Buch lesen: «Naked Attraction»

Chapter One

WHEN ELLIE LEE STRETCHED and opened her eyes, she found herself staring straight into Robby Robriquet’s baby blues. They captivated her gaze, warmed her insides, then continued holding her attention as surely as his arms had held her the previous night. “How long have you been watching me?” she croaked sleepily.

“All my life.”

“Impossible. You were born first.”

“All your life,” he corrected.

Shifting her gaze, she let it drift down a hard, muscular bare chest coated with wild, tangled raven hair. She eyed the sheet wound around his torso, then returned her attention to his face, her lips parting in frank appreciation of his heart-stopping good looks.

Damn, she thought. They just didn’t make many studs like Robby, especially not around Banner, Mississippi. He had a strong, Romanesque nose, unusually full lips, a face so sculpted that it could have been crafted from marble. His eyes were as piercing as the rays of a hot sun, as blue as a summer sky, and as deep as an ocean.

She had blue eyes, also, and dark hair, just as he, and if the truth be told, she’d started dreaming years ago about how cute their babies would look. She’d had a crush on Robby since she’d first laid eyes on him, when she was twelve years old, but only in the past year, since he’d finished his M.B.A. and returned to Banner, had he finally realized she’d turned into a woman.

So much for all the heartbreak years ago. Countless times, she’d put on sexy hot pants and halter tops, hoping to wow him if he came to the Lees’ house to visit her middle brother, Cordy, often with J. D. Johnson in tow. Ellie’s best friend, Susannah, had been just as lovesick, but J.D. had been her focus. The two girls had tried everything to get the boys’ attention, whether getting stuck while climbing trees, or shrieking like banshees while practicing gymnastics in the yard.

Nothing had seemed to work. The boys would run off, to hunt or fish, totally oblivious. Everything was different now, though. J.D. and Susannah had been married for six years. And exactly six months ago, Robby had dragged Ellie to bed, acting as proprietary as a caveman. Ever since, they’d managed to meet at every possible moment, despite hectic schedules.

That was the other great thing about Robby, she thought, still eyeing him. He worked even harder than she, a trait she’d never found in another man. In fact, she thought Robby worked too hard, something she’d previously never guessed she could see as a flaw in another human being. But how could she help it? Business was important, but she wanted Robby in bed all the time, too, and because he always said he had to work, it could be downright maddening.

Yes, now she understood all the young men she’d discarded during her own college years. Often they’d complain, calling her a workaholic, but now…

Robby was gazing at her bare breasts, his dazed eyes darkening with lust. “Hey, gorgeous,” she whispered. “I think I’m reading your mind.”

“What? Like Mama Ambrosia?”

Mama Ambrosia was a local fortune-teller. Ellie shook her head. Lifting her hands, she squeezed his shoulders, drawing him closer, enjoying the warmth and smoothness of his skin. “No. What I see in your thoughts is far too suggestive for a stranger’s clairvoyant eyes, even a professional’s.”

He glanced at the clock, his glistening teeth flashing as he smiled. “Well, sweetheart,” he drawled, “I figure we’ve got time for a quickie before we get to work and have to pretend we’re only colleagues.”

“You’ve been a bad boy on the job,” she returned, stroking his pectorals with a fingernail.

He was all innocence. “Bad?”

“A hand up my skirt during a meeting. Pinching my butt at the water cooler. A box of condoms appearing magically in my purse,” she enumerated.

“That wasn’t me,” he defended. “That was the condom fairy.” She smiled. “If we don’t tell my father about our affair soon,” she said, dragging his mouth down for a quick, wet kiss, “he’s going to guess.” Her father, otherwise known as Daddy Eddie, was the owner of Lee Polls, a century-old family-run polling company for which both she and Robby worked.

“Then we’d better hurry and have sex, so you’ll have time to run home, change and do something about your mussed hair.”

She smirked. “You really are a workaholic. It’s Saturday.”

“And I’ve got to work, anyway.”

