“I’m not asking for sympathy.” He clasped her wrists and stilled her hands. She might mean her touch to be comforting, but it was rapidly becoming a serious turn-on. “I’m only trying to say I understand how you feel. But, Eloisa, once you’re in the spotlight, there’s no way to step back out.”
“I completely get your point,” she said emphatically. “That’s why I’ve kept a low profile.”
He brought her hands together, their hands clasped as he tried to make her understand. “You were born into this. There’s no low profile. Only delaying the inevitable. Better to embrace it on your own terms.”
“That’s not your call to make,” she snapped, pulling her hands away.
God, it was like banging his head against bricks getting this stubborn woman to consider anything other than a paradigm constructed a helluva long time ago. “Are you so sure about your father’s reasons for choosing to close himself away?”
Her spine starched straight again, ire sparking flecks of black in her eyes. “What are you hoping to accomplish here?”
He’d been hoping to learn more about her in an effort to seduce her and had ended up pissing her off. But he couldn’t back down. “You don’t have to play this their way anymore, Eloisa. Decide what you want rather than letting them haul you along.”
Her hands fisted. “Why does this need to get so complicated, and what the hell does it have to do with you?”
Anger stirred in his gut. “I’m the guy who’s still married to you because it’s so complicated. Damn it, Eloisa, Can you understand my need to do something, fix this somehow?”
“Maybe there’s nothing to fix. And even if there is, do you know what I really want?”
“Okay. Mea culpa.” He thumped his chest. “You’ve got me there. I haven’t got a clue what you want from me.”
“Well, prepare to find out.” She clasped his face in her hands, only giving him a second’s warning.
Eloisa planted her mouth on his.
He blinked in shock—for all of three seconds before he hauled her against him and kissed her right back.
As her arms slid around his neck, he decided the time had come to take this as far as she would go.
Seven
Eloisa couldn’t decide if she’d just made the best or worst decision of her life. Regardless, she knew she’d made the inevitable choice in kissing Jonah. They’d been leading up to this from the second he’d stepped out of his limousine last night.
She pressed her body closer to his, fully, for the first time in a year, her mouth opening to welcome him. Last night’s staged kiss outside the party had been too brief. She’d somehow forgotten how well they fit, the way she tucked just inside his embrace, his head angling down. He was taller than she was, but somehow it worked just right for her arms to rest on his shoulders while she burrowed her hands into his hair.
And ohmigod, his hair.
Eloisa touched and roved and savored his head, the slight waves curving around her fingers as if coaxing her to stay. No persuasion needed, she was on fire with want after a year without this kind of sensual contact.
She’d reached for him in frustration, her desire slipping past when her defenses were weakened by irritation. But now that he was touching her, stroking her, coaxing her body against his, she forced all that ire away, just put the whole argument right out of her mind.
Still, part of her feared he’d sparked something deeper inside just by caring enough to ask the hard questions others avoided. He confronted things she liked to keep tucked away.
Either way, she didn’t want to argue. She wanted that connection she remembered from a year ago, and she didn’t want to fight it another second.
“You taste like apples.”
“My lip gloss,” she gasped.
“Ah,” he said, smiling against her mouth. “You’re wearing lip gloss today.” He traced her lips with his tongue, then dipped deeper, sharing the hint of flavor with her.
His kiss growing bolder, fuller, he backed her against the desk and she welcomed the bolstering because she wasn’t sure how much longer her legs would hold. Jonah stroked her back, her sides, the tops of her thighs, nowhere overtly intimate but intensely arousing all the same. His hot breath caressed her neck a second before his mouth skimmed her oversensitive flesh. Her spot. He remembered. The fact that he still knew what she liked turned her inside out as much as the touch of his lips to her skin.
She bit back a moan, her head falling to rest on his shoulder. “We need to slow this down. I’m at work.”
He pressed a finger to her lips, still paying detailed attention to her neck. “Shhh. We’re in a library. Haven’t you ever made out in the library?”
“Never,” she answered, one word all she could manage.
“Or caught people making out in the stacks?” His hands slid up and down her sides, each time grazing farther and farther over her ribs, just below her br**sts.
“A time or two.” She’d sent them on their way like a good, responsible adult, but right now she was feeling anything but responsible.
Jonah nudged his leg between hers, the thick press of his muscled thigh sending sparks of pleasure radiating upward. And clearly she wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of their clench. There was no mistaking the rigid press of his arousal against her stomach. He wanted her. Here. Now.
And heaven help her, she wanted him too and to hell with the emotional fallout later. Hadn’t she thought just this morning about how wonderful it would be to indulge with Jonah, no marriage, no strings? And other than a piece of paper, they weren’t really married. Their lives wouldn’t be tangled up beyond these next couple of weeks.
