Private Party (14 page)

He turned back to his computer, trying to put Julie out of his mind. But Carla’s comments brought back all those old unpleasant memories of high school, when he’d gone to live with his father. He’d been out of control, drinking and partying and getting into trouble. Now, nearly fifteen years later, he could see his behavior for what it was. A cry for attention from a man who saw his brief marriage to his mother—

not to mention Chris himself—as a mistake. David Dennison had barely stayed with Chris’s mother—a cocktail waitress he’d met in Vegas—long enough to get her pregnant.

While he left her with a more than generous settlement, for most of his life his contact with Chris was limited to birthday and Christmas cards (always stuffed with a large check) and one, occasionally two, visits per year.

Then when Chris was seventeen and a senior in high school, his mother, at the end of her rope with Chris’s increasingly bad behavior, had sent him to live with David. It was time, she said, for his father to do more as a parent than throw money at the problem.

Just because Chris had lived in the same house hadn’t meant David or his then wife were involved.

They, as well as Brian, who was five years older, had appeared in the giant Hillsborough mansion briefly between work and social obligations. Chris had still managed to make plenty of trouble, but he’d discovered that with no one to care, it wasn’t nearly as much fun.

He’d instead tried actually focusing on school, winning his father’s absentminded approval when he’d managed to pull straight A’s without much effort. But even so, Chris had never felt like he belonged, never felt like his father and Brian were really family. And forget their family friends—they’d never known what to make of him.

Everyone had always been nice enough, but he’d heard enough of the whispers. They’d speculated about his mother, gossiped that she was a stripper, or worse, a prostitute who had somehow bamboozled David Dennison into marrying her and giving her millions.

He’d never bothered trying to convince them of the truth. That Gina Discala Dennison was a naïve twenty-two-year-old when David Dennison had swept her off her feet. That she’d really, truly loved David, and she would have given back the millions in a heartbeat for the opportunity to have a real family with him.

PrivateParty

Only Julie had known the truth. She’d met Gina a few times when Gina had come to visit Chris in college. Julie had been the only person in his father’s snooty social circle with enough courage to ask him outright about all the rumors. When he’d told her the truth about his parents’ marriage, she’d just smiled and said, “I knew she had to be nice. Look how you turned out.” And yet for all her sweetness, Julie was never going to be his. That hadn’t stopped him from wanting her. By the time he was twenty and Julie was sixteen, Chris had had more than his share of bad girls. But he’d taken one look at Julie with her creamy skin and fresh young curves and wondered what it might take to make a good girl like Julie go bad.

His musings must have been obvious, because Grant Driscoll had wasted no time in cornering him and disabusing him of any notions Chris might have about Julie. “You may be David’s son,” he’d growled,

“but you’re not one of us. Stay away from Julie.”

Chris never knew if Grant had issued the same explicit warning to Julie, but it was obvious at Berkeley that she wanted to keep their deepening friendship quiet.

For a while, Chris had entertained the idea of seducing her for revenge, to get back at the people who, despite his father’s halfhearted acceptance, would never accept him as one of their own. But all too soon he realized he liked Julie way too much to use her that way.

So Carla wanted to know why he’d never made a move? He’d never admit it to her, but he could admit it to himself. It was because he was a coward, plain and simple. Because he’d known that any relationship with Julie would come down to a choice: him or her family. And he’d always known he’d lose.

Idiot that he was, he’d tried for a while after graduating to gain acceptance into their world, working hard for his father and Grant at D&D, trying to prove he was one of them, worthy of a girl like Julie.

He’d spent three years bashing his head against that wall before he’d finally wised up and gone off on his own to build Holley Cay.

“If she’s offering it up, I don’t see why you don’t just get it out of your system,” Carla said, breaking him out of his unpleasant trip down memory lane.

He rubbed at his eyes, hoping that would bring the numbers on the spreadsheet back into focus. “I asked you to drop it. Besides, we both know I can’t afford to be distracted right now.”

“Like you aren’t distracted now?” Carla retorted. “You know, maybe if you just do it and get it out of your system, you could actually focus here.”

