Chapter Two
Joaquin Valezquez didn’t make a habit of picking up women. Which wasn’t to say it had never happened, but he was a busy man who couldn’t afford distractions, especially today.
Thirty minutes ago, word of yet another one of his father’s financial overextensions had reached him.
Joaquin had left his team finishing out his presentation to a tech mogul and called his father on his way to the hotel.
Just hearing Lorenzo’s voice made his skin crawl.
Trying to work with him was like trying to reason with a swarm of murder hornets.
Every time Joaquin swatted at one damaging sting, another threatened from a new direction. Nothing about it was pain-free.
Brooding on the fact he had to find a more permanent way to keep his father from destroying the legacy that belonged to his brother’s children, Joaquin had stepped into the elevator that opened as he arrived in front of it.
His mind had been on the calls he had to make. The plans that needed hammering out. There had been rumbles among the board of LV Global that they would be willing to vote Lorenzo out if Joaquin stepped in as CEO.
Joaquin would rather go back to scrubbing toilets for drunk tourists than take over LVG, but someone had to. He needed to call a headhunter and his sister-in-law. Others.
Despite his preoccupation, his libido had absolutely noticed the woman who seemed to be waiting for the elevator.
She was well dressed in a casually tasteful way.
Her smart jacket and designer trousers made the most of her figure without being blatant about it.
She struck him as a sophisticated woman who was establishing herself in a professional field.
Her dark brown hair was in a tidy roll at her nape.
Her profile was a graceful line that belonged on the kind of pink brooch his grandmother had once worn.
When a huge smile arrived on her face, she was incandescent.
His cloud of distemper had lifted. He asked if she was going up.
She met his gaze and his breath stopped. She was genuinely beautiful. Her makeup enhanced a wide mouth and high cheekbones and long brows that delivered an impression of intelligence and directness. Confidence.
As she looked at him, her bright blue eyes took on a gleam of interest that was deeply gratifying when he was in such a foul mood.
She’d said something funny as she joined him. He’d already forgotten what it was because she seemed to offer a lot of throwaway remarks that kept him on his toes.
Siobhan. Her name was as charming as the rest of her. She seemed both open and closed, playful yet careful. Empathetic without offering pity. She was lovely to look at and sensual in the way she appreciated her first taste of wine. When he took her hand, her pulse skipped under his touch.
That had been as enticing as a flick of a ribbon to the desire prowling like a jungle cat inside him. He was wound up and longing for a chase and a capture and a wrestle.
As he opened the door of his suite for her, she carried their half-full glasses inside, offering him a whiff of vanilla and oranges from her hair as she passed.
He let the door fall closed and set the ice bucket on the coffee table, then dropped his phone beside it. He joined her at the window and took back his glass.
“Have you ever been to Alcatraz?” She nodded at the view through the shroud of the curtain and the mist on the water.
Metaphorically, he’d grown up there. “No.”
She slid a sideways look at him and seemed to grow skittish, putting a few steps between them. “I want you to know that I never do this.”
The loping animal in him slowed his pace. “When you say never…”
Her chin dipped coyly. “I’m not a virgin. I mean I don’t jump into bed with strangers.”
Her cheeks flushed pink. She was trying to be bold, but she was shy at heart. Fascinating.
“I’m not making judgments. Or assumptions.” After a beat, he magnanimously added, “We don’t have to use the bed. Lady’s choice.”
Her throaty laughter was as much a turn-on as the rest of her, filling the room with her presence. “Good to know. That helps my nerves a lot. Thanks.”
“This is you nervous?” She had invited herself in here! “God help the man who encounters you when you’re feeling confident.”
Her mouth pulled wide in a satisfied show of her teeth. “Thank you for that. I actually hate feeling less than five thousand percent confident. But you’ve got all of this going on…” She motioned at him in an encompassing way. “It’s intimidating.”
“I think there might be a compliment buried in there,” he said drily.
“But to be clear, I like five thousand percent consent. If you’re here because you feel intimidated, or you think I expect sex because I bought you a glass of champagne, then we need a longer conversation before we do anything else. ”
“That’s not what I think. I’m very comfortable saying no when I need to. I’ve made a habit of it for a while now.” Her mouth twisted with irony. “More often than I needed to. It’s the saying yes that makes me feel out of my depth. I’m out of practice.”
