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  Kane put his hands on Eva’s shoulders and set her back a step so he could look into her face. “Hey, hey. Come on, now, sugar. ’Fess up about what’s really eating you.”

  She fidgeted for a second, which made her look awfully young. It reminded him of the Eva he’d first met, five years ago at a holiday bash at some skeevy record producer’s house—a wild child with long, mink-brown hair and an irrepressible need to have the attention of every man at the party.

  Not because she wanted to have sex with them, Kane had seen at a glance. But because it fed some deeper need hidden under her sparkly tank top and tight little jeans.

  Eva was a wanderer, a seeker, like Kane. He’d known it instantly, in one of those freaky moments of understanding, and when she’d gotten in a little too deep—vodka tonics and handsy rich guys made a bad combo—Kane had stepped in and rescued her.

  She’d been his soul sister ever since. And even now, half a decade, two platinum records, and a successful restaurant empire later, he still didn’t always get what made her tick. Which was, of course, part of her considerable charm.

  “There’s this guy,” she told him, then smacked his arm and sulked when he laughed.

  “Baby, with you? There’s always a guy,” he said fondly. “That part, I knew already. Tell me what’s messing you up about him.”

  Her mouth twisted and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “He’s not … like the others. I don’t know how else to describe it. I just … I want him.”

  Kane shrugged. “So go get him, girl.” For Eva, it was usually exactly that simple, and if he couldn’t help the pang of envy, he could at least keep it from showing on his face.

  But Eva didn’t seem to agree. She shook her head, sending her short brown hair lashing against her chin. “It’s complicated. He’s one of the contestants.”

  Well, now, Kane thought. Like father, like daughter. But he knew it would hurt her to hear that, so instead he asked, “And that’s a problem for you?”

  “Not usually,” she admitted. “I mean, it’s just sex. It’s simple biology, right? You build up tension and stress—you need to open a valve somewhere and let it out, or you’ll explode. Nothing deep and emotional about it, just a bodily function. Like sneezing.”

  “Sure,” Kane said, nodding sagely. “Coed naked sneezing. The next wave in porn.”

  “Oh, shut it. You know what I mean, and I know you agree with me. Don’t try that soulful artist thing with me; I’ve seen the way you blow through women, like a flu patient with a box of tissue.”

  “Gross,” he told her. “What is it with you and mucus today?”

  Her eyes got big and anguished. “I don’t know!” she cried. “I’m totally off my game. I got him to kiss me in the elevator, and it was perfect, all hot and bothering, but then … he made me feel something. And he just walked away afterward, like it was nothing!”

  Hmm. It sounded as if The Diva had met her match. Kane put on a sympathetic face. “Would it have been better if he tried to ravish you in semi-public?”

  “Yes!” Eva set her chin stubbornly. “I mean, at least it would’ve been normal. Now I don’t know where to go from here.”

  Once again, he and his soul sister were on the same cosmic wavelength. It would’ve been funny if it weren’t so sad. Kane sighed, “Tell me about it, babe. I’m a little stumped, myself.”

  Her gaze went from dejected to crafty in about half a second. “Oh, I think I’ve said enough. It’s your turn. Why don’t you tell me all about it, and I’ll see what I can do to help?”

  “Unless you can convince an extremely intelligent, very stubborn woman that I’ll be worth going against her very nature, you’re no good to me.”

  “You are worth it,” Eva declared, ever loyal. “And Claire should give you a chance to show her. I can’t convince her, myself, but I can make it possible for you to have a shot at it.”

  Heartbeat quickening, Kane grabbed for Eva’s hands. “Oh, baby girl. If you do that, I promise I’ll name the first hit single off the next album after you.”

  She grinned. “Hey, if I can’t get a handle on my own love life, at least I can help you with yours. Claire’s in suite thirty-two eighteen; I upgraded her this morning after she complained about the lack of a desk in her room. I bet she’s up there right now, settling in with the bottle of complimentary champagne I sent up.”

