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Though she issued her invitation casually, Adam recognized this maneuver for what it was—another move toward personal.
If she could get him inside the Wedding Knight Suite, they’d be a step closer to the bed. And with her looking the way she did, she’d keep him awake all night.
The memory of her in that robe would keep him awake tonight anyway, but he wouldn’t tip his hand to Tori. Not when he’d declined to participate in her contest of wills. Regardless of how much his body urged him otherwise.
“I’ll wait out here for you.”
“In the hallway?”
He inclined his head, not offering further explanation. He’d already established where he stood on this issue, and wouldn’t play her game by rationalizing his decision. To do so would only imply she might sway him the other way. She couldn’t.
Leaving the door open wide, she turned and walked away, treating him to a remarkable view of her backside. The see-through robe made it impossible not to notice how the T-back panties disappeared between her shapely cheeks, and combined with those nicely toned thighs… His body heat went on the rise again.
Letting his eyes drift shut, Adam inhaled deeply and willed his body to behave, implementing a cleansing technique he used before working out. Karate was his sport of choice and at the moment, he appreciated the strict discipline it demanded. Another deep breath tempered the memory of a half-naked Tori Ford. Slowly the tension receded, and his body came firmly back into his grasp.
Opening his eyes, Adam straightened his tie and waited, as prepared for her next move as he’d ever be. Reformulating his game plan proved more difficult. He simply didn’t understand this woman. Why she thought he needed rescuing from a dreary existence was a mystery. True, work had taken up most of his time since he’d made the move to Niagara Falls, but that was normal when establishing a new career path.
And he’d done nothing to encourage her interest. In fact, he’d resisted her every attempt to engage him—and she’d made many. Since they’d met, she’d been teasing him and trying to provoke a reaction. Yes, they had chemistry, but that didn’t mean they had to act on it.
Unfortunately, the not acting kept getting tougher. He couldn’t help wondering what Tori’s next move would be, and they were only a couple of days into this grand opening. Naughty Nuptials comprised three weeks of events. When Wild, Wild Weddings concluded after tonight’s reception, he still had to survive Risqué Receptions and Hottest Honeymoons.
Somehow, Adam would manage. Tori Ford might be determined to get her scoop on the inn, but he was equally determined to prove this establishment, despite its status as a romance resort, conducted business on the level. Promoting romance between couples wasn’t synonymous with orgies in the main lobby, and Adam would make sure she understood the difference.
Of course, he wasn’t always clear on the difference himself…especially since the focus of the Naughty Nuptials was sex, which likely explained why he reacted to this woman with a need testing his restraint.
And almost as if she wanted to prove the point, Tori reappeared, looking sultry in a beaded green gown that clung lazily to her curves. Spangles flashed with every step, and he inhaled another cleansing breath to shore up his defenses.
Even with her clothes on, this woman looked like sex.
“Will you give me a hand?” She turned and presented her back with its open zipper. Lifting her hair, she moved close enough to bombard him with her subtly spicy fragrance. “Do you mind?”
Yes.
Clearly this was another power play—one he wouldn’t let her win. Not when he came face-to-face with all that bare skin. Not when he knew she’d managed to get her zipper down without assistance in the first place. He wouldn’t let her see how that one touch made his every thought zero in on his fingertips.
Chemistry practically crackled between them. Every sense honed in on the texture of her skin. Every nerve kicked into hyperalert and only his skill at self-discipline saved him from a reaction that otherwise would have leveled him.
He dragged the zipper up, an action that felt like an intimacy they shouldn’t be sharing. But not according to Tori, who clearly enjoyed liquefying professional boundaries with her suggestive smiles and constant innuendo.
Adam knew better than to show this woman weakness. One slip and she’d move in for the kill. He didn’t care to test his ability to resist her under extreme conditions.
More extreme than these, anyway.
Tugging the zipper into place, he put a much-needed step between them and felt a lot more relief than he should have for a man who’d decided not to play her seduction game.