Frowning, she considered. She loved Robby, she really did, but she was beginning to wonder if he’d ever feel completely comfortable in his own skin. He’d been so young when he’d lost his mother, only three, and he scarcely remembered her. Worse, his dad, Charlie, had seemed to go off the deep end after the loss, taking up drinking and gambling. At least, that was the story around town.

He’d been in prison for years now, for manslaughter. Even before that, Charlie had embarrassed his son. Nightly, he could be found spending his paycheck at a local watering hole called the Night Rider, running up a tab, then going further into debt by placing bets with a man suspected of being the town bookie, Max Sweeney. Sheriff Kemp had often looked the other way, just to spare Robby, who, from an early age, had so often dragged his dad out of the bar and home for the night.

Manslaughter had been too much to overlook, though. And while Ellie was glad her own father, Daddy Eddie, had intervened and offered Robby a job at Lee Polls after high school, her heart had broken when she’d seen just how hard Robby had worked, losing too much sleep, not to mention nights and weekends, always sweating the smallest details.

His determination had earned Daddy Eddie’s trust, and he’d often claimed Robby was more valuable than all his own sons combined. Not that Ellie’s ne’er-do-well brothers had minded, not even when Daddy Eddie had sent Robby to college and graduate school. Robby had worked odd jobs, too, not wanting to take charity and trying to make clear he was pulling himself up by the bootstraps. Now, no matter how successful he became, Robby seemed to think he owed Daddy Eddie something, which he didn’t.

Yes, that was the problem. Robby idolized her dad, since Daddy Eddie was the exact opposite of what Robby’s had been, but it was sure putting a damper on romance. Robby feared Daddy Eddie’s reaction—despite all that he’d achieved, was he good enough for the man’s only daughter?

Robby had turned out to be loyal and hardworking, whereas every one of Daddy Eddie’s sons—Gil, Cordy and Kyle—was worthless when it came to running Lee Polls. They preferred to hunt, fish, play golf and chase women. So, although it was a family business, Ellie and Robby, who reported directly to Daddy Eddie, did most of the work.

“You’re really going into the office?” she asked.

“You’re not?”

“Only after I meet Susannah for breakfast.” Saturday breakfast was usually set aside for her best friend.

Robby’s voice was low, sexy. “Then we’d better get a move on. Kiss me, baby.”

She wiggled her eyebrows as he pushed a lock of hair away from her eyes. “Where?”

“Here.” Leaning, he gingerly toyed with her breast, brushing the gold charm that hung from a chain around her neck. Engraved on the metal were the words Remember the Time. She and Susannah had the matching necklaces made years ago, and both still wore them always.

Robby palmed a breast, bending and roughening the sensitive skin with his chin stubble before flicking a tongue across the nipple, sending a shock of longing to her core. Her hips arched, her chin tilted back and for a moment, she simply got lost in the pleasure. Easy enough, as both hands found her, pushing her breasts upward from beneath. As he squeezed hard, her mind spun dizzily, her nipples tightening further, straining for the touch.

Throatily, she whispered, “I thought I was supposed to kiss you, not the other way around.”

He merely locked his lip to a bud and kept suckling, the silken wetness making her shiver. With a sigh, she pressed her thighs together tightly, as if to hold in the delicious sensations he was soliciting. Soon, he’d be on top of her, she knew. Or she’d be on top of him. And then…

He blew on the flesh he’d just dampened, then caught a nipple and rolled it between his fingers, causing goose bumps of anticipation to rise all over her skin. “Oh, Robby…”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing.” But she wanted to say she could come from nothing more than this kind of sweet teasing. She gasped as his huge, warm hand slid downward, over her ribs, then her belly. Arrowing his fingertips, he urged apart her smooth thighs as his mouth found her neck. He was all tongue now—stroking the column beneath her chin as she shifted her weight and let him untangle her legs.

“Wider,” he drawled softly.

Was this really happening? she wondered vaguely as she gave him increased access. Was she really sharing a bed with the heartthrob of her adolescent years? It had become clear the relationship was headed for so much more. Already, they were in serious terrain. Inseparable and intense, their lives completely intertwined.

