Chapter 9
Nine
Beck waited in The Tower’s lobby office, checking his watch every few minutes until he thought he’d go crazy if they didn’t arrive soon.
Earlier, when Travis asked him to help out a friend of Liana’s, Beck never imagined the friend would be the object of his fantasies.
Liana was a beautiful, sexy woman, and Beck was thrilled to see Travis having so much fun with her.
But the supermodel who made Beck drool, the one whose photo graced his calendar year round and had him waiting for each new edition of the Victoria Secret catalog was Jessica Stone.
Thank goodness they had been on the phone when Travis asked him to help her, otherwise his good friend would have zeroed right in on Beck’s fascination. Of all the women who could be heading his way in the middle of the night. . . Beck couldn’t wait to meet her.
He wondered if she would be as amazing in person as she was in the many photos he had seen of her over the last few years since she bounded on to the modeling scene.
The whole celebrity crush thing was new to him.
He had grown up with sisters who’d had posters of pretty boys taped to their bedroom walls.
Beck, on the other hand, had preferred pictures of sports heroes, motorcycles, and muscle cars.
He also was anxious to know the deal with her so-called stalker. His cell phone rang, and he pounced on it.
“Peter Beck.”
“This is Roland, Ms. Stone’s driver. We’re entering the gates to North Point.”
Showtime! Beck gave him directions to The Tower and went out to meet the three-car caravan.
A couple of beefy-necked bodyguards emerged from the first of the two black SUVs that book-ended the limo. They took a measuring look around as Beck approached them.
“Peter Beck, chief of security,” he said as he received two bone-crushing handshakes. He spent the next fifteen minutes answering their formidable list of questions about building and property security while anxiously waiting to meet the main attraction.
“Impressive,” one of the beefy dudes finally declared. “Mr. Dale, Ms. Stone’s agent, asked us to make sure everything was kosher before we left her here.”
“You have my guarantee that she’ll be safe here. I’ll see to it personally.”
The other beefcake sized him up and down once more before signaling to the driver.
A man who Beck assumed to be Roland emerged from the limo and opened the back door.
Beck held his breath as he waited for his first glimpse of Jessica Stone in the flesh.
Well, not in the flesh, but close enough.
The picture in his mind of a glamorous supermodel hardly jibed with the pony-tailed waif in the pale blue sweat suit who emerged from the car.
She took a long look around even though she probably couldn’t see much beyond the glow of headlights from three cars. Finally, she set her eyes on him, and the impact was like a punch to his stomach. Her face lifted into a small smile as she moved toward him.
Beck was frozen. He couldn’t have moved if his pants were on fire.
Extending her hand, Jessica looked up at him with big eyes that he knew from her photos were blue. “I’m Jessica Stone,” she said in a lilting Southern accent, “but my friends call me Jessie.”
Beck knew he was expected to respond. He was supposed to shake her hand. But all he could do was stare. Finally, he snapped out of it and reached out to take her hand. A jolt went straight up his arm. “Peter Beck,” he managed to say. “My friends call me Beck.”
“Nice to meet you, Beck.”
For some reason he was ridiculously pleased to have been granted friend status. “We’re happy to have you as our guest, Ms. Stone. If there’s anything we can do for you, all you have to do is ask.”
Her smile faded just a little, but he noticed. “It’s Jessie, and that’s mighty nice of y’all. I’ve only met Liana a few times, but Artie said a friend of hers owns this place.”
“That’s right, Travis North—my friend and Liana’s.” Beck didn’t add that Liana was spending the night in Travis’s penthouse. “He asked me to make you comfortable.”
“I so appreciate that. My. . . situation. . . in New York had gotten, well. . .” Her eyes filled.
As a man who had learned from experience to avoid commitment and women who screamed forever the way this one did, it was all Beck could do not to haul her into his arms and tell her everything would be just fine.
He would make sure of it. But because the beefcake brothers were watching his every move, he said, “Let’s get you settled upstairs so you can get some rest.”
He showed Jessie and her entourage to the apartment on the fifth floor that Travis had outfitted for guests and VIPs.
“Oh,” Jessie gasped after Beck flipped on a light. “This is beautiful!”
