were too strange for anyone,” she confessed, “but Angel thought they were deliciously outrageous and very salable. And she was right. I’m making all kinds of money these days.”
“It doesn’t show,” he said abruptly with a speaking glance at what she was wearing.
She lifted a haughty eyebrow. “I wouldn’t waste my exquisite wardrobe on a mere friend,” she informed him.
His dark eyes narrowed. “Is that all I am?”
“It’s all I’m going to let you be,” she said gently, looking away from him. “Would you like—”
“Why?” He was behind her in the shadow of the house, his hands around her waist pulling her back against his tautly muscled body.
“You know why,” she ground out. The warmth of those hands was driving her wild.
“I can’t have Bess,” he whispered in her ear, drawing her even closer, “but I can have you. You can have me.”
She trembled and closed her eyes as the tempting pictures rambled shamelessly in her mind. She gritted her teeth, because there was only one possible answer to the blatant seduction in his voice. “No.”
“Tell me you aren’t tempted, Elissa,” he dared.
She pulled away from him, taking a few seconds to get her composure back. “How about some coffee?”
He hesitated at the back door, then sighed and gave in. He didn’t understand himself lately. Elissa was suddenly in his blood, and he wanted her out. He hoped he wouldn’t one day lose control with her. The thought frightened him a little. Yet he seemed to totally forget Bess when he touched Elissa. That was somehow frightening, too.
He followed her inside, his face thoughtful, to find her parents waiting to join them around the coffeepot. He smiled at them, relieved to find something to keep his mind occupied. It was having a field day with memories of Elissa, her dress disheveled and pushed down to her waist.
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING, King and Elissa’s father set off before daylight. By the time Elissa and her mother were up, the men were long gone. Tina fixed a small breakfast for them and then set about her housework, while Elissa went down to the beach for a swim. Afterward, she set to work on her designs with a fierce determination to work off her frustrations on paper.
It worked, too; she came up with some totally new looks, very innovative and sexy and cool. She took a break for lunch and some lazy conversation with her mother, and then went back down to the beach, a flowered patio skirt over her one-piece black bathing suit, and stretched out on her towel to scribble some more.
The sun kept going in and out of the clouds. She closed her eyes with a sigh as it began to cool down, and she was almost asleep when a shadow fell over her.
She opened her eyes to King’s dark face, his eyes narrow and speculative where the skirt had fallen away from her long, tanned legs. Her bodice had slipped because of the shoulder straps, almost baring one breast.
“Sexy as hell,” he murmured, and there was irritation in his voice. “You look like a beached mermaid, and you’d better thank your lucky stars your parents are within earshot.”
“Oh, promises, promises,” she laughed drowsily, only half taking him seriously. She stretched, and his jaw tightened.
He unbuttoned his shirt, watching her the whole time, seeing how her attention suddenly became riveted on the hair-covered muscles he was revealing. When he stripped it off, her eyes widened on his torso, and he felt a surge of desire so strong that it almost knocked him to his knees. She liked looking at him. She was too inexperienced to hide her own longing, and the sight of it made him all too vulnerable to his own hungers.
“I thought I might go for a swim,” he said huskily as his hand went to his belt.
Her lips parted. “You...can’t,” she began, thinking of her parents.
“I’m wearing trunks,” he said. He unhitched the belt and slowly moved the zipper down. She was breathing quickly by the time he finally peeled the jeans down his long legs and discarded them, along with his sneakers.
“Why did you do that?” she asked in a strange, high-pitched tone when he turned to her.
“I like the way you look at me when I’m undressing,” he said quietly, meeting her hesitant gaze. There was no mockery in his eyes, no teasing. He moved closer, looking down at her for a long instant before he caught one of her hands in his and