A soft senseless murmur escaped her lips as his fingers grasped her curls, toying with them. He tugged playfully, then a slick finger slid open her lower lips completely, and she could only suck another breath through clenched teeth as he circled the nub of her clitoris. “You’re so good…” she whispered. “But it could be better…”

“Better?”

His voice was catching now, and the one word was nearly lost in his throat, since his breath was quickening. Yes, she thought hazily, as he probed where she was growing so slick and damp for him. As he thrust a finger inside, testing the moist heat, preparing her, she arched once more, turning in his arms, her nipples peaking, becoming painfully taut, every fiber of her being craving his mouth once more.

Instinctively, her hand rose, threading in his hair, her heart stuttering as the wild, bed-tossed strands of jet-black ran through her fingers feeling like water. As he pushed another finger inside her, she gasped, her fist tightening, closing around the wisps of his hair, pulling his face closer so her mouth could brush his. Electrifying, she thought. Heavenly.

Then for another moment, she shut her eyes. Sensations cascaded over her like a waterfall. Tension built, climbing, threatening to shatter. When she opened her eyes again, he was watching her, his blue eyes as warm as summer, his smile inviting. “Feels good, huh?”

His hairy chest slowly rising and falling with the pace of his increasing breath. “Yeah,” she whispered as he visibly shuddered, then slid a finger from inside her and moved on top of her.

She loved him. That’s all she could think as she looked into his eyes, her heart racing. But she had to get him to commit. She’d wanted him her whole life, and this past six months had been pure torture. Always, he’d been the only man for her. Sure, she’d fooled around at college, but no one could hold a candle to Robby. She wanted more…

“Honey,” she began, her voice a soft drawl, her heart hammering harder as his legs fell between hers. She could feel the heat and power of his erection now, touching her through the sheet that had tangled between them.

He rested on an elbow, a hand beneath his cheek and flashed a bad-boy grin. “Yes, honey?”

“I want to ask you something.”

“Anything.”

“When are we going to tell my dad?”

“Tell him?”

“You know. About us.”

They were at a crossroads. Daddy Eddie was retiring in just one more week, and he’d already told her he was naming her head of the company. President, she thought now, with a sigh of happiness. It was more than she’d dreamed possible. Robby aside, running Lee Polls had always been her dream, too. The venerable company had been housed in Banner since 1898, and a Lee had always been at the helm. Never a woman, of course.

Until now. That was mostly due to the fact that none of Ellie’s brothers had possessed an interest in facts and figures, nor the knack for math that it took to analyze statistics. By contrast, Ellie could eat and breathe mathematics. And so, it had been she, not her male siblings, who had spent hours visiting her dad at work.

By age five, she’d picked out her own office, right next door to Daddy Eddie, and on her tenth birthday, he’d placed a gold plaque on the door, engraved with her name.

“How ‘bout that, Ellie girl,” her dad had said. “One day, all this really will be yours.”

Now that same office was stacked high with statistical manuals and files of client information. Soon, as her father had always promised, that old plaque would come down and the new one would replace it. The one that said, “President.”

“Daddy’s retiring in a week,” she suddenly whispered in a rush. “We don’t have much time, Robby. I want him to know…how things are between us.”

Dammit, why was she so spineless? So closemouthed? Why couldn’t she just say she really wanted to get married? After all, her best friend, Susannah, had been married for six years now, even if her and J.D.’s road had turned a little rocky. And yet…even though she was a modern woman it wasn’t really a woman’s place to ask a man for his hand. Hell, she was going to be the president of a company by this time next week, but there were still some things in life a man had to do.

Besides, there was another uncomfortable fact, in that Robby was going to report to her. As macho as he was, she could only hope he wouldn’t have trouble dealing with that. Certainly, they’d traded a lot of jokes about the possibility. And he didn’t seem to mind…

Why should he? she thought now. The company had been in her family for a century, and she’d grown up under the strict tutelage of her father. Oh, Robby was good, of course. Better than she at some aspects of the job, in fact. Maybe he was even completely on a par. But the bottom line remained. Having a Lee in the top spot was an unbroken tradition. “Really,” she began again. “We need to talk to Daddy.” She started to continue, but something in his eyes stopped her, and instead, she squinted and said, “What?”