  Kane waggled his eyebrows, deliberately blanking out the fact that this was exactly the sort of thing he’d promised not to do. “Maybe she could use some company.”

  “Go get her, boy,” Eva said, giving him a little push in the direction of the elevators. “And remember, she’s French, so she thrives on being contrary. And beware the pout! If she pulls out the big guns, you’ll know you’re getting to her. Bonne chance!”

  Kane blew her a kiss and stepped onto the elevator, heart lifting as he began to rise up through the hotel, closer and closer to Claire Durand.

  Bonne chance, indeed.

  He was going to need all luck he could get.

  Eva watched her friend rush off to make sweet nookie with her other friend, and struggled not to feel abandoned.

  It’s not always all about you, she lectured herself.

  Well, okay. She was the pampered only child of a wealthy man who’d lost his best friend and his moral compass when he’d lost his wife, and who had therefore spent most of her childhood and teen years leaving Eva alone in their Long Island mansion, then showering her with guilt gifts later.

  So really, it kind of was all about her. Or at least she came by the feeling honestly.

  She checked her watch. The sapphire-blue minute hand had barely progressed at all.

  Ugh, this waiting! It was interminable.

  She’d left the kitchen to get some distance from the frenetic energy of the chef contestants in full planning mode, but in less than half an hour it would be time to pile them all into the cars for the trip over to the grocery store.

  Not for the first time, Eva felt a glow of accomplishment at the fact she’d managed to woo Lincoln as a sponsor. The car company was not only providing a brand-new SUV as a prize for the final winner, they were also lending several Town Cars as transportation to get the chefs to and from the different challenge venues. Whipping out her phone, Eva called to make sure the cars and drivers were pulled around to the front entrance of the hotel, and that they knew the address and best route to get to the grocery store.

  After another glance at her watch, Eva decided she’d better get back in there and hurry the chefs through their final minutes of planning time. With a little, very minor manipulation and wrangling, Eva was sure she’d manage to arrange matters so that she and Danny Lunden had a car all to themselves for the drive over to Fresh Foods.

  Time to stop feeling lost and nervous, she told herself. She was Eva Jansen! Successful restaurateur, millionaire playgirl, and all-around catch. Just because some hotshot pastry chef made her special lady bits tingle, that was no excuse for morphing into a silly, starry-eyed girl.

  I do better on the offensive anyway, she mused as she called time on the chefs and herded them out to the waiting Town Cars, where she maneuvered Danny into her limo and locked the doors behind her.

  “Drive,” she told the uniformed man up front before twisting in the comfy leather seat to face Danny, whose look of startled confusion changed to narrow calculation in the space of a single heartbeat.

  “You again,” he said. “Why do I get the feeling I’m being stalked?”

  Adrenaline and excitement pumped through Eva’s veins, warming her blood and filling her with that fun recklessness she loved so much. The thrill of the hunt…

  “Because you are,” she told him, settling back into the cool embrace of the deep car seat and crossing her legs very deliberately. An air-conditioned breeze chilled her legs where the hem of her dress had inched up, but she didn’t make a move to pull it back down.

  Sure enough, Danny’s interesting blue-gray eyes flicked down to take i
n the newly bared expanse of silk-stocking-clad thigh—but only once, and so quickly that if she hadn’t been watching for it, she wouldn’t have noticed it.

  But Eva noticed everything Danny did.

  “I’m not sure if I should be freaked or flattered,” he said, angling himself to face her. The backseat of the car was spacious and comfortable, but Danny’s long legs and rangy frame took up quite a bit of it.

  His legs sprawled naturally, and the dark denim of his jeans rubbed teasingly against Eva’s knee when she shifted. Danny’s gaze went hooded and intent, sending a shiver down Eva’s spine.

  “Oh, flattered, definitely,” Eva said, a little dismayed by her own breathlessness. “I have very discerning tastes.”

  Okay, that wasn’t always true. Eva had more than her share of wince-worthy men in her past. But in this case?

  She watched the way Danny Lunden commanded the backseat of this borrowed car as if it were the throne room of a palace, his handsome face made intriguing and appealing by the slight rasp of stubble along his jaw, the firm set of his extremely kissable mouth.

