Girl Gone Wild. Joanne Rock

guessing what exactly I’ve been envisioning in my dreams?”

      He whistled low on the other end of the phone. “Definitely. I’m usually damn good at guessing since it goes with the job. But you’re the kind of woman who serves erotic pastries to total strangers. Who knows what sort of sensual terrain your unconscious mind might cover while you’re sleeping? I have the feeling there wouldn’t be many fantasies off-limits to you.”

      “You’d be right again.” Her voice hit a husky note that had nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with Hugh turning her on.

      It had been far too long since she’d played provocative games with an enticing male. And frankly, she couldn’t remember ever playing with a man quite so intriguing.

      “Can I ask one question before I start guessing?” His voice sounded so close, she could almost imagine him lying right there beside her, his hands on her bare skin.

      “Ask me anything.” The phone made her feel even more bold, daring.

      “What are you wearing right now?”

      Her whole body shivered in answer. Her breasts tightened, ached beneath the sheets. Licking her lips, she told him the naked truth. “Nothing.”

      The strangled sound on the other end wasn’t quite discernible.

      “Hugh?”

      “Sorry.” He sighed out a long breath. “That particular mental image blew me away. But it also helped clue me in to what you’re dreaming about.”

      “Really?” She shifted to her back, the light touch of silky sheets antagonizing a body that craved the sure possession of a man’s hands.

      “If you’re lying there, warm and naked and all alone between the sheets in a hedonistic haven like Club Paradise, what could you possibly be thinking about besides having someone lying there next to you?”

      Her hips twitched at his words, heat flowing deep within her belly to warm her thighs and awaken her sex. She pressed her legs more tightly together, but instead of helping ease the ache, the movement only intensified it.

      “You’re right so far,” she admitted, needing so much more from Hugh than words. “But that’s not the half of it. Are you going to be here soon? I’m all alone in the Pleasure Parthenon, and I’d be happy to show you.”

      Another strangled sound. “I’m going to be a little delayed because of work, although the Pleasure Parthenon sounds like a great place to be right now. You think you could be my hands until I can get there?”

      Her heart thrummed in her chest at the thought of him being with her later. She didn’t want to think about the fact that they’d made smart plans to postpone getting involved with one another until after he’d finished his story. With her body set to slow burn and Hugh’s voice sizzling through her consciousness, she wasn’t overly concerned with making smart decisions at the moment.

      “I don’t think I could ever mistake my hands for your hands.” Not that the knowledge could stop her pulse from fluttering wildly at his wicked suggestion.

      “But if I guided your every move, then it would be me doing the touching.” He paused, his breathing deep and rhythmic in her ear. “Come on, Giselle, let me slide beneath those covers with you.”

      She arched her back, mentally welcoming the idea of Hugh’s taut, lean body stretched out beside her. “Mmm.”

      “You know where I want to touch you first?”

      She shook her head, unconcerned he couldn’t see her. In her mind, he was right there with her anyhow.

      “You’ve got this unbelievable waist—a sweet little curve that I was dying to put my hands on this morning.”

      Her hand slipped beneath the covers, skimming down her hot skin to curl around her waist, inciting unexpected pleasure and wrenching a moan from her lips. “That feels good.”

      “What about if you travel a little farther south? I would definitely want to touch your hip next.”

      “Really?” Extending her arm, she slid her hand down to one hip, her fingertips grazing the swell of her bottom. “And then what would you do? Would you be so lust-ridden that you’d have to kiss me?”

      “Oh, I’m definitely kissing you by now.” He lowered his voice another notch, his words funneling straight in her ear, intended for her alone. “And I’m reaching up to those amazing breasts of yours to cop my first real feel.”

      Giselle twisted to her side, her breasts tight and aching for that touch. Her hand cupped one mound, rolling the taut nipple between two fingers. A sigh hissed between her teeth, her thighs twitching with restless need.

      “That feels so good.” She snuggled deeper into her pillow, burying the phone in the fluffy down as she made herself more comfortable. “But can you…touch more of me?”

      There was a pause on the other end. “I don’t know how much of you I can touch without…losing it. You don’t know what the idea of you naked right now is doing to me.”

      Her hands danced down over her belly, traced her hip. “Then can’t you leave whatever it is you’re doing and come over here?”

      She would gladly throw away caution to have Hugh with her. Above her. Inside her.

      “It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

      “It’s very easy. Walk away from what you’re doing, get in the car and take the first causeway to Miami Beach.” What better setting for a tryst could there be than the Pleasure Parthenon? They could feed each other grapes and turn on the wine fountain. She could dance naked for him before they engaged in every conceivable sex act.

      “But I can’t get to my car when I’m cruising over the Atlantic at forty thousand feet.”

      Hazy pImages** of her entwined with Hugh faded.

      “You’re what?”

      “Remember how we decided we could be together as soon as I turned in my story? Well, I followed up on the lead you gave me about Robert Flynn and, you’re right, he’s in the Cayman Islands. I’m headed down there now to try to find him.”

      The sensual tide that had been flowing through her moments ago dried up to nothing, leaving her suddenly cold and empty. “You’re on a plane to some remote island in the hope of finding Robert Flynn?”

      She barely managed to push the name from her lips.

      “Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and find the right piece of information that will drive him back to the States. But I need to talk to him. Sometimes crooks like this are so arrogant they think it can’t hurt to talk to the media.”

      How could a woman’s life go from so damn promising one minute to absolute shambles the next? And if Robert Flynn came back to Miami the consequences would be devastating for everyone involved in Club Paradise. No doubt about it, the man was the key to many hidden wounds.

      But the new man in her life seemed hell-bent determined to resurrect her former lover.

      HUGH WAITED. AND WAITED.

      “Giselle?” He hadn’t wanted to change the topic of their phone exchange earlier, but he couldn’t exactly engage in full-fledged phone sex when he flew on the Herald’s private jet. He might be the only passenger, but there was a pilot in the cockpit a few yards away.

      “I’m here.” Her voice sounded a million miles away when moments ago she’d seemed right there with him. She’d turned him on so thoroughly with her sexy phone play he would probably still be willing away the hard-on an hour from now. “I’m just…surprised.”

      Hugh straightened in his seat, determined not to alienate this woman he had set his sights on. He’d never been the kind of guy who would make do with any willing woman, and could count the women he’d been with on one hand. Giselle Cesare was