Taming the Takeover Tycoon Page 9

  His smile changed again around the corners of his mouth. It was even sexier, more knowing. Mischievous and so hot.

  But then he shook his head.

  “What?” she asked, barely keeping her chin above the surface. Treading water, her limbs were feeling the burn now.

  “I’m not doing it this time.”

  “Doing what?”

  “You want me to sweep you over. You want me to kiss you. Only when we get started, you’ll remember your higher purpose and make up some lame excuse why we ought to stop.”

  She objected to the one thing she could. “My excuses aren’t lame.”

  He kept circling her, looking at her with that exasperating smile. He filled his mouth with water and squirted a fountain off to one side.

  “Why don’t you come over here?” he finally said.

  Becca tried to stare him down but, in the end, she bit her lip and admitted, “This isn’t very mature, is it?”

  “Can we agree that we should be grown-up about the fact that we’re attracted to each other?”

  As he slid closer, she imagined his tongue rather than the water swirling over her belly, between her legs.

  She nodded. Damn it. Yes.

  “You know the consequences?” he asked.

  She nodded again.

  “And you still want this?”

  Big breath. “Uh-huh.”

  Hot, strong fingers curled around her shoulders. Then their mouths joined and she was swept into the sublime haven of his arms.

  He held her against his chest as their kiss played out—savoring, teasing, probing, until nothing else existed except the two of them and these sizzling, secret feelings.

  When he broke the kiss, his lips stayed close. “Still okay?”

  She rubbed her dreamy smile over his. “Okay isn’t the word.”

  He tasted her lips again. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  She looped her arms around his neck and circled his hips with her legs, digging her heels in behind his thighs. He cupped her bottom and pulled her through the water, closer to him. As the length of his erection met the strip between her thighs, a jet of warm sparks flew through her veins. Her breath caught at the same time her head rocked back.

  His hands slid under her behind. Then she felt his touch inside her bikini’s crotch. His teeth dragged one half of her bikini top aside until the nipple was exposed and moist warmth covered that tip bobbing just above water level. While he drew that nipple back onto his tongue, his fingers slipped slowly up and down, over and between her folds. When his head pulled back a little and the edge of his teeth grazed her nipple, one finger slipped all the way inside of her.

  She gasped, shuddered from top to toe, and then held his head in place against her breast.

  The tip of his tongue rimmed the areola as he expertly massaged her down below. Every time his finger slid up, the tip grazed her G-spot, while one of his other fingers slipped up the outside, nudging the swollen bead hiding at the top of her folds. His pace was slow and steady, the perfect speed and pressure. Before long, she joined in with the rhythm, her hips rocking with his mesmerizing caress.

  With each passing second, the sensations increased. As tingling heat ripped through her bloodstream, she needed to feel his mouth on hers again. She had to have him kissing her in a penetrating, all-or-nothing kind of way. Only the things his lips and teeth and tongue were doing added to the climb—a slope so steep, she had to gasp, the air was so thin.

  * * *

  When her orgasm broke, Becca curled into herself before she ground down against him and then released a cry that must have carried halfway to Montana. As she continued to shudder and groan, Jack watched a flow of raw emotions redefine her beautiful face. Holding her, loving her... This water might be chilly but he was rock-hard.

  When he felt her floating down, he brought both his arms up around her waist to hold her against his chest. As her hot cheek nestled against the slope of his neck, he swirled her slowly through the water. Her ragged breathing gradually eased. Every now and then, her legs would twitch and then tighten around him again. He pressed a kiss to her crown, closed his eyes and wished every day could be as good as this.

  After a few moments, she gave a big sigh, slid a palm over his shoulder and gradually lifted her face to his. Her smile was faraway. Satisfied. The loveliest smile he’d ever seen.

  “You look like you could do with a nap,” he joked.

  “Are you kidding?” she asked groggily. “I may never let you sleep again.”

  Was she saying she wanted to do this every night? Jack could certainly arrange that. For a time, at least. Once they got back to the city, no doubt she would want to return to their former relationship...the one where she pretended to hate him.

  She stretched her arms high over her head and then withered back against him, her lips landing on the pulse he felt beating at the side of his neck. The tip of her tongue tickled the spot.

  “Hmm, you taste good,” she murmured against his skin. “I want to taste every inch of you.”

  “Well, we’re going to have to get out of the water for that.”

  She smiled up into his eyes. “Why?”

  “A...we’ll get all pruny. B...it’s getting cold. C...something’s nibbling at my toes and I don’t need the distraction. D...”

  “We don’t have any protection,” she finished.

  Her dreamy gaze was growing clearer.

  “We might have to shift camp, but look on the bright side,” he said. “No one has to sleep on the cot.”

  Her legs tightened around him again. “I’ll race you to shore.”

  “Okay, but I really don’t think—”

  Jack grunted as she used her feet against his abdomen to push off.

  He let her have a head start and then sprang into action.

