e circumstances,” he continued gruffly. “But I have to admit, I’d forgotten just how stubborn you can be, Madeline.” His eyes narrowed on her mouth. “How beautiful. I didn’t plan on seducing you. I couldn’t stop myself, though. I did a lot of things that could have cost us this investigation because I was so bowled over by seeing you again.”
She gave him an arch glance. “Are you saying you put your job at risk because of me?”
His nostrils flared. “I put everything at risk. My job. I might have ruined everything with you, as well, after what I did out there on that yacht.”
Her small smile faded. “You didn’t ruin anything, Walker. I’m here, in your arms. I’m not going anywhere as long as you don’t.”
“I told you, I’m here to stay,” he rumbled before his mouth settled on hers. Madeline opened her eyelids heavily a minute later only to see him studying her with fiery blue-green eyes.
“You do understand, don’t you,” he said, rather than asked. “Why I reacted the way I did out there, Madeline?”
“Yes. I wanted to hurt you, after what you told me about Tony . . . and when I believed you’d come for your job and not me. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” he admitted. He glanced out at the setting sun. “But I’m not, as well. You’ll never know how hard that was for me, seeing you and another man together.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?” he asked hoarsely.
“I could see it in your eyes. The whole time. I could hear it in your voice. I see it now, as we speak.” She touched his cheek and he met her stare. “We did it for each other, Walker. We were acting out our own stuff, our own past. But we did it for Tony, too. What you did wasn’t a betrayal of your job. It wasn’t a betrayal of me, either. What we did was between us—Tony, you and me.”
She leaned up and touched her lips to his lightly.
“Everything from here on out is between you and me, Madeline.”
“Yes,” she whispered before his mouth fastened securely on hers.
Keep reading for an excerpt from
ONLY FOR YOU
A One Night of Passion novel by Beth Kery
Available December 2014 from Berkley Books
Two and a half years ago
His final project for the benefit ball cast admiring looks at her many reflections as she sashayed out of the room. Not without good reason, Seth acknowledged with wry amusement as he glanced at the Alien Ice Queen’s ass gloved in a clinging blue gown. The starlet paused in the act of appraising herself from all angles.
She had ample opportunity to adore herself in the luxurious but garish dressing room where they stood. No less than a dozen gilded mirrors adorned the suite, including a large one on the ceiling. Daphne DeGarro, the heiress-turned-reality-show-star and hostess for the Cancer Research Benefit Ball, had opened several rooms in her Hollywood Hills mansion that night for the transformation of her guests. She’d reserved her risqué, decadently decorated dressing room for Seth, however. Earlier that evening, Daphne had led him to it with a sly grin. Seth had made her his first project, turning her into a magnificent, sexually flagrant Marie Antoinette, his creative instincts sparked by the woman’s opulent bad taste and brassy beauty. The benefit ball for cancer research was now in full swing in an almost equally gaudy ballroom and downstairs terrace.
Seth was the last special effects makeup artist to finish. He was weary. He’d done his part for tonight. Between him and fourteen of his regular staff and two eager interns from Hightower Special Effects Studio, they’d completed nearly two hundred characters in costume and makeup. The price of their labor, in addition to the use of Hightower’s extensive costume-and-makeup collection, was a sizable donation to the Cancer Research Fund by each client. Daphne DeGarro might have been in love with herself, but she was shrewd. Hollywood players would pay a hefty chunk of cash to be turned into a fearsome fairy-tale creature or glamorous fantasy character for one magical night.
Perhaps the young actress noticed his gaze lingering on her backside in one of the many mirrored reflections, because she turned to him.
“Aren’t you attending the ball, Seth?” she asked.
“No, I’m done for the night,” Seth replied, briskly zipping up an airbrush case and returning it to his kit. Realizing he still had on the tinted glasses he wore when he did an application, he shoved them impatiently back on his head.
“That’s all it was then? Work?” The Ice Queen asked. He paused warily, hearing the hint of seduction in her tone. She’d drunk too much champagne while he was doing her application. He glanced up. She was arching her back slightly, highlighting her ample, airbrush-frosted breasts beneath the low-cut gown. Earlier, he had offered to glue the edges of the gown—her nipples were bound to pop over the edge at any moment—but his offer had been flatly refused. Apparently the possibility was something she hoped for rather than dreaded.
She was a temptation, all right, but one he’d grown well accustomed to denying himself. Seth liked women a lot.
Just not the actress variety.
He resumed packing his kit methodically. He knew firsthand the level of infatuation a woman could get for a man who could turn her into a breathtaking vision. He tried to recall her name, but quickly gave up. What difference did it make? Seth avoided women possessed of fame fever. This particular ingenue was burning with it, which had perhaps been his inspiration for the Ice Queen makeup.
She could use a little something to cool her down.