Chapter One

“While I appreciate the view of your sweet little pussy, darlin’, you do realize that this is the men’s steam room, not the women’s?”
Naked, lying on a neon orange beach towel, eyes covered by one forearm, Jenny Su-Lin Taylor didn’t react.
At first.
As the whiskied baritone rumbled into her foggy tranquility, she jerked to a sitting position. Frantic eyes darted left, then right, and took a frenzied sweep of the mists swirling around the small chamber. A thousand Japanese Taiko drums pounded a war beat in her ears. Blood surged to the rhythm, pulsing hysterical tattoos at her wrists, throat, and temples.
She stopped breathing, moving, thinking, when eyes the color of storm clouds racing across a typhoon sky manacled her gaze.
Fantasy and reality merged.
Submerged.
Thor, God of Battle and Thunder, materialized through dissipating, opaque steam curls.
Naked.
High, sculpted cheekbones, a square, stubborn jawline chiseled by anvils, her most erotic fantasy come to life sprawled on the marble ledge opposite. Wheat-streaked hair fired with auburn glints brushed the broadest shoulders she’d ever seen. One knee bent, the man leaned on a thick, muscled forearm, Popeye biceps bulging.
He drained the oxygen out of Su-Lin’s lungs.
Out of the room.
All about her, magic pooled.
Balmy condensation caressed her shoulders, the barest sigh of enchantment escaped her lips, and the world, no, the universe, pivoted on the mythical deity reclining before her eyes, glorious in his nudity. Su-Lin’s heartbeat cavorted into loud, insistent hammering, which swelled to fever pitch. She noticed small details, the way the faint dusting of golden hairs on his torso swirled to the right, a thick forefinger stroking peach-pink marble, his taut stomach lifting and falling.
Around his neck hung a gold chain, and a dazzling pendant with intricate engravings punctuated a chest so defined, so Norse god-like, her fingers tingled with the urge to trace each ridge, tease the glistening wisps of hair leading to his, his…
Su-Lin choked on a stifled gasp, but she couldn’t stop gaping at his penis, staring wide-eyed at the mind-boggling span of the enormous weapon. Its satin head seemed to wink at her, a lewd beckoning. She ground her heels into the floor before her wayward feet answered its spell-like summons.
All at once, fire licked every inch of skin, flared up her spine, and connected with her brain, igniting thought. She scrambled for the towel. Nails scraped the moist marble; she clutched shaky fingers around soft cotton and bounded off the bench. His size dwarfed all five feet five inches of her too-big-for-gymnastic-competition body.
A warrior-resolute gaze examined every inch of her roasting flesh, lingered on her B-cup breasts, and his mouth pursed as he studied her overlarge nipples. His forehead creased, and he fixated on the triangle of sable curls at the juncture of her thighs. The intensity of those slate eyes had her hands trembling, her fingers fumbling to drape the towel around her chest. She muttered a Mandarin curse when her waist-length, straight-as-a-pin black hair tangled with the wet material.
“You don’t have to leave, darlin’. We can always lock the door.”
Propped on an elbow, the man angled forward, full lips curling at the corners. His cock twitched and slapped against a flat walnut belly missing the requisite white tan lines. Her glance strayed to testicles hanging huge and heavy against powerful, sinewy thighs.
Eyes shackled by his thick forefinger outlining one round globe, Su-Lin licked her lips, mesmerized by the lazy self-caress. He traced a succulent path from the base of his penis to its glistening tip. A translucent drop formed, pearled, and hung suspended for long seconds at the slit in his organ’s crown. Only as the heady droplet trailed down the path his finger had taken could Su-Lin gulp much-needed oxygen into burning lungs.
“My prick’s at your service, darlin’, whatever milady wishes.”
Her subconscious noted the slight hint of Irish brogue, but her stare settled on his foreskin, which reflected the shade of his bronzed stomach. Seconds later, his words registered, but their meaning took longer to comprehend.
