us are going parachuting tomorrow, and since it’s too far to drive home, then back again so early in the morning, I’m spending the night here. You’re welcome to join us, Joshua.”
Her husky voice saying his name made him want to yank her into his arms. He craved her mouth under his. He wanted to back her against the wall and have her, right there in Simon’s sunken living room, in front of hundreds of guests. Lord. He couldn’t remember ever being this hot, this fast.
Jessie glanced at him under her lashes. She took a small step back. “I’ve heard people should live life as if their personal diary would be published in the newspaper every day.” She looked up at him with those big brown eyes. “I’ve read your personal diary in the tabloids for years. Just standing here talking to you is going to give me notoriety I’ve never had before. I’m not sure I’m ready for prime time.”
More than likely their first meeting would be splashed across every tabloid by tomorrow morning. He didn’t give a damn—unless she cashed in on his weak moment of honesty concerning his marriage. Then every snoop reporter in the country would be on the hunt for Vera.
Despite the risk, pursuing Jessie held an indefinable, underlying attraction that had nothing to do with her slender body. Something about her made his heart go from zero to a hundred in seconds and he’d be damned if he knew why.
“Do you realize,” he asked, his voice thick, “that we’re standing right under the mistletoe?”
Her long lashes fluttered as she glanced up, then directly into his eyes. Yes, her eyes told him. Of course she knew where they stood.
“Lord, woman, don’t look at me like that.” He didn’t recognize the roughness in his own voice. “What do I have to give you for just one kiss?”
“Here?” Jessie scanned the room.
“Yes, damn it.”
“Chloroform?”
“Oh,” he mocked, “I think I can find something that works just as well and is far more accessible.” He hailed a waiter, and handed her two brimming glasses of pale wine. “Here.”
Jessie automatically clutched both glasses as she looked up at him. “What am I supposed to d—”
He touched her cheek, just the barest of touches, and she closed her eyes, tilting her face up. He kissed her softly on the mouth. Christ, it was as bad as eating one damn peanut. She tasted of Simon’s excellent Chateau Coutet, laughter and something he couldn’t quite put a name to.
His fingers tightened briefly in the springy silk of her hair as her tongue shyly touched his. His lips moved with expertise over hers, Jessie’s lashes fluttered then drifted closed. He felt her small breasts brand his chest as she leaned into him. He swallowed her ragged moan as he deepened the contact and lost himself in her response.
And then she was gone.
One moment he was standing with an armful of pliant willing woman, the next he was holding two dripping glasses and she was several feet away.
“Give me a call sometime.” Jessie fluttered her fingers and melted into the crowd, disappearing from view before he could recover.
Joshua felt as if he’d been poleaxed.
JESSIE’S PURPLE-AND-PINK parachute floated over the vineyard toward the eucalyptus tree windbreak on the south side of the clearing near Simon’s house. Joshua shaded his eyes against the sharp winter sun and scowled. He’d had precious little sleep the night before. Thinking about her, knowing she slept under the same roof, had caused him to toss and turn. So near and yet so far.
In his imagination she’d appeared larger than life somehow. Vibrant and intoxicatingly alive. She had what the French called je ne sais quoi, an indescribable something.
Joshua didn’t consider himself a fanciful man, but he needed to see Jessie Adams again. Needed to assure himself that what he remembered from the night before was as simple as her unmistakable sex appeal.
Joshua enjoyed sex. He considered himself a considerate lover. He wanted Jessie. It seemed simple enough. And yet… He narrowed his eyes trying to put his finger on it. There was more to her. Something complex. Something intriguing. Something, damn it, that called to much more than his libido.
Which was, of course, a ridiculous assumption based on a few minutes of conversation the night before.
He wanted to chat with her once more before he left to drive back to San Francisco. Get rid of this stupid fantasy he’d built up during the night. Frankly, he reminded himself grimly, he didn’t have the emotional fortitude to deal with a woman for more than companionship and sex.
They didn’t call him The Glacier for nothing.
High above him, a gust took hold of the thin silk, and Jessie’s slender arms madly manipulated the controls against the sudden shift in wind direction. She was losing the battle.
“Hell.” Joshua started to run as her feet skimmed the treetops. Behind him, the follow vehicle revved, then bit a wheelie into the dirt road running alongside the vines behind Simon’s house. Joshua sprinted to the other side of the trees just in time to see the billowing silks covering Jessie’s prone body.
Roughly he gathered the fabric, flinging it behind him until he unveiled her. She looked up into his face and grinned.
“God, that was fabulous!” She sat up, brushing twigs and dirt off her arms. A skintight purple and fuchsia spandex bodysuit clung to every sleek, tight inch of her long body.
“You little idiot,” Joshua said furiously, his heart still pounding. “You could’ve been killed.”
Jessie’s hand stilled and her smile slipped a little as she unbuckled her fuchsia helmet and tugged it off. Something he didn’t recognize flared in her eyes.
“Yeah, my landing left a little to be desired.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I’ll have to work on that.” She stuck out a hand. “Pull me up.”
He hadn’t imagined it. She seemed to inhale life, to eat it with a spoon, relishing each delicious moment at a time. He knew she’d be like that in bed. Eager. Hot. Passionate and wild. He could drown in those hot, brown eyes. “You like living dangerously, don’t you?”
“You have no idea,” Jessie managed to say breathlessly as he suddenly tugged on her hand, drawing her to her feet and against his chest in one quick move.
“I want to taste it on you.” Joshua breathed in her already familiar scent that even dust and eucalyptus couldn’t mask.
“Taste what?” she asked, a hairsbreadth away from his mouth. She looked up at him, her hand in his against his chest. Her fingers flexed under his but her eyes were steady. “Taste what?” she repeated, her husky voice low.
“Danger.” He brought his mouth down on hers like a starving man at a banquet. He knew after he’d slept with her a few times the gnawing want would lessen and become manageable enough to ignore.
Jessie’s lips held the sheen of his kiss as he stepped away from her. Joshua handed her the helmet. “I’ll call you January first,” he told her. Ignoring her bemused look, he turned and walked away. It was one of the hardest things he’d done in years.
He walked faster.
2
AS PROMISED, Joshua called Jessie on New Year’s Day.
Jessie made sure she wasn’t home.
He called again on the second, the third and the fifth. She’d let the answering machine pick up while she sat in her kitchen listening, his tone getting progressively cooler and more impatient with each call.
Joshua had left half a dozen imperious messages in the last two weeks. She had no intention of falling over herself to call him back. Obviously he wasn’t used to being ignored.
She