Twice the Temptation

Just like that. Not a second of hesitation.

He’d known she would agree, and he knew that as dangerous as it was, it was the best chance they had of saving her life.

Still, the instant the words were out of her mouth, fear had gripped his stomach like a rusty claw, and he’d wanted nothing more than to talk her out of it.

“You’re sure?” he’d asked.

“Positive. I’m getting pretty tired of playing the sitting duck. Besides, since this guy looks like Ichabod Crane, he ought to be pretty easy to spot.”

“Yeah.” That was the theory.

“And there’ll be a lot of people on the lookout. Avery will alert the staff. Reese will let Molly know. Mac Davies has a good eye—he’s a producer. Nate will be around, and we even have a retired army colonel on our side.”

“The piano is positioned so that there’s no clear way to take a shot at it from the outside garden or the lobby. Our guy will have to come into the bar.” When he’d realized that he was talking more to convince himself than her, he’d shut up.

She’d beamed a smile at him. “Then we’ll get him.”

That sure as hell was the plan. But after he’d finally convinced her to take a nap on the sofa, he’d divided his time between setting the plan in motion with Nate and Avery and trying to think up a safer alternative.

He’d been successful with the former, but not with the latter.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Cody circled around the partial wall that divided the tower room into two spaces. One offered a comfortable sitting room with a fireplace, and the other provided a work area with a breathtaking view of the sea.

The clock was ticking, the plan was in motion. And it would work.

Avery had already put up a sign outside the bar to advertise Brie’s performance and the time, 10:00 p.m. About twenty minutes ago, Reese and Mac had tapped lightly on the tower room door to deliver a dress for Brie to wear.

She was getting into it now.

Cody rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. There was something still pushing at the edge of his mind, something that he couldn’t quite get a hold of. He knew from experience that it would come to him, just as the possible significance of that stalled car had.

And the best way to facilitate that was to think of something else. With a glance at the bathroom door, he pulled a parchment envelope out of his pocket. He’d found it lying on the floor when he’d gone down to take the dress from Mac and Reese, and the temptation to open it had been gnawing at him ever since.

He’d learned all about Hattie’s special hat box and the power it seemed to wield on his first visit to the island when Ian had asked for his help. Later he’d learned that all three sisters had drawn parchments out of Hattie’s fantasy box on their very first visit to the tower room. The two older Brightman sisters had not only drawn out fantasies that they’d secretly dreamed about in their teens, but they’d each lived out the fantasy with the man they’d also fallen in love with.

Though he hadn’t gotten all the details yet about Reese and Mac, it looked as though they’d also been brought together by one of Hattie’s parchments. He couldn’t help but be curious about what fantasy Brie had chosen. Turning the envelope over, he pulled it out.

You will push the past and the future aside to indulge in a onetime fling.

Something stabbed at his heart as he read the last three words again.

A onetime fling.

Was that the fantasy that Brie had carried secretly in her heart?

It made a lot of sense, he thought. She was a woman who’d focused on her career and was now focused on survival.

Well, he’d just have to change her mind. Because he intended to have much more than a onetime fling with Brie Sullivan. He slipped the parchment back into the envelope and set it on a nearby table.

WITH A CRITICAL EYE, Brie studied herself in the mirror. The hair was almost right. She’d pulled it back from her face, then let it fall to her shoulders. Now, she tweaked a few strands loose.

Perfect.The dress was perfect, too. A sheath of black silk, nearly backless with a halter top. She didn’t have a lot of curves, but the thin, stretchy silk clung to each and every one.

But it was her face that Brie’s eyes returned to again and again as she checked her image. It was different, and although she had an artful hand, she knew that it wasn’t the makeup that was responsible for the change. She glowed. And it was all due to Cody Marsh.

Her body was still vibrating with the sensory memories of what they’d done to each other on the stairs and in the shower.

Pressing her hand to her stomach, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. But it was hard.

Oh, she’d sensed on some level that making love to Cody would be special from the first time she’d taken his hand in Times Square. But she hadn’t expected, she hadn’t anticipated the reality. How could you even imagine something that you’d never experienced before?

Maybe that was the true allure of a onetime fling fantasy—a memory that you never would have had otherwise. And she would have a doozy. She met her own gaze again in the mirror and firmly ignored the tightening around her heart.

It was time for practical, sensible Brie Sullivan to make a reappearance. She had a major gig tonight. That was what she had to concentrate on.

For the first time in six months, she was going to be able to sing. The downside was that someone was probably going to try to kill her.

The upside was that Mac Davies, the “star-maker” was going to be in her audience. That’s what she had to concentrate on.

And Cody—well, she would always have the memory.

Taking a deep breath, she turned and opened the bathroom door.

9

“HOW DO I LOOK?” Brie asked as she stepped into the tower room.

The instant he saw her, Cody experienced what it was like to take a bullet to the gut.She turned in a little circle, not meeting his eyes, and that gave him plenty of time to use his to take in the nape of her neck, the slender back.

And the legs. He really hadn’t had time to fully take them in before. They’d worked okay, running, wrapped around him, but he’d never really had a chance to appreciate how long they were. The spiky heels no doubt made a difference, but how did she walk on them?

As she moved farther into the room, her goal seemed to be the beveled mirror.

Good.

Because if she came within grabbing distance, he knew what he wanted to do, even though he wasn’t sure the connection between his brain and his muscles was in working order.

“I clean up pretty good, don’t I?” She twirled in front of the glass.

He couldn’t say a word. Probably a good thing, since if he opened his mouth, his tongue might hang out.

She faced him, the mirror at her back. “Before we go to the bar, there’s something I want to say. What happened earlier—making love to you—I’ve never…it’s never been like that for me.”

Cody finally found the strength to move until he was standing with her in front of the mirror. Very carefully, he reached out and framed her face with his hands. “It’s never been that way for me, either.” Standing there, looking into her eyes, he knew he’d never find with anyone else what he’d found with her.

Brie stepped forward. “Whatever happens tonight, whatever comes afterward, I’ll always have the memory of what we shared. No one will be able to take it away. I’ll treasure it always.”

Memory? It took him a second to figure out what she must be talking about. The fantasy. The onetime fling.

There was a tightening around his heart again and the slightest ripple of fear in his stomach. He wanted more than a memory of her. They hadn’t talked. There hadn’t been time. And he didn’t have enough time right now to tell her what was in his heart. Instead, he framed her face with his hands and pressed his mouth softly to hers.

The instant their lips met, melded, he felt the fear smooth away. This, in the midst of the chaos they’d been through in the past day, felt right. There was no punch of lust, no spiral of need, no molten fire pushing through his blood. In place of all of that was a warmth, steady and true.

He didn’t understand it. But standing here, kissing her, quite simply felt right. She had to feel it, too. He watched the glorious green of her eyes cloud and darken as he changed the angle of the kiss. And she trembled.

This was so different. That was the one thought that hadn’t fuzzed over in Brie’s mind. He’d kissed her softly before, but the tenderness was new.

Even as he deepened the kiss, very slowly, there were none of the demands he’d made before. In their place was a request. He was taking her to a new place. And she melted molecule by molecule until her heart, her soul, her dreams, desires, all she was slipped from her to him.

When she’d surrendered everything, there was nothing left but a soft, drowsy warmth.

She’d come home.

Brie had no idea how long they stood there. All she was certain of was that she wanted the moment to go on and on.

It was the phone that brought them both back to reality. Even then, it wasn’t until the second ring that they each drew back.

His hands were still on her face when he said, “Hold on to that memory, too, Brie. There are going to be more.”

Then he dropped his hands and moved to pick up the phone. “Yes.”