Her involuntary squirms only made him tighten his grip on her, press her closer, urge her to move against his tall, hard body in a very slow, sensual dance. He trailed one hand up her back and delved into her hair, his fingers caressing her scalp in a light, hypnotic massage.
His hands shifted on her back, splaying wide, keeping her flat against his solid length. Virginia remembered when they had been sweaty and hot and needing each other last night. She trembled at the memory and he tightened his hold on her. She knew, sensed, felt, that he also remembered.
His eyelids drooped suggestively as he ran his knuckles down her cheek. His lips hovered over her mouth and lightly skimmed side to side. “I can’t wait to take you home with me.”
A feeling unlike any other bloomed inside her. She trembled down to her knees as she fought to quell it, afraid of what would happen if she set it free.
“Take me home…like a stray?” she ventured. Was this the full-moon fever? Her hormones? She’d never thought love could feel like this. So total. So powerful.
Marcos let go a rich, delicious chuckle. “More like the loveliest treasure.”
She guided her fingers up his taut, hard-boned face, not daring to hope that he might…
“What is it you wanted to tell me tonight? You said you wanted to speak with me, too?”
His smile didn’t fade, but a soft tenderness lit up his eyes. “Can’t you guess, chiquita?”
“Can you give me a hint?”
He nodded, calmly explained, “It’s about us.”
The tender but possessive way he held her, the warm, admiring way he gazed down at her, prodded her on. “Is there…an us?”
A tingle drummed up and down her body where they touched.
His eyes went liquid, hot with tenderness as he tipped her face back. “You tell me.”
I’m pregnant with your baby. She could not say it, needed to know what he had to say first.
He stroked her cheek with one knuckle. “I know what a woman like you wants,” he said softly. “I can’t give it to you, Virginia, but I’d like…” He trailed off when they heard a sudden noise.
Virginia’s stomach tumbled with the need to hear the rest. What had he meant to say? For a single disconcerting moment, she worried he’d sensed the sudden, alarming, fragile emotions she was struggling with and this made her even more determined to hide them.
Next she heard the echoing footsteps of someone approaching. Virginia trembled when Marcos released her, her heart gripping when she spotted Marissa. Her hair streamed behind her, and her smile was provocative. And suddenly Virginia felt very small and very pregnant.
To Marcos, with wry humor, Marissa handed her arm as though he’d asked her to dance, and slyly purred, “I hope I’m interrupting something.”
Bad form. Bad, bad form.
Marcos couldn’t make his proposition to Virginia here. Diablos—where was his head? On Allende? No, it was not even there, and Marcos was shocked at the discovery.
Somewhere during the past month…somewhere between a headache, when Virginia had smoothed his hair off his brow and “knew the perfect thing to take care of that headache” for him…somewhere between one morning and another, when they sipped coffee in silence…somewhere between the sheets, when he was lost inside of her in a way he’d never thought humanly possible…somewhere between one of her million kinds of smiles…somewhere between an exchange of files…something had happened.
Marcos had let down his guard. He’d allowed himself to trust a woman, fully and completely, in a way he’d sworn he’d never trust another human. He’d allowed her to filter his mind, his thoughts, to the point where his goals had shifted…shifted and shifted until he no longer knew if they were his or hers.
“I need your help.”
Marissa’s soft, pleading words registered out on the terrace, and yet his eyes followed Virginia’s lovely figure as she glided back into the crowded room. He’d noticed the frustration in her jade-green eyes when she stepped away, saw her struggling to hold her temper in check. She was a curious one, his Virginia. No doubt she craved to know what he’d planned to say. He smiled to himself as she wound her way away from him, into the room, her bearing as regal as a queen’s.
She was wearing the most amazing, breathtaking, heart-tripping dress he’d ever seen, and he was dying to take it off her.
“Should we talk inside?” he asked curtly, shifting his attention back to Marissa, who in turn was eyeing him speculatively.
“Of course.”
He led her into the decorated space. An orchestra played. Couples danced in harmony to the tune. Amongst the round tables, people mingled.
Heading toward the conference hall at the south end of the lobby, they crossed the room. He greeted several acquaintances, nodded his head at a few more and kept a close eye on Virginia. Her hair fell down to cover part of her face. Her profile was exquisitely feminine, like a doll’s.