He didn’t bother telling Carla that he’d had Julie once, and it hadn’t even put a dent in his hunger for her. “It’s not that easy.”

PrivateParty

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Damn, the woman was like a dog with a bone.

The worst? That Julie would leave and return to the bosom of her family, leaving him alone with all the pathetic yearning she’d reawakened. Basically, the inevitable. Fortunately the phone rang before Chris was forced to come up with a reply. As Carla had yet another tension-filled conversation with Jane Bowden’s head security guard, Chris turned back to the ever increasing wedding budget.

But try as he might to concentrate, he couldn’t get his mind off Julie, who, as Carla had pointed out, was already a huge distraction without his having slept with her again. Christ, at this point, he was suffering all the feared consequences without any of the benefit.

And when he really thought about it, all these years he’d been fixated on some idealized version of Julie.

A Julie who never would have used him for revenge, who never would proposition a guy for a casual fling. In the five years since he’d seen her, she’d become a different sort of person. Maybe if he got a little dose of reality, of the real woman Julie had become, he could finally put this obsession with her to bed for good.

But first he was going to put her to bed. Starting tonight.

PrivateParty

9

O
r so he thought. Chris glared at Julie across the patio at the beach bar. Her white floral-print dress had a halter top, revealing the golden skin of her back to just below her waistline. Her blond, softly wavy hair glowed in the light cast by the torches. Chris’s jaw tightened as she executed another turn, moving in perfect rhythm with the music of the salsa band playing several feet from the bar. The swing skirt of her dress twirled up her thighs. If she wasn’t careful, her next move would reveal the cheeks of her perfect round ass.

But Mike pulled her back in, his long fingered hand splaying across the silky bare skin of Julie’s back.

Chris’s white knuckles stood out against his tan as his fingers tightened around his drink. The knot in his gut tightened as Mike pulled Julie’s hips against his, and they moved sensuously in perfect harmony.

She tossed her hair, a wide smile on her face as she laughed at something Mike said. Just then she stumbled, and Mike, the bastard, used it as an opportunity to grope her ass as he pretended to help steady her. He quickly moved his hand up her back as though it had been an accident, but Chris didn’t miss the lascivious cast to Mike’s features.

Nor did he miss the flush that crept up Julie’s cheeks. Whether it was embarrassment or arousal, Chris didn’t know, but he did notice she wasn’t trying to pull away.

He couldn’t take it. Watching another man touch her bare skin. Seeing her move her body against another man in a dance that all but simulated sex.

He’d come here this evening to take Julie up on her offer of no-strings-attached sex. He hadn’t expected to see her laughing, flirting,
touching
another man with such obvious enjoyment. Nor had he expected PrivateParty

the hot flash of rage and possessiveness that swept through him at the sight.

But he didn’t stop to analyze it. He couldn’t. One thought and one thought only reverberated through his brain. As long as she was on his island, Julie was his; she belonged to him.

Julie laughed at Mike, hoping her tension didn’t leak through. “Maybe I should sit down. These shoes aren’t exactly great for dancing.”

To prove her point, at that exact moment the flimsy stiletto heel of her sandal caught in a crack. She stumbled into Mike’s chest, who steadied her with a firm hand on her ass.

She stiffened and righted herself. He’d been doing that all day. This morning, under the pretense of checking her scuba tank, he’d managed to brush his hands against her breasts at least ten different times.

Not to mention the dozens of other “casual” brushes of her legs, strokes up her arms, and touches of her hand.

She smiled determinedly as they resumed the rhythm of the dance. The problem was, she hadn’t exactly discouraged him. After her earlier run-in with Chris, Julie had greeted Mike this morning with more than her usual friendliness. Truth be told, Julie had been outright flirtatious.

After being mocked for throwing herself at him, Julie had felt compelled to prove to herself that there were other men in the world besides Chris. And call her shallow, call her vain, but she had needed some masculine validation of her attractiveness, proof that she could get a man to like her without having to strip naked and carry on like an amateur porn star. Mike was perfect for her needs. He was extremely good looking in his own right, and could have availed himself to any of the single women here at Holley Cay. But he was paying attention to her, and Julie would have to be dead not to enjoy a little boost to her pride.

