Finally, he sighed. “If you’re here for all the reasons I think you are, then William will catch on at some point, probably sooner than we’d hope,” he said. “It’ll save us a lot of time if you just lay out your plans.”
She gave him a dry laugh. “You’re not going to like it.”
“Well, you’ve already got me where you want me.”
He hadn’t intended anything sexual about this comment, but when he said those words, her eyelashes fluttered. The air between them sparked, and just like that, they were back in Miami eleven years ago.
He was the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, the kind who was supposed to serve her, but those lines had blurred after she’d lured him into her kitchen that first day. She was forbidden territory, the daughter of a man who had the power to destroy Simon’s whole family. Today, he still couldn’t have her—he worked for her. Why did that thought turn him on so much?
The scent of Marianna’s hair, so goddamn familiar, brought him back to the present. She uncrossed her legs and crossed them the other way, her skirt sliding even farther up. She didn’t bother fixing it.
“What I mean is, I don’t like being bought behind my back,” he muttered. “Not by anyone, and especially not by you.”
“I wanted your help in Miami, and you left me without saying a word.” Her voice was soft, and Simon moved closer.
She lowered her gaze to his pants, where his dick was stirring. They were going down this path again. The difference this time was that he knew it was coming, and he was ready to resist. Simon took another step toward her.
“You could have asked anyone else for protection. There are hundreds of security firms in the US. What are you really looking for?” he asked, not bothering to hide the hunger in his voice. Just to see what she’d do.
He knew the look on her face. She had played the part of the good daughter so well, but she had a whole other side to her when no one else was around. Had she been the same way with the asshole she married? Or had she kept the games she liked to herself all these years?
“You still looking for someone to do all the things your uptight world doesn’t allow?” His voice was rough. “Someone with a hard cock ready to fill all your dirtiest fantasies. The idea still turns you on, doesn’t it?”
She smiled a little and licked her lips. “Is this your idea of foreplay, Simon?”
Her chest moved up and down, her breasts begging to be touched. Which he was not going to do.
A sharp knock on the door saved both of them from his answer. Marianna blinked her eyes, and Simon pulled back. He swiped his hand over his face and shook his head.
“I’ll get that,” he grumbled, heading for the door.
Marianna straightened up as Simon walked away. She tugged down her skirt, which had ridden up past midthigh. Whoa. That got out of hand much, much too quickly. She was supposed to be temptinghim, not the other way around.
Get yourself together, girl.
But priority number one was to sort out the mess of her company. Ask Joseph Goodwin what the hell was going on. Use that information to smoke out William’s underhanded business dealings. And maybe exact a little revenge on Simon in the process. Actually, that was three priorities, but they were all wrapped up in one little plan. If it was successful, she could finally move on with her life, start anew.
Marianna had just divorced one domineering asshole. Starting over didn’t include getting tangled up with another overbearing man—and Simon would be that. He’d take charge of every situation, leaving her no room to think. In her current circumstances, taking charge in the face of danger was an asset to her, but taking charge on a more personal level? After a marriage full of that, she needed to stand on her own two feet.
As Simon opened the door for a young bellhop, Marianna dampened sexy Simon with the cold-shower reality of how she’d ended up here in this hotel room. It had taken years to understand how manipulative William was; how each new role he took on at Ruiz Imports was also calculated to sideline her.
“It’s for the best,” her father had told her when she’d confronted him in the office of her childhood home years ago. “You need to trust me on this.”
She had tried to. Because she did trust her father. After her mother died, they only had each other.
Besides, the Cuban American Center was hers to develop, and she found working with the people who needed their services far more rewarding than dealing with the logistics of an international import/export business. Her father was a Cuban immigrant success story, and her life was filled with the riches the people at the center dreamed of, so who was she to complain?
She knew how to manipulate William when she needed something. Her father would have cut him out of the business completely if any whiff of infidelity got back to him, so a good blow job went a long way. And truthfully, it turned her on, the way she could bring a hardened, calculating man to his knees. The arrangement probably wouldn’t have worked otherwise.
But then her father died, and William went from overbearing to nasty. During the divorce, she couldn’t understand why he so readily agreed to co-ownership of Ruiz Imports when he’d fought so hard for everything else, right down to her mother’s engagement ring. Marianna had mulled over this detail for the last few weeks because a new answer was emerging: a struggle over the business in divorce court would mean a close inspection of Ruiz Imports’ activities. If William wanted to avoid this at all costs, it probably meant that his underhanded business dealings had started even before her father died.
Simon had asked her a question back in Miami that wouldn’t leave her alone: How did she know that her father wasn’t involved? He couldn’t have been, could he?
Alex Ruiz wasn’t a warm man, but after her mother died, he’d showered her with love in his own, awkward way.I do everything for you, mi amor.How many times had he told her this? That was something real. She wanted desperately to hold on to her last thread of family. Because family still meant something, didn’t it?
But so did the truth. And if one person could give it to her, it was Joseph Goodwin.
Simon led the bellhop into the bedroom to leave her suitcase and the duffel bag Simon had brought to the airport. The young man headed out, shadowed by Simon. When the door closed, it was just the two of them again.