“I…I have something to ask you.”

Her heart pounded against her ribs. He was going to ask her to marry him, she realized. Right now. In this very instant of time. Inadvertently, her lips parted and she breathed in deeply, bracing herself. She wanted to savor this moment, so she could remember it always. “Yes?”

“Would you mind terribly if…”

Her cheeks heated, her heart bursting with feeling. He was such a guy. A man’s man. Of course it wasn’t easy for him to ask…“If?” she encouraged.

“If your dad gave me the job?” He paused. “You know, running the company.”

Everything froze. For a second, all thoughts were vanquished from her mind. Surely, she hadn’t heard right. “What?”

“He…pulled me aside last week.”

“Last week!” That was impossible. Daddy Eddie had pulled her aside last week.

“I know you’re going to be mad, but just hear me out. I think he knows, or suspects, or…”

“Suspects what?”

“That we…”

Barely aware of her actions, and working on sheer revulsion, she squirmed out from under him and got up, taking the sheet with her. “That we were sleeping together?” she managed, whirling to face him. Not that she knew why, but just now, he’d become a stranger before her very eyes.

“I think it’s possible,” Robby said, reaching and trying to grab her hand, which she snatched away. “Oh, c’mon, don’t be a spoilsport,” he teased.

“Spoilsport?” she could only echo, turning on him, then leaning to gather her clothes. Quickly, she slipped a knit dress over her head and shoved her feet into ballet flats, not bothering to find her panties as he rose from the bed and closed the distance between them.

Two large hands clamped on her waist, and against her will, she shuddered as he drew her against him. She might hate him at the moment, but his body was hard, hot, male and naked, and he’d left her half aroused. Suddenly, she ached for him.

“Your dad and I talked about it,” he said firmly.

Didn’t he understand that he might as well have slapped her in the face? That this was the ultimate in the loss of trust? “Whatever we’ve done here…” she managed to begin, her voice raspy, altered by the horrible sting of betrayal. “In this bedroom, and at my house…”

“I didn’t tell him anything, Ellie.”

“That’s not the point.”

“And the point is?”

“Look, we never talked about it. But mixing business and pleasure was a really bad idea. I see that now,” she managed.

His grip tightened. “Liar. You know how serious this is,” he muttered, sounding stunned.

“Well,” she defended. “I guess I did feel we had an understanding…that you and I were a couple.”

“We are.”

“But we were going to tell Daddy about us. You and me, Robby. Together.”

Dammit, this was par for the course. Like when her dad and brothers created their own little club. Her mom had tried to turn her into a girly girl, but Ellie had inherited her father’s talent and knack for business. And now…she was nowhere.

Left out in the cold. If the job was really Robby’s…she could never look at him again.

Her words were barely audible. “How could you?”

He knew what the family company meant. It was in her blood and belonged to her.

“You think I sabotaged you?”

“Did you?”

He was starting to look furious. “He came to me, Ellie, not the other way around.” Despite the fire in his blue eyes, which were turning to ice, an uncharacteristic pleading tone had crept into his voice. Not that she cared. He was the one who’d put himself between a rock and a hard place.

He added, “What should I do, Ellie?”

“Take the job, I guess,” she burst out. So what if Daddy Eddie was her father, not his? So what if she’d worked around the clock for years, just as Robby had? Once more, her lips parted in astonishment. Suddenly, she blurted out, “I don’t believe you—”

He was incredulous. “You think I’m lying?”

“Yes. It just can’t be true.” Quickly, she wiggled from his grasp, strode to the bedside table and lifted the phone receiver.

She caught him squinting at her. “What are you doing, Ellie?”

“Calling Daddy Eddie.”

Robby’s face fell. “Don’t.”

“Why?” Her eyes pierced his as Daddy Eddie’s phone rang.

“I’m sure he wanted to tell you.”

