Can't Help Falling In Love (15 page)

But not yet.

She also didn’t want to stop. Maybe she was lying to him but she had no intention
of lying to herself. No matter how this turned out, she wanted him. She wanted this
like she’d never wanted anything. And what she wanted, she usually got. She wrapped
her arms around him and kneaded the muscles of his back as she shifted against the
leg resting between hers. “Do we have to?”

Tony nodded. But he didn’t move.

Randa huffed out a shaky laugh. “But there’s no need to rush.”

Tony slid his hand under her shirt and Randa couldn’t contain the gasp that escaped
at the feel of his hand on the bare skin of her stomach.

He cursed under his breath. “Why can’t you be a normal girl?”

Randa laughed. “What does that mean?” But she understood very well what he meant.
She’d wanted the same thing. Tony knew there was something different about her, something
inside that didn’t match the outside. And he didn’t like it.

Here and now, she didn’t either. She hated it. She wished she was a normal girl with
a normal job and a family that made her crazy but left her to her own devices. She
was glad making her own decisions had landed her here in this bed in Memphis, but
she wished they’d met… somewhere, anywhere else.

She felt a little sad as she failed to come up with a single everyday place where
her path might have crossed with Tony’s. The truth was, without her father and the
broken engagement and the family business and this kooky, wonderful hotel, they would
never have met.

They’d been given a chance to connect. She wasn’t going to let him waste it, normal
girl or not.

He shook his head. “It means I know there’s something other than Elvis drawing you
here.” He watched her face, waiting to see if she’d confess it all there.

She had the idea that even her best poker face would fail here, but she had to try.
She was stuck. She couldn’t force herself to lie to Tony, but she couldn’t let go
of the responsibility she felt to do her job well. She’d spent so long doing everything
she could to measure up that it was almost impossible to imagine doing anything differently,
even if she wished her parents could change or that her life was about more than spending
her father’s money and renovating hotels for other people to run.

“I can’t imagine what you’re talking about.” She trailed a hand down his back to scrape
her nails over his right butt cheek. “Could we talk about it later?”

She leaned up and kissed him hard before she yanked the tank up over her head. When
she stretched back out beside him, Tony’s eyes were hot. She raised an eyebrow and
said, “What do you think?” She traced one finger over the curves of her very expensive
and very lacy pink bra. “Come on, Tony. This is what you might call a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity. You. Me. A nice hotel bed. And I can’t imagine there’s another hotel
room like this in the world.” And that was the truth. Staying at the Rock’n’Rolla
Hotel was all about once-in-a-lifetime experiences. It was no wonder it was such a
popular place. Once the Whitmores got a hold of it, all the magic would be gone.

The idea of renovating away the magic of this space made her sad. No matter what happened
with the hotel or with Tony, this was a place she’d never forget. She wanted to have
this memory too.

She glanced down at the tattoo on his arm. Randa wrapped her hand around his wrist
then followed the winding script up his arm before she reached for the first button
on his Hawaiian shirt.

She had three unbuttoned before he said, “We are going to talk about this later, Randa.”
He watched her unbutton the rest of the buttons and groaned when she leaned forward
to place three hot, open-mouthed kisses down the center of his chest. She slid her
hands inside his shirt and did her best to memorize his hard abdomen, the cut of each
sharp line of muscle.

Before she was satisfied, Tony unhooked her bra and smoothed it down her arms. He
pushed the bra out of the way and wrapped his hands around her breasts.

“So pretty.” The rough rumble of his voice made her shift restlessly. Randa felt the
heat of his hands against her and the teasing brushes of his thumbs against her nipples
before Tony leaned down to suck one hard nipple in his mouth. Randa struggled to get
closer to him.

He shifted sides and Randa’s back bowed as each lick and suck and nip sent a flash
of fire through her.

Randa was damning the skinny jeans at that point. More than anything she wanted to
be naked against him. But she didn’t want to let him go. Didn’t want him to stop.
Tony leaned back to stare long and hard at her breasts. Randa bit her lip to stop
the plea that bubbled there. He kissed a trail down her neck and over her chest before
he returned to her nipples and as he did, he slipped one hand between her legs to
cup her through the jeans.

