Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (13 page)

“We just wanted to thank you for your polite message on the countertop. We wanted to tell you as quickly as possible that of course we’ll be happy accommodate your requests. But we had to wait until you were truly awake… Are you awake?” Gray crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at them like a cat that had just caught a fat mouse.

Chris was not as restrained. He was doubled over laughing, slapping his palm on his thigh. Every once in a while, he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and then grabbed his stomach again.

Liz and Jennifer swam to the edge of the pool and climbed clumsily out of the water. They glared at the men as they walked angrily over to them. Liz stopped directly in front of Gray, tilted her head back and looked into his silvery gray eyes that shone with malicious glee. “I’ll get you back!” she hissed softly.

“Go ahead, if you can handle the retaliation that will follow,” he answered calmly, keeping a straight face. His eyes followed her as she stalked into the house, muttering curses about men in general and damning Gray in particular the entire time.

Chris stood next to Gray as they checked out the women together. Their curves were clearly visible through their wet pajamas. While Chris’s eyes were trained on Jennifer’s well founded backside, he said softly, “We should do that more often.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely! Did you see how good they looked in those wet clothes?”

“You think I’m blind?”

Laughing, they lifted up the mattresses and carried them back up to the second floor, dumping them outside the doors to the women’s rooms.

“What do you want to do now?” Chris covered a yawn with his hand.

“Let’s start by catching up on some of the sleep we missed. They’ve learned a good lesson and should leave us in peace for now.”

It had been seven days since Liz and Jennifer went swimming against their will in the pool. During this time, Gray had made sure that the women scrubbed the countertop well and supervised the operation with eagle eyes. After that, there had developed a kind of truce in the house. The women avoided the men or, if they accidentally ran into them, simply ignored them. Their bruises had almost completely disappeared and on the surface there was barely a trace of their adventure with the missiles; only their bruised ribs would need more time to heal.

When Liz and Jennifer went for their follow-up exams exactly a week after their discharge from the hospital, they were disappointed by what they were told. Both had hoped that they would be released from their forced convalescence, but the doctor sentenced them to at least another three or four weeks of inaction. Even worse, in their eyes, he praised Gray and Chris effusively for having taken such good care of their patients.

Liz and Jennifer had counted on being able to convince Gray and Chris that they were fit again, but after their doctor appointments, that clearly wasn’t going to be possible. No matter how hard Liz and Jennifer tried to convince him, he refused to give them a clean bill of health. Worst of all, he actually extended the amount of time they were required to spend convalescing.

Still furious, they sat on the bed in Jennifer’s room and considered their next move. They had no alternative if they were to get out of here. They needed Gray to throw them out so they could get out of his reach and out of his control. What, they wondered, could irritate him enough that they could achieve their goal?

“Have you thought of anything?” Liz looked at her friend and stopped monotonously tracing with one index finger the convoluted pattern on the bedspread.

“It’s Gray’s house, so he’s the one we have to make mad enough to kick us out. That’s for sure! If Townsend’s watchdogs won’t go along with it anymore…,” she pointed in the direction of the door with her chin, toward the rest of the house where Gray and Chris were, somewhere, “…then he won’t be able to say anything either. All he’ll be able to do is shake a finger at us because of our bad behavior. But he’ll rescind his order for sure!”

“Hm. So what could possibly upset him so much that he’d lose control?” Liz asked, not expecting Jennifer to have an answer. She fell back onto the bed and crossed her arms behind her head. They both lay there quietly for several minutes, thinking. Suddenly, Liz sat up with a jerk.

“That’s it!” She was all smiles, she was so excited. Liz had good ideas before, but this one would take the cake: inherently evil and completely crazy, but perfectly suited for their purposes. If this didn’t work, nothing would! As she explained her plan, Jennifer nodded often in approval.

***

Chris lay on a lounge chair by the pool. With his arms crossed behind his head, he looked at his friend over the top of his sunglasses, his eyebrows raised.

