Twice the Temptation

“Boarding school?”

She nodded. “Catholic. South of France. When our parents died, the nuns took my two sisters and me in and raised us. I was only a baby at the time. There were always people around—the nuns, a chaplain, other students. My sister Jillian used to sneak me into the kitchen in the middle of the night so I could try out some of my recipes.”

“I had a nanny once who liked to cook. I haven’t thought of her in years. On the cook’s day off, she’d take me into the kitchen and we’d bake cookies and Irish soda bread.”

“Did you have a lot of them? Nannies, I mean?”

“Quite a few. My parents were actors, and their work took them away a lot. Employing a nanny made it easier to leave me behind.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.” He glanced around the area. The moon was full and cut a wide, silver swath on the sea below. Another memory slipped into place, and acting on impulse, he said, “This would be a perfect spot to play hide-and-seek.” He met her eyes. “Want to give it a try?”

Surprise flickered across her face. “You want to play hide-and-seek? You can’t be serious.”

He shrugged, now thoroughly intrigued with the idea. “I’m no expert on the boy toy thing, but it seems to me that playing must be a crucial part of the deal.” He took her hand and raised it to his lips. In the moonlight, her eyes were darker, the color of rich milk chocolate, and the urge to taste her was growing stronger by the minute. “What do you say, Reese? Care to play with me? Or we could try that kiss.”

She pulled her hand out of his and poked a finger into his chest. “You’re it. Turn around and count to fifty.”

He did as she asked, and when he’d finished, she was gone. While he’d been counting, he’d heard the tumble of rocks, so he started up the incline. When he reached the top, there was no sign of her. Had she fallen off the side of the path?

Idiot, he told himself as fear rippled through him. This was the only problem with following his impulses. The consequences couldn’t all be foreseen. There was no telling how long it would take him to find her. Then he caught just the hint of her scent on the breeze.

Glancing down, he saw the wide ledge about ten feet below. The surface was worn smooth and gleamed in the moonlight. Moving gingerly, he clambered down. The crevice in the wall of the cliff was small. Reese sat in it cross-legged.

“You’re good at this,” she said.

“I could smell you. But you also gave me a big clue. This is the place you found that’s better than the bench.”

She nodded. “It’s a good place to think.”

“I can see that.” And suddenly he didn’t want to think at all. “Still, we should get to higher ground if we’re going to finish testing the waters.”

They didn’t speak again until they reached the bench that sat along the edge of the path. Then Mac turned to her. “I can’t wait any longer.”

“Me, either.”

Mac didn’t need any more encouragement. He lowered his head just enough to catch her bottom lip lightly between his teeth. When her breath shuddered out, he ignored the sharp stab of desire and sampled her slowly.

He wanted to savor everything. Her taste—surprisingly dark with just a hint of wine. Her texture—smooth. The movement of her tongue against his—silken heat.

She made a sound, a vibration that shot fire straight to his loins. Then she trembled.

More. He had to show her more. Clamping down on the needs that clawed at him, he took his time, sliding his hands up that long, narrow torso, the sides of her breasts, then around to her back. One inch at a time, he drew her closer until their bodies finally met, melded.

When she trembled for the second time, he shifted the angle of the kiss and let himself plunder.

Reese was drowning in a flood of sensations, of longings, of needs. Her breath had strangled in her lungs, and she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t want to.

She’d thought she’d been prepared for this kiss. She’d hardly thought of anything else since they’d left the bar. But there’d been no way to anticipate something she’d never experienced before. How could she have known what it was like to have his tongue play with hers? To have those hands run over her, teasing, tormenting, tempting, taking?

And the hunger. She’d never felt anything so huge. She’d never known she could. She had to get closer. She wanted nothing more than to crawl right into him.

Then suddenly, his hands were framing her face very gently and his mouth was no longer on hers. She felt the sudden coolness of the ocean breeze between them. Desperate, she ran her tongue over her lips to recapture his taste. Then she opened her eyes and discovered that she couldn’t quite focus yet. When she opened her mouth, he whispered, “Shh.”

