3
NATE HAD Carleen Wimmer exactly where he wanted her.
Now he just had to figure out a way to make her talk. Not that he had much in common with Elvis aficionados—even if this one had breathtaking brown eyes and a killer body that had him all shook up.
No wonder Tobias Hamilton wanted to marry her.
Nate couldn’t understand how anyone could find a trip to Germany more appealing than the woman beside him. Voluptuous didn’t begin to describe her. He’d climbed into bed with plenty of women, but the sight of her, asleep and unaware, had caught him like a sucker punch to the gut the moment he’d lain down beside her.
The silky waves of thick brown hair tousled on the white pillow. The way her wide pink mouth parted slightly, begging to be kissed. The generous cleavage that almost spilled out of the thin cotton nightshirt she wore. If he was her fiancé, he’d never leave her side or her bed.
But he wasn’t her fiancé. Not even close. He was her worst nightmare—if she had something to hide. That’s what he was here to find out, Nate reminded himself. And he couldn’t let a pair of big brown eyes—or a pair of erect nipples—distract him from that mission.
“You never answered my question,” he said, breaking the heavy silence between them.
She lay with her back to him, but he could tell by her stiff posture and erratic breathing that she was still wide awake.
“What question?”
He liked the husky depth of her voice. It brought to mind vintage movie starlets like Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall. Strong, independent women who knew how to drive a man to distraction. “How a nice girl like you ended up in a sleep study like this.”
She rolled over to face him, her expression hidden in the shadows. “It’s a long story.”
“We’ve got all night.”
She hesitated, and for a moment he thought she was going to turn her back and ignore him. Instead, she slid her slender hands under her pillow, pulling it down in front of her like a protective shield. “I guess you could say I’m doing it for the money.”
“Me, too,” he acknowledged, though he didn’t tell her who was paying him. “So that gives us at least one thing in common.”
“Poverty?”
He chuckled. Not only beautiful, but witty. A lethal combination. “Okay, make that two things. I was talking about finding creative ways to make money.”
As he waited for her response, Nate knew it was too much to hope that she’d confess her upcoming marriage to Tobias Hamilton was her latest money-making scheme.
“I’m trying to save my business.”
Now he knew she was lying. He’d gotten access to Carleen Wimmer’s credit reports just this afternoon and there was no way she’d ever qualify for any kind of business loan. “You own a business?”
She cleared her throat. “Actually, it belongs to a good friend of mine, Mia Maldonado. I’m the office assistant for Mia’s Makeovers, a design business she runs out of the house we both live in. I guess that’s why I feel like the business belongs to me, too.”
Her explanation didn’t quite ring true, though if he stared into those eyes long enough, he’d believe any word out of her lovely mouth. Her eyes looked even sexier in the glow of the jukebox and he wondered how many men had lost themselves in their warm chocolate depths.
Nate hated to admit that Mrs. Hamilton might be right about her son’s fiancée. She was a femme fatale, with an aura of wanton innocence that few men could resist. The kind of woman who could easily make a weak man surrender his heart as well as his money to her without a struggle.
Nate had only known Carleen for a few minutes and he was already mesmerized. But he wasn’t weak. Or stupid. There was something about her that bothered him. Something fishy that made him want to keep asking her questions until the answers started to make sense.
Then she asked a question of her own. “So what do you do for a living, Nate?”
“I’m a security specialist,” he replied without missing a beat. “In fact, I’ve done some security work for Harlan—surveillance cameras around his estate and keyless entries, that sort of thing.”
“Is that why he trusts you alone with me?”
“That and the fact that any significant change in your bioreadings will bring someone in here to check on you. Plus, there’s the call button, which you just proved works quite well.”
She leaned up to look at it and he inhaled the soft scent of her hair and felt the warmth radiating from her body. A body separated from him by only the thin fabric of her nightshirt.
He fought to keep his focus. “So you see, we’re not quite as alone as it seems.”
That realization dampened his impending fantasy. A fantasy that featured Carleen without her nightshirt.
Not a good idea.
In the first place, she was an engaged woman. In the second place, he had every reason to believe that she was a liar and a scam artist,. and that she was only marrying Tobias Hamilton for his fortune.
But if he did attempt to seduce her, what better way to prove her love and loyalty to Tobias? If she resisted his advances, then Nate could pass it on to Mrs. Hamilton as evidence that Carleen truly loved her son. If she didn’t…then better the truth come out now rather than after the wedding.
She yawned beside him, then rolled away, tucking her pillow under her head. “I have to admit that does make me feel better. No offense, Nate.”
“None taken.”
Nate considered the consequences of romancing Carleen Wimmer away from Hamilton, aware of the dangers of mixing business with pleasure. And seducing this woman would most definitely be a pleasure. His body tightened just thinking about stripping away that nightshirt and discovering all her intimate secrets.
“Besides,” she said sleepily, “if you’re a security specialist, I should be safe with you.”
Nate smiled into the dark at her assumption. Big mistake, Carleen. Big mistake.
THE NEXT MORNING, Mia awoke to find Nate hovering over her, his fingers gently brushing over her right temple. She sucked in her breath, afraid to move as his eyes met hers. Afraid not to move as he leaned toward her to whisper, “Good morning.”
His smile was slow and sexy, sending her heartbeat into double time. Muscles bulged in his arm as he propped himself up on his elbow next to her. He lay so close to her that his thigh pressed into her hip and she could feel the radiant heat of his powerful body from head to toe.
An odd, tingling warmth swirled in the pit of her stomach, then moved lower. Her gaze fell to his firm lips. They were so near to her own that she could capture his mouth in a kiss without even moving her head off the pillow. Maybe that would finally quench the fire that had been burning inside of her since Nate had slipped beneath the covers last night.
He looked even better in the light of day. Dark eyebrows arched across his wide brow and whiskers shadowed his lean jaw.
Mia saw both strength and experience in his face, which she found more alluring than any picture-perfect male model. She wanted to ask him about the scar above his right eyebrow and the second one she’d just noticed at the base of his chin. She wanted to trace the rugged terrain of his cheekbones with her fingertips as well as the small dimple that rarely dared to appear at the corner of his mouth.
She wanted what she couldn’t have.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he murmured, his fingers sliding over her forehead and into her hair.
Then what had he meant to do? Seduce her in her sleep? Mia imagined waking up with his hands under his nightshirt,