Take Me Tender Read online

  “Um, sure.”

  “She looks like your type.”

  Nikki tripped again.

  “I can introduce you,” he said, smiling to himself. This was how he’d regain the upper hand with her. If she’d admit it was him and not other women that revved her engines, then he could back away, satisfied. “Want me to?”

  “Well, uh…I don’t know.”

  He couldn’t swallow his smile now. Goading her felt good, and any minute now she’d give up the game and leave him the clear-cut winner. “Don’t be shy. I’ll be happy to help you make the first move—as long as you give me a blow-by-blow of the private ones.”

  She made a choked sound.

  “Can you blame me? All that talk of strap-on sex has me firecracker-hot.”

  He swung Nikki around again, glad to see that the stranger in the blue dress wasn’t blowing his story by cuddling up to some guy. Another turn, and Nikki was facing her potential date once more. “What do you say? Shall we dance her way?”

  Surely she wouldn’t take the charade that far. He held his breath in anticipation of her confession and his freedom from her unprecedented hold over him.

  “Jay…I don’t know. To be honest…”

  Yeah. Honesty. Finally.

  A line drew itself between her brows. She frowned and it was that adorable, heterosexual frown of hers that he couldn’t resist. He started to lean down to take a nip out of that pouting bottom lip.

  Then her eyes widened and her mouth moved into a bright, anticipatory smile. “Oh, Jay. I was going to say no, but now…well, now, how can I? You big meanie, teasing me like that. You should have told me from the start.”

  His shuffling feet slowed. “Told you what?”

  “That right over my shoulder is my deepest, darkest fantasy come true.”

  He knew he was walking right into it. He felt the blood rush to his face as he repeated, “Fantasy?” and this time she took the lead and swung him around.

  “You should have told me from the start there’s two of them—that they’re identical twins!”

  Seven

  I don’t know what sex appeal is. I don’t think you can have sex appeal knowingly. The people who seduce me personally are the people who seem not to know they’re seductive, and not to know they have sex appeal.

  —OMAR SHARIF, ACTOR

  Nikki felt Jay’s hand close tightly over hers. “That’s it,” he said, and dragged her off the dance floor. “I’m done here.”

  Her knee protested as she pulled back to halt his movement. “What’s wrong?”

  “I told you earlier tonight this wasn’t going to work, Nikki.” He kept tugging her toward the doorway leading into the restaurant.

  “I wore pink,” she said, struggling to stay calm. “I told people we’re dating. I’ve done my part, Jay.”

  “Played a part, you mean,” he muttered.

  “But that’s what you wanted.” She knew her voice was reedy with dismay, and she hated having to beg him, but she was getting very close to it. There were bills to pay, a car to feed, a knee to nurture. “And you like my cooking, you can’t deny that.”

  “Your cooking rocks.” He continued onward, and too soon they were standing beside the valet’s stand, waiting for his car to be brought around.

  “You haven’t experienced all I have to offer yet,” she said.

  He turned his head to stare her down. “I’m quite aware of that, cookie.”

  “Listen to me. Stuffed hamburgers. My famous margarita muffins. What I can do with a pork tenderloin has been known to make grown men weep.”

  “I’m not much of a crier.”

  “Me neither. See? We have so much in common. And I can be, uh, nicer. Is that what you want?”

  I can be whatever you want. Her younger voice, slurred by booze and by loneliness. I can be whatever you want, I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t leave me alone.

  Nikki shoved the memory underground, where it belonged. She wasn’t fifteen. She wasn’t that desperate.

  Not quite yet, anyway. She cleared her throat as a little white sports car pulled up to the curb. “Jay?”

  “You know what I want, Nikki? I want—” He broke off as his beautiful, Botoxed neighbor emerged from the driver’s side. “Oh. Shanna.”

  The other woman gave Jay a tentative smile, her gaze darting to Nikki and then back again. “You’re leaving already? I was hoping to run into you here, Jay. I could come over tomorrow, I suppose, or if you have a moment now…”

  That sounded like a fine idea to Nikki. Shanna was another reason why her employer needed her, maybe even more than her meal preparation, and this would remind him of it. Sidling closer, Nikki slid her arm around his waist and gave the other woman an encouraging smile. “We’re in no hurry.”

