“You can change out of your clothes.” Melissa was smiling as she handed Avery a soft towel. “Joanie will be here in a few minutes to give you your massage.”
The massage passed in a delightful haze of well-being. Avery felt her muscles easing as the pent-up tightness dissipated under Joanie’s skilled fingers. Guy had loved stroking his hands along her back when they made love….
Yes, if she was brutally truthful, she’d missed the passion they’d shared. Missed laughing with him at the end of a day when they sat in the massive tub in his starkly modern apartment after sating themselves in his king-size bed. But she hadn’t been prepared to pay the cost that Guy had demanded.
A cost she’d never expected.
His promise that he had a surprise in store for her birthday had caused a surge of hope…after all, she’d fallen for him like a ton of bricks. Even though she’d sensed his reticence about commitment, she’d hoped…
He’d promised a surprise.
It was her birthday. Maybe…
Avery had been almost too scared to hope.
Yet when she’d opened the door of Guy’s apartment that evening, the last thing she’d expected had been Jeff. She’d met Guy’s business partner twice before. Briefly. He’d seemed pleasant enough. What she had managed to piece together was that Guy and Jeff had started Go Green fueled by a desire to create a place where consumers could find all-green cookware and cooking technology for a green, clean diet. Avery loved the concept…and Guy was convinced that the corporation was already making a difference to people’s mindsets.
Yet the Jeff bouncing up and down on the doorstep hardly resembled the mild man she’d encountered previously.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Guy asked me to drop in, he’s been held up at Baratin.”
Typical. Guy had gotten into the workaholic groove at his beloved Baratin and spending time with her on her birthday had been shoved onto the back burner.
Quashing her qualms about letting Jeff in, Avery stepped back. “Come in.”
Jeff followed her through the sky-lit lobby where the white walls were lined with modern abstracts into a spacious lounge with polished dark-wood floors, leather furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows.
“I’m to escort you down to Baratin for your birthday dinner in—” Jeff glanced at his ornate watch “—just under an hour.”
So Guy hadn’t forgotten about her birthday. The leap of joy was quickly followed by a feeling of letdown. He hadn’t cared enough to collect her himself for their date.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you.”
Jeff flung himself down onto the closest couch and grinned up at her. “I try.”
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Bourbon. Neat. On ice. Thanks.”
Avery crossed to the tallboy that housed Guy’s bar. The clink of ice cubes followed by the gurgle of bourbon filling the glass broke the silence. When she turned it was to find Jeff examining her in a way he’d never done before.
A frisson of discomfort feathered along her spine.
Stop it. He’s Guy’s friend, his business partner, someone he trusts, she told herself. She handed the drink to Jeff. Before she could retreat his free hand snaked out and he hauled her onto his lap.
Then he was kissing her, wet, alcohol-drenched kisses that made her stomach turn, muttering fantasies that made her cringe. A furious struggle, and she was on her feet. “Get out.”
He stood. “Don’t be so hasty, sweetheart.”
Avery was trembling with outrage, fear…and something else.
“Go, and don’t come back.” She backed away. A glance showed her that her cell phone lay on the sideboard. “I’m calling Guy.”
Jeff laughed. “That’s not going to help you.”
“What do you mean?”
“He knows, sweetheart.”
Avery froze, her heart thumping in her chest. “Knows what?”
“He sent me, remember?”
“To play taxi driver.” She tossed her hair back.
“Oh, you are an innocent.” It didn’t sound such a good thing the way Jeff said it—and the way his eyes roved over her made her feel grubby. “Despite that fantastically sexy little body.”
“Guy wouldn’t want to hear you saying things like that.”
He laughed again. “Guy sent me. I’m your birthday present.”
Horror shook her. “What do you mean?”
“Guy sent me to pleasure you. I’m to chauffeur you to Baratin when we’re done. Then we were going to feed you your favourite foods.” He licked his lips suggestively. “Afterwards all three of us were going to share dessert.” There was no mistaking his meaning. “Guy wanted it to be a birthday you’d never forget.”
Jeff reached for her.
“No!” She slapped his hand away.
His face contorted. “Come here.”
As his hands clamped down on her shoulders, Avery kicked him in the shins. “Ouch, you—”
She didn’t wait to hear more. The front door seemed a mile away but she made it. Once outside she looked both ways before bolting for the stairwell. And cocked her head to listen, while her heartbeat slowed, until she was sure that Jeff hadn’t followed.
Then she brushed her fingers across her eyes, surprised to find no residue of tears.
This had been Guy’s surprise?
Even now, lying facedown on the massage bed, surrounded by the soft light of scented candles, she could still remember the maelstrom of emotions that had shaken her that night. By gifting his friend to her for the evening of her birthday and expecting her to sleep with Jeff, Guy had destroyed her trust.