  No, this time, Eva was sure, she’d have absolutely no regrets.

  “I don’t know if you’re aware,” Danny said, very politely, although his eyes flashed with something sharper and more dangerous. “But I’m in the middle of a culinary competition that could make or break my career, and restore the reputation of my family’s restaurant. Now isn’t really the best time for me to be concerned with getting my rocks off.”

  “Please.” Eva dismissed that as the weak excuse it clearly was. “Now is the perfect time. You’re stressed, tense, uptight—you need some release, hotshot, or you’re going to burn out.”

  “Or I need to concentrate on what really matters.”

  Eva uncrossed her legs slowly, letting her left calf brush along his right shin. The contact sent a shower of invisible sparks through the car, charging the air with electricity. Eva’s breath quickened, and from the way Danny’s chest rose and fell, she thought his had picked up, too. Eyes locked on his dark gaze, Eva slipped her feet out of her Louboutins and curled her legs beneath her on the seat so that she knelt facing him. Her dress rode up farther still, almost high enough to show him what color undies she had on.

  “Danny,” she said, exhaling his name on a sigh. “Don’t kid yourself. This matters.” And she leaned forward, braced one hand on the strong round muscle of his shoulder, and kissed him.

  He was motionless under her touch for a single, agonizing heartbeat before he broke with a growl like a wolf caught in a trap, and hauled her into his lap.

  His mouth opened, sharp teeth nipping, tongue caressing, and Eva sank into it with a purr of satisfaction. It was every bit as good as it had been before—better, even, because this time she was prepared for the sudden jolt of lust, the frenzy of hunger to taste all of him, immediately and deeply and more now yes please more more more.

  Her dress had rucked up high enough to get her legs around his waist, so she straddled him. Framing his scratchy cheeks between her palms, Eva pressed her hips into his, making them both shake with need.

  It took everything she had not to rub herself against the stiff fabric of his pants, the enticing hardness of his thick erection pushing between them and driving her wild.

  The physical proof that Danny wanted this as much as she did enabled Eva to take a deep breath and center herself. Circling her hips slowly, she found a rhythm that made him shudder and bite at her mouth. The fragile, damp silk of her underwear was no shield against the onslaught of sensation.

  Tremors raced through her, little lightning shocks of pleasure and need zipping up and down her spine. Thank God she’d had the foresight and planning to push Danny in the direction of a car without a cameraman. The last thing she needed was for a sex tape to start making the rounds of the Internet.

  Panting into the kiss, Eva clutched at the short, soft spikes of Danny’s light brown hair and let herself move hard and purposefully while his hands swept up her back and around her sides to cover the swells of her breasts.

  Rearing back to gasp in a breath, Eva stared down at Danny. Desire was obvious on his face now, the lines of his cheekbones and mouth stark with hunger.

  Eva savored the intensity of his focused gaze, the wet sheen on his chiseled lips. His desire fed hers like dry kindling stoking a fire, and when Danny palmed her breasts and flicked his thumbs over the hard points of her nipples, she let the moment take her and shatter her into a million pieces.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he rasped, eyes shining up at her as he watched her come apart, and his words sent another shiver of delight all through her, a rich echo of the explosion.

  “Mmm.” She smiled and slumped, boneless, against him. It was perilously close to cuddling, but she was too smug and satiated to care. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  The insistent jut of his erection nudged the notch of her thighs where she was wet and so, so sensitive, making her sigh and wiggle closer. She snuck a hand down between them to pet at the straining length.

  Danny sucked in air, his lean belly going taut against her reaching arm.

  Oh, she liked that.

  Looking for more reaction, Eva leaned her head on his shoulder and curled her fingers, fighting the stubborn fabric of his jeans to get a better grip. His neck smelled like salt and smoke, with an underlying hint of sweetness, as if his skin were dusted with a fine coating of powdered sugar.