“Did you fasten the eye hook?” she asked, her voice a hushed whisper between them.
If Adam hadn’t been struggling so hard to rein back, he might have enjoyed knowing he wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of her little game.
He was working hard to keep his expression neutral when she peeked a sultry gaze from beneath the fall of wild hair.
“If you don’t fasten the eye hook, the zipper will creep down. I might wind up flashing everyone at the reception.”
Now there was another vision to haunt him. This beautiful woman swaying to the music on the dance floor. The heavily beaded gown slithering into a puddle at her feet. Those filmy undergarments and all that skin…and two hundred surprised guests enjoying the show.
As Adam wasn’t partial to exhibition fetishes—or any fetishes at all, for that matter—he reached for the eye hook.
The fastener proved a test for his supersize fingers. What should have been a fast fix became a series of awkward efforts that brought more skin against skin until his careful expression melted into a scowl.
Tori pulled her hair higher and leaned into the light to assist his efforts, but all she did was flood his senses with the scent of her hair and that underlying spicy fragrance.
She distracted him and, in the process, undermined his efforts to finish this task and make his getaway. By the time he forced the microscopic hook through the metal loop, his fingers had grown stiff with frustration.
“There you go.” Not even his usual rock-steady discipline could keep the triumph, and relief, from his voice.
If Adam expected Tori to gloat, he miscalculated her response. She leaped on her advantage by firing again.
Shaking her hair out, she tumbled cloudlike waves over her shoulders and sent another blast of enticing fragrance his way. “Thank you.”
He only nodded and stepped farther into the hallway, as much to clear his senses of her provocative scent as to prompt her to action. Right now, he needed two hundred reception guests to remind him he should be working. He made a mental note to avoid being alone with this woman again.
“What’s on the agenda this afternoon?” He steered the conversation where it belonged. “And more importantly, how can I facilitate your work?”
“Helping me dress was a big help.”
She issued that with such a straight face he felt the urge to smile. Pulling the suite door closed, Tori sidled close and slipped her arm through his.
“We’re going to have fun today, Adam. You have heard that word before, haven’t you?”
She gazed up into his face with those big blue eyes but never gave him a chance to reply. “We’re going to drink champagne and dance and watch other people drink champagne and dance. We’re going to toast your honorary couple, and, with any luck, I’ll catch the bouquet and you’ll catch the garter. Will you slide it up my leg with your teeth, if you do?”
“Work fits in where exactly? I was under the impression you had a scoop to find and daily deadlines to keep.”
“I do, but my job is to report on your grand opening functions. To do that, I have to interact with your guests. Didn’t you read my article in this morning’s paper?”
“I did. You reported on last night’s rehearsal dinner. You played up the excitement of the event and the romance of how our featured bridal couple became engaged while they built the Wedding Wing.” Directing her toward the elevator, he disentangled his arm to press the button, then clasped his hands behind his back to wait.
Tori frowned, assuring him that she hadn’t missed his getaway. “I also explained that today’s wedding would conclude the first week of your grand opening and officially start the second. Since I’ll have the feature in tomorrow’s paper, I left my readership hanging to find out what happens.”
“Is that why you mentioned our unexpected guests?” he asked, referring to her parents’ last-minute addition to the rehearsal dinner guest list.
“My parents weren’t the only gate-crashers. Your bedding consultant’s parents showed up, too, which meant I had area news of interest to report.” She must have seen something in his expression because she asked, “You don’t agree?”
“No, I don’t.”
She gave a slight shrug that made those red waves shimmer in the overhead light. “That might explain why you’re a hotel manager and not a reporter.”
He didn’t get a chance to respond before the elevator beeped and the door slid open. They entered beside another couple Adam recognized as wedding guests.
“Heading back to the wedding?” he asked.
The man nodded, and Adam inquired about their accommodations, dissuading Tori from continuing their discussion until they were alone again.
