she hadn’t yet figured out how to broach the subject of her future with Scott Hotels and Resorts. In truth, all she’d been thinking about was her present.
The prospect of another evening with Kel brought a nervous flutter of anticipation to her stomach. When they were together, she felt so alive. She’d thought spending time with him would wash away the memories, but instead it had only created so many more. She’d come to crave his touch, the taste of his mouth, the feel of his skin against hers. When they were apart, Darcy found herself lapsing into wild fantasies about the erotic pleasures they might share next.
He had total control over her willpower, making her happily do whatever it took to please him. Yet his pleasure always seemed to be hers as well, and vice versa. When she looked into his eyes as he buried himself inside her, Darcy saw the surrender, the vulnerability, of a man who had carefully dismantled all barriers between them.
But there were also times when Darcy looked at him and wondered if she were perhaps coloring his reactions with
A knock sounded on her office door and Darcy looked up, expecting to see Kel standing outside. Instead, Amanda strolled in, a dripping wet rag in her hand. “I thought you ought to see this,” she said.
Darcy wrinkled her nose. “What is it?”
“It’s your swimming suit. Jerry found it stuck in the water intake for the pool filter. Would you like to explain how it got there?”
“It must have fallen off when I was swimming the other night,” Darcy said with a soft giggle. “When Kel and I were swimming.”
Amanda sat down in one of Darcy’s guest chairs, draping the wet suit over the arm of the other. “So I gather it’s going well?”
Darcy drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That depends on how you define ‘well.’ The sex is fabulous, Kel has to be the most disarming man I’ve ever met, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since he arrived. When we’re together, I can’t seem to get enough of him.”
“And how does he feel?” Amanda asked.
“I’m not supposed to care about that. I decided to embark on this little affair in order to get him out of my system.”
“And how’s that working for you?”
Darcy sighed deeply. “I can’t stop thinking about him,” she admitted. She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a new box of chocolates from Sinfully Sweet. “I had Olivia stop at Sinfully Sweet when she was in town yesterday. Try the chocolate-dipped caramels. They are absolutely to die for.”
“So, if things are going so well,” Amanda said, “why are you sitting here eating caramels?”
“He didn’t call me today,” Darcy said. “Yesterday he called me six times and today nothing. I think maybe it’s over. He’s bored and ready to move on.”
“I ran into him today in town,” Amanda offered. “He was stocking up on condoms, so I’m pretty sure it’s not over.”
“You saw Kel?”
She nodded. “I talked to him. I told him if he hurt you, I’d break his arms.”
Darcy groaned. “No! That’s not part of the deal. I can’t get hurt because I’m not supposed to care about him, don’t you see?”
“What I see is two people who are trying so hard not to care about each other that they can’t see that they might be falling in love.”
“No,” Darcy said. “I won’t let myself. It’s as simple as that.”
“Do you want this to end?”
Darcy plucked another caramel from the box and popped it in her mouth. “No. But it is getting in the way. I haven’t done anything to prepare for my father’s visit.”
Though the distraction of having Kel around was enjoyable, she’d managed to forget everything that was really important to her. She’d worked so hard to build a career in hotel management and it was time for her to take the next step, to force her father to see her as his successor or to move on and find another job with one of his competitors.
If she’d learned anything in her life it was that she needed to be in control, that she needed to determine her own future. Darcy couldn’t depend upon her father to know what was best for her, nor could she allow a husband or a fiance or a boyfriend to alter her plans. She wasn’t daddy’s little girl anymore, so desperate to please and so starved for his attention.
“Maybe you should tell the guy how you really feel.”
“I plan to. As soon as he arrives I’m going to tell Daddy-”
“Not your father. I was talking about Kel. And don’t try to hand me the line that you don’t know how you feel.” Amanda stood up, grabbed a handful of chocolates from the box, then walked to the door. “Gosh, all this talk about sex has made me really horny. I need to find myself a man. I think I might have to talk Carlos into giving me a massage.”
Darcy opened her mouth, ready to issue a stern warning about fraternization, but Amanda just wagged her finger and turned on her heel, leaving Darcy to her own sexual dilemmas.
Darcy reached for the phone and punched in Kel’s room number, but then quickly hung up before it rang. If this was the end, then she wanted to hear it directly from him, face to face. She opened her desk drawer and grabbed the master keycard for the guest rooms and tucked it in her pocket.
The deal had been so simple at first. She had only wanted one taste of the forbidden fruit, just enough to satisfy her hunger. But then, she’d never expected to become addicted, to crave him so much that she couldn’t control herself, to do anything for one more bite of the apple.
“I’m supposed to want more than this,” Darcy murmured. She was twenty-eight years old. Her college roommates were all married and starting families of their own and here she was, contemplating yet another night of no-strings sex with an avowed playboy.
Closing her eyes, she sighed softly. She could go to her own room and try to fall asleep or she could have one last night with Kel. “Oh, what the hell,” she muttered as she walked out of her office.
Darcy waved at Olivia as she walked through the lobby. “Take me off the board,” she called.
When she reached Kel’s door, she didn’t bother knocking. She pushed the keycard into the lock and opened the door, then slipped inside. Kel was lying on the sofa, watching television, dressed only in a pair of sweatpants.
She let the door click shut behind her and at the sound, he sat up. “Darcy!” He scrambled to his feet and stared at her, his hand resting on his hip.
“You were expecting someone else?”
“Yes,” Kel said. “Actually, I called down for a massage. They were sending someone up. Karl, I guess. I wanted him to work on my shoulder.”
“I thought we’d see each other tonight,” she said, “but I didn’t hear from you.”
“I was planning to call after the massage. I thought maybe you might like to have some time to yourself. You know, get a good night’s sleep.”
Darcy slowly crossed the room and picked up the phone next to the sofa. She punched in the number for the spa, then waited for the receptionist to pick up. “Hi, this is Darcy. I just wanted to let you know that Mr. Martin in the Bennington Suite would like to cancel his massage. He has other plans.”
Darcy dropped the phone in the cradle, then shrugged out of her jacket, tossing it aside.
“We could both use some sleep,” Kel suggested. “I’ve got a lot of things I need to think about and I can’t really do that if you’re distracting me.”
Her fingers moved down to the buttons of her blouse, a tiny frown wrinkling her brow. “All right, if that’s what you want. When we made this arrangement we didn’t say we had to spend every night together.” She pulled her blouse out of her skirt and dropped it off her shoulders, revealing a lacy black bra.
“Is that why we spend time together?” he asked, his gaze drifting to her breasts. “Because of our arrangement?”
She smiled and slowly approached. “I like our arrangement, don’t you?”
Kel nodded his head. “Yeah, I like it a lot.”
