Page 13 of An Heir Made In Hawaii (Hot Winter Escapes)

He pulled her against his body as he spun her around a couple wobbling back and forth. His leg moved between hers, the intimate move making her breath catch, before he guided her away from the other dancers.

“When you and I have sex, Anika, it won’t be for any reason other than we want to.”

A dull roaring drowned out the sounds around her. Each beat of her heart felt magnified, thundering inside her body as she stared at him.

“What?” she finally managed to gasp.

“You want me. I want you.”

“I never said I wanted you,” she sputtered.

Nicholas watched her, his fingers pressing more firmly against her back, his eyes glowing with that same predatory light she’d glimpsed on the catamaran.

“You also never said you didn’t. So tell me now, Anika. Tell me you haven’t thought about me kissing you. Tell me,” he continued, his husky voice washing over her and sending sinful shivers racing over her body, “you didn’t think about how we’d be together when you were in my arms on the boat. That you didn’t imagine me tracing my fingers, my lips, over every inch of your incredible body.”

Say something!

But she couldn’t. Not when her imagination was conjuring up carnal images of her and Nicholas entwined, arms wrapped around each other as he trailed his lips over her neck, her breasts, his hips pressing against hers without any barriers between them.

“Ah.” His smile deepened. “So you have thought about it.”

“I...”

“I want you, Anika.”

“You want my inn.”

“They’re two separate things.”

“Not to me,” she whispered, trying to hold on to her sanity. Trying to ignore that intoxicating woodsy scent, the way he looked at her as if he couldn’t bear another night without her in his bed.

No one had ever looked at her like that. Not Zachary, not the handful of men she’d gone on dates with her first two years at university. There had been some pleasantness with Zachary and their physical encounters, but nothing close to this. Nothing like the fire burning inside her, this deep-seated need to feel Nicholas’s body join with hers.

The song ended. The crowd erupted into applause. Nicholas held on to her for a moment longer before finally releasing her and joining them. Someone called out his name and he turned his head for just a moment.

A moment was all she needed to melt into the crowd. She hurried inside the resort, taking the stairs two at a time up to her room. She raced inside, closing the door behind her and locking both the doorknob and the dead bolt before she yanked the dress off and tossed it into the closet. When she’d first purchased it, it had been a symbol, a sign that she was doing something for herself.

But now, every time she looked at it, she wouldn’t feel strong and confident. No, she would feel heat. Heat on her arm where his fingers had danced and grazed before he’d captured her hand in his. Heat between her thighs when she remembered how she’d wanted nothing more than to surrender to the lust that had descended on her and refused to release its grip.

With a muttered oath, she pulled a plain cotton nightgown out of her suitcase, then pulled one of the resort’s robes out of the closet and thrust her arms into the voluminous sleeves. The thick, plush material enveloped her body, covered her skin.

But it didn’t eradicate the desire that lingered in her blood. It didn’t banish the memory of how Nicholas had held her, of how she’d wanted him to do more than just whisk her around the dance floor.

Her fingers fisted in the silky coverlet. What was happening to her? Marija and the inn had been the priorities in her life ever since she had arrived in Bled. She’d been able to indulge in her love of traveling the year after she’d completed her studies at the Bled School of Management, staying close to Slovenia but experiencing locations like Italy and Austria. She’d wanted to travel more, yes. But after a year when almost no one had traveled, followed by the rash of repairs and Marija needing more help, she’d put those dreams on hold.

She’d been disappointed, yes. But there had been comfort in returning to the familiar, an assuaging of the faint sense of guilt she’d experienced at not being around to help. There had also been satisfaction in her work, the camaraderie with the guests, walking around the lake that always made her feel like she was in a real-life fairy tale.

And family. She’d always had family. First her mother and father, who had shown her what a marriage founded on mutual love and respect could be like. Then her mother, a woman who had survived the unexpected loss of her husband in a car accident and continued to shower her daughter with love. Followed by Marija, a grandmother she’d only met twice in person before Danica’s passing but who had welcomed Anika into her home as if she’d been born and raised in Slovenia.

Until now. Now, except for the inn, she was alone.

Is that it?she asked herself as she pushed off the bed and stalked to the balcony doors.Am I responding to him because I’m lonely?She closed her eyes.Please let it be as simple as that.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. Her room was on the corner of the resort and overlooked Hanalei Bay and the night-drenched waters of the Pacific Ocean beyond. Lightning flickered in the distance, followed by a soft rumble of thunder.

She had a sickening feeling that the answer to why she found herself so drawn to Nicholas Lassard was far from simple.

A sigh escaped her as a fork of lightning stabbed down toward the water, briefly illuminating the white-capped waves. Which should she fear more? That Nicholas wanted her in his bed?

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