  A moment later, when the water got too shallow for freestyle, he jumped up and stomped and splashed onto shore. Laughing and splashing too, she beat him by a nose. The prize was Jack crash-tackling her onto a patch of soft, long grass, working it so she landed on top of him, not vice versa. Then he rolled so she was pinned beneath him, his giggling prisoner.

  In fact, Becca was laughing so much, she started to cough. He eased her up to a sitting position and patted her back. He didn’t miss the fact that her body was even more sensational without all that water getting in the way. Personal preference, of course...and Becca Stevens was his.

  “I brought towels,” she said, spluttering again and then visibly shivering. Goosebumps erupted all down her arms.

  Jack pushed to his feet and crossed over to sweep up the towels she’d left at the foot of the bush he had seen her hide behind earlier. When he turned to join her again, something struck him as strange. As...missing. Becca was sitting straighter, alert. With a curious gaze, she scanned the water.

  Jack’s throat thickened.

  Where the hell was the dog?

  Nine

  “Can you see him anywhere?” Becca asked.

  When Jack handed over a towel but didn’t reply, she called Chichi’s name nice and loud. Only eerie silence, sprinkled with cicada clicks, came back. She called again, and as the seconds ticked by, a feeling of dread filled her.

  “He must be around somewhere,” Jack said, lashing a towel around his hips before helping Becca to her feet as she wrapped her towel under her arms.

  “I haven’t seen him since I dived in,” she said, scanning the woods for any sign.

  Holding the towel around her chest, she crossed to the water’s edge and called again. A sick feeling built high in her stomach and rose in her throat. When Jack, being supportive, gripped her shoulder, emotion prickled behind her nose.

  Keep it together. Don’t panic. Not yet.

  Becca had live
d alongside people, including babies and young children, who’d been forced to survive without adequate or clean water, with barely enough to eat, and little or no prospect of bettering their lives in a way most folks here took for granted. During her Peace Corps days, she’d kept strong, kept going. Rarely had she shed a tear, not because she hadn’t felt anguish and despair, but because time spent crying was less time being productive. Being a positive role model.

  And yet here she was, tears in her eyes, because she’d lost sight of a little dog.

  But there was more to it than that. She’d been so self-absorbed in satisfying those urges, she hadn’t given another thought to Hailey’s dog. To her friend’s four-legged baby. How would she explain that?

  “Has he been here before?” Jack asked.

  “Not to the lake, but he loves splashing around in the surf and diving into Hailey’s pool at home. He likes the water.”

  “Yeah. I got that. He’s probably dog-paddling up a storm right now, swimming across from the other side.”

  Becca crossed her arms, hugging herself, as she scanned the area again. Everything was so still. She called out his name, and then called it again, more loudly. As loudly as she could.

  Jack gently turned her to face him. Holding her gaze with his, he gave a brave smile. “I’ll find him, okay? You have my word.”

  His promise was supposed to make her feel better. But what was Jack’s word really worth? He wasn’t renowned for jumping on a steed and galloping to anyone’s rescue. Angelica might disagree, but she was clinging to any port in the storm her father’s death and will had brewed up.

  “If we can’t find him—” she said.

  “We’ll find him.”

  “But if we can’t...how will I ever tell Hailey? She loves that dog like a child.”

  Jack skirted around in front of Becca and herded her back toward the trees, away from the lake. “You sit. I’ll search. Deal?”

  She didn’t argue, but she had no intention of sitting back and doing nothing.

  They quickly changed back into their clothes and Jack set off to circumnavigate the lake. Every now and then he brought cupped hands to his mouth and called out Chichi’s name. As Becca headed off the other way, she sent up a prayer.

  When she told Hailey this story, she needed it to have a happy ending.

  * * *

  It didn’t look good.

  Jack was halfway around the lake, calling out the pooch’s name, searching the scrub nearest the water’s edge. Not a peep. He’d assumed that Chichi had been paddling by himself in the lake before this.

  Now he felt worse than any names reporters or broken businessmen had ever called him. Why hadn’t he even given the little guy, who’d been paddling furiously, a second thought? Obviously because he had other things on his mind.

  It was getting dark and he’d scoured most of the perimeter of the lake when he decided to head back. Becca had set off in the opposite direction. Looking back now and then, he’d seen her either wandering into or coming out of the woods, searching among the trees and shrubs. They’d both been calling for over an hour.

  When they met back at the pier, Jack wrapped Becca in his arms. After a moment, she hugged him back. He grazed his lips through her hair. “We’d better go while there’s still some light.”

  She nodded against his chest and then they walked hand in hand back down the trail. It might as well have been a funeral march. He couldn’t help this situation, but he could at least try to keep Becca’s mind on other things.

  “We never had a cabin in the woods growing up,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

  “Don’t suppose you need one when you own a five-star chalet in the snow.”

  She wasn’t serious but there wasn’t a hint of a tease in her voice, either. He tried again.