She couldn’t manage anything more than a panted “oh.”
The Pause button that had suspended her brain functions thus far clicked off. Fast-forward took over, and she twirled around, intent on escape.
“I like the view from behind too, darlin’. That’s one fine backside.” He ended his pronouncement with a chuckle, which made her skin smolder even more.
As she reached behind, struggling to find the towel’s drooping ends, jumbo callused fingers did the job for her, tying a knot at the base of Su-Lin’s neck. His fingertips scalded with each light brush; her shoulder blade, a vertebra here, there a slight graze of her earlobe, and she couldn’t inhale, couldn’t shake off a sudden paralysis.
His thumb curved a path of embers along her nape and panic set in. Su-Lin shrugged away, threw the door open, and ran like a gazelle hunted by a tiger. Her hands shook like a building in the center of a tropical cyclone, so it took half an hour to change in the women’s locker room. She had to sit for long minutes after buckling her sandals until her puddling limbs reformed into bones, which could support actual steps.
Tourists of all shapes, sizes, and nationalities filled the lobby of the Antibes Eden Roc beachfront hotel. She heard French, American-accented English, German, and after a while Su-Lin realized what she listened for: the Irish version of a Sean Connery brogue.
Explosive lust, hitherto unknown, threaded from pinky toe to tingling scalp. Kaleidoscopic, brilliant images danced before her pupils, his lips on hers, those thick fingers caressing her breasts, his wondrous organ joining them into one. Su-Lin’s hands balled into fists, and she stifled a whimper as desire held her in thrall.
What would it feel like? That broad weapon filling her, stretching her, claiming her.
Remembering the rigidity of his penis, the blue-green veins throbbing, thickening its girth, her fingers curled and uncurled. Desire weighted her eyelids to half-mast as she threaded his features into every adolescent faceless fantasy.
That jewel drop at its tip.
What would it taste like? Her tongue slid across a parched lower lip, which trembled as she imagined licking the sticky substance.
Salty, he looked salty, her Norse god.
Su-Lin wanted him.
Too tame a word, wanting. No, more an incendiary slow burn, a force destined to shatter every protective shield she’d ever built. Her lips twitched and lifted; he was hers. She would have him. After all, she had Olympic determination, Asian discipline, and patience.
A sudden wave of giddiness made her lean against a marble column, and its air-conditioned coolness sliced the edge off her feverish skin. Loud laughter forced awareness of her surroundings.
The ache of lust morphed in an instant when her eyes found the source of the joyous mirth, a young couple applauding their infant’s first steps. Had her parents ever done that? Had they ever celebrated any of her accomplishments? Her mouth twisted at the memory of earning a spot for the tryouts for the national Olympic team, of running home to tell her mother. It hadn’t been one of her mother’s good days.
Su-Lin shook her head.
Not going there.
Her second chance at life had begun and that warrior would be hers. Once, at least. He would be her first lover.
For the last ten years, the male sex had not played any role in her life. This trip was her chance to balance yin and yang. To explore the sexual urges she’d had to suppress during her adolescence. Never knowing when her mother would suddenly retreat into silence or, in those first few years, drink to the point where she had to crawl to the bathroom, Su-Lin had to be vigilant at all times. Her natural curiosity flamed in surreptitious early morning moments after she’d discovered her father’s collection of dust-covered, graphical images of men and women engaged in sexual intercourse.
In the last six months, she’d begun to notice the way men looked at her. For years she’d thought being part Chinese, part Swedish meant she wasn’t pretty, that belief reinforced by the small-town Caucasian population of Mayo, Ohio.
But her lips curved into a wide, triumphant smile, she knew she had aroused her Viking, the proof evident by the blatant thickening and pearling of his weapon. Su-Lin closed her eyes and pictured the cut of his biceps, his corrugated belly, those weighty testicles, his finger outlining them. She had to clutch the round pillar to stay upright. Sticky cream coated the V between her thighs; she squished her legs together and only then recognized her lack of underwear.