“Let’s continue this at my house.” She took the leap. “Or at your place even.”
“Trust me. I wouldn’t risk getting you in trouble.” He kissed her quiet again.
They had their clothes on. She was off the clock for lunch. He was only kissing her.
Kissing her senseless.
But still. Who could object? When she’d stumbled upon other couples necking in the library before, while it had been mildly embarrassing for the people caught, all had just laughed good-naturedly. And she was locked in her office on her lunch break.
Why not?
“Okay then, I trust you,” she vowed against his mouth, meaning the words for now, this moment.
“That’s what I want to hear.” A smile kicked up into his cheek as he lowered his head to hers.
She threaded her fingers through his hair again. Thick and luxurious, wild and sexy. Like the man.
Jonah angled her closer. His palms spanning low on her back, he urged her into a gentle rock against him. His leg pressed more firmly. Pleasure tightened more insistently. She ached for release but held back, nervous and excited by the notion of losing control. They were just making out, for heaven’s sake.
Memories of a similar embrace in his rented home in Spain steamed through her mind, of him pressing her just this way against the kitchen counter when they’d made a 3:00 a.m. forage for food. Naked. Both of them had been exhausted and starving from their workout in bed. The images of then tangled with the present until the clothed kiss became so much more in her mind…. She could almost smell the sangria and fruit juices they’d licked from each other’s bodies.
It had been so long, too long, a whole damn year without this feeling, a growing sense of frenzy no man other than Jonah had been able to engender. What if he were the only man who could stoke her passion to this level? What would it be like to go through life never feeling this level of want and pleasure and pure sensuality again?
The warm sweep of his tongue, the familiar taste of him, stoked her need higher, hotter, tighter. She wriggled to get closer. The tension gathered low, right where he so perfectly teased. He pressed his leg more insistently against, rocking it rhythmically against her until she realized…
Gasped…
Couldn’t stop…
He caught her moan with his mouth. She arched her back, flinging full-out into her release. Every muscle inside her pulled taut as if to hold on to the sensation as long as possible, clenching up each sparkling aftershock.
Slowly, the warm flush along her skin began to cool. She shivered and he gathered her against his chest. Thank God he didn’t speak. She would have been mortified, but she could barely think, much less talk.
Jonah brushed his mouth along the top of her hair. “Enjoy the rest of the lunch break and your sandwich. I’ll pick you up for supper.”
Then he was gone. The door to her office closed behind him with a gentle swoosh while she sagged into her chair. Eloisa smoothed a shaky hand over her hair, to her lips, against her still-racing heart.
She didn’t regret her decision, but had to admit, she’d been so very wrong. Things with Jonah could never be uncomplicated. She’d just had the best orgasm of her life.
And he’d only kissed her.
He’d only kissed her.
Parked in her town house lot five hours later, Jonah shut off the engine on his rental car—top-of-the-line Range Rover, the same sort he always picked and owned because it worked best for him on work sites.
He’d spent the afternoon settling into Pensacola a little deeper, renting wheels. He’d stopped by his penthouse suite to complete paperwork and calls, also lining up two of his employees to oversee the early work trickling in unexpectedly.
Basically, he’d spent the afternoon figuring out ways to make his schedule more open to Eloisa. Damn, how his brothers would laugh at him if they were here to see, but he refused to lose this chance to settle things with Eloisa.
With the scent of her still all around him, he knew he wasn’t giving up. He had to have her.
Jonah draped his wrist over the steering wheel and stared at her door. Their encounter in the library had gone just as he’d planned…and yet it hadn’t turned out at all the way he’d imagined.
No way in hell could he have imagined being this rocked by seeing her come undone in his arms. This was moving so fast and if he wasn’t careful, she would bolt again.
Good thing he’d made reservations at a restaurant. He wasn’t sure he could withstand another evening alone with her in her place.
He reached for the car door and his cell phone chimed, stopping him short. He unclipped it from his waistband. His mother’s number from her airplane phone scrolled across the screen.
It still blew him away that diplomats and politicians around the world feared his mother’s steely nature. Ginger Landis was tough, sure, but she was also fair with a soft heart.
He thumbed the Talk button and turned on the speaker phone. “Hey Mom, what’s up?”
Jonah cranked up the Range Rover again so the A/C would keep the car cool on the muggy May afternoon.
“Just checking in on your schedule.” Computer keys clicked in the background. Ginger was undoubtedly working while talking, the phone tucked to her ear, holding back her signature grey-blond bob that always stayed as in control as she did. His mom took multitasking to a whole new level: ambassador, wife, mom to four children and three stepchildren and known as a superwoman to boot. “I’m finishing up a summit in Washington. I’ll be back in South America before you arrive in Peru for your next project. I’m looking forward to living near my youngest son, even if it’s for a short time.”