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Eloisa reached for the door.
His hand fell to rest on top of hers, his body pressing intimately against her as he stretched past.
“Hold on a minute. Do you really think I’m letting you out of my sight again that easily? Last time I did that, you ditched before lunch. I’m not wasting another year looking for you if you decide to bolt.”
“I didn’t run. I came home to Pensacola.” She tried to inch free but he clasped her hands in his.”This is where you can find me.”
Where he could have found her anytime over the past twelve months if he’d cared at all. In the first few weeks she’d waited, hoped, then the panic set in as she’d wrestled with contacting him.
Now, they had no reason to talk.
“I’m here now.” His thumb stroked the inside of her wrist.”And we’re going to fix this mess face-to-face rather than trusting the system again.”
“No!” Already her skin tingled with awareness so much more intense than when he’d cupped her hip—and she’d been mighty aware.
Damn her traitorous body.
”Yes,” he said, reaching past and throwing open the door.
He was letting her go after all? But hadn’t he just said they were going to confront things face-to-face?
However, who was she to waste time questioning the reason he’d changed his mind? She rushed out of the limousine and turned at the last second to say goodbye to Jonah. Why was her gut clenching at the notion of never seeing him again?
She pivoted on her heel only to slam into his chest. Apparently he’d stepped out of the vehicle as well. Distant voices from her sister’s party drifted on the wind, something she could barely register since his sun-bronzed face lowered toward hers.
Before she could breathe, much less protest, his mouth covered hers. His eyes stayed open, which she realized must mean hers were open, too. Just like a year ago, she stared at his eyes, the kind of blue poets wrote about. His wild and fresh nature scent was the same sort evoked by a literary walk through Thoreau’s Walden.
And just that fast, her lashes fluttered closed. She savored the taste of him on her lips, her tongue again. Her hands slid up to splay on his chest, hard muscles rippling under her fingers.
Then unease niggled at the back of her brain, a sense of unrest. Something was off about this kiss. She remembered what it was like to be kissed by Jonah, and as nerve tingling as it felt to be pressed against him, to inhale the scent of him, this wasn’t right.
She tried to gather her thoughts enough to think rationally rather than just languish in sensation. His broad hand moved along her waist, lightly, rhythmically.
Totally in control.
Where everyone could see.
He was putting on a display for the partyers on the boat, damn him. Indignation, anger and a hint of hurt smoked through her veins, chasing away desire. She started to pull back then reconsidered. The damage was already done. Everyone at the party had seen them kiss. They would assume the worst. She might as well take advantage of the opportunity to surprise Jonah for a change. And yes, even to extract a little revenge for how he’d staged this whole encounter tonight to knock her off balance rather than simply notifying her through their attorneys.
Eloisa slid her arms around his waist, not that anyone could see behind him. But what she was about to do wasn’t for public viewing anyway.
It was all for Jonah.
Eloisa grabbed his butt.
Jonah blinked in surprise, her hand damn near searing through his pants. He started to pull away … then sensation steamrolled over him. This kiss wasn’t going the way he’d planned. He certainly hadn’t expected her to take control of the game he’d started.
Now that she had? Time to turn the tables again.
Gasps of surprise drifting on the wind from the boat, he cupped her neck and stroked his tongue along the seam of her lips, just once, but enough, if the hitch in her breathing was anything to judge by. Her body turned fluid as she pressed closer to him. Her hands skimmed up along his spine to his shoulders. Then she speared her fingers through his hair, sending his pulse spiking and placing his self-control on shaky ground.
Without question, he wanted to take this encounter further, but not here. Not in public. And he knew if they moved to the limo, reason would pull her away again. So with more than a little regret, he ended the kiss. He’d made his point anyway.
Jonah eased away from her, still keeping his hands looped behind her back in case she decided to bolt—or slap him.”We’ll finish this later, princess, when we don’t have an audience.”
When he could take this to the natural finish his body demanded. And when she was totally consenting rather than merely acting on impulse. The kiss may have started as a staged way to make her family aware of their connection, but halfway in, he’d realized his instincts were dead-on.
He couldn’t walk away without one last time in her bed.
Her lips pursed tight as if holding back a retort, but her hands shook as she slid them from behind him to rest on his chest. He watched over her shoulder as a small group left the boat and started toward them on the boardwalk. A trio led the pack. Thanks to photos from an investigator, Jonah IDed the three right away. Her stepfather, Harry Taylor. Her half sister, Audrey Taylor. And Audrey’s fiancé, Joey.
Eloisa leaned closer and whispered through tight teeth.”You are so going to pay for doing this.”