  Jay glanced down at her, his expression unreadable.

  She pursed her lips, sending him an exaggerated yet silent smack for the other woman’s benefit.

  His nostrils flared, and he placed his warm palm on her bare spine, two fingers insinuating themselves underneath the back of the dress. A little shiver wracked her body, and he gave her a secret caress with his fingertips as if he’d noticed.

  “All right,” he said. “What’s going on, Shanna?”

  “Well, I…I don’t want to hold you two up,” the other woman answered, shifting on her tippy-toe Barbie pumps so that the light from the tiki torches decorating the entrance caught in the sequins of her white minidress. Her gaze darted to Nikki again. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  It was hard not to feel sorry for the woman. What she had in the Hollywood looks department she obviously lacked in self-confidence. “It’s okay,” Nikki said. “We have all the time in the world.”

  Jay’s hand pressed her back. “Not so much time, cookie. You know how anxious I am to get you alone.”

  Get her alone so he could fire her. Rather than showing her alarm, Nikki pressed a kiss along his hard jaw. “Now, handsome, you know I’ll give you all the time you need later.” With her free hand she smoothed the placket of his shirt, slowing as she neared his waist. She hooked a forefinger in his belt loop and redirected her attention to the bleached blonde. “Why don’t you tell us what’s on your mind.”

  Jay’s hand slid deeper beneath her dress, goose bumps bursting over her nakedness. “Tease,” he murmured, loud enough for the other woman to hear.

  Shanna’s smile flickered again. “Maybe I should come over tomorrow. You two look as if you want to get on your way.”

  Leaning toward the other woman, Nikki lowered her voice to a whisper. “I know, I think he’s fallen hard for me. And I have a feeling this might be the real thing, too. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t object to you spreading the rumor to everyone tonight that I’ve marked my man.”

  Jay pulled her upright by moving his wandering hand from her spine to her hip and pressing her back against his front. He felt hot. And big.

  “Cookie…” The word was definitely a threat.

  A couple came onto the portico and headed for a waiting Mercedes. They greeted Jay and Shanna by name, and gave Nikki a curious look. She managed a jaunty two-fingered wave.

  “I’m Nikki,” she called out. “And yes, it’s just what you’re thinking. Jay’s got himself another girl. But you heard it here first. This one’s sticking.”

  “Sticking?” he scoffed as the couple drove off. “They’re going to think you’ve been drinking.”

  “As long as they think of me when they think of you,” she said, sending him an upward glance. “Like a couple. Like an inseparable twosome.”

  He bent his head to her ear and whispered, his breath hot against her neck. “Like a man who must be out of his mind saddled with a woman playing with fire.”

  “Did you say saddled?” She shook her finger at him, ignoring the new set of sex chills that were rushing all over her body. “Be patient. I’ll get out my riding crop later.”

  He rolled his eyes as Shanna let out a startled sound.
“Don’t let cookie here fool you,” he started.

  “I’m much stricter than I look,” Nikki finished. “But enough about our sexual practices. What is it you wanted, Shanna?”

  The other woman looked as if she wanted to run away. “Um…well…”

  “She’s teasing, Shanna,” he said, his voice tight. “Now, what’s up?”

  She hugged her tiny purse so close it tucked into the valley between her silicone breasts. “It’s about the gardener.”

  “My friend Jorge? I told you, he owns the landscaping business. It’s his employees who take care of your gardening.”

  “Yes, well, I realize that. Are you sure he’s reliable?”

  “I’m positive. You should know. He’s taken care of your house for several years.”

  “But Daddy handled it. This time I’m sort of in charge. My father bought the place next door.”

  Nikki tried to give herself a little breathing room, but Jay’s hand tightened on her hip when she tried to move away. “The Pearson place?” he asked.

  Shanna nodded. “Daddy’s going to tear it down to enlarge our pool house.”