His happy groan joined her whimper as he rubbed the spot she needed him to the most.
Randa wanted to beg him to stop so she could shimmy out of the jeans. But she didn’t
want him to stop. His hand was hard and hot and each shift increased the tension in
her body. The muscles in her legs were tight as she worked to get closer, go higher.

“God, Tony, that’s… I think I’m going to…” She gasped for air and couldn’t
finish the thought. Her legs tightened around him and she pulled him closer as she
gasped against his shoulder.

Tony held her. Hard. He buried his head in her shoulder and took deep, shaky breaths.
Then he eased back.

“No, wait, don’t stop.” Randa was afraid she could hear desperation in her voice but
it didn’t matter very much to her. Not right now.

Randa felt the iron bands of his arms around her slowly loosen and she sighed as he
shifted against her, his erection hard against her hip. She shook her head. “That
wasn’t… I mean, I had no…” Tony’s laugh rumbled against her sensitive breasts
and she said, “Please tell me you have a condom in your wallet.”

He smiled down at her and she had to catch her breath all over again. The Tony she’d
met before had been handsome enough, but Tony with a smile on his face, a happy, open
smile, was devastating.

“You look… happier than I’d think a man in your particular position would.” Randa’s
voice was husky as she stretched against him.

Tony reached back to yank his wallet out. “Two reasons. I do have a condom. And I’m
damn glad I remembered how to do that.”

“Me too.” Randa kissed his collarbone. “And, God, me too.” She wanted to ask him why
it had been a while. In fact, she had a million questions. How long? Why? Why her?
When could they do it again? Or for the first time? What was the holdup with that
condom?

She opened her mouth to ask the last one, but someone rapped on the door. “Mr. Tony?
Are you in there?”

Randa and Tony froze. Instead of pulling a condom out, Tony rolled over on the bed
and rubbed his face with both hands. Consuela knocked again. “Mr. Tony?”

Randa whispered, “Answer her! She’ll use her key if you don’t.”

“Hey, yeah, Consuela, we’re just about finished with this room.” Tony grimaced as
he moved to a sitting position and started to button his shirt. Randa wanted to cry
as she watched the chest that she’d barely gotten to touch disappear behind dancing
palm trees on polyester.

Consuela said, “Ah, good then. We will finish the rooms on this floor for you, Mr.
Tony. You need your break.”

Tony cursed once or twice as he nodded. “Great. Thanks!”

Randa and Tony were both quiet as they waited to be discovered there, amidst the clean
but rumpled bed covers of the hotel’s only sailboat. Finally Tony picked up her bra,
held it up to study the lace for a minute, then handed it back to Randa with a pitiful
look. “You better put this back on.”

Randa sat up and slipped into the bra before she pulled her tank top over her head
and smoothed it down over her hips. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She
wasn’t sure what to say here. But she was no coward.

“Thank you, Tony.”

He shook his head. “So polite.” He reached over and took a strand of her hair between
his fingers. The back of his hand brushed her breast as it slid down to the end.

Randa replied in her best snooty voice, “Please do me the honor of following me to
my new room at your earliest convenience, wherein I shall endeavor to rock your world
as thoroughly as you have rocked mine.”

Their eyes locked and they both smiled.

Tony bowed his head. “Verily, milady, it would please me greatly to respond affirmatively
but…”

Smiling Tony had been devastating. Happy, teasing Tony filled her with longing. She
felt a pinch in the area of her heart as she imagined what it might be like to kiss
him whenever she wanted, to spend as much time as she liked looking at his naked chest,
to be the one who made him smile, and to know what it took to make him laugh. He was
a mystery, but the right woman would have a treasure when she figured out all the
clues.

Randa licked her lips. “But what? Too busy?” For sex? She had, in her life, been too
busy for sex. But she’d never really gotten the appeal before either. She knew the
power she had, but until she’d rolled around with Tony in the hotel’s only sailboat,
she hadn’t really understood the craving. Now she did. And she wanted him.