“Shhh.” He dropped a quick kiss on her forehead, liking the taste of his revenge so far. His appetite for it—for her—only increased the longer he spent by her side.”We don’t want them to hear us fighting, do we, dear?”
Jonah slipped his arm around her shoulders and tucked her by his side, her soft curves pressed enticingly against him.
She stiffened.”You can’t be planning to tell them … uh …”
“About your father?”
Her brown eyes flashed with warring anger and fear.”About your theories. About you and me.”
“My lips are sealed, princess.”
“Stop calling me that,” she said through gritted teeth as the footsteps thunked louder and closer.
“You and I both know it’s true. There’s no more denying it. The only question is, how far will you go to keep me quiet?”
She gasped.”You can’t mean—”
“Too late to talk, Eloisa dear.” He squeezed her lightly as the group closed in, her family leading.”Trust me or not.”
The older man in the lead fanned a hand over his wind-blown blond hair, whisper thin along the top. His daughter—the bride to be—was an even paler version of her father. Even her hair seemed bleached white by the sun, yet she didn’t sport even a hint of a tan. Her fiancé hovered behind, fists shoved in his pockets. He shuffled from foot to foot as if impatient to be anywhere but here. A small crowd gathered behind them while others watched from the deck railing.
Jonah extended his hand to Eloisa’s stepfather.”Sorry I’m late, sir. I’m Eloisa’s date for tonight’s shindig. I’m Jonah Landis.”
She wouldn’t be able to dismiss him as easily this time.
Harry Taylor’s eyes widened.”Landis? As in the Landises from Hilton Head, South Carolina?”
”Yes, sir, that would be my family.”
“Uh, Harry Taylor, here. Eloisa’s father.”
The guy all but had dollar signs flashing in his pupils like some cartoon character.
Jonah stifled the irritation for Eloisa’s sake. He appreciated the advantages his family’s money had brought him, but he preferred to make his own way in the world.
Meanwhile, though, Jonah knew how to deal with money suck-ups like this. He’d been on guard against them since the sandbox. Even kids figured out fast whose dad had the biggest portfolio.
A photographer stepped from the back of the pack, lifting the lens to his eyes. Eloisa tucked behind his shoulder as flashes spiked through the night.
Smiling widely, Harry shuffled aside to clear the way for the photographer to get a better angle. The old guy all but offered to hold the photographer’s camera bag.
Audrey elbowed her yawning fiancé, hooking arms with him and stepping closer.”When did you and Eloisa meet, Mr. Landis? I’m sure our guest—the editor of the local events section of our illustrious paper—will want plenty of deets for her column.”
“Call me Jonah.” He could feel Eloisa’s heart beat faster against him.
He could claim her easily here, but then their separation would be out in the open as well. He intended to be much closer to her.”I met Eloisa during her study-abroad program last year. I found her impossible to forget and here I am.”
Every word of that was true.
Eloisa’s sigh of relief shuddered against him.
Audrey loosened her death grip on her fiancé's arm long enough to sidle beside her sister for the next round of pictures.”Aren’t you full of surprises?”
“Not by choice.” Eloisa smiled tightly.”Besides, this is your night. I wouldn’t want to do anything to detract from that.”
Her stepsister winked, eying Jonah up and down.”Hey, if he were my date, I’d be lapping up all the media attention.”
What the hell kind of family was this?
Jonah pulled Eloisa closer to his side, sending a clear”back-off” signal to Audrey. She simply smiled in return, tossing her hair over her shoulders playfully. Her fiancé seemed oblivious, poor bastard.
Eloisa buried her face against Jonah’s shoulder and he started to reassure her—until he realized she wasn’t upset or even seeking him out. She was just hiding from the clicking camera.
The photographer snap, snap, snapped away, the flashes damn near blinding in the dark night.
Audrey reached for her sister.”Come on. Just smile for the camera. You’ve been hiding out here all night and I could use some fun and interesting pictures to add to my wedding album.”
Eloisa thumbed off the band from her ponytail. Her hair slid free in a silken sheet that flowed over her shoulders and down her back. She’d never seemed vain to him, but then most women he knew primped for the camera. Even his three sisters-in-law were known to slick on lipstick before a news conference.
Except as he watched her more closely he realized she used the hair as a curtain. The guy might be getting his photos—to deny them would have caused a scene with Audrey—but there wasn’t going to be a clear image of Eloisa’s face.
Realization trickled through of a larger problem between them than even he had anticipated. He knew she wanted to keep her royal heritage a secret. That was obvious enough and he respected her right to live as she pleased. But until this moment he hadn’t understood just how far she would go to protect her anonymity. A damned inconvenient problem.
