stress-relieving yoga tape any day.
“I don’t hike.”
His grim smile didn’t falter. “I’m not surprised, but this isn’t a hike, it’s just a little walk. You’re not afraid of a little walk, are you…
The way he said her sister’s name made her glance at him, but he’d slid on a pair of dark sunglasses with reflective lenses, so she couldn’t begin to tell what thoughts were running in his head.
“Do you need help changing?” he asked softly.
“No,” she said. Or squeaked. She whirled away and hid behind the hanging sheets. A narrow full-length mirror hung off the bamboo, and hooked on to it was a pair of jean shorts and a bright-red halter top. On the floor sat a pair of thick wool socks and brand-spanking-new hiking boots in her size.
Not bad, she thought, letting out a breath of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She’d be fully covered. She liked that, because the thought of facing Rafe in the light of day with anything less than a full set of armor felt a bit…daunting.
She stepped out of her own jeans and top, and then pulled on the shorts.
Uh, oh.
“Problem?”
She jumped a little at the sound of Rafe’s voice just outside the dubious protection of the sheets, and hurriedly slipped on the halter top.
“Amber?”
She stared at herself in the mirror wondering who the hell was staring back. Certainly it wasn’t her with the piles of makeup designed to appear “natural,” the artfully messy hair and the eye-popping clothes, because she’d never looked so naturally…hot. Maybe it was the way Jen had teased her hair, making it seem as if she’d just stumbled out of her lover’s bed-although, no one really looked this good in the morning.
And the outfit…“Man, oh man,” she whispered just as Rafe pulled back the sheet.
Standing behind her, he slowly pushed the sunglasses to the top of his head. His eyes met hers in the mirror, then traveled down, over the red halter top that left her shoulders bare. It also exposed plenty of cleavage all the way to the middle of her torso and that’s pretty much where the top ended. Her belly rose and fell far more quickly than she would have liked as his gaze dropped lower, to the hip-hugging shorts that were so low, the black elastic band of her panties showed around the top.
She didn’t want to think about what else showed. She’d thought the thong last week had produced a wedgie beyond belief, but that was nothing to the feel of the denim riding up and exposing at least half of each cheek. She’d peek, but she didn’t want to bring it to his attention-
“It’s good,” he said, his voice even.
How did he do that? Remain so cool, while her heart threatened to burst right out of her chest just from seeing him look at her. “There’s…not a lot of coverage.”
His gaze cut down to her behind. “Nope.”
She stared at herself in the mirror, careful not to look at his reflection-his sharp eyes, his lean unshaven jaw or the way the wind had tousled his hair into a mess that her fingers suddenly itched to touch.
Clearly, she had lost her mind.
But it was hard to keep it when he was a mere inch behind her, when she could feel his breath on her neck, when she was watching him watch her. Even as she thought it, her nipples puckered into two tight buds.
Terror, she told herself. It was the terror at being in front of a camera again, exposed. At his beck and call.
But even as she thought it, she didn’t believe it.
No, what she felt wasn’t terror, but…excitement. Arousal.
And she had no idea what to make of that. Or of herself.
6
IN THE END, Rafe had to hold her hand. It was that or lose her on the last leg of the climb to the top of the rock formation, and he used the word
Really, it’d been nothing more than a slightly taxing walk. But not to his model. “Let’s go,” he said over his shoulder, practically towing her. The sky was wide open and so blue he could have drowned in it, but that was only directly overhead. From the west came a rather vicious wind and he could see the white clouds darkening as they swirled together and gained momentum.
How many times had he been here? he wondered. The rocks, the sky, the amazing foliage that survived the harsh winters and violent summers…it all amazed and calmed him in a way little else did.
But his experience told him what those clouds meant. He knew they might have an hour before the unexpected spring storm hit…or five minutes. “Come on.”
She blew a strand of hair from her face. “‘Come on,’ he says,” she muttered, and used her free hand to yank at the jean shorts that couldn’t possibly be yanked at because there simply wasn’t enough material. “I’m coming, I’m coming.”
He shook his head and strove to find something else to think about. “I thought you’ve been running and taking yoga,” he said. Emma vexed and puzzled him, so he felt like vexing and puzzling her back.
“Running?”
Apparently the twins did have at least one thing in common-a healthy dislike of strenuous exercise. “You know, jogging? To keep fit?”
“Oh. Yes.”
He glanced at her in time to see her worry her lower lip, and bit back his own grim smile. He really had no idea why he loved torturing her, but he wasn’t nearly done. “Because I have to tell you, Amber, you need to get a refund on that private trainer you hired.”
When the wind whipped up her hair and blew it across her face, she irritatedly shoved the hair away. “She’s, um, been on vacation.”
“You mean ‘he?’
Dismayed, she just looked at him.
The cost of her clothing-$150.
The price of her makeup and hair-$200.
The look on her face-priceless.
“Yes,” he said. “You remember Harris. The trainer you use four times a week.”
“Clearly,” she said, and she managed a laugh. “I shouldn’t walk and talk at the same time.”
He couldn’t help it, he laughed, too. Poor baby, being so torn between having to lie and needing to keep the cover-God only knows why.
And damned if he wasn’t attracted to her innocence even as the continued lie bugged the hell out of him.
Somehow it combined, in some weird way, to work as a powerful aphrodisiac. It was sick, he knew, being turned on by her under the circumstances and he knew he had to ignore it.
And her.
At least, the best he could. Luckily, they reached the top. He admired the view and took a deep breath, but when he turned to her, he let the breath out with a laugh.
Bent, hands on her knees, she huffed and puffed for air. “Don’t say a word.”
“Word.”
She laughed. “Why do you do that? Why are you so…”
“So…?”
“So tough? Hard to crack?”
He just looked at her and her open expression shuttered.
“You know, there’s something I’d really like to tell you,” she said. “But it’s complicated.”