But now she was paying the consequences for giving him the wrong idea. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Mike. She did. He was funny, considerate, not to mention gorgeous.

But he just didn’t do it for her. His touch didn’t send prickles down her spine. Her nipples didn’t tighten when his gaze caressed her breasts. And earlier today, when he’d tried to kiss her, instead of craving the taste of his mouth like a starving woman, she’d practically thrown herself off the boat trying to avoid it.

Now she was uncomfortably aware of his thumb drawing tiny circles around the small of her back, unsure of how to pull away gracefully without embarrassing them both. She looked over his shoulder, hoping to catch either Amy’s or Jen’s eyes. Maybe if Julie looked desperate enough one of them would see her and come to her rescue.

PrivateParty

Her breath caught as she saw Chris, staring hard at her from his post at the bar. Her toes curled in her sandals, and she stumbled again as he pushed away from the bar and headed toward her with a leisurely but determined stride.

But halfway across the patio he was accosted by Kara, and as always Julie felt a surge of irritation at the sight of the gorgeous, leggy brunette. It was irrational, Julie knew, as Kara had been nothing but courteous to her. Still, she had a cynical, calculating air that rubbed Julie the wrong way.

Kara wrapped her arms around Chris’s waist and moved her hips against his in a seductive movement that he willingly echoed. He draped his arms over her shoulders and smiled down at her, that lazy, charming smile that never failed to send a jolt down Julie’s spine.

Pride and hurt warred as Julie struggled to keep her composure. It wasn’t enough that he had practically laughed at her for her sexual antics, now she had to watch him drool all over another woman. A tall, curvaceous brunette. Not surprising. Chris had always displayed a preference for everything Julie wasn’t.

All thoughts of giving Mike the brush-off disappeared. She’d show Chris that men—lots of men—found petite blondes like herself attractive, not to mention sexy and desirable. Julie closed the half-inch that separated her hips from Mike and executed an intricate swivel. His hand tightened on her waist and lust tinged his smile.

“Thanks again for taking me diving today,” she said, her voice breathy. “I felt so safe with you down there.”

His blue eyes twinkled at her. “I’m glad it was good for you. I hope I can make lots of things good for you.”

Hoo-boy. He was not going to be pleased when Julie left him with nothing more than a kiss at her door.

She supposed the right thing, the good thing to do would be to let Mike down gently before he went to the trouble of walking her back to her villa. But there was no way she was going to let Chris see her leaving alone.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder, and she didn’t even have to turn to see who it was. Warmth radiated from the point of contact of his warm, broad palm all the way down to the pit of her belly.

“Mind if I cut in?” Though phrased as a question, both she and Mike recognized it as the demand that it was.

“Julie, are you okay with this?” Mike asked, concern replacing the flirtatious lust in his expression.

“It’s fine,” Julie said, turning to face Chris. As Mike started to walk away, she quickly grabbed his wrist.

“I’ll catch up with you later, okay?”

PrivateParty

Mike smiled, nodded, and shot a venomous look at Chris.

“Don’t count on it,” Chris muttered when Mike was out of earshot. Instead of pulling her into his arms and leading her into another dance, he grabbed Julie’s forearm and tugged her off the dance floor, towards a dark area of the patio devoid of guests.

Julie jerked at his grip, trying but failing to dig in the heels of her impractical shoes. “What is it with you and manhandling me?” she said as she stumbled after him.

Chris frowned at his hand wrapped around her arm, but didn’t let go. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?” His blue eyes snapped with a fury she’d never seen before.

“What is it with you?” Julie snapped.

Even in the low light, Julie could see the tightening of Chris’s mouth, the narrowing of his eyes. “You were practically humping him on the dance floor. I’m just keeping you from doing something stupid, and you know it.”

“I have no idea why you even care,” Julie replied, a nasty edge creeping into her tone. “You’ve made it abundantly clear that you’re not interested.”