Kitabı oku: «Impossible To Resist», sayfa 3

Five

Jacob tried to take her words at face value. He really did. But he was fairly certain the little minx was baiting him. She was so accustomed to getting what she wanted, her boldness came across as a mix of innocence and unabashed confidence.

Kissing her had been a test—for him. He wanted to know what he was up against before he agreed. Given the way his body reacted to hers, the answer to her proposition should be an unequivocal no. But even knowing the danger she presented, he couldn’t get past the fact that she needed him. And God help him, he couldn’t turn her away.

He picked up the remote and turned off the TV. It had been playing quietly in the background while he and Ariel sparred. Keeping his back to her for a few seconds, he marshaled his thoughts. It was inevitable that she had picked up on his attraction to her. His erection had pulsed between them during that restrained but surprisingly steamy kiss.

But she needed to know from the beginning that he wouldn’t be led around by his— Oh, hell. She was probably amused by his lust. He surely wasn’t the first man to want Ariel Dane, and he wouldn’t be the last.

Bending to put the remote inside the entertainment center, he at last straightened and faced her. “Sure,” he said laconically. “I’ve got bedrooms to spare. But you’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

She nodded. “I have lots to do at home to get ready for the trip. I’m guessing that you will, as well.”

“Indeed. Starting with an edited but truthful explanation for my family as to why I’m jetting off to the Caribbean on a whim.”

“Why does it have to be edited? Couldn’t you just call it a vacation?”

“I want to protect your privacy. And I don’t take vacations.”

She flushed. “You’ll think of something.” While Jacob leaned a hip against the back of the sofa, she stood up to prowl, her nervous energy palpable. A Barbie doll peeking from beneath a chair caught her attention. She picked it up. “Is this for research purposes?”

“I have a brand-new niece … not an infant,” he hastened to explain. “But Kieran recently found out he has a daughter. Cammie. She must have left it when they were here last.”

Ariel’s expression was wistful. “How old is she?”

“Five. Starting kindergarten. We’ve all fallen in love with her.” He paused, struck by the naked longing he saw on her face. “Do you want to have children one day?”

She set the doll on the coffee table and shoved her hands in her back pockets. “It’s tough to give kids a normal life in Hollywood.”

“Some people manage.”

“I don’t think I’d be good at it. Motherhood, I mean. I have too many bad habits, too many faults. What kind of example would I be?”

He cocked his head, trying to decipher the words between the lines. “The idea of a perfect mother is a myth.”

“You haven’t met my mom.”

“Perhaps I’ll get to one day.”

She shrugged. “Doubtful.” With an almost visible effort, she slipped back into movie star mode. “I’m hungry,” she said with a winsome smile. “Do you cook?”

“Only the basics. We can always go up to the main house and have dinner with the extended family. I can make up some excuse for why you’re here.”

Unease skittered across her face. “Let’s not. I’m sure they are charming people, but they’ll want to ask questions and talk movies, and I’m—” She stopped abruptly.

“You’re …?”

“I don’t know. Tired, I guess. I like your house. It’s peaceful. Do you have a pantry?”

There she went again, dragging the conversation off on a tangent. “I do,” he conceded. “But I’m not sure how well it’s stocked.”

She paused beside him during one circuit of the living room, her breast almost brushing his shoulder. “Let’s go check it out. It will be fun.”

Bemused, he stood up and directed her toward his large kitchen. His cousin, Annalise, had contributed to the design here. Top-of-the-line appliances and countertops in black granite speckled with gray adorned this room where he seldom spent time. It was easier to hop up the hill when he wanted more than a peanut butter sandwich.

Ariel paused, hands on hips, and scanned the area. “Nice,” she said. “Nothing a few red dishcloths couldn’t spruce up. Why do you have such a fancy kitchen if all of you eat together in the castle?”