  Jay groaned. “Good God. I know that old place is pretty beat up, but isn’t your property big enough as it is?”

  Shanna didn’t answer that question. “My parents are going to Nice for a few months and I said I’d do what I could to ready it for Daddy’s plans. There’s a bunch of over-growth that needs to go.”

  “Then by all means use Jorge,” Jay said. “But damn, I’ll hate to lose another of the older places. Remember when we were kids, Shanna? All the casual bungalows and the communal beach barbecues? Now everyone is locking themselves away behind thorny hedges and privacy walls.”

  The blonde shrugged. “It will never be like it was when we were kids, Jay. But thanks.” She started toward the restaurant’s entrance, then paused. “Thank you, too, Nikki, for postponing your, um…evening.”

  For postponing the inevitable, Nikki worried as she and Jay watched the woman walk away.

  Before she disappeared, he turned her into his body. “Finally.” His head bent toward her mouth.

  Nikki leaned back. “What are you doing?”

  “Shanna’s watching,” he said. “Act accordingly.”

  His hand speared through the hair at the back of her head to bring their lips close. Breath-minglingly close. She didn’t have to act at all as he swooped in to press another burning yet tender kiss upon her mouth. Instead, she did what came naturally, she leaned into him and let herself savor his flavor and the hot, hard sensation of his body against hers.

  He murmured something against her mouth—witch?—and slid his hands down her back to the swell of her behind. He palmed the globes as he lifted his head. “That punishment can go both ways, cookie. You’ve asked for a spanking, but I don’t get into the kinky stuff until I’ve exhausted all the more traditional possibilities.”

  She blinked, the sexual intent in his eyes and the impossible-to-ignore, powerful thrill of his arousal against her stomach blanking her mind so that no snappy comeback presented itself. A knot of people separated to stream around their conjoined bodies and a woman said, “Jay!” in a scolding tone. “What are you doing now?”

  Nikki found her voice. “Proving he’s a one-woman man, and I’m that woman.”

  Too late, Jay clamped a hand over her mouth.

  At the touch, old terror rose up. Pain in her knee, fumbling at her thighs, a palm bruising her lips. She jerked away from him, nearly falling on her butt as she stumbled back. Jay lunged for her and caught her elbow, keeping her upright. She yanked from him again, her heart thumping like the feet of a fleeing rabbit.

  His brows slammed together. “Nikki?”

  His car was at the curb, one of the valets just clambering from the driver’s side. Without answering, she headed for it. Once inside, she tucked away the memories, careful to bury them six feet deep again. Jay got behind the wheel, then started off, only to pull into a dark corner of the lot.

  “What’s going on?” she demanded, willing the last of her fear away.

  “I think that’s my line,” he answered. He turned off the car and shifted toward her. “Nikki—”

  “I’m sorry I called you Sonny,” she said, as quickly as she could. “And I promise I won’t ever let it slip that I have a yen for female twins in my bed.”

  Even in the darkness, she could tell he was shaking his head. “Nikki…”

  It couldn’t end like this. She didn’t want it to end like this.

  He shook his head some more. “I told you this isn’t—”

  Her mouth stopped the words coming out of his. It was the only thing she could think to do to halt the conversation. And it worked, because his mouth instantly opened under her assault and her tongue found its way inside him.

  He tasted like Jay, like sophistication and experience and the sun, blazing against the sand. A dark sound came from his throat and his hands closed over her shoulders. She felt frantic…but whether it was to keep her job or for him to keep on with the decadent, hot, drugging kiss, she didn’t know.

  But she was his lesbian chef!

  …and then the thought drifted away as his hand covered her breast. Her skin rose in goose bumps and her nipples rose even higher. He had to notice.

  He did. His tongue slid past hers to fill the cavern of her mouth as his thumb brushed across the tip of her breast.

  Good Lord, he was good. He could move that lazy thumb over her peaked breast in the same rhythm that his tongue played in her mouth. It was the slow, lazy beat of an R&B song, and she went over as easily as if she had Marvin Gaye or Al Green humming in her ear. Her blood, her body, throbbed, caught in the sweet, exotic, erotic music.