That was when she heard it, the sound of voices, not close enough so that she could make out the words. Reality began to trickle in, but she had no idea how long it was before laughter registered from farther away. By that time, she had enough of a grip to say, “I guess we’re not the only ones who came out here to test the waters.”

When she could finally get his face back into focus, she said, “Another few minutes and I think we would have taken that test drive.”

His laugh began low in his throat and by the time the breeze lifted it into the air, she’d joined him. He lifted her and swung her around once before he set her back on the ground. “So have I passed the test, Reese?”

She tightened her grip on his shoulders and studied his face in the moonlight.

“C’mon. Let me share your fantasy. Let me be your boy toy.”

Totally aware that she’d never done anything more reckless, never done anything that she wanted to do more, she said, “Okay.”

5

THEY WERE NEARLY AT THE END of the garden path when a figure stepped out from the shadows to their right.

“Reese?”She recognized the voice before the man emerged fully into the light to join them. “Charlie?”

“You got my flowers?”

“Yes. They were lovely.”

“I was looking for you in the bar earlier. I thought I spotted you there from where I was standing in the lobby. Then you were gone.”

“What is it you want?” Reese asked.

“I need to talk to you in private. It’s urgent.” He shifted his gaze to Mac. “If you’ll excuse us.”

“Sorry, can’t do that,” Mac said. “Reese and I were just going in.”

Before she could get out a word, Mac had clamped an arm around her, steered her around Charles Dutoit and through the back door of the hotel.

“Reese…”

Whatever else Charlie had to say was cut off when the door slammed shut behind them.

“That was rude,” Reese said, before breaking into a jog to keep up with Mac as he hot-footed it around a corner and down a short corridor.

“I figure one rudeness deserves another.”

She laughed. “Charlie’s always been a bit arrogant.”

He shot her a sideways glance as he pushed through a stairwell door and pulled her with him up the stairs. “Any idea why he wants to talk to you?”

“None. But Avery seems to think he wants to rekindle a romance that died out a long time ago.”

“I’d say Avery’s right on the money.”

“Then Charlie’s in for a big disappointment. He and I went to the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris together. He was my first love. But considering he dumped me flat, I don’t owe him anything.”

Mac stopped short on the first landing and turned to face her. But before he could say anything, there was the sound of a door opening below them. He placed a finger over her lips and breathed, “Shh.”

Reese stared at him, catching a glimpse of that reckless determination she’d seen earlier when he’d sat across the table from her in the bar. The same little thrill moved through her.

“Reese…?” Charlie’s voice drifted up from below. He’d followed them.

Seconds ticked by. Finally, the door below clicked shut.

Mac let a few beats of silence go by before he said, “Persistent bastard. He must think he has a chance of getting you back.”

“I’m not the naive girl I was at nineteen.”

There was a pause as his gaze searched her face. “What happened, Reese?”

She grimaced. “It’s a very short, very trite story. Charlie had a lot of charm and I thought his arrogance was attractive. I fell hard for him. He’d been living in an apartment with his sister, but then he moved in with me. I believed he was in love with me. Then a few weeks from graduation, he dumped me, and I fell apart. I ran back to the convent school where I was raised.”

“I’m sorry.” To her complete surprise, Mac took one of her hands and raised it to his lips. “Want me to punch him out for you?”

Even with the warmth flooding her system, she couldn’t prevent the laugh. “No, thanks. It all turned out well in the end. Sister Margherite, the nun who’d encouraged me to go to Le Cordon Bleu and pursue my dream, made a phone call, and they allowed me to finish a few weeks late.”

“She must have had some pull,” Mac commented.

Reese nodded. “She’d been one of their star graduates before she decided to dedicate her life to God. And she knew the school director, Jean Paul LeBeau. He was the man who took me back, and he became my mentor. He even co-authored my first cookbook.”