“We don’t always. I suppose it seems odd to outsiders, but my father and Uncle Vincent hold court every evening. Now that my two brothers are married, they’re often tucked away in their own houses. But my cousins and I may or may not show up at the Wolff dinner table depending on our schedules. And Gareth and Kieran are welcome with their new brides. It’s sort of an open door policy.”

“I feel sorry for the chef. Meal planning must be a nightmare.”

Jacob had never really thought about it. “The kitchen staff is compensated well,” he said, ruefully noting the defensiveness in his voice. Again, Ariel had put him at a disadvantage. Certainly she was surrounded by a host of people to do her bidding on any given day. And yet somehow she seemed more clued in than most about other perspectives than her own.

The copper-bottomed pots hanging overhead caught her attention. “Here’s some color,” she teased.

“I could probably dig up a blue pot holder if it would make you feel better.”

She ignored him, flinging open the door to the roomy pantry. “Heads up, Doc.” He nearly dropped the bag of flour she tossed in his direction. It was a good thing he was ready for the cans of peaches and blueberries. The fusillade continued until he was hard-pressed to juggle the assortment of groceries.

Finally she was satisfied.

Leaving him to carefully deposit the pile of supplies on the counter, she began flinging open cabinets willy-nilly. Watching Ariel bend over was not the smartest thing Jacob had ever done. Her heart-shaped ass was delineated beautifully in soft, faded denim. His hands itched to palm her butt.

Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest. “May I ask what you have in mind?”

She straightened, a shallow pan in her hand. “Fruit crepes à la Ariel. And bacon if you have any.”

His mouth watered while his stomach, for an instant, took precedence over his baser instincts.

“You don’t have to cook for me. We have thirty or forty employees on staff.”

She twirled the pan, placed it on the stove, and reached in the fridge for butter and bacon. “I like being waited on as much as the next girl,” she said, her voice muffled. “But it’s kinda nice to be alone, don’t you think?”

As her seemingly innocuous words sank into his brain, she straightened. “Sit on a stool and talk to me.”

“This is my house,” he muttered, the statement a complaint and a reminder to himself. Her loose ponytail exposed a swanlike neck.

“Well, so what. Get over it, Doc. How do you like your bacon?”

“Crisp,” he sighed. They chatted while Ariel prepared the meal. On the surface, their conversation was completely ordinary. But something about Ariel’s husky voice made the most banal comments sound like an invitation into her bed.

And at the moment, her bed was in Jacob’s house.

“Do you have relationships with a lot of your leading men?” he asked bluntly.

Her hand stilled, spatula suspended over the thin egg mixture. “Define relationship.” Her head was bent, only her profile visible.

“You know what I mean.”

She flipped the second crepe onto a plate warming on the side of the stove and shot him a cool glance. “Are we going to share notes on our sex lives? I’m all agog. I hear that doctors are a hot ticket item in the dating pool. You must have plenty of notches in the old bedpost. Orange juice?”

The juxtaposition of her prosaic question with the flammable topic silenced him as he followed her to the small table in the breakfast nook. As she shook out her napkin and took a seat, he realized she wasn’t going to answer him. He should be ashamed of his probing question, but he wasn’t. He told himself the information might have implications about her general health, but the truth was, he was jealous as hell.

And angry, if he were honest. Ariel was hardly the first talented young actress to fall victim to immaturity. She wasn’t exactly Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears, but she had scored her own share of the tabloid pages.

She said she didn’t drink, and Jacob had seen no evidence of drug use. But there had been plenty of men. Lots of men. One who was even old enough to be her father. Had her mother been unable to protect her from the predators who were lured by Ariel’s fresh-faced innocence and joie de vivre?

Okay, so maybe predator was a harsh word. Thinking of the ways she might have been taken advantage of made his stomach hurt. But more than that, he was uncomfortably aware that he wanted her in the exact same fashion.

