No Foolin' (Willowdale Romance Novel) (8 page)

Teague laughed. “You want to talk about the weather? Those are the kind of generic thoughts I generate, huh? Right, I forgot. You’d never be interested in someone like me.” His fingers moved across her shoulder blades with a nice, firm stroke.

“No. Yes. I mean, I just was wondering, is it always this hot here? I’ve never been to Hawaii. Or is this because of global warming or something?”
Shut up, Kate.
“What do you think about global warming? I mean, do you think it’s all real or just a load of bunk? You’re concerned about the environment, right?”
What’s this nonsense?
Blathering idiot, that’s what she was. She could address an auditorium full of twittering pre-teens but couldn’t carry on a simple conversation with a gorgeous man?

Teague was silent for a moment, probably stifling a laugh. She could hear him squeezing out more lotion, rubbing the cream between his hands to take the chill off, bless him, and then smoothing it along her spine.

“You mean, do I think things are getting hotter?” He snickered.

She was experiencing her own personal global warming. A sudden surge of embarrassment and desire can do that to a girl. “Well, yes. It is hotter, actually. Scientists say glaciers are melting . . . and temperatures are rising . . . New York could be underwater one day . . .” She caught her breath as his hands slid farther down her back and he ran two fingers under the string of her bikini top. Good golly.

Now his hands were flat, spread wide across her back. He massaged the lotion into her skin. This was much, much more than a sunscreen application. He grunted. “Is that such a bad thing? I like it hot.”

So much for her neutral, distracting topic.

The tropical smell of the lotion made her dizzy. “I just think it’s an important concern, is all.” Her tense muscles relaxed under his strong strokes. She tried not to think about what she looked like from Teague’s point of view and just enjoyed the feel of his hands on her warm skin, working down to her lower back.

Teague Reynolds was rubbing her where very few men had rubbed before.

“I agree, global warming is important,” he said. “And I want to be kept up to date on any temperature fluctuations around here. So let me know when things are getting too hot for you.” And with that he swiped two fingers under her bikini bottom, right over her buns. He leaned over her and dipped his mouth to her ear. “Or if they’re not hot enough.” His breath was fire on her skin.

She rolled over to face him and found herself between his arms. She was a silly rabbit caught between the paws of a tiger that was still deciding what to do with its prey. She let go of her breath. “Thank you.” He was inches away from a kiss.

His lips twitched into a devious smile. He’d promised this was going to be strictly business, but this didn’t feel like business at all. Risky business, if anything.

He traced his finger along her shoulder. “You have gorgeous skin. I’m happy to help you take care of it.” He brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “No tattoos hiding anywhere?” His eyes danced as he hovered over her, teasing her.

And with that, a big wet blanket blotted out the flames licking her belly. “You mean like someone’s name on my butt?” Her chest tightened as she remembered the way he and Simone had ogled each other in the lobby. “Simone is definitely still interested in you.” Her stomach felt like an empty pit.

He sat back at the end of the lounge. “Hey, cool it, hot stuff. I told you, I’m not a cheater. It doesn’t matter what she wants.”

The magic moment had been swept off to sea. Kate crossed her arms. “We’re not actually dating, so it’s not cheating.” How easily she could channel her bratty twelve-year-old self. Probably because she spent her days surrounded by just such children.

Teague looked out to the ocean. “I wouldn’t want it to look that way.” He grabbed a handful of sand and let it slip through his fingers. His mood had definitely cooled.

So had hers. She wanted him to protest, that no, he was over Simone, that she was a nasty, beastly woman hiding in a perfect body for which she must have bargained with the devil. But he hadn’t.

Kate pushed up off the lounge and walked out into the water. She dove under without looking to see if he was following her. She realized she was being completely, embarrassingly, ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. There was no fooling herself anymore—she wanted him, no matter how much she tried to deny it, no matter how hard her sensible side took her by the shoulders and shook no, no, no.

Luckily Miss Sensible would never let her give in. And that twenty-thousand-dollar bet would help back her up. Wanting something and going after it were two different things. She would not be going after Teague. Luckily, she had excellent willpower when it came to denying herself pleasure.

TEAGUE WATCHED HER walk away. Saunter was a better word for it, with that sexy sway to her hips. Was she doing that on purpose? She looked amazing. Soft and rounded, like an old-fashioned Hollywood starlet, with her long wavy hair and big sunglasses. And that bikini might kill him, the way it molded to her curves. He could picture her as a pin up on some teenage boy’s room. In his room.

And putting on sunscreen? Pure torture. He wet his lips. If he didn’t know better, he’d think it was a trap she’d set for him, with that not-so-subtle discussion of global warming. But he must’ve been wrong. The way she skittered off into the ocean made it perfectly clear what she thought of him.

