Jack checked his stride, but wouldn’t look back. “Jack, I don’t want you to leave.”
There. She said it, pushed out the words that pride had glued stubbornly to her throat. He finally turned to look at her, his blue eyes wary.
Keely pulled the lacquer chopsticks out of her bun. Her hair tumbled down and around her face and shoulders. She approached him, shivering at the dark, sexy look smoldering in his eyes as he watched her.
She stopped in front of him. “I don’t want you to
go,” she blurted through the pain that numbed her heart at the thought of never seeing him again.
She had prepared herself for good-bye, but that didn’t mean she wanted it. “I’m sorry, too, Jack. I didn’t sleep with you to get one over on you. The truth is…I just wanted one night with you. It wasn’t just sex for me. I loved every second with you, and I want another night with you-and maybe more after that. That is, if you’re not busy?”
His lips quirked with a smile as Keely’s face colored with her brazen appeal.
“And allow myself to be used solely for your pleasure?” he asked with irony, since that was the premise she’d just clobbered him with.
“I didn’t mean just that—”
“Oh no? Well here’s the deal, sweet pea. I’m more than just a pretty face and hot body, so if you want me here…” he pointed to his crotch, making her cheeks burn like a silly school-girl, “…you’d better not be messing with what’s here…” he tapped his chest, where his heart beat.
This was why she loved him. Her laugh was choked, yet humbled. “I swear. I won’t.”
“Will you come with me to the Pandanus’ poolside party, Keely?”
“Yes,” she nodded. She would walk through fire for him.
“Tayra Limpsomb might be there, sweetheart,” he warned, watching her reaction closely.
The tender way he called her sweetheart made her heart melt with appreciation. “She will and right now I don’t care. She organizes these events for Lipscomb Hotels. It’s her job as a PR director.”
“Are you still afraid of her?”
Keely shook her head. “No. But she is capable of causing a scene, and I’ll just have to give her an ass- whooping if she tries to humiliate me.” She went on to tell him about her encounter with Tayra earlier, and Jack listened, his eyes narrowing when she showed him the scratch marks on her neck.
“You don’t have to worry about her anymore, Keely,” he reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I’ll be at your side. Always.”
She smiled, warmed by the commitment in his words. “Give me five minutes to get dressed.”
The poolside party at the Pandanus was packed. A mirrored disco ball and lights glittered down on the dance floor while a band played everything from dance 80s hits to Muse.
Keely tugged at her hem.
After she’d shed her conservative mu’u-mu’u, she put on her sexiest dress; a micro-mini black lace design lined with flesh toned silk that hinted she wore nothing underneath.
She wasn’t lying when she told Jack she still wanted him, was wet for him, in fact. She would have let him take her right there in her kitchen, on the table, on the floor, if he’d given her a sign.
But he didn’t. He’d behaved like a perfect gentleman, kept his distance, and waited patiently in her living room while she dressed. But when she emerged from her bedroom in that dress, his mouth parted and his hot gaze said she’d knocked his imagination into full swing.
“Ladies first.”
Jack steered her toward the bar where the bartenders were mashing golden cane sugar and fresh mint leaves for the hotel’s signature mojitos.
They each took a glass. Keely took a long sip of the sweet, fragrant drink.
A busty red-head, who’d been eyeing Jack since they’d arrived, stripped off her cocktail dress in front of him to reveal a black thong bikini underneath.
Keely took another sip of her drink. Oh, this was going to be a long freaking night.
“I guess this means I’m overdressed,” she said as the other woman dove into the pool. “I feel sorry for your wife, Jack,” Keely chattered on. She could tell him anything now. Why not? She no longer had a fake identity to lose, and it felt so good.
“Why do you say that?”
“She’s going to have to put up with this—” Keely waved a hand in the direction of the woman, now floating on her back, her large breasts bobbing like buoys in the water, “—hot babes making a play for you, chasing you, calling you.”
“Well, Keely slash Lei,” he murmured with an indulgent smile, “my wife would never have to worry. You see, I’m a faithful man when I’m committed.”
The thought of him being committed to someone else made Keely fall silent and wish she’d just kept her mouth shut.
“Care for another drink, Keely?” he asked, eyeing her near empty glass.
She nodded.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Do me a favor and stay out of trouble,” he said and winked, making her heart spill over with excitement and pleasure. As Jack walked away, Keely looked around. Any second now that viper, Tayra, would spot her.
Tayra’s life mission was to make Keely’s world a living hell, but she wasn’t afraid. Not tonight. Not anymore.