His only saving grace would be to resist temptation and to take care of her in every way possible. As he dug into his food, he watched her. Someone had been working overtime when she was conceived. Like an impressionist painting, if you examined every facet of her face and body, she was simply a woman. But put it all together, and Ariel Dane was a masterpiece.

The eyes alone would have made her attractive, but with her luminous skin, perfect bone structure and lithe body, she was the epitome of feminine grace and beauty. The only flaw he could spot anywhere—if you wanted to call it that—was that her ears were a tiny bit big for her head.

As if she had read his mind, she covered the side of her face and frowned. “Quit staring at me. I shouldn’t have put my hair up this morning.”

“What are you talking about? It’s hard not to look. You’re a stunning woman.”

“On the set, when I was younger, every time I put my hair into a bun or a ponytail, some of the other kids would call me Dumbo.”

Jacob frowned. The vulnerability and hurt in that one sentence staggered him. Ariel Dane was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in America. But she had no clue. Incredible.

He finished his last few bites and sat back. “That was fantastic. Thank you, Ariel.”

She beamed. “Thank my mom. She started teaching me how to cook when I was ten.”

When he saw that she had cleared her plate, he stood up. “If I’m going to be your pseudo boyfriend, let’s get one thing straight.”

Apprehension widened her eyes. “What?”

He bent down and first kissed the shell of one ear and then the other. “Your pretty little ears are perfect. And if anyone thinks differently, you send them to me and I’ll straighten them out.”

Ariel scooted away from him and stood to gather the plates. “I didn’t know I was hiring Sir Galahad.” The words were flip, but he saw her blink away tears, though she tried to hide her emotion.

Concern and empathy mingled in his heart. He knew what it was like to be the cynosure of all eyes, to be judged by a different standard. In his final year in med school, it had come out that he was one of the Wolffs. His classmates, many of whom had worked alongside him for years, suddenly regarded him with suspicion and, in a few cases, envy. One angry intern demanded to know why he was taking up a coveted spot in the program when Jacob had more than enough money for a lifetime.

In the blink of an eye, Jacob was standing on the outside looking in. The profession that had welcomed him into its ranks and made him feel as if he belonged was no longer an oasis of normalcy.

Everyone knew that Wolffs were a breed all their own. Some sympathized with him for surviving the long-ago tragedy. But for most, Jacob’s connection to the clan meant he was now an alien presence in the world of the hospital.

With an inward sigh for the problems of the past, he followed Ariel into the kitchen and laid down the law. “Leave it,” he said firmly as she began attacking the pile of dirty dishes.

Her jaw thrust mulishly. “I was taught to clean up my own mess.”

“Don’t push it, Ariel.” He took the dishcloth out of her hand. “Someone will take care of it. I can see on your face that you’re exhausted. Go take a bubble bath. Put your pajamas on. Read a book. Call your mom. You’re done for today.”

She didn’t like being bossed around. That much was clear. But perhaps her reserves of strength were waning, because she finally conceded. “Thank you for your hospitality,” she said stiffly. “Will you be here when I leave in the morning?”

“Yes.” If he cancelled a meeting in Charlottesville at the university. “What time is your flight?”

“Midafternoon.” The surprising intimacy that had bloomed so quickly between them had vanished, leaving behind the stilted conversation of strangers.

He followed her back to her assigned bedroom and hovered in the doorway. “Do you need anything?”

“No.” She paused by the bed looking waifish and lost. “Good night, Doc.” Her gamine grin was a shadow of its former glory.

“Good night, Ariel.” Backing away from the door and shutting it firmly took a great deal of effort.

Six

Ariel wasn’t sleepy. By her body clock it was only late afternoon. Jacob Wolff had been trying to get rid of her.

She brushed her teeth and changed into a silky nightie before climbing into bed and surfing the satellite channels. Two of them were showing her own movies. Flipping past them rapidly, she made a face. Watching herself onscreen was torture.

Nothing amid the vast and varied programming schedule seized her attention. And she didn’t really have the patience to settle in for a movie.