“Wait ’til you see the view in the morning. It looks right out on the bay.”
Roland deposited her bags in the bedroom. “Is there anything else we can do for you, Ms. Stone?”
“No, thank you.” To the others she added, “Y’all have been terrific. And I appreciate your discretion in not mentioning to anyone that you brought me here.”
“Of course,” Roland replied for all of them.
“We’ll take good care of her,” Beck assured the five men before he showed them to the door.
When they were alone, Jessie moved slowly around the big room, taking in the elegant, contemporary furnishings. Once again, tears flooded her big blue eyes. “It’s perfect. Please thank your friend Travis for me.”
“You can thank him yourself in the morning. I’m sure he and Liana will want to check on you.”
“I don’t really know her all that well.” Jessie twisted her hands in a nervous gesture. “I was kind of appalled when Artie told me he’d asked her for help with my. . . situation. She’s like the Princess Diana of models compared to little old me.”
“You’ve gotten your share of the spotlight.”
“You’ve heard of me?” she said with that wide-eyed expression that made him want to drool.
“Ah, yeah,” he said, laughing. If only you knew. . . “I’ve heard of you.”
“I’m still getting used to that. And now there’s this guy. . . He keeps sending me creepy letters and showing up outside my house. But he’s always long gone by the time the police get there.”
“We’ll talk about that tomorrow,” Beck said. “What you need tonight is some sleep.”
“That’d be nice. I haven’t been sleeping too well worrying about him showing up at my door.”
“That won’t happen here. I promise you’ll be safe.
” He couldn’t get over how tiny she was in real life.
Her photos made her look much taller. The photos had, however, done justice to her curvy, hourglass figure and flawless complexion, marred now from crying.
While Liana’s staggering beauty could only be called regal, Jessie was pure soft sweetness.
In all his thirty-six years, Beck had never felt such an overwhelming need to protect another human being.
A thought that should have been terrifying was instead electrifying.
He gave her a quick tour of the apartment. “Are you hungry? We stocked the kitchen with just about everything we could think of.”
“I’m fine. We stopped to eat on the way, but thank you.”
“Okay then.” Beck felt uncharacteristically awkward and tongue-tied. “I’ll check on you in the morning.”
“Do you have to go?” she asked and then seemed to instantly regret it. “I’m sorry. Of course you want to go. You must be anxious to get home.”
“I don’t mind hanging out for a bit.”
“Really?” she asked with an audible sigh of relief. “They were careful to make sure we weren’t followed, but I just worry he’s going to find me.”
“He won’t. I swear to you, Jessie, no one gets in those gates who doesn’t belong here.” But as he said the words, he remembered the recent spate of vandalism on the North Point property and decided to double his security detail. No one was going to bother this woman—or Liana.
“I’ll be okay,” she said, attempting a confident smile that fell flat. “You can go.”
He moved to the bar that Travis kept stocked for guests. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.”
The look on her face when she realized he wasn’t leaving tugged at his heart. “Is there any white wine?”
“Coming right up.”
Liana awoke to the sound of the shower. Sunshine poured in through the full-length windows in Travis’s bedroom.
She stretched, and the soreness coming from various intimate places caused her cheeks to burn with shame as she remembered the wide variety of positions she had been in during the night.
She’d lost track of the number of orgasms and could almost still feel him bent around her as he took her from behind.
Opening her eyes, she was startled to find Dash staring at her.
“You were watching, weren’t you?” Liana asked the dog.
Dash studied her without blinking.
Burying her face in the pillow, Liana groaned.
How will I ever look at him again? I can’t even look at his dog!
But as embarrassing as it was to remember it all, another part of her was thrilled because what she’d experienced with Travis was real passion—really sweaty passion.
At least now I won’t have to live the rest of my life without ever knowing what that’s like.
I’ll have these two weeks with him to remember.
The thought of having to rely only on memories filled her with sadness.
Oh, Liana, get real. You can’t be in love with him after one night. One long, amazing night . . .
When Travis emerged from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, her face was still buried in the pillow. He kissed his way up the bare slope of her back, causing her to shiver. “Why are you hiding in that pillow?”
