Now he had her full attention, and not just because he had a body that shorted her senses. She rolled over until she was sitting up on the submerged ledge of the pool, thoughts of imminent escape momentarily forgotten. ‘Monica called and you didn’t bother to let me know? When you know I’ve been waiting for her call?’
‘She did try to call you,’ he reminded her. ‘Is it my fault you didn’t pick up? But does it really matter who she spoke to? The important thing is, she said she’s delighted to have the wedding here on Kallista.’
‘Oh, I’ll just bet she did.’ Sophie rose up like the proverbial phoenix, water sloughing from her limbs. For the first time she was uncaring at being clad in only a bikini, if only because she was so angry. ‘Because you no doubt told her the Tropical Palms was now unavailable.’ She swiped up the sarong from the chair where she’d left it and knotted it around herself before searching for her phone, wondering how she could have missed a call. Even if she’d dozed off, it would have woken her.
‘It is unavailable. I didn’t realise it was a secret. You should have said.’
‘And you should have called me!’ she said, lifting her towel, knowing the phone had to be here somewhere. ‘Monica might be your sister, but I’m supposed to be the one who’s organising this wedding for her and Jake.’ She turned back, temporarily giving up on the phone. ‘Or did Jake jump up and down with excitement at the prospect of holding the wedding here too? Somehow I doubt it, given how much you two seem to get on.’
His lips were a grim line. ‘He was down at Reception. I didn’t speak to him.’
‘So you thought you’d take advantage before I had a chance to discuss the options with them first.’ And then she remembered—she’d been so busy thinking about that picture in the guest room, and so desperate to have her swim before Daniel emerged from his calls, that she’d completely forgotten to grab her phone from her bag. Damn.
‘What options?’ he challenged from the pool, leaning back on the edge, looking way too relaxed and reminding her again of how a crocodile looked before it launched its attack on unsuspecting prey. ‘You haven’t one other option and you know it.’
But it was Sophie who snapped, angry with him for being so high-handed, angry with herself for being so distracted by thinking about him that she would make such a stupid mistake. ‘Did I even get a chance to look? No, because the great Daniel Caruana has decided his is the only option. End of argument. Tell me, does it ever get boring riding roughshod over people or do you get some kind of kick out of it?’
‘What are you so angry about?’ The once-calm pool exploded, the water bubbling as Daniel erupted from the pool. Water sluiced from his body, running in rivulets down his long, powerful legs, and for the first time she got the full visual impact of the man under the clothes. He could have been a marble statue come to life, some mythical god from the ancient world with his proportional perfection of tautly packed body, long limbs and beating, savage heart. Her own heart thumped loud as he strode purposefully towards her, but it was the potent look in his eyes that turned that thudding beat to fear.
‘You are lucky you have a venue at all,’ he snarled. ‘But, rather than thank me for bailing you out of your problem, you prefer to rail against me as if I have done you some kind of injustice.’
She turned to go, unwilling to hear any more, knowing that his words were at least partly true. Kallista did offer a solution to her problem of a lack of venue, even if it did offer up a host of other problems into the deal.
But she just couldn’t take any more. She’d felt the balance of power shifting, and control of this wedding slipping through her fingers, ever since she’d first arrived in Daniel Caruana’s offices this morning with what should have been the upper hand. And she’d felt control over her own emotions slipping away just as completely, until she felt raw, bruised and ill-prepared for yet another confrontation.
Yet another defeat?
Or would it end in yet another kiss? But even that would be no victory. ‘I don’t have to listen to this.’ But his hand stayed her forearm, his powerful flick wheeling her right back so that she crashed bodily against him, the shock momentarily winding her.
Another kind of shock had her gasping then, for nothing more than damp fabric—once warmed by sunshine, now warmed by body heat—lay between them where their bodies met from chest to knee.
He might just as well have flicked a switch inside her. Like a power surge she felt the burst of sensation, the contact of flesh against flesh generating a warmth that swelled her breasts and turned her nipples hard. At the same time it pooled and she felt aching heat low in her belly. When she breathed, even that tiny movement created a friction that ramped up the sensations tenfold. She couldn’t even take a breath without breathing him in with it.