She’d read the new script a dozen times already. And she had all of next week to prepare. After a long call to her mother, she was still wide awake.

Digging into her suitcase, she found her athletic sneakers and a pair of warm socks. Stripping off the sheer nightgown, she changed into her earlier jeans and top and added the shoes.

French doors on one side of her bedroom opened out onto a ground level patio. She wouldn’t be bothering Jacob. No doubt he was sound asleep. Carefully opening the glass panels, which did not squeak, she slipped into the scented night.

Her sense of direction had stood her in good stead on many occasions. Tonight, it enabled her to explore. She wouldn’t go near the castle—too much chance of discovery. Instead, she headed up and to the left, following higher and higher ground until she broke through the trees and gasped in fright.

Even in the gloom, she could tell that the ground fell away beneath her feet. She paused abruptly, clinging to a small tree to steady her knees. Her breathing was labored, pushed to the limit by the steep climb. Beyond where she stood, the sea of night gave way to a heavenly canopy. Her heart beat faster.

It was spectacular. All around her the forest chirped and whirred with a million night sounds. Unseen animals prowled the woods, but Ariel wasn’t afraid. She was one of them. A silent, still creature paying homage to the wild and wonderful darkness.

Time ceased to have meaning. She inhaled the scent of pine, dragging in lungfuls of non-polluted air and feeling it fill her chest with a light, giddy pleasure. Badly, she wanted to see what was in front of her, but an atavistic sense of danger kept her feet rooted in place.

She rested her cheek against the tree trunk, feeling the rough bark press into her cheek almost painfully. This was real. Honest. Deeply spiritual. So much of her existence was make-believe, which she lived for. But sometimes it was nice to remember that the world was bigger than her corner of it.

She might have dozed, her arms wrapped around the tree like a lover. Tomorrow, in the daylight, she would return. The need to expose the mystery in front of her was urgent, exciting.

Jacob’s mountain was a place of infinite possibility. Was it fair of her to ask him to leave?

As she pondered the difficult question, a rustle behind her and a disgruntled male voice shattered her calm. “Are you insane?” He loomed beside her, barely breathing hard, his big body radiating warmth and security.

“I didn’t mean to wake you. I couldn’t sleep.”

“So you thought you would throw yourself off a cliff instead?”

Even without seeing his expression, she registered his disapproval. “I’m being careful.”

“Ariel,” he said, his voice deep and aggravated, “you’re about four feet away from a seven-hundred-foot sheer drop.”

Wow. Her stomach did a little flip. “I’m fine. Don’t be such a worrywart.”

She thought she heard him counting to ten. He took her arms, pulling her away from the tree. “Step carefully. Back up slowly.”

Clinging more tightly to the trunk, she resisted him. “I like it here. I don’t want to leave.”

“This is your doctor speaking. Your skin is frozen and you’re trembling. Come here.”

“Or what?”

“Or the deal is off.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“You signed on for it.”

She was definitely tired and chilled, but it went against the grain to let him be so bossy. “Maybe the deal was a stupid idea.” She felt him go still.

“Why?” he asked gruffly.

“Because I shouldn’t be taking you away from this mountain. It’s part of who you are.”

“Let me worry about my life. You’ve got plenty of balls to juggle in yours.” He ran his hands up and down her arms, warming them. “Take my hand.”

Without thinking, she let go of her bulwark and linked the fingers of her right hand with his left. He tugged her backward insistently, but gently so she didn’t stumble.

When they were safely away from the precipice, Jacob strode back to the house, practically dragging her in his wake. Finally, she dug in her heels. “What’s your hurry? I like it out here … with you.”

He stopped so abruptly she bumped into him. Instinctively, her arms went around his waist and she burrowed into his warmth. The calendar said late summer, but here on the mountain the night was cold.

