Chapter Four
David swore under his breath. Normally, this would have taken him only minutes to finish. But with Dana close by, he had a hard time trying to focus on what had to be done. And he’d just become aware she was looking at him. That wasn’t helping his concentration.
He looked up. She was reading again. Or at least she was looking down at the book. Whether she was actually taking in anything was another matter altogether. She shifted and dropped the book onto her lap. The thin T-shirt revealed she was either cold or…
Groaning softly, he raked his hands through his hair. He wanted to throw his computer away, lock everyone else in the cockpit, and take Dana to the big bed tucked away in the corner so he could put his hands on her in every way he’d imagined. He wanted her, and this craving was driving him insane.
He willed his body to behave and forced his attention back to his computer.
He and Darryn were responsible for the advertising and marketing of the hotel group he and his brothers owned.
Darryn used to be a photographer, and part of his job still entailed taking photographs.
David did all the copywriting for the ads, and between the two of them they had to make sure everyone knew about their hotels.
If he didn’t fix this problem now, his brothers would not be too happy with him. A glance in Dana’s direction showed him she had slid down in the seat and closed her eyes. Good. A sleeping Dana he could handle. It was the wide-awake one that was giving him problems.
As he stared, she rolled onto her side, and the T-shirt moved up to reveal a tiny part of her golden skin. Swearing softly, he grabbed his computer and moved to the seats farthest from her. What the hell? He had work to finish, damn it. He didn’t have time to sit and drool over a bloody woman.
*
Dana stopped breathing in anticipation.
David’s fingers found their way underneath her T-shirt and he slipped his hands higher and higher. Wantonly she moved closer to him so she could give him better access…
“Dana! Dana!”
He was calling out her name. She frowned. But why was he doing it so loudly? She opened her eyes and there he was. David. For a minute she stared up at him, until she heard the other voices behind him and realized they had landed. She’d been dreaming, and his hands weren’t under her T-shirt.
She sat up quickly and looked at her watch. Oh, hell, she’d slept the whole time, undoubtedly because she’d hardly slept the night before. Quickly she combed her fingers through her hair and got up. Her makeup was probably smudged, her hair a tangled mess.
“I’m sorry, I must look terrible. I didn’t think I would sleep this long…” she started babbling, but David took her hand and she stopped speaking.
“You look beautiful.” His eyes darkened and he kissed her.
Before her befuddled brain could construe a sentence, he ran his fingers through her hair.
“I want to talk to you, but I can’t now, and I won’t be able to come to Hermanus before the weekend. Can I see you then?”
She opened her mouth to say no, but someone called him and he moved away.
The very last thing she wanted to do was to make a date with this man who had been occupying her mind every waking and sleeping moment for the last few hours.
It was ridiculous to feel this way, to react this way to his presence.
Nothing could ever come of it; she knew that.
The flight attendant opened the door of the plane and showed Dana out. Before she could descend the stairs, David was there, his arm held protectively around her. His phone rang, and he talked to someone until they entered what looked like a VIP lounge.
Dana looked around, trying to orient herself.
Two days ago, she’d driven to the airport with her own car and had parked it in one of the parking garages.
It was an expense she couldn’t really afford, but in the end it was much cheaper than a shuttle service from and to Hermanus.
And asking her mother was not an option.
Dana spotted her luggage near the door and grabbed her bag. David was still on his phone, and she motioned to the flight attendant that she was leaving. Quickly, she slipped past the milling people, her only thought to get away quickly.
*
The client finally ran out of things to say and David was able to end the call. Irritated, he put his cell phone in his pocket. Some people simply talked way too much. But Gary was one of their biggest clients and David had to stay nice.
He turned around, expecting to see Dana behind him. But she was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is Dana?” he asked the flight attendant, who was hovering close by.
“She’s left,” she said and pointed toward the door leading into the airport building.
Swearing, David stormed out, his gaze combing the crowd. Why the hell hadn’t she waited for him? And how was she getting to Hermanus? He never got around to asking her.
Just when he thought he’d missed her, he spotted the blonde with the long legs leaving the airport building. She’d put her hair up in a ponytail, but he’d know that walk, that sexy sway of the hips, anywhere. He sprinted and ducked, never taking his eyes off her swinging ponytail.
She was standing in front of a parking machine, opening her purse, when he finally caught up with her.
“Dana,” he called out, and she turned her head.
“Why didn’t you wait for me?” he asked, taking the parking ticket from her hand.
She made a grab for it, but he held on, taking out his own wallet.
“I want to leave and that’s my ticket—I’m paying for it!” she snapped, still tugging on the ticket.
He grabbed her hands in his empty one and pulled her closer while he pushed the ticket into the machine.
“I want to do this for you.”