“Like saying yes to a drink?”
“Exactly. I don’t know how to be spontaneous anymore, but I’d like to be. If you’re getting mixed signals, that’s why.”
“You use truth to disarm,” he replied, studying that contradiction of squared shoulders and a high chin with the pink that sat in her cheeks and the way her lashes kept screening her thoughts. “You only reveal a sliver of the truth, though. It’s a clever sleight of hand.”
“Is that a compliment?” Her brows went up to a haughty level as she mocked him with his own words. “Because you’ve buried it.”
“I believe you’re nervous.” Even though she was disguising it well. “I’m observing how well you counteract it by calling it out. The way you’re confiding in me sounds like a sign of trust, but it also lets me know I can’t take advantage of you. Not if we’re being honest with each other.”
“You’re making it sound like I came in here to screw with your mind not your body. I assure you it’s the latter.”
“Please continue with both. As foreplay goes, I’m enjoying it.” He swirled the final mouthful of champagne in the bottom of his glass before swallowing it, meeting her gaze over the disc of the stem.
Her blue eyes glittered with amusement.
Dios, she was marvelous. He hadn’t even kissed her yet and he wanted weeks and months and years to saturate himself in her.
That thought brought him up short. He had a few hours. The night at best. The slow-motion train wreck in Madrid needed mitigating. Dealing with his father required all of his concentration and a matching level of ruthlessness.
Joaquin loathed the idea of being anything like his father. It made him sick to contemplate it so he brushed that disturbing prospect aside. He set down his glass and ambled toward Siobhan, watching her eyes widen.
“There’s no rush,” he assured her. “No signed contract to fulfill. Leave anytime. But I’m dying to kiss you.” He cupped the side of her neck and gave her a beat to decide.
Her gaze held his until her pupils expanded, then her lashes swept down. Her attention dropped to his mouth and her lips parted in tremulous invitation.
“I want that, too.” She leaned into him, mouth uptilted in offering.
He sealed his lips over hers and desire exploded within him.
Yes. Here was the portal to escape he’d been looking for.
Siobhan hadn’t realized what a sense of heightened anticipation she’d been in until his mouth covered hers and relief arced through her.
There were still nervous crackles in the back of her mind. What if he was an accomplished liar? What if it wasn’t her he wanted, but them?
All of that receded behind the avalanche of more immediate signals—the lingering taste of champagne on his tongue, the subtle notes of aftershave applied hours ago against skin that was warm with the musk of his own personal scent.
The lightest scuff on his chin where his five o’clock stubble was coming in.
The seductive play of his fingertips against her neck, masterful as a pianist teasing a love song from his keys.
A moan of need left her. She flowed into him, arms lifting to twine around his neck.
His arm twitched and there was a delicate ping and shatter of crystal against tile.
He broke their kiss and they both looked down at the glass she’d dropped.
In the next second, his arms slid around her.
He lifted her off her feet and pivoted her out of the broken shards.
As he set her back down, his mouth captured hers again, eclipsing all but the heavenly feel of him firmly surrounding her.
Strong, restless hands slid under the back of her jacket, pressing her closer.
He angled his head to kiss her deeper. She tightened her arms around his neck to arch herself into the bow of his towering frame.
All she knew was the erratic pulse in her ears, the sear of sexual heat in her blood, the edgy hunger that wanted to devour him. She slid her hands into his hair and lightly scraped her nails against his scalp.
The sound he made was regressive and thrilling. In a powerful move, he swept her up into the cradle of his arms. His gaze tracked over her with possessive satisfaction before coming back to meet hers, flashing with demand.
She was still trying to catch her breath. A fine tremble weakened her muscles. She suddenly had a new appreciation for how powerful he was. How unknown. Nerves accosted her again. Apprehension paired with a thrill of excitement.
“Say yes,” he commanded.
Oddly, his stern demand was the reassurance she needed. He wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want. But she did want. Her desire for him was profound.
Holding his intent stare, she toed off one shoe, letting it thud to the floor. Then the other. Her sister would kill her for treating them so poorly, but the way his nostrils flared was worth it.
“Quit being a brat.”