Her cheeks burning, she didn’t answer him.
“Liana,” he sang. “Show your face.”
“Can’t.”
He laughed as he trailed a finger over her ribs. “I have ways of getting you out of there,” he said as he tickled her.
She squealed and turned away from his tickling hand.
He brushed the hair back from her face. “Are you embarrassed, sweetheart?”
She bit her lip and nodded but still didn’t look at him.
Travis bent his head to trail kisses over her neck. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
She winced. “If you say so.”
He took her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “You’re a beautiful, sexy woman, Liana. Don’t be ashamed of enjoying yourself in bed.”
She lowered her eyes again when her cheeks burned.
“Liana,” he said with a sigh as he kissed her blush. “Last night was the most incredible night, and I hate that I have to go to work, but I have a bunch of stuff going on today.” He opened his hand and keys dangled from his finger.
“What’ve you got there?”
“Keys to my car and to this place. You’ve seen me use the key in the elevator, right?”
She nodded.
“Come and go as you please. Take the car. Go have lunch with your mother, and then bring her back with you to have dinner at the club tonight, okay?”
“Won’t you need your car today?”
“I’m in meetings most of the day, and if I have to go anywhere, I can use one of the trucks. You do have a driver’s license, don’t you?”
She smiled. “I haven’t driven in a while, but yes, I have a license. I don’t want to take your car, though.”
“It’s insured.”
She laughed and reached for his freshly shaven face. “Thank you,” she said, kissing him softly.
“You aren’t going to die of shame today, are you?”
“I might,” she confessed.
“Don’t.” He nudged the sheet aside and drew her sore nipple gently into his mouth. “Because I want to do it all over again tonight.”
She trembled as her body responded to his touch.
He pulled back with what seemed to be great reluctance. “I have to go,” he said with another sigh. “Next week I’m taking some time off so we can stay in bed all day.”
“You’re going to kill me.”
He reached for the box of condoms on the bedside table and shook it. The few that were left rattled inside. “I should’ve gotten the bigger box.”
Liana went back into the pillow. “Stop,” she said in a muffled voice.
“I had no idea you’d be so insatiable.”
That got her out from her hiding place. “Me?”
He laughed and got up to dress in a dark olive summer suit.
As Liana watched him move around the room, she decided he was the sexiest man she’d ever known—and she’d known plenty of sexy men.
But none of them possessed his unique combination of stunning good looks, sensitivity, and humor.
Not to mention sexual prowess. Yes, don’t forget about that, she thought with a little giggle.
“What are you laughing at?” he asked with a smile as he adjusted his tie and turned to her.
“Nothing.”
He shocked her when he flopped down on top of her. “Tell me.”
She was hit with a fit of the giggles, which he encouraged when he tickled her ribs again. “Travis! Stop!”
“Tell me what you were laughing at.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “I was making a mental list of all the things I like about you.”
“This I need to hear.”
As her hands sought out his back under his suit coat, she decided to indulge him. “You’re very, very, very good looking, but I’m sure you know that.”
“Yes, it’s something I think about quite a lot.”
With a smile, she said, “You’re funny and fun and sensitive.”
He groaned. “You had to throw that in there, didn’t you?”
“It’s true,” she insisted.
He made a face at the compliment. “So which of my so-called attributes did you find humorous?”
She blushed again. “The sexual prowess part.”
His grin was smug. “Prowess, huh? I like that one.” “I figured you would.”
He rewarded her with a lingering kiss, and Liana was startled to realize he was aroused again.
“You’d better go,” she said, running her fingers through his still-damp hair.
“I don’t want to.”
“You have meetings.”
“I have the sexiest woman in the world in my bed. Suddenly, my meetings don’t seem so important.”
She gave him a little push. “Travis . . .”
With a rumbling groan, he rolled over and sat up. He looked back at her over his shoulder. “Don’t retreat from me today, Liana.”
The concern on his face moved her as she reached for his hand. “I won’t.”
He kissed her hand and then her lips. “Dinner at seven?”
“We’ll be there.”
“I’ll think of you today,” he said. “Will you think of me?”
“I think it’s safe to assume you’ll cross my mind.”
He smiled. “Good.”