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

She shouldn’t allow him such liberties. The fact remained that he was still her boss. They had a job to do here on the island. But the sensations swept through her with blinding force. His touch heated her, his words enticed her and his hard body stirred her softer one. She raised her head from his shoulder to look into his eyes.

It was a mistake.

Wade’s intense gaze blazed into hers, before his lips came down in a soul-searing kiss, right there on the crowded, smoky dance floor. They kissed. And kissed.

Gina’s body ignited, but dire warnings fanned the flames quickly. She couldn’t allow Wade in. Not again.

She shoved at his chest and pulled away from him, her body swamped with heat, defying her reasoning. “I didn’t come here for this,” she breathed out. “It’s not a good idea.”

Wade reacted immediately. “I can’t think of a better one.”

Rather than make a scene right there in the nightclub, Gina moved off the dance floor. She walked outside, letting the cool sea breezes clear her head. Wade was beside her instantly. “You’re still a liar, Gina.”

Gina scoffed and began walking down the street. “Your bedside manner needs improving, Wade.”

Wade kept pace, his hand placed possessively on her back. “There’s not a damn thing wrong with my bedside manner. And you’ll find that out as soon as you stop lying to yourself and admit what you really want.”

Gina heaved a big sigh, her head in as much turmoil as her quaking body. “What I want is to go to bed. Alone.”

Wade curled a hand around her neck, bringing her face close, as he came around to block her from walking past him. She was forced to look into those smoldering green eyes.

They stood under the moonlit night sky with twinkling stars overhead, right outside the entrance of her hotel. “Sorry, sweetheart, but what you want is for me to crawl up inside your sheets, strip you naked and rock your world.”

Gina’s mouth opened. Then closed.

“It’s going to happen, Gina. Bank on it.”

He left her standing on the front steps of the hotel, captivated by the steamy image swirling around in her head, more angry than she ever remembered being and wishing that, more than anything, Wade Beaumont had been wrong.

Wade dressed in a pair of Wranglers, faded not by the manufacturer, but by hard work and long wear, a plaid shirt and his Stetson. He put on his boots and left Total Command to pick up Gina this morning.

Although clothes didn’t make the man, Wade was comfortable in these, the old standbys, the worn leather of his boots and the soft cotton of his shirt reminding him of his time at Uncle Lee’s ranch in El Paso. He wasn’t that young man anymore. Time, with all the hardships, heartaches and headaches, had a way of changing a man.

His heart had hardened. And he knew it. He was relentless when he wanted something. Maybe that much of his old man had rubbed off on him. Wade wanted two things. He wanted to win the bid on the Catalina project and he wanted Gina.

Neither one would escape him. He would see to that.

He knocked on her door at precisely 8:00 a.m.

When she didn’t answer, he knocked again, harder.

“Are you looking for me?”

Wade whipped around in the hallway and caught Gina’s unfettered expression. She hadn’t recognized him, that much was obvious. And once she had that genuine look vanished.

“Oh,” she said, standing there, her breaths coming quickly, with sweat on her forehead, dressed in killer shorts and a white spandex top. “Wade, I didn’t—”

“Do you run?”

A quick smile curled her lips. “I try.”

They stood silent for a moment, gazing at each other, but Wade couldn’t miss Gina’s probing eyes and those few rapid blinks as she took in his appearance, as if trying to figure out which man he really was: the fast, hard businessman or the easy, kind cowboy she’d once known.

The confusion in her eyes bothered him, so he ignored her expression and swept his gaze instead to her long legs, and tanned smooth skin. More leg than she’d allowed him lately. And as his gaze traveled upward, he noted her breaths coming fast and the spandex top unable to confine the swell of her breasts and the damned enticing tips of her erect nipples.

Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She looked sweaty and hot and sexy enough to have for breakfast.

“I thought I had an hour before going to the stables,” she said, opening the door to her suite and entering.

Wade followed her inside. “You do, but we need to eat something first. I ordered room service. Breakfast will be here soon.”

In a single fluid move, Gina pulled the elastic band from her hair and chestnut strands flowed onto her shoulders, framing her face. “Let me guess, last night you didn’t want to drink alone and today you don’t want to eat alone.”

Wade shrugged off her comment as he tossed his hat onto her bed. “Doesn’t figure for me to eat alone when I have a beautiful assistant at my disposal.”

“I may be at your disposal in business, Wade, but that’s the extent of it.”

Again, he ignored her. “You look hot.”

Gina frowned. “I know. I’m hot and sweaty. I must look a mess.” She ran her hand through her hair in an unconscious move that had Wade approaching her.

“Not a mess.” He strode the rest of the distance separating them, facing her toe to toe. “Sexy as hell.”

Gina blinked then captured his gaze as well as his meaning. She backed up a step, her tone filled with warning as she shook her head slightly. “Wade.”

Wade reached for her waist, encircling his arms around her and pulled her close. A combination of female and salty scents drifted up as she looked at him with hesitation in her eyes.

“Don’t fight it, honey.” Wade swooped his mouth down and took her in a long, slow, deliberate kiss that had her molding her body to his. A little moan escaped her throat when Wade cupped her buttocks, pressing her to the juncture of his thighs.

She fit him perfectly. She always had. Immediate heat swamped him and his groin tightened envisioning her on the bed with him, just a few feet away. He’d wanted her, wanted that ever since she’d walked into his office a few days ago.

A knock at the door broke the moment.

Wade winced at the bad timing. And, as he tugged his mouth from hers, he whispered, “Room service.” Wade had a notion to send the waiter packing and finish this. Just as he began to utter those commands, Gina backed away.

“I—I need a shower.”

Wade glanced at her chest, the tempting swell of her breasts straining against her spandex top with her breathes coming hard again, only this time, he knew her fast breathing had nothing to do with the run she’d just taken. “So do I—a cold one.”

Gina’s gaze slipped down to his jeans, her eyes riveted below his waist.

Wade ground out a warning. “Don’t tempt me, Gina.”

“I never mean to.”

That was the problem. Gina, just being Gina, was enough of a temptation. Didn’t matter what she wore, how she looked, Wade found himself wanting her, no matter what. She was beautiful to him. That much hadn’t changed. From the moment he’d set eyes on her almost ten years ago, he’d wanted her. Had to have her.

The only difference between now and then was that now he knew he’d have her but he’d never keep her.