did, but she wasn’t. Her parents were enjoying a relatively happy marriage, and although at this point in her career, marriage was the furthest thing from her mind, she still wanted the same for herself one day. A man who would love her and cherish her, give her his babies, his life, his world. Terrence had just told her in no uncertain terms that he was not the man for her. He lived for the moment, and the women he dated would never, ever get close to his heart. She wondered if the way his mother had walked out of his life was the reason. In a way, his take on things was no different from Kim’s. As a child, she had watched her father physically abuse her mother, and because of it, although Kim did on occasion indulge in what she considered a healthy relationship, she never intended to marry.