Because as a Landis, he could always count on being stuck in the spotlight. Just by being with her, he’d cast her into the media’s unrelenting glare.
He’d wanted revenge, but didn’t need to unveil her secret to repay her for her betrayal. He had other, far more enticing ways of excising her from his mind.
Three
Eloisa wished that photographer would tone down the flash on his camera. Much more of his nonstop shutter bugging and she would have a headache. As if this evening wasn’t already migraine material enough.
Thank God the party had finally all but ended, only a few stragglers hanging on and sidling into the photo ops. Jonah—the cause of her impending headache—stood off to the side with her stepfather. Determined to keep her cool, Eloisa stacked tiny crystal cake plates left haphazardly on the dessert table. Her sister watched from her perch, lounging against the end of the table.
Audrey balanced a plate with a wedge of the raspberry chocolate cake on one hand, swiping her finger through the frosting and licking it clean.”You should let the catering staff take care of that. It’s what they’re paid to do.”
”I don’t mind, really. Besides, the cleaning staff charges by the hour.” She also needed a way to burn off her nervous energy from Jonah’s staged kiss.
“That doesn’t mean you need to work yourself to the bone. Go home.”
She wasn’t ready to be alone with Jonah. Not yet. Not with her feelings still so close to the surface. But judging from the stubborn set of his jaw as he stood under a string of white lights, he wasn’t leaving her life anywhere anytime soon.
“I’m staying here with you.” Eloisa sidestepped a band member carrying two guitar cases.”No arguments.”
“At least have some cake. It’s so amazing I almost don’t care that I’ll have to get my wedding gown resized.” Audrey swiped up another gob of frosting, her blue eyes trekking over to Jonah, then sliding back.”You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, sister dear?”
“So you said earlier.” Eloisa placed the forks in a glass so all the plates stacked evenly and handed over the lot to a passing catering employee.
How rare that someone accused her of being full of surprises. She’d always been the steady one, tasked to smooth things over when her more-sensitive baby sister burst into tears.
“But it’s true. What’s the scoop with this Landis boyfriend?” Audrey gestured with her plate toward Jonah who looked at ease in his suit jacket, even in Florida’s full-out May heat.
Eloisa had found his constant unconcern fascinating before. Now it was more than a little irritating, especially when she couldn’t stop thinking about the feel of plunging her fingers into his thick hair when they’d kissed.
She forced her hands to stay steady as she clasped them in front of her, leaning against the table beside Audrey, her half sister topping her by five inches. Her willowy sister looked more like her blond father.
But they both had their mother’s long fingers. What would it have been like to turn to her mother right now? And how much it must hurt Audrey not having their mother around to help plan the biggest day of her life.
Certainly their mother’s shocking death from an allergic reaction to medication had stunned them all. Eloisa had been numb throughout the entire funeral, staying in the fugue state all the way back to Spain, to her study program.
And into Jonah’s bed.
Waking up the morning after with that ring on her finger. She’d felt the first crack in the dam walling up her grief. She’d barely made it out of Jonah’s rented manor home before the tears flowed.
Which brought her back to the dilemma of Jonah.
What was the scoop? Why had he shown up now when he could have sent a lawyer? It wasn’t like he wanted to see her or he could have contacted her anytime in the past year.”His arrival tonight came as a total shocker to me.”
Audrey set aside her plate, plucked a pink stargazer lily from the beach-themed centerpiece and skimmed it under her nose.”You never mentioned meeting him before.”
She hadn’t mentioned even the working relationship because she’d been afraid they would hear in her voice what she could barely admit to herself then, much less now.”Like I said earlier, this is your time, your wedding. I wouldn’t want to do anything to distract from that.”
Audrey bumped her waif-thin shoulder against Eloisa’s.”Could you please drop the altruistic gig for just a few minutes while we squeal over this like real sisters? He’s a Landis, for crying out loud. You’re rubbing elbows with American royalty.”
“Who wouldn’t squeal over that?” She couldn’t resist the tongue-in-cheek retort.
“You, apparently.” Audrey twirled the lily stem between her fingers.”Heaven knows I would be calling a press conference.”
Eloisa laughed, then laughed some more, so much better than crying, and let all the tension from the evening flow out of her. Audrey had her faults, but she never pretended to be anything other than who she was.
Which made Eloisa feel like a hypocrite since she hid from herself every damn day.
Her laughter faded.”Forget all about this evening and Jonah Landis. I meant it when I said these next couple of weeks are totally about you. This is the wedding you’ve been planning since you were a kid. Remember how we used to practice in the garden?”
“You were always the best maid of honor.” She tucked the stargazer lily behind Eloisa’s ear.”I wasn’t always a nice bride.”