Jacob went rigid. “Don’t play with me, Ariel,” he warned. “I’m not one of your Hollywood pretty boys.”

“What does that mean?”

“You may be used to screwing every guy you meet, but that’s not my style.”

She jerked away, almost tripping over an exposed root. “God, you’re a pig. What makes you think I want you?”

“There’s something between us,” he said quietly. “I’m not imagining it. You’re very sexy and you radiate an invitation that would be hard for most men to resist. But if I’m going to help you, I don’t want to complicate things. Grow up, Ariel. You don’t need to have every man in the universe worshipping at your feet.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say.” She shoved him hard, making him stumble before he regained his balance. Appalled and confused and anxious and angry, she faced off with him, unable to see his expression, but terrified by his silence. Had she made him change his mind?

“I’m sorry,” she cried out. “You provoke the hell out of me. Please don’t be mad. I have a temper.”

Though the mountain climb hadn’t strained him, he was breathing heavily now. “So I see.”

She flung her arms around him in an agony of remorse. “I’m sorry. I promised to follow doctor’s orders. And I will, I swear.” When he still didn’t respond, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. His lips were firm and warm and unresponsive. She pulled back. “Am I forgiven?” She was banking on his good nature, but she didn’t know him well enough to read his silence. The anticipation of his response was killing her. “Say something,” she cried.

“Does anyone ever deny you anything?” He drew her into his embrace, his mouth covering hers with aching slowness. “One day,” he muttered, the words muffled against her lips. “One damn day and already you’ve got me spinning in the wind.”

His tongue slipped between her lips. “Open for me, Ariel.”

She obeyed instantly, crying out when his teeth trapped her lower lip and tugged. Her body went liquid, boneless. All of her weight was supported by arms whose tensile strength was normally hidden beneath crisply starched shirts.

Jacob Wolff might look like a man of science, an academic whose computer-like brain dealt with tasks that went beyond the capacity of the normal human. But strip away the veneer, and he was an alpha male. Aroused. Hungry. Determined to teach her a lesson.

The kiss went on and on until her neck ached. Heat pooled between her thighs and made her squirm against him. “Jacob,” she panted. “Oh, Jacob.”

He was deaf to her tremulous homage. His hands cupped her ass, lifting her more closely against him. She felt the press of his belt buckle, heard the hitch in his breath when her tongue shyly dueled with his.

They were rapidly reaching a point of no return. And she realized in a haze of yearning that she would have to be the one to call a halt. As much as she wanted to see where this led, the memory of Jacob’s scathing assessment of her character held her back.

She pushed at his chest. “You don’t want this,” she panted. “Stop. Now.”

“The hell I don’t.” His arms were bands of steel.

Every instinct she possessed told her that becoming this man’s lover would be an experience she would never forget. But he had rules. And she needed him in more ways than one. “Let me go, Jacob,” she said gently. She put a hand to his cheek. “Let me go.”

A mighty shudder shook his frame and he dropped her to her feet so suddenly, she stumbled. Though he steadied her automatically, he jerked his hand away afterward as if touching her was unbearable. “I don’t know what to make of you, Ariel Dane.” His voice was quiet, troubled. “Are you a spoiled princess or a recalcitrant child?”

She sucked in a breath, stunned to realize that this man she had just met could wound her. “What if I’m neither? The world is not as black and white as your house and clinic, Doc. Most of us live in shades of gray.” Her throat was tight with emotion, making speech difficult. “Perhaps we can start over.”

“It’s too far gone for that. So we’ll make the best of it. I made you a promise and I don’t go back on my word.”

“Even to a promiscuous party girl?”

“Is that what you are?”

“You seem to have me all figured out. Far be it from me to shatter your illusions.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “It’s late. I’m going back to the house. Please don’t feel any obligation to see me off in the morning. I think it’s best if we keep our distance.”

“Is that what you want?”

“We can’t always get what we want,” she said flatly. “Good night, Doc.”