“Well, he didn’t, now did he? And I think you’re lying.”

“Why would I?”

She offered a mean shrug. “Spite?”

Robby’s gorgeous blue eyes widened a fraction. “Look, Ellie, I know you’re upset, but we can work through this…”

Ellie didn’t see how. Thankfully, her dad finally picked up. “Daddy?” Before he could respond, she continued. “I…uh, stopped by Robby Robriquet’s place just now, to…uh, pick up some files for work—”

“This early in the morning?”

“Yes. And it’s not that earl—”

“For a Satur—”

Damn her dad for interrupting and trying to distract her. “Daddy,” she said in a rush. “Robby swears—”

“I didn’t swear,” interjected Robby. “I just said—”

“That you’re promoting him over me next week when you retire, and he’s been chosen to run Lee Polls.” Been chosen. The words echoed in her mind. How could her own father deny her? “I told him this was ludicrous. Completely, utterly impossible. And I know you’ll be glad that I stepped in and corrected him.

“Why, you and I have talked about my appointment for years, ever since I was a little girl. Right, Daddy? And you know I have the highest credentials, not to mention more time with the company, overall. I mean, if you count the years I worked there in high school…”

Realizing her dad hadn’t jumped to her defense, she let her voice trail off. A long pause followed. And then her daddy said the impossible, “It’s true, Ellie.”

She barely heard what he said after that. Just a jumble of justifications, really. He suspected she was going to want to get married and have a family someday, he said, and that he didn’t want work to get in her way forever, since he loved her so much. He’d always felt badly that her brothers hadn’t done their share, so thank God for Robby. Besides which, her mother agreed Ellie needed to focus more on other aspects of life.

“Like marriage? Having a family?” Her jaw dropped. Sure, she’d been about to propose to Robby, but that was when she was going to be president of her company, too. But now…

“How far back in time did you have to go,” she finally managed, “to find a speech like that one, Daddy? The Middle Ages? The Dark Ages? Did you go to a museum?” How had her father, who had always been so supportive, morphed into a caveman? “Did Mom talk you into this?” she accused.

“No, Ellie, and this has nothing to do with your qualifications. You know that. When it came down to brass tacks, I just want a man running my ship. And that’s my right.”

“That’s illegal, I think,” she muttered.

“Well, I doubt my own daughter’s going to take me to court.”

“Don’t count on it.”

“You don’t see it now,” he said firmly. “But you’re going to want more out of life down the road.”

“I’ve been running your ship for years,” she ground out, her eyes now fixing on Robby’s. Seconds ago, those gorgeous baby blues had looked so sweet and nonthreatening. They’d turned her knees to water. Now they seemed cold and calculating, vicious and predatory. What had she ever seen in him?

“Yes…I’ve been helping you for years, Dad. My good-for-nothing brothers, your lousy sons made sure of that!”

“Ellie, please hear me out—”

She slammed down the phone, fuming. Lee Polls was hers. It was in her history and her blood. Nobody was taking it away, not even her lover—ex-lover, she mentally amended—Robby Robriquet.

Except he had.

She grabbed her purse and headed for the door and when he grasped her from behind, she shook off his touch. “Bastard,” she muttered, hating that her body still tingled from his touch as she opened the door and stepped outside, into air that was crisp for November in Mississippi. “Get away from me.”

“Ellie,” he called from the porch as she headed for her car. “You didn’t even let me talk. I want to be with you. Always. Forever. You and me. We can work this out.”

“Yeah, right,” she shouted. “You want to get married and have kids and—”

“Yes! Yes, that’s exactly what I want!”

“And I’ll cook and clean for you while you go off to my office.”

“Dammit, Ellie!”

If it had been any other company but Lee Polls, maybe she could have gotten over it. Her heart stretched to breaking. “That company is mine! Mine!”

“Come back, Ellie!”

“No…you go back inside and put on some clothes, Robby,” she called over her shoulder. “Otherwise Sheriff Kemp might arrest you for indecent exposure. And besides, don’t you have to hurry up and put on your suit and tie? Don’t you have a job to go to? My job? In the company that belongs to my family?”