  “Wait,” he said, voice strangled. “Don’t—” Eva lifted her head to frown at him, but before she could make it clear she had no intention of leaving him hanging—she didn’t play that way—her phone blared a few menacing bars of Darth Vader’s theme music, loud and jarring even from the depths of her purse. It was her father’s ringtone.

  And … the mood was officially killed.

  Great. Only Eva’s dad could cockblock her from three states away.

  Chapter 10

  “I have to take this call.” Eva sat up abruptly. Danny could only be grateful that she seemed aware of how much damage she could do to a man in his condition, even as she scrambled off his lap and dove for her purse.

  While the ominous orchestrals faded and began to cycle back up for a repeat, she managed to wrestle the phone free and get it up to her ear.

  “Hi, Dad,” she said, and wow. That was exactly what Danny needed to hear.

  Instant soft-on.

  Although if he wanted it to last, he really couldn’t look at her, perched on her knees in the seat beside him, red dress up around her hips and showing tantalizing glimpses of her flimsy, expensive-looking panties, all black satin and red lace edging dark against her creamy white skin.

  Or the delicate pink flush of arousal still staining her cheeks and neck, and the lush fullness of her just-kissed mouth … Danny shifted uncomfortably and pressed the heel of his hand against his painfully renewed erection.

  He tuned back in to Eva’s conversation in the hopes that it might have the same effect on him as before.

  “No, everything’s going great,” she was saying brightly, confidence in every syllable.

  But, Danny noticed, her knuckles were white with tension where she gripped the phone.

  “Dad. I’ve got this handled—the RSC is going to be bigger and better than ever this year! And the TV thing is going to work out. You don’t have to worry…” She broke off for a moment, eyes going wide with dismay. “No! I mean … I know how busy you are … I’d love to see you, too, but Dad … look, let’s plan something for after the competition, okay? … oh. No, of course you’ll be at the finals. I’m not trying to keep you away, I just don’t need my father checking up on me!”

  That mouth of hers that always seemed half a beat away from a smirk didn’t look quite so sleek and teasing now. In fact, it looked like she was having to work to keep it from trembling and giving her away as she turned a little toward the window and lowered her voice.

  “You said you trusted me to run the show this year, to ta
ke things up a notch. Are you going back on that?”

  A long, taut moment strung out like a coiled wire, until suddenly her shoulders relaxed and she closed her eyes.

  Danny let out the breath he hadn’t even been aware he was holding. What the hell? This was none of his business. He shouldn’t even be listening in.

  Which didn’t stop him from straining to catch her last, quiet words to her father.

  “Thanks, Daddy,” she said, sounding truly grateful. “I promise I won’t let you down.”

  It hit Danny like a ten-pound sack of flour to the head. How many times had he said that exact same thing to his parents? Well, he didn’t call his father Daddy, but other than that … it was pretty much the refrain of Danny’s entire life.

  Eva said good-bye and hit the off button on her phone, and this time when her shoulders dropped, Danny was pretty sure it was relief. He watched her take a deep breath and turn back to him, the carefree, come-hither look on her face carefully constructed, perfectly beautiful … and completely fake.

  “Now,” she said, dropping her phone back in her purse, and slinking over to him. “Where were we?”

  “You can put the womanly wiles away,” he told her. “I was just about to tell you I’m fine. No need for reciprocation.”

  She looked confused. It was kind of adorable. “But. That’s not how it works.”

  And then it was kind of sad. Danny gentled his voice; it was easier to do now that her conversation with her father, and Danny’s own unwilling empathy, had completely trumped his urge to mate. “I don’t know who you usually date, or get busy with, or whatever you want to call it—but sex doesn’t always have to be about an equal exchange of orgasms. We’re not talking about the free-market economy here. It’s pleasure. And believe me, I got plenty out of watching you lose control like that. So we’re good, sweetheart. You don’t owe me anything.”

  “I know I don’t owe you,” she said testily, jerking her hem down her legs and unfolding herself into a more normal sitting position. Danny didn’t want to be charmed by the annoyance in her voice, but he couldn’t help it.