“They’re acting unusually calm, don’t you think?” Gray looked up from where he sat across from Chris in a deck chair. “Yesterday they went nuts because the doctor first praised us, and then extended their rest period. And what are they doing today? Sulking in Jennifer’s room and coming out only to eat,” Chris pointed out.

“The calm before the storm.”

Baffled by Gray’s coolness, Chris sat up straight. “And you can just sit there? Aren’t you afraid they’re plotting something?”

“If they want me to throw them out, they’ll have to blow up the house. And since there aren’t any C4, Semtex or other kinds of explosives here, I don’t have to worry about that. If they want to try any other kind of nonsense, they’ll just have to suffer the consequences.” Gray sipped his Coke and tried to get back to the thoughts Chris had interrupted.

He’d been thinking that it was a shame Liz was too mad to talk to him right now. He’d hoped to have the chance to get to know her better. And he knew Chris felt the same about Jennifer. He frequently hung out on the second floor in the hope of running into the woman of his dreams. Gray wondered if he should annoy Liz a little more, to draw her out of her shell. Things might even turn more intimate, if he played his cards right. It was time to change from
Plan C
as in convalescence to
Plan O
for offense.

Even though Liz was avoiding him like the plague, his interest in her wasn’t fading. In fact, it was just the opposite. His determination to eventually get closer to her grew each day. On one hand, he was hoping that she would have an affair with him and Gray would spare no effort to make that happen. On the other hand, he sensed that an affair with Liz wouldn’t be enough for him. This emotional conflict confused Gray a little. He wrinkled his forehead and knit his brows at the realization of how different this was from his usual relationships. He had always known what he wanted from a woman and made sure that he got it. Maybe, he thought, he should just wait and see how things developed between Liz and him and forget about
Plan O.
Sooner or later, he was bound to figure out his feelings for her. A smile spread across his face as he imagined ways he could draw Liz out of her shell. He couldn’t wait to set his ideas into motion.

As if on cue, Liz and Jennifer appeared behind him on the patio, drawing his gaze. Almost simultaneously, he and Chris turned around and faced them. The women wore their swimsuits and headed for the pool, towels in hand. As they had been doing for days, they completely ignored the two men.

Old gum on the bottom of their shoes would probably get more attention from them
, Gray thought. And then his breathing faltered when Liz walked past, coming within a few feet of him.

The bikini he had packed hugged her body and was so skimpy, it covered up only the most private parts. Gray figured Liz would be arrested for indecent exposure if she were to wear it in public. The tiny bits of cobalt blue material were held together by thin strings. It was almost a miracle that they were able to keep the bikini in place. The delicate fabric looked like it could tear with any movement. In his heart, Gray was hoping that it would do just that.

Liz and Jennifer walked to the opposite, sunny side of the pool, laid their soft, fluffy beach towels on the lounge cushions and sat on them. Each of them put sunscreen on herself before helping to put some on her friend’s back, and then they lay down on their stomachs.

“You know what I wish I were now?” Chris whispered as his eyes greedily devoured Jennifer.

“That towel beneath Jennifer?”

“That would be my second choice. No: the small scrap of green material she’s wearing now.”

Gray suppressed a laughed and grinned broadly.

“Similar thoughts went through my head when I saw Liz’s tiny two-piece.” He tore his gaze away from the women’s seductive bodies and looked at his friend. “Would you like something to drink? You look like you could use it.”

“Oh, boy, could I use it,” Chris said without taking his eyes off of Jennifer. “Otherwise you might have to hold me back from running over there, throwing her over my shoulder and dragging her up to my room like a caveman. And it certainly wouldn’t be so she can convalesce!” This time Gray laughed, albeit quietly. He stood up, took their empty glasses and walked into the kitchen.

When he came back out of the house a short time later, instead of wearing jeans and a T-shirt, he had on a skin-tight black bathing suit that emphasized his muscular body. He glanced at the far side of the pool, just as Liz rolled over on her lounge chair. She raised an arm, lifted up her sunglasses and bent a leg. Her skin shone so seductively and invitingly, Gray had trouble dragging his gaze away. Sighing, he sat down on a deck chair and handed Chris the cold drink he’d promised him.

“Are you planning to go swimming?”