“Dammit, I know this is sensitive.”

“You’re just like your father,” she yelled, striking the lowest blow she could think of. “You wanted my job and you took it, but you’re not getting me, too.”

Maybe he said something else, but she’d never know. She was already in her car. Tears were flowing freely, and she didn’t bother to stop them. By the time she’d become cognizant of her actions, she was sobbing deeply, her shoulders shaking. Through a haze of tears, she just kept moving. She stopped at her house and packed bags that would last her a while. At first, she had no idea where she might go.

Hodges Motor Lodge was an option, but that was too local. Besides, everyone would know to look for her there, since it was the only motel in town. So she made a plane reservation. Yes, she needed a vacation. Screw Lee Polls. Daddy Eddie and Robby had decided they could run the place without her, so let them.

“Just see how far they get!” she declared. They could never find the Thomas files, they didn’t have a clue about how to land that lucrative account with the Clovis family, or the contracts for upcoming national elections. Besides, her own client list was on her laptop, which she would take with her, and they’d play hell trying to decipher her notes.

“Within a week, the whole place will shut down,” she vowed. Once her bags were piled high in her car, she sped toward Delia’s Diner. Thankfully, as soon as she had breakfast, and told her best friend, Susannah, about her plan, she’d be getting far away from Banner, Mississippi.

But Susannah wasn’t at Delia’s yet. So Ellie sat in the car sobbing some more, which felt good, then she finally shoved on her sunglasses to hide her eyes. Delia’s Diner was gossip central.

She waved at a few people inside the restaurant, ordered coffee and noted that Sheriff Kemp was at the counter, flirting with Delia again. Ellie had to concentrate on not crying now; otherwise, everybody in Banner would know something was wrong and start grilling her. So she stared into space, barely noticing when her best friend came in and seated herself in the booth.

Susannah was the sister Ellie had never had. As much as Ellie loved her, though, she was always embroiled in some new drama surrounding her husband, J.D. Ever since he’d become a country star, the marriage had been heading south, and all the arguments about leaving the man had been discussed before today. So, even though Ellie was numb, her mind reeling from her own life-altering circumstances, Susannah didn’t even notice, due to her own difficulties. This made it easy to order breakfast while murmuring all the usual consolations.

Even when Susannah announced she was finally leaving her husband, Ellie merely kept nodding. Susannah threatened this at least once a month, after all. Almost as often as she threatened to kill J.D.

The man was still breathing, however, and Ellie doubted Susannah would ever free herself from the increasingly problematic relationship. Suddenly, Susannah pushed unruly wisps of blond hair from her eyes, and said, “You’ve been crying, Ellie.”

Only then did Ellie notice she’d removed her sunglasses. She guessed she’d removed them when Delia had put down their breakfast plates. Eggs could be a little unappealing seen through dark lenses. “All morning,” she said, although it wasn’t strictly true.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been so fixated on J.D. What’s wrong?”

The story came pouring out. When Ellie was finished, Susannah gasped. “And Robby accepted the job?”

Ellie nodded.

“That snake in the grass! What are you going to do?”

In that instant, Ellie knew. “Go to New York and start another polling business to compete with Daddy and Robby.”

She’d been considering a vacation, but why not make it permanent? She’d done business in New York and had contacts there. Maybe such a plan would work. Had Susannah, herself, been sincere about her own plans to leave J.D.? “Come with me, Susannah.”

“To New York?” Susannah said. “To do what?”

Ellie’s mind was racing as she started offering ideas, then she finished by declaring, “To have sex with a lot of men. Every guy I can.”

She could see Susannah’s throat working as she swallowed hard. “That…uh, sounds ambitious.”

Ellie almost smiled. “I’ve always been ambitious,” she agreed.

“Well…okay. Yes. I’ll come with you.”

“Good.” But could Ellie really make this work? Could she build a competitive polling company from the ground up, then maybe even use it to take over Lee Polls? More important, could she find a man sexy enough to replace Robby Robriquet?