Stifling a groan, Su-Lin ordered her wayward legs into motion, intent on seclusion and panties. She ran into Uncle James at the elevators.
“How’re you feeling, love? Aunt Emma is worried about you. You’re so exhausted. She’s set up all these spa appointments for you.”
His jowls jiggled as he spoke, and she wondered, for the millionth time, at the physical differences between him and her mother, his sister. Annika Taylor hadn’t been even five feet, whereas Uncle James towered at six-two. Her mother had been slender and delicate. A tsunami couldn’t budge her uncle’s bulk, which had settled at his middle.
“That’s very kind of Aunt Emma, but this hotel’s so expensive, Uncle, and I don’t need any pampering.”
“Love, I only wish we’d known of your situation, how sick your mother had been for the last few years. We could’ve helped, found the best doctors.”
Uncle James must have noticed her strained expression, because he paused and shook his balding head. “But that’s in the past. Money’s not an issue for you anymore. I’m working with my lawyers to settle a considerable trust on you.”
“You know I’ve asked you not to do that. I’ve a degree in human kinetics. I can support myself.” Her relatives had insisted on paying for the trip. Su-Lin flexed her curling fingers and reminded herself to be grateful. “I have a job waiting for me in Mayo, if I want it.”
“And what am I to do with all my money, love? Emma and I have no children, and our only living relative is you. Why shouldn’t I give you enough money to be comfortable?” He patted her shoulder, although thumped would’ve described his clumsy touch better. “Once the trust activates in a few days, you’ll never need to work a day in your entire lifetime.”
His words, meant as a source of comfort, made her stomach hollow out. Su-Lin’s superstitious bent read his statement with unease. The old Chinese proverb about too much luck heralding a disaster circled to the forefront of her brain.
“Jenny, there you are.” Aunt Emma’s voice couldn’t be mistaken, her low, husky drawl so reminiscent of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat. “Have you told her, James?”
“No, love, I thought I’d leave that for you.”
“We have a wonderful surprise, Jenny,” Emma said as she reached them.
As her aunt’s voice receded, the elevator bell dinged. Mirrored golden doors opened and passengers swept forward, forcing the three of them to shuffle to the left. A man leaning on a carved walking stick bumped into Su-Lin, and she listed to the right.
Two large hands gripped her shoulders, lifted her off the burgundy carpet, and set her down out of the line of the throng. The unexpected contact made her lungs stammer, and for some strange reason, an electric tingling skittered down her spine as large warm hands stroked her back. Trained to be polite to a fault, she glanced up, and up and up, and when her gaze fell on a gold coin dusting bronzed skin, Su-Lin’s toes curled and she swallowed air.
Her Norse god.
Bracing her hands flat against his hard chest, she stared at him, at his pupils dilating and darkening, making the gray irises thundercloud haloes.
Everything crawled by in a series of blurred images, the combustible, momentary touching of their bodies, him murmuring something, her ears registering the sound. But her mind couldn’t interpret the words, too fascinated by his hot breath tickling her ear and the tangy scent of sea about him. He whispered again and seconds later his words penetrated. “What’s your mobile number?”
Bewildered, she stared at him.
“Your cell phone, darlin’. Give me the number.”
“I…I don’t have one,” she whispered.
His broad palms cupped her bottom cheeks and she ignited, fingertips sparking as they glided over the thin cotton covering his rippled pectorals.
“Then I’ll have to be creative, won’t I?” He winked, kneaded her rear end one more time, spun her around, and gave her a little push to the left.
Two couples facing each other separated her from her relatives. Aunt Emma and Uncle James circled them to stand next to her.
“Ah, there you are. Terrence, over here.” Uncle James’s booming voice echoed throughout the lobby. “Jenny, I’d like you to meet Terrence O’Connor who owns the Glory, a luxury yacht, and he’s agreed to let us charter it for a three-week Mediterranean tour. Isn’t that fabulous, Jenny?”