“Either that, or I’m going to have to take a half-hour long, ice-cold shower.” With a broad grin and a meaningful look, he pointed down at his bathing suit which bulged suspiciously. Chris’s eyes flew open in disbelief and he coughed as he tried to swallow a huge gulp of his Coke. Hastily, he jumped up and stormed into the house. He wasn’t doing much better than Gray was, and he desperately needed cooling off, too. The ice-cold Coke wasn’t cutting it.

Gray strolled over to the edge of the pool and slipped into the water. When Chris returned a short time later, now dressed in a bathing suit, he took a running start and jumped into the pool. When he surfaced, he gave a relieved sigh and shook the water out of his hair.

“You can’t believe how much that helps.”

Gray laughed in answer. Whatever he believed, he felt the proof in his own body.

They swam a while, one following the other, until neither one felt the effects of his arousal anymore, and then they went over and treaded water on the same side of the pool where the women were sunbathing.

“If you lie in the sun much longer, you’ll get burnt. Why don’t you come in the water and cool off a bit?” Chris asked nicely.

“Leave us alone!” came Jennifer’s muffled answer. She was still lying on her stomach, one arm in front of her face. The men glanced at the women, both wearing wolfish grins on their faces, and came to decision without saying a word. They climbed out of the water and strolled over to Liz’s and Jennifer’s lounge chairs. With one quick movement, Chris grabbed Jennifer, who began screaming in anger and shock, and lifted her in his arms. Calmly he walked the few feet to the edge of the pool and sent her flying. Then, laughing, he jumped in after her.

Surprised, Liz sat up halfway, propped herself up on her elbow and watched her friend disappear into the water. Her gaze wandered from the pool to Gray who, dripping wet and with an expectant look on his face, was standing next to her with his hands on his hips.

“Are you going in willingly, or shall I throw you in?” He smiled, one dark brow raised.

“Neither! I want to lie here quietly,” Liz said and patted the cushion of the lounge chair with one hand.

Gray’s smile deepened, giving him a mischievous look. He took a step closer to the chair. Quick as a flash, Liz jumped up and ran over the terra cotta tile patio, toward the house. Gray sprinted around the pool after her and caught her just as she was about to disappear through the glass door. He wrapped his arms around her upper body like steel bands and pressed her arms tightly against her side, where they became useless. She tried to immobilize Gray with a well-placed kick against his knee, but he pulled his knee away just in time and she missed. Feeling frustrated, she cursed and struggled, kicking her legs in the air so fiercely it looked like she was doing dry training for cycling. Her vain attempts to free herself elicited a deep booming laugh from Gray as he carried her closer and closer to the edge of the pool. When they were a few steps away, Liz hissed furiously, “Put me down!”

“You bet!” She flew into the water and Gray jumped in after her, still laughing.

Liz and Jennifer swam toward the side of the pool, sputtering curses that would have made a sailor blush. When they tried to get out of the water, they were grabbed by the ankles, pulled back and dunked. They resurfaced, spitting out water, and neither Gray nor Chris would have been surprised if the water had started to boil. They looked like pissed off furies. Their eyes practically gave off sparks.

“What’s the matter with you? Are you crazy?” hissed Jennifer. She and Liz began to make their way slowly back toward the side of the pool. This time they kept their eyes on the men. When Chris reached for Jennifer to pull her back, Liz dove and dunked him underwater with all of her strength.

“Go, Jenny!”

Jennifer didn’t have to be told twice. Quickly she climbed out of the water and took off without a glance backward. Liz followed on her heels, grabbing the ladder railings and pulling herself up out of the pool. The water glistened as it ran down her body.
Only four more shiny rungs and this will be over,
she thought as she climbed. Next:
Only two.
Then for a brief moment Liz felt a hand on her back before she was pulled backwards. She flailed about, took a gulp of air and disappeared under water. When she reemerged seconds later, Liz was startled to find that the top of her bikini was no longer in place. She pressed one arm over her exposed breasts and looked around. Liz spat out a curse through clenched teeth when she saw it dangling from Gray’s fingers.