now, but there was no guarantee someone wouldn’t come along.
“Lady, you pack quite a wallop,” he said once he could catch his breath.
She tipped her head back, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. “Thank you,” she said huskily. She swayed in his direction.
Just as he feared, he could hear voices on the wind.
“I think we’re going to have company soon.” He took several deep breaths, but all he seemed to smell was her perfume. It wasn’t helping his peace of mind at all.
Ginna moved to his side and slid her arm around his waist. “Then I guess this would be as good a time as any to go back.” Her hip bumped gently against his.
The sexual tension between them heightened with every step. When they were alone in the elevator, Zach took advantage and stole a kiss.
Their steps slowed as they walked down the hallway to her room. When they reached her door, Ginna turned to face him. He planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, effectively trapping her against the wall. His head dipped and he kissed her again.
“I’m going to be a gentleman and not ask to come in,” Zach murmured against her mouth.
Her eyes were hazy with desire. But it was her lips he noticed that were curving upward.
“And what if I invite you in?” she said in a throaty whisper.
He already felt the mental kick to his backside. A kick he’d have physically done to himself if it were possible.
“As much as I’d like to accept, I’d have to be a gentleman and regretfully decline.” His mouth slid along the curve of her cheek until it reached her ear. His tongue toyed with her gold hoop earring. “Or at least take a rain check.”
“Damn.” Her curse came out on a soft breath. “And here I was going to lure you inside and drive you insane with passion.”
“I like your plan.” He was too engrossed in exploring her ear. He kept his hands planted firmly on either side of her shoulders, because he knew if he touched her elsewhere, he’d never leave. And he should. He wanted to prove to her, and to himself, this was more than just mindless lust. But he knew if he didn’t get out of there soon, he’d never leave. “I’m still trying to be a gentleman here. How about tomorrow?”
She pulled back as far as she could, the desire in her eyes starting to dissipate.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we are going too fast,” she said, sensing the truth in his words. “I think it might be better if I did something by myself tomorrow. Then we could get together the next day.”
Zach felt the blow. “Twenty-four hours?”
She reached up and kissed him lightly. “More like thirty-six hours. You’re proving too addictive, Mr. Stone,” she murmured. “I need to catch my breath and I’m already finding out I can’t do it when I’m with you. I’ll meet you for breakfast the day after tomorrow.”
“How about a drink two minutes after midnight? Or if you want to stick with breakfast, we have it at dawn?”
“Dawn? I don’t think so. You’re not dealing with a morning person here,” she explained. “The best I can give you is seven-thirty.”
“Seven-thirty, day after tomorrow. If I have to wait that long, I may as well have something that will hold me that long.” He pulled her back into his arms, and this time he didn’t hold back. He demanded everything of her.
Ginna moaned softly as she melted in his embrace. By the time they parted, they were both breathing heavily.
“Go now.” She pushed him away from her.
“A day away from you isn’t going to make any difference,” he warned her.
“It will if you happen to meet someone else who rings your chimes,” she said.
Zach reached out and traced the lush contours of her lips with his fingertip. “You ring my chimes just fine, sweetheart. I’ll see you at breakfast, day after tomorrow.”
As he walked back to the elevator, he realized that he was already counting down the hours until he saw her again.
It couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter Four
“What in the world can he talk to her about? She has to be all of twelve.”
Ginna stretched out on the lounge chair set out on the sand. She had the headphones to her CD player covering her ears, her sunglasses perched on her nose and her hat shading her face. Her skin glistened with sunscreen lotion that smelled strongly of coconut. Since it was only late morning, the colada she held was a virgin.
At the moment, her drink was forgotten as she covertly watched Zach and a young woman standing down by the hut where sailboards were signed out by the guests. Her dark glasses hid her narrowed gaze.
“Honestly, Zach, I thought you had more sense than to fall for a pair of perky breasts,” she muttered. “Can you spell much too young? But then, how could your brain work when you’re facing a girl wearing nothing more than a few strands of colored dental floss? I’m sure she’s illegal in more than one state.”
The focus of Ginna’s attention was the kind of sexy young woman that caused any red-blooded man to salivate. Petite with curves in all the places, she wore a bright red thong bikini that left very little to the imagination. Glossy black curly hair tumbled down around her deeply tanned shoulders. She looked up at Zach as if he was he was the answer to all her prayers.
Ginna had no idea what Zach said, but apparently the young woman found it humorous, because she laughed and tossed her hair back. And managed to lift her chest at the same time.
Ginna curled her lip.
“I didn’t mean it when I said you might find someone who rang your chimes,” she ground out, slurping up the rest of her drink. She considered flagging down a waitress and asking for a non-virgin piña colada. “But if you had to find someone, couldn’t you find someone who doesn’t have a curfew?”
“Is anyone using this lounger?” A male voice sounded from her left.
She turned her head and looked up. And up.
Tall. Very tall. Maybe six foot, five inches. Surfer-blond hair. Blue eyes that rivaled her own. A tanned body that could easily grace the cover of a fitness magazine.
Any other woman would have melted into a puddle by now. By all rights, Ginna should be drooling uncontrollably, suffering heart palpitations and possibly stammering while making sure to show her bikini-clad body to its full potential.
Ginna wasn’t drooling, her heart rate was perfectly steady, and her speech, when she answered the man, was coherent.
In fact, she didn’t feel anything at all.
She could have been looking at one of her brothers.
WHO THE HELL IS HE? And what makes him think he can move in on Ginna that way? Zach might have looked as if he was listening to barely clad Kendall, but he was really focusing on Ginna.
He knew to the second the moment she took possession of the beach lounger, laying her towel over the surface, then settling down on it. He thought he’d die when she applied lotion to her exposed skin. Once finished, she popped a CD into her portable player and settled the headphones in place. He knew to the second when she ordered a drink. And damn, some surfer dude was trying to put the moves on her. Even from this distance, Zach felt blinded by the guy’s pearly whites.
He’d come down here with the intention of wearing himself out on a sailboard. What he hadn’t expected was sweet young Kendall Taylor to latch on to him.
“So how long are you staying here, Zach?” She looked up from under the cover of lush dark eyelashes.