LITMIR.BIZ

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Our crews are the best, but get a bunch of men working in a confined area for too long and that might spell trouble. They needed to know I’d do everything in my power to keep things running smoothly.”

      “I think you convinced them.” Wade wasn’t just blowing smoke. Gina really believed he meant what he said. Nine years ago, she would never have believed that the roughriding rancher with the sweet nature would become such an astute businessman. She never pictured him in that role. Yet here he was, talking the talk, making the deals. Gina shook her head.

      Wade caught the slight movement. “What?”

      “Nothing, really. It’s nothing.”

      Wade was silent for a while, then before they reached her hotel, he stopped. “I could use a drink. There’s a nightclub up the street known for their tropical drinks. Care to join me?”

      Gina hesitated. A nightcap sounded wonderful. She’d had a tumultuous day. She was physically exhausted but the idea of relaxing with a piña colada and some good music sounded great. “I bet the music’s real loud.”

      “Probably,” Wade replied honestly.

      Gina nibbled on her lower lip. “It’s probably crowded.”

      “Without a doubt.”

      “Am I on the clock?” she asked. Looking into Wade’s beautiful green eyes what she really wanted to know was if his request had been a demand of the job or a simple invitation.

      Wade shook his head. “Not at all. I don’t like to drink alone, but if it’s not what you—”

      “I could use a drink, too.”

      “Great. Let’s go,” he said, with a pleased look on his face. They strolled up a slightly inclined street and, somewhere along the way, Wade twined his fingers with hers and they entered the nightclub hand in hand.

      For Gina, it felt as natural as breathing.

      Five

      “I want to make love to you,” Wade whispered in her ear, his warm breath combined with those softly spoken words caused havoc to her nerves and brought tingles to her toes.

      With her arms wrapped around his neck, their bodies brushing, swaying to the jazz band’s bluesy sensual ballad, Gina rested her head on his shoulder. After two piña coladas, her brain was fuzzy, but not fuzzy enough to disregard what was happening between them. She was fully aware of what Wade wanted. “It’s not in my job description,” she whispered back softly.

      She felt Wade’s smile. It was difficult not to feel the same arousing sensations, not to succumb to his body heat or the pressing evidence of that desire. Gina wanted him, too.

      “I told you before, you’re not on the clock, Gina.”

      Wade dropped his hands down lower on her back, his fingers splaying across her derriere. He made soft caressing circles as he drew her closer. “Remember how it was between us, Gina? It can be that way again.”

      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,

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