  “What were the other kids in your family like?”

  “I was the youngest, then Emily, Abigail and Faith.”

  “Still keep in touch?”

  “Emily’s in the U.K. now. She married a doctor.”

  “Good for her.”

  “Abigail is an elementary school teacher and Faith is travelling the world. She’s in Burma at the moment, I think.”

  “Did you share any time with them here at the lake house?”

  “Not recently. I’ve had Hailey up a couple of times.”

  She lowered her head and he tried to pick up their pace, to distract her from thinking about the dog and because night was falling fast. They needed to get back to the cabin.

  “Anyone else?” he asked.

  “A couple of friends from the office.”

  “Any male friends?”

  She gave him a look. “You really want to know?”

  He shrugged. Your call.

  She didn’t exactly grin. “Although it’s rather personal...no. I’ve never brought any male friends to the cabin.”

  “You don’t want to get personal?”

  “I don’t have anything to hide. What you see is what you get.”

  “What I see is a beautiful, feisty, determined woman who always puts others before herself.”

  Instead of a smile, the compliment brought on a frown. “Don’t overdo it.”

  He blew out a breath. Guess it was going to be a long, cold night. So he might as well say what he felt.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you have trouble accepting compliments?”

  “I don’t need compliments.”

  “Because you’re tough.”

  “Because I already feel fine with who I am.”

  “Whereas I need lots of work.”

  She only looked the other way. Her hand felt limp in his. He had the sense she might be more comfortable severing the link. On one level, that annoyed him. Not an hour ago, she’d come apart in his arms as if it was her last feel-good moment before the world ended. He’d thought they’d been pretty tight then.

  On the other hand, he understood...she felt gutted. He felt like crap, too.

  * * *

  By the time they made it back to the cabin, Becca wished she’d never heard the name Jack Reed. But not for the reasons he might have thought. She didn’t blame Jack one bit for Chichi’s disappearance. That dog had been her responsibility and she’d screwed up.

  During the search, she’d not only thought ahead to Hailey’s tears when she discovered the news, but also sifted through every grain of logic that said it was a good idea to kidnap Jack for a few days. She’d believed that coming here—experiencing this with her—would touch and bring out his more humble, benevolent side.

  But Jack had been in the game a long time. Did she have any hope of swaying his plans to take over Lassiter Media and do what instinct told him to do: make a huge profit off selling the company piecemeal? No one could convince Angelica of Jack’s deeper motives, just as no one could have told Becca she should have kept from sticking her nose in.

  But not everything could be fixed, including, it would seem, her physical attraction toward Jack. Today she’d let her emotions rule her head in a spectacular way. On one level she didn’t regret the time they’d spent in the lake together. She had never imagined that such intensity of sensation could truly exist. The height of her climax had turned her inside out.

  On another far more practical level, while she had not set out to use the possibility of sex as a motivator, the fact remained that Jack had agreed to this challenge not because he thought for a moment she might be able to change his mind in a week about taking over Lassiter Media, but because a woman had confronted and intrigued him. Getting closer to her had been a challenge in itself. She’d pretty much handed herself to him on a platter. She was no different, in that regard, from any other woman he’d successfully seduced.

  So why did she feel as if what had happened be
tween them in the lake had been special? Why did she feel as if it truly mattered to him? Maybe because it had mattered to her. She felt a connection with Jack that made her want to leave their other, more complicated worlds behind.

  When they got to the cabin, the door was ajar. In her stupid hurry to catch up with Jack, she’d bolted without shutting the damn thing. Now she walked in first.

  “Want me to light a fire?” he asked, following her inside.

  “It’s not cold enough.”

  “Might get cold later.”

  He was trying to be supportive. He truly felt bad about how this afternoon had ended. He’d done his best to try to find poor Chichi.

  Turning to him, she found a smile. “Thanks for trying to find him. I appreciate it.”

  In the shadows, she couldn’t make out his face other than by the moonlight slanting in through the doorway.

  “Becca...I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”

  “You don’t need to say anything. Just sit with me awhile. Who knows? He might still come back.” Chichi might not have drowned or been bitten by a snake or—

  Becca caught a tear as it ran down her cheek. She apologized. “I’m not usually such a baby.”

  “You’re not being a baby. You have feelings. Everyone has feelings.”

  “Even you.”

  “Yeah.” She imagined she saw his smile. “Even me.”

  She reached up on tiptoe, rested a palm on his shirt and dotted a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll get the lantern.”

  “You sit down,” he said. “I don’t need you tripping over something and breaking your leg.”

  “But I know this place—”

  “And I’m telling you...asking you...please. Let me.”

  She surrendered and felt her way around to sit on the couch in front of the unlit fireplace. A moment later, a bright light from the main bedroom illuminated a wedge of the wooden floor in front of her. Telling herself that they would find Chichi tomorrow, and all would be well, she waited for Jack to return. Instead he called out.