Yet meeting him again here at Jarrod Ridge had proved she wasn’t immune from his effect on her, that she still desired him.
That discovery horrified her.
What kind of woman did that make her? How could she lust after such a jerk? And how could she reconcile that with her most secret desire for a loving husband and a clutch of tow-haired kids?
“Here’s a terry robe.”
Joanie’s voice stirred Avery from the conundrum threatening to short-circuit her brain. “Thank you.”
Turning away, the masseuse said, “I’ll fill the tub with hot water. The steam rooms are down the hall from the massage rooms. You can leave your belongings in here. I’ll give you an access card to get back in.”
The next fifteen minutes passed in a haze of heat. Avery couldn’t help thinking of the conversation she’d had with Matt.
“Get over him,” Matt had said.
And Avery was determined to do just that. By the time she left Jarrod Ridge it would be without a backward glance. She would exorcise this wretched awareness of the man. She would banish him from her thoughts…no matter what it took.
By the time Avery exited the steam room, filled with resolve, a sheen of moisture dewed her skin.
As she reached into the pocket of the robe for the access card to the treatment room where she’d had her massage, a masculine hand came down on the door in front of her, blocking her entry. Avery found herself face to face with the man who’d occupied so much of her recent thoughts.
“I’ve been looking for you. Rita said you were here.” Guy’s face was harder, more remote, than she’d ever seen it. The only evidence of the humor and amiability that had been so dear to her back in New York lay in the laugh creases around his eyes.
For a fragment of time her heart ached for what had been, what might have been, what was now forever lost.
No sign of laughter lingered in the steely gaze that roamed her giving no quarter. Avery became conscious that her face was cleansed of makeup and the spa’s white robe ended inches above her knees.
“I see you’ve already managed to find yourself a rich lover.”
Avery froze. Then, not deigning to answer, she knocked his hand off the door and pushed past him, seeking the sanctuary of the private room.
But Guy was quicker. Before she could slam the door in his face and lock it, he was inside, and his foot kicked the door shut behind him.
Balmy steam from the hot tub cocooned them, adding another dimension to the tension that pulsed between them. The warm reds that had appeared so welcoming suddenly seemed sensual and sultry. Avery’s heart started to pound. An acute feeling of vulnerability swamped her. She drew the toweling robe more tightly around her.
“Get out, Guy.”
Guy stalked closer. “Yesterday I thought it was my brother you were after. But by last night you’d found someone else. Did he share your bed?”
“What?”
“The Californian.”
“Californian—” Realization dawned. He was talking about Matt.
“Did he touch you? Love you?” The darkening eyes smoldered in the glow of the candlelight. “Pleasure you?” His hand came up and stroked her skin, causing a rush of shivers to follow in its wake.
Guy thought Matt was her lover.
Avery almost laughed. Then she took in the tight-pressed mouth, the flexing muscle in his jaw.
Help…he believed it. And it had made him furious.
His fury ignited her own.
What right did he have to judge her? To leap to conclusions? She launched into attack. “Why?” she asked softly. “Are you jealous?”
The dark tumult in his eyes turned to flame.
In that instant a truly outrageous realization stunned her. Guy was jealous! Not because he cared for her, but because he thought she was sharing her body with someone else. Someone he hadn’t sanctioned…
Bastard!
“You—” His grim voice broke off as he advanced on her.
A thrill of all-too familiar and totally unwanted electricity shot through Avery. She stood her ground, refusing to back away. He was close, so close that she could feel the force of his breath, smell the tangy male scent of him, all intensified by the steam rising from the freshly filled hot tub.
His hands gripped her shoulders. Before she could protest, his mouth slanted across hers.
Mindful of her resolve to free herself of his thrall, Avery kept her lips primly shut, yet Guy made no attempt to force entry. Instead, after the first press, his lips softened, teasing hers, pressing little kisses along the sensitive seam. Despite her determination to resist him, he was too seductive. Every bit as good as she remembered from the halcyon days before it had all turned to dust. The familiar warmth lazily uncurled in her stomach and spread through her, leaving her craving more.
Too soon he’d raised his head.
“Did he kiss you like that last night?”
Before she could tell him that Matt wasn’t her lover but her cousin—almost a brother—that she’d grown up with, Guy’s mouth was back on hers. Hot. Voracious. Devouring. Her hands crept up around his neck, caressing the smooth male skin with her fingertips. He pulled back and sucked in a shuddering breath.
“No one kisses like that,” she whispered into the cavern of space that separated them.
The vibrating tension in his body eased a fraction. A hand cupped her cheek and he tilted her head back. Avery closed her eyes…waiting…waiting for his mouth to descend again.