  When Jay’s fingers found the bow that kept her bodice together, her heart seized, and only started back up again when it was loose and he was peeling away the cups that covered her breasts. Her naked breasts. Naked to him.

  He looked. He thumbed both taut crests. He made her squirm against her seat and watched her swelling flesh demand more of him. But he didn’t seem put out by the unspoken plea. Not him. Instead, he laughed, soft and seductive, then bent his head to cover her left breast with his mouth.

  Oh, God.

  Her back arched, her shoulders pressing against the seat, and she heard him groan as he sucked, the sensation shooting pleasure from her breast to her womb. His hand played with her other nipple for a moment, then it dropped to her thighs and made a place for itself, the edge of his palm sliding into the cleft of her sex.

  He sucked, harder now, and her thighs opened for him, heat and wetness trickling from between them, an invitation for more. She found herself gripping his leg, just above his knee, trying to ride out the exquisite, erotic torture. And then wanting so much more of it that she leaned into the pressure of his heated mouth.

  Somewhere close, a horn blared. Oh. Oh, no!

  She jerked back, her nipple unlatching from his avid lips with an audible pop. The sharp pull, even the sound of it turned her on more, though she pressed back against the seat. His hand moved away from her thighs. “What—what are we doing?” she asked.

  Surely it was the question his lesbian chef would have asked.

  He slowly straightened, though his gaze was like his hands had been, hard and hot against her naked breasts. “We’re getting a couple of things out in the open, Nikki,” he said, his voice tight.

  Avoiding his eyes, she yanked the crocheted string of the dress together to tie a clumsy bow between her breasts. Her actions were so inept, that she didn’t realize her right nipple was still mostly exposed until his fingers reached out and tugged the fabric toward the center. At the touch of his knuckles against the hollow of her breastbone, her skin jittered from both areolas to her bellybutton.

  “This isn’t right,” she whispered, resisting the reaction with everything she had. Her shoulder blades dug deeper holes in the leather seatback.

  “It’s damn right, and it’s damn tim
e,” he retorted, settling back in his seat with an uncomfortable grimace. “Okay, maybe not the right place, but the truth is, you’re no lesbian, Nikki. And if I have my way, the only one in the near future climbing into a bed with you is going to be me.”

  Shanna stepped over the graying, splintered railing that surrounded the deck of the Pearsons’ former beach bungalow and pulled a set of keys from the front patch pocket of her pale pink yoga pants. A pile of broken patio furniture stood between her and the back door and she skirted the mass, remembering when the torn, faded canvas of the chairs and umbrellas had been a dark nautical shade instead of the bleached, bluish color of fat-free milk.

  The key slid easily into the French door and she swung it open, stepping into the rectangular room that encompassed the entire back half of the house. Paint cans were stacked in one corner and an old porch swing had been pushed into another. Shanna remembered playing on the contraption as a kid, and she found herself drawn to it now. The springs squeaked like a family of disgruntled mice when she pushed at the seat with the sole of her foot.

  “Good morning,” a deep voice said.

  Shanna turned, startled. The swinging seat smacked the back of her calves, shooting her forward.

  Jorge Santos winced for her. “Are you all right?”

  No. She’d meant to present herself as calm and in charge—a woman of business—and already she was scampering around like one of those squeaking mice. Her hand pressed against her jittering heart, the same reaction she’d had around him the other day when he’d fixed her faucet.

  “You startled me.”

  He looked away. “I’m very sorry. I was having coffee at Jay’s and saw you come this way.”

  She felt better with his gaze off of her. His face was handsome, a fact she’d noticed when he’d been in her house, and he had dark eyes made only more riveting by the inky lashes that surrounded them. Today, he was wearing a pair of khaki pants with pleats straight from a dry cleaner’s, and a polo shirt with Santos Landscaping embroidered on the chest. He was broad-shouldered and his arms were heavily muscled—she’d noticed that last week as well—but today she could smell the freshness of soap instead of the salty tang of honestly earned sweat.