Her eyes flashed. “I can pay for my own—”
“I know, but let me do this,” he insisted and waited until she’d stopped fidgeting. Then he pulled out some bills and pushed them into the slot of the machine.
Dana stood by silently, her whole body radiating her displeasure.
The machine spat out the parking ticket, and he handed it over to her.
She grabbed it out of his hand, turned on her heels, and strode toward the elevator.
He followed but took her bag. She glared at him, opened her mouth to say something, but four other people entered the elevator and she fell silent.
When the elevator stopped on the level for the second parking bay, she tried to take her bag, but he refused to let it go, and with a huff she walked out.
He followed, becoming a little bit irritated with the whole scene.
What was it with this woman? Most women wouldn’t be offended if he offered to pay for something or if he tried to help them.
In fact, paying for something was usually a sure way to get into their good books and into their beds, he’d learned.
She walked stiffly toward a small car that had obviously seen better days.
Dismayed, he stared at the car. Surely she wasn’t planning on traveling in this piece of tin all the way to Hermanus?
“Don’t you dare say a word about my car. Not all of us can afford the type of car you are used to,” she snapped and opened the trunk of the car.
He lifted the bag into the trunk and closed the lid.
She walked quickly past him to the driver’s door and opened it.
“Thank you for the plane ride, for paying for my parking ticket, for carrying my bag, although I would have been able to cope all on my own, like I have for the last ten years since I’ve been earning a salary.” Clearly miffed, she turned to get into the car.
Before she could move, he pinned her to the car. They stared at each other, both of them breathing hard.
“I was trying to help you,” he snarled. “Usually women like that.”
She narrowed her eyes and tried to break free from his hands. “I’m not most women.”
“I know.” He sighed, and just like that the irritation left his body. He slid his hands up her sides and he kissed her.
*
Dana opened her mouth to protest, but David slid his tongue through her lips, and she forgot why she’d been so angry with him. Their tongues met, and his teased hers while he moved his hands restlessly up and down her sides.
There was so much heat, flames licking right beneath her skin. Was it possible to burst into flames? He folded his hands around her breasts, and she snaked her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her.
Far away, cars were honking, people were laughing, but here within this cocoon where she and David were floating, nothing else could intrude, nothing else mattered.
And then he stepped between her legs, slid his hands beneath her T-shirt, just like in her dream, and explored her flesh, lighting small fires just below the surface of her skin wherever he touched her.
Any minute now he’d be touching her breast.
She strained upward, wantonly moving her body closer to his.
His phone rang, a car backfired and, cursing, David lifted his head.
Dana stared helplessly up at him. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember why she’d been so angry with him, why she’d wanted to get away from him so urgently, why she hadn’t wanted to be near him.
He looked down at his phone but didn’t answer it. Instead, he switched it off and put it back in his pocket. He put his hands back on her shoulders, but reality came crashing down.
Dana ducked underneath his arm and slid into her car. She quickly closed the door and rolled down the window.
“Thank you for… everything.”
“Everything?” he teased and leaned forward on the car with his arms.
“This”—she motioned her hand between them—“is ridiculous. You know it. I know it.”
“I’ll call you about the weekend.”
She shook her head. “Not a good idea…”
“There’s something I want to tell you about your father.”
Irritated, she stared at him. She didn’t want to see him again, but she wanted to hear what he had to say, and he knew it, damn it.
He lifted his hand and touched her face. “And we also have to talk about this thing between us.”
“There is no thing…” she started heatedly, but he leaned in and kissed her.
A gasp escaped her lips before she could stop it.
He lifted his head, his eyes mere slits. “Really? Because your body says something entirely different.” He lightly touched one of the protruding nipples straining against her T-shirt.
She inhaled sharply. “I—I… y-you…” she stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.
“I’ll phone you.” He stepped back.
Dana turned the key, praying fervently that her car would play along today.
It sputtered and made a few strange noises, but it started up eventually. Without looking at David again, she reversed and sped away. The man was making her behave in ways she’d never thought possible. Groaning out loud, she turned onto the national road that would take her all the way to Hermanus.
Christmas was a few weeks away, and the roads were busy. Holidaymakers were streaming down to visit all the seaside places for the summer holidays. She had to focus on the traffic. She couldn’t be thinking about David’s kisses, David’s hands on her body.
The bloody man was too attractive for his own good. As one of the billionaire hotel tycoon brothers, he could have his pick of any beautiful woman out there. Why was he so intent on toying with her?
Because there was no way he could be seriously interested in her. She was an absolute nobody.
Okay, maybe he did know something about her dad that might help her investigation into the whole sorry mess. She’d listen to what he had to say about her father, but that was it. Whatever else he wanted, he’d have to find somewhere else.
Her body hadn’t yet settled down after David’s kisses and touch, but that she would have to ignore. How difficult could that be? She wasn’t a schoolgirl anymore, damn it!