Teague got up from the beach chair and sloshed into the water. How did he manage to repel the one woman he found utterly intriguing? He didn’t have to do a damn thing to attract the attention of most women—they just showed up. But Kate couldn’t stand to be near him. What the hell? He was used to being the one pushing people away. He’d done it his whole life.

He dove in the water and swam after her. The water felt good on his skin; she would feel good on his skin. “We can blow off the festivities tonight, if you want. Let’s stay here. This is nice.” He could imagine pulling her against him right there, slipping off her bikini, finding each other in the warm, salty sea.

She stepped back, swaying her hands through the water, not looking at him. “I can stay here alone. Go do your thing. I’m fine here, really.” She fell back into the water, floated on her back for a moment—which really seemed like torturous teasing, the way her breasts peeked above the waves as if they were saying,
Hey there, come join me big fella—
and then swam away from him, like an indecisive siren.

Well, damn
. Why couldn’t he find the words to get through to her? Was he so used to a script that he couldn’t come up with his own lines to ask a beautiful woman, Hey, you thinking what I’m thinking?

Kate surfaced several feet away from him, peering off across the ocean. Her hair was sleek against her head, and drops of water clung to her skin like jewels. She saw him staring at her and snapped her head away. She looked so damned appealing, but she didn’t want him. She just wasn’t interested. Deal with it, dude.
She really wants to win that bet.
He shook his head in disbelief and walked back to shore. He lay on the chaise and his phone rang.

It was his publicist, June. That was one way to bring his boil down to a simmer. “Yes?”

“How much do you know about this woman? I just got a call from a reporter asking about her stepfather’s outstanding taxes. She’s bad news, Teague. Dump the hick and hook up with an old girlfriend. That’d get the press riled up. Restore your bad-boy persona. Right now, they’re painting you as a hopeless romantic. Not good.”

“Drop it, June. I’m not dumping Kate.”

He thought he could hear her teeth grinding. She sighed dramatically. “Then I’m going to recommend you don’t bring her when you meet with Stan Remington this week. He doesn’t give second chances, and you’ve got one shot with him.”

Another call beeped on his phone but he ignored it.

“Listen, I need you to head to the hotel bar right now,” June said. “One of the producers from
Late Night
wants to meet you. I want you on the show when you’re back in L.A. Just say hi, have a drink with her.”

He looked at Kate floating on her back, fanning her hands through the water. She looked like a treasure washed up from the depths of the ocean. He groaned. “Right now?”

“Yep. She’s going to be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Fine.” He hung up and noticed that the missed call was from Simone, though she didn’t leave a message. What did she want? He could only imagine. She had taken it badly when he broke up with her. They’d had fun for six months. Good sex and all that. But then she got too close, wanting to stay over every night, wanting to come along everywhere he went, wanting more, more, more—more than he could give. She thought she was the one who could tame him, that’s what she’d told him. She even wanted to spend the entire Sunshine Film Festival together last year.

He laughed. That’s exactly what he was doing with Kate, and it didn’t bother him a bit. He looked out at her, still floating on the water. “I’m going up to the hotel for a bit,” he shouted.

Kate held up a hand to indicate she’d heard him. She was probably glad. It had taken his mother two years to decide she’d had enough of Teague. It had only taken Kate three days.

KATE WATCHED TEAGUE walk up to the hotel. He’d dressed in linen pants and a Hawaiian shirt. He wasn’t just dashing up there for food, he was going to see someone. She dug her toes into the sand and swished the water around her.

What would her mother think about what she was doing, lying like this for cash? Posing as a girlfriend, allowing him to kiss her just for show? Kate’s mother had been old-fashioned. Despite the hell George had put her through, she had looked out for him even from her deathbed.

“A marriage isn’t always an easy thing. You don’t leave it when you hit a few bumps. You don’t leave when the love’s gone. George has his faults, but he’s a decent man. He took us in when we had nobody.” She’d squeezed Kate’s hand with as much force as she could muster. “Watch out for him and Dina. Promise me.”

Kate shook the bad thoughts away, walked up to the shore and settled on the lounge chair. She didn’t care where Teague had gone. Who knew what these Hollywood types had to do at festivals? He’d left his phone on the table next to the chair. She looked at it a few times like it was a snake that might bite her, then finally picked it up and checked his last call.
One missed call from
Simone Peters.
She thought about tossing the phone in the ocean.

She buried her nose in her book but stayed on the same page for fifteen minutes. She dropped it to the sand and grabbed her own phone, checking in on Dina. She really should call her friends, but she didn’t know what to say.
Surprise! I forgot to mention I was dating a Hollywood hunk?
She’d call them once the festival was over and the media attention died down.
She texted Dina, asking if George was home and if she and her bitty bump were okay.