Randa knew how to get him, how to appeal to his baser instincts. She’d done it before,
walking that very fine line between too much and not quite enough. She didn’t usually
try sex kitten in rolled-up jeans and a wrinkled tank top. Considering his wish for
a normal girl, she had a feeling it would still work on Tony.

Maybe he’d been able to turn her down before, but she’d only been playing for information
then. But honestly, she didn’t want to
play
anymore. Thanks to scrubbing toilets, she had all the information she needed. She
knew the number of rooms. And now she knew that no two were identical and that Willodean
Jackson’s decorating sensibilities were about as far as could be from the Whitmore
hotel aesthetic. From here, all she had to do was crunch numbers. The fact that she
was this close to finishing up in Memphis didn’t fill her with satisfaction. She had
a bad feeling Tony was the only man who could give her that. She wanted him, maybe
more than she’d wanted anything. Except her own hotel.

There was something about Tony that made her want to be real. Maybe it was the fact
that he was so solid, so dependable, the kind of guy she’d want beside her in a crisis
because he wasn’t going to be shaken. She had the feeling she could be herself with
him and he wouldn’t judge her or make her feel less than. Something about him made
her think he’d accept the real her but also make her better. Men like that were hard
to find.

She bent over him and kissed his lips before she stepped back with a sigh. She ran
a hand over her stomach and then propped it on her hip. “We had fun. Don’t tell me
you wouldn’t like to have more.” She waggled her eyebrows. “You’re practically bursting
at the seams. I can do something about that.” She pursed her lips and winked slowly.

He pushed her gently away and slid off the bed to strip the bed covers. “Now that
there’s blood flowing back to my brain, I remember why this is a very bad idea. You’re
a guest in the hotel. The staff does not sleep with guests. You’re not…”

“A normal girl. You said that.” Annoyed, Randa tried to neaten her hair. “I don’t
get it. Why does that matter? I want you. If this is just about money, forget about
it. What I want to do with you is totally free.”

Tony clamped his lips shut and Randa watched a muscle twitch in his jaw as he gathered
himself. “I’m not sure I understand it either, but it matters. I want you. So damn
bad. You could make me lose my mind right here with one touch, but I have the feeling
that’s not all there is to us. Until I know what your secret is, why you were so desperate
to get in the hotel when you barely know Elvis’s last name… are you using me?
Because I promise better people than you have tried to get me to do things I didn’t
want to do.” Tony’s face was grim.

His question was a shock, a slap in the face, and for a second she had no idea what
to say or do. He’d hinted he knew she was lying and it was easy enough to brush aside
or gloss over. This was a black-and-white demand. Anything less than the absolute
truth was a lie, and she couldn’t force an easy lie across her lips. Not now.

She clenched her arms tightly over her chest and gasped for breath while she battled
the urge to confess everything and beg him to forgive her for trying to manipulate
him. Because she had been doing her best to do so, just like the old Randa would.
She couldn’t be angry at him for being smart to see through her and stubbornly honorable
enough to call her on it.

Every other time they’d danced around his doubts, Tony had pulled back, left her room
to wiggle. This time, Tony didn’t try to help her out of the awkward situation. This
time the room was quiet and the tension between them stretched out.

“God, I can’t believe this. I think I’m going to cry.” Randa sniffed and rubbed her
forehead. She did not want to cry. She was a grown woman. She played games with big
stakes a lot in business. She should be able to handle confrontation. But this was
Tony. The idea that he would think badly of her hurt.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Shit. Tears? I mean, that’s like—”

“I know! Manipulation 101, right? When things get too difficult, burst into tears.”
Randa took a few deep breaths and willed herself to stop. She was a Whitmore. This
was business. Sort of. Tears were so massively inappropriate here that she was ashamed
of herself all over again. But more than anything, she wanted Tony to wrap his arms
around her and tell her it was all right.

The look on his face said that was unlikely. She straightened her shoulders. “Maybe
I have been trying to manipulate you, Tony.” She cleared her throat. “No, I have been.
And I wish I could tell you everything now, but I can’t. My father, my family…
it’s just… I can’t, not yet, but I do apologize. I was only doing what I do.”
She shook her head. “Have always done before, but I don’t… with you especially,
I don’t want to do that. I hope you can forgive me.”