When the doors opened, the Wedding Wing lobby appeared before them. He held the door while the guests exited before joining Tori, who picked up right where they’d left off.
“You’re not from Niagara Falls. Trust me when I say your unexpected guests last night are news around here. People gobble up any mention of my family. Take a look at our society page someday. Every other paragraph has the name Prescott in it. It’s a side effect of being related to politicians. When my family and your bedding consultant’s family are together in the same room, it’s news. I was simply writing to my audience.”
She motioned to the life-size painting showcased in the lobby. “Your bedding consultant knows how to use the press to her advantage, too. That’s why she arranged the loan of the Falling Woman from Westfalls. To create spin. She told me so herself.”
Adam followed her gaze, unable to argue the point because his co-worker Laura Granger—the inn’s bedding consultant and the woman who’d conceptualized the Wedding Wing—had acquired the painting to stir up interest in the Naughty Nuptials.
This had been a noteworthy acquisition because the artist, a French woman named Mireille Marceaux, was apparently a local mystery. Adam glanced at the painting, a woman surrounded by a summer-green forest and mist from the falls.
“I still can’t believe she managed to get this painting on loan. Talk about using personal connections,” Tori said, referring to Laura’s status as friend to the headmistress of the exclusive preparatory school that owned the painting.
Adam nodded, but as he gazed at the painting he noticed something he hadn’t before. The redheaded semi-nude reminded him of the brash young reporter standing by his side. Something about the way the red hair, refined facial features and delicate curves came together struck him as similar.
Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The sight of Tori Ford in that skimpy robe still burned in his brain. Like the Falling Woman, she was the stuff fantasies were made of and he wasn’t likely to forget the sight any time soon.
“Laura’s acquisition of this painting was a promotional stunt, but I don’t believe it falls under the same heading as gossiping about our guests in print.”
“Gossiping? Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”
He shook his head. “You’re capitalizing on a decades-old feud between your family and Laura’s, as well as your connection to the senator. That strikes me as sensationalism.”
“It’s Laura’s job to create public interest in her Wedding Wing. It’s my job to create public interest so my readers buy newspapers. People around here enjoy reading about our families, so where’s the difference?”
If Tori didn’t understand, Adam wasn’t about to debate the point. He would have thought Senator Prescott’s youngest granddaughter would have been more concerned about where she directed her media attention. Apparently not.
But while he was entitled to his opinion, Adam wouldn’t purposely antagonize the woman responsible for the reviews on the Naughty Nuptials. Upon learning the Niagara Falls Journal would be sending her estranged cousin to cover the events, Laura, his normally professional, if somewhat quirky co-worker, had told management about her troubled history with the senator’s family. These families were so estranged, in fact, that Laura had feared coverage would be biased as a result.
Falling Inn Bed, and Breakfast needed rave reviews, so Adam was doing his best to earn them. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been assigned to this job because he was the best fit, but because he was the only male on the executive management staff who could escort Tori Ford to couple events.
He intended to enforce what damage control he could and, at the very least, not make matters worse. But he hadn’t counted on Tori turning him into her pet project, either.
“We’d prefer the inn to attract interest on its own merit,” he said to segue through the stiff moment. “Surely you can understand that.”
While Tori might have understood, he could tell by the way she notched her chin that she didn’t agree. And he didn’t give her a chance to embroil him in another debate. Touching her elbow, he guided her toward the grand ballroom, where the Wallace/Marsh reception currently was taking place. She moved along by his side without further comment, and he greeted the ushers posted at the main entrance before escorting her inside.
Laura had indeed outdone herself with this event. The ballroom boasted a sweeping wall of doors that opened onto a forest. With the June sun streaming through, the wedding party and guests looked like a scene on a postcard in the inn’s novelty shop.
Adam had been on the property for over ten months now, yet sometimes the place still caught him by surprise with its unique combination of nineteenth-century grandeur and atmosphere.