Dad’s here.
We’re good. Photographers all over the place.
Dina texted back.
When R U going 2 tell me what’s going on?

When U tell me who the baby’s father is.

Nice try,
she texted back
.

Well, it was worth a shot
,
Kate thought, and she texted back.
It’s complicated.
We’ll talk later.

Kate wandered along the beach, picking up tiny white shells as she went. The money Teague promised would more than pay the property tax bill and penalties. But George also had a second mortgage on the house, and he’d hinted that it was overdue, too. An extra twenty thousand from winning her bet with Teague could help there. But how long would Kate have to bail him out? Her mother had only been dead eight months, and keeping an eye on George and Dina had already cost Kate plenty. She frowned and tossed the shells back into the sea. She’d probably be cleaning up his messes until she died. She’d have to, if she wanted to keep that house. And since Mama and her daddy had bought that house and fixed it up before she was born, she really wanted to keep it.

TEAGUE SMILED AND nodded throughout the meeting with the producer, catching none of what she said, ignoring the way she and her cleavage leaned closer and closer to him. A month ago he’d have had her in his hotel room by now. That’s what she wanted. But damned if he wasn’t busy wondering what Kate was doing. Maybe he should leave her back at the bungalow during the festival and pretend she was ill for her sake—and for his. The press might speculate she couldn’t handle the heat of the spotlight.

He frowned. He didn’t want her hurt or smeared in the tabloids. He’d already changed her life forever just by bumping into her on the street in Willowdale. That town had changed everything for him. First Jennifer and the baby on the way, now Kate
.
His life had been turned upside down and inside out—then twisted and hung out to dry. What was he going to do with this baby? How was he going to protect
Jennifer
? He didn’t even know he had a sister until he’d gotten that phone call. And he wasn’t prepared for what he’d found.

If only he hadn’t been too proud to examine his past, he would have tracked down Jennifer earlier and none of this would’ve happened. He was still wondering how to deal with her, but he had a more pressing issue waiting for him at the beach.

He wrapped up his visit with the disappointed producer who’d been practically panting by the end of their meeting. He stopped by the
maître d’
and ordered a dinner of champagne, chocolate-dipped strawberries, mahi-mahi, steak and other delectables. Maybe it would work, prove to Kate he wasn’t really T-Rex, that he was more like good old Eugene. If not, at least there was a record of him wining and dining his girlfriend. And that was the most important thing, he reminded himself: keeping up appearances with Kate, even if he couldn’t make any progress in private. No matter how attracted he was to her, he had to keep the baby and Jennifer out of the news.

He walked back toward their room, a canopy of palms whispering above him. Was adoption the best option for the baby? He was disgusted with himself for even thinking it. Knowing his mother gave him away had haunted him his entire life. Would he do that to this child? Or could he keep the child and cover it all up to protect Jennifer? Ugh. It was impossible. Just like the situation waiting for him in the bungalow.

“KATE? Are you hungry?”

She looked up from her book and rubbed her eyes. “Yeah, I am.” Or at least she thought the burning in her belly was hunger. “What time is it?”

“It’s six here, but it’s midnight back on the east coast.” His bronzed cheeks and tousled hair gave him a sexy look that sent her reeling. He walked toward the bed and planted his hands on his hips.

“I’ll get dressed.” She yawned.

“No. You look .
 . . perfect.” His voice was low and husky. “I ordered dinner for us.
Here. Room service.”

She tipped her head to the side. “I figured you’d be out with Simone.”

“What?” He looked genuinely confused.

“Isn’t that why you went back to the hotel?”

“No, we broke up a year ago. It’s over. Really. I went to the hotel to meet with a producer.” He took a deep breath. “But I couldn’t wait to get back here.”

Kate looked around at the lovely room that had become her refuge. “I know what you mean. It’s so private and comfortable.” Her heart had betrayed her, pinging her chest since he walked in the room. She dropped her feet to the floor and stood up, stretching and inhaling the warm, fragrant air.

Teague shoved his hands in his pockets. “I wanted to get back here to you.”

Kate froze mid-stretch and then dropped her hands to her side.

Teague took a step toward her, and then another.

She backed up, but the bed was in her way. Swallowing hard, her hand fluttered over her throat. A few grains of sand were stuck to her skin, which was still warm from the sun.

They faced each other, and Kate waited for him to crack a joke, to tell her it was a test to see how well she could stand up to the press’s questions. But he didn’t laugh. He just stared at her, then his lips parted ever so slightly. Big fingers brushed over hers, still resting on her throat. Her lips tingled just imagining another kiss, a private kiss meant for her, not the cameras. She could fall into a kiss like that and never be found.