And sex.
It was subtle, but everywhere. Glancing up at the ornate friezes separating lofty ceilings from gleaming white walls, he recognized the whimsical sculptures depicting couples with limbs entwined. Mouths and hips thrusting. Rubenesque women in varying degrees of nudity looking dreamy and sated as they pleasured their equally nude men.
Then again, perhaps the sex around here wasn’t always so subtle. Adam thought about the restaurant’s grand opening specialty menu with its bold header scrawled across the front—Inter Courses. And the inn’s promotional materials weren’t much better. The lineup of romance-themed suites in the main hotel boasted names like the Demimondaine’s Boudoir and the Wild West Brothel. The new Wedding Wing had followed tradition with honeymoon suites called the Egyptian Pleasure Pyramid and the Cast-away Honeymoon Isle.
His current charge had been installed in the Wedding Knight Suite, which reminded Adam of a sex dungeon with its Dark Ages furnishings and handy supply of bondage gadgets. Even the bed had a choose-your-pleasure theme, with specialty sheets like the Kama Sutra Sports Set and the Fetish Collection.
“Looks like the receiving line has finished and the bridal couple are gearing up for their first dance,” Adam said. “So where to first, Ms. Ford?”
Tori scanned the crowd, her gaze darting from her photographer, who snapped shots of the bridal couple, to the sidelines, where Laura stood applauding with the Wedding Wing architect. “To the bar. I can’t mingle without champagne.”
Together they skirted the edges of the crowd, and Adam greeted the elderly bartender. “Hello, Clyde. Ms. Ford would like a drink.”
Clyde had a head full of cottony hair and a quick smile that flashed against his wrinkled black skin. “What’s your pleasure today?” he asked Tori.
“I’m a champagne cocktail classicist. What can you do for me?”
“I can fix you up right. Just tell me whether you want to visit the Alps, the Mediterranean or head south to Cuba.”
Tori laughed, a bright sound that managed to spiral through him as if it were alive. A reminder of their chemistry that he didn’t need.
“I knew I liked you from the moment we met, Clyde,” she said. “I’m in the Mediterranean mood today. Just can’t resist those beaches. And please double my order, so I can share.”
Adam wasn’t sure what a champagne cocktail classicist was, but the look Tori shot his way told him he would soon find out.
Accepting a flute, she passed Adam a second, then accompanied him from the bar.
“Mediterranean?” he asked.
“Bubbly with a dash of pomegranate and orange liqueur.”
They wound their way to a spot in the crowd where they could view the proceedings before Tori tipped back her first sip. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she sighed appreciatively.
“I love that man. And I’ll give you one thing around here, Adam—you know how to pick staff. Clyde’s the perfect man for his job. And Laura…the bedding consultant.” She chuckled, and he wondered what she found so amusing. He didn’t ask.
“You’re the only one I haven’t been able to figure out yet, Adam. What do you bring to this place?”
He would have said sanity but as he hadn’t accomplished that ambitious goal yet, he said, “You’ve formulated your opinions of our staff quickly.”
“I work fast.”
No doubt there. “And you have a lock on everyone but me?”
“It’s been two days,” she said as if that explained it. Then she glanced back at the bar. “Take Clyde for example. He’s a retired businessman who took the job as your head bartender because his wife died.” She tipped her flute in salute. “I thought his devotion to your hotel might be to avoid being home alone. So I asked him. You know what he told me?”
“No idea.”
“That he came to Falling Inn Bed because the romance around here helps remind him of all the years he had with his Alice. Isn’t that sweet?”
Adam nodded, surprised. While he would expect a reporter of Tori’s caliber to dig up intimate details on a man’s life, he hadn’t expected her to be influenced by them. A thoughtful smile played around her mouth, and there was a softness to her voice he’d never heard before.
“Are you impressed?” she asked.
“I am. You learned more about Clyde in two days than I have in the past ten months.”