Three weeks with him?
Su-Lin’s knees buckled and she slumped against a wall, not certain which emotion would win the battle raging inside -- breathless apprehension or clandestine cravings.
“The pleasure’s all mine, Jenny,” her Norse god said, his hand outstretched.
“Oh,” she breathed and managed to slide her palm against his. “Hi.”
One of his fingers traced a line from the center of her palm and rested on the pulse beating at her wrist. She stared at their joined hands, paralyzed and electrified at the same time. He released his hold on her, and she counted each slight touch as he did, one, two, three.
She knew he stared at her, could feel his eyes caressing her legs, her breasts, so Su-Lin kept her gaze fixed on Uncle James’s third shirt button. Her knuckles dug into the textured apostrophe of the paisley-embossed wallpaper as she searched for physical support for her quaking legs.
Uncle James twisted the face of his diamond-encrusted Rolex watch. “We’d better hurry. Our lunch reservation was for half an hour ago. We can discuss our itinerary over the meal.”
“I’ll meet you at the restaurant in fifteen minutes,” Terrence said. “I need to have a word with my first mate.”
“We’ll see you in a tad, then.” Uncle James used the heel of his palm to guide Aunt Emma forward.
Su-Lin followed the thickset couple but cut a glance over her shoulder, hunting for her future lover.
Their eyes met.
He wore an amused smile, as if he knew she would search for him and wanted to prolong their interaction. When he touched his fingers to his lips and sent a kiss in her direction, she stumbled, stubbing her big toe on the first step leading to a garden pathway.
On autopilot, she never noticed the lush landscape of forest and exotic blooms shading the winding clay path leading to the Eden Roc restaurant. She snapped to attention when Aunt Emma waved a hand in front of her unseeing eyes.
“Honestly, Jenny, you spend too much time daydreaming. Did you even hear what I just said?”
The lyrical breeze, which swept across the open-air dining area, whistling as it whooped through a narrow opening here, rattling shutters against stuccoed walls there, couldn’t cool Su-Lin’s heated skin. Her aunt’s comment resonated like an insult, and at the thought, a wave of guilt flushed her flesh further.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Emma. What did you say?”
“I said we were very fortunate to contract Terrence O’Connor and the Glory for our cruise. The girls at the spa said he’s very particular about who’s allowed to charter his yacht.”
“The concierge said he was the best.” Uncle James waved a chubby hand at a white-clad waiter about four feet away. “And nothing but the best for my girls, hey?” He beamed at his wife and winked at his niece. “Bleeding service in this hotel’s slow. Hey, garçon, over here.”
Su-Lin cringed and sank into the chair. She winced when the waiter rolled his eyes and loped their way, his pace a deliberate, slow stroll. Over the last few weeks, she’d come to realize her aunt and uncle disdained anyone not of their class or wealth and treated people in menial positions with a derisive condescension.
While Uncle James ordered their drinks, Su-Lin concentrated on the panoramic view of the azure Mediterranean fronting the restaurant. She inhaled the mixture of aromas -- tangy sea brine, fish, and smoke -- and allowed the scents to soothe away the surge of irritation Aunt Emma never failed to raise.
“Make sure you wear one of your new outfits tonight, Jennifer. Your uncle’s classmates and business colleagues will all be there. We haven’t seen them in years. Don’t wear that oriental thing you insisted on packing. You’re going to be mingling with British aristocracy. Dressed appropriately, with those green eyes, maybe no one will realize you’re of mixed blood.”
It took all of Su-Lin’s self-control and discipline not to bound to her feet and shout at her aunt. Instead, she geared her fury into a rushed, gritted pronouncement.
“Uncle James, Aunt Emma, I prefer to be called Su-Lin. That’s the name I’ve used all my life. No one’s ever called me Jenny or Jennifer, and I really don’t like it. My name is Su-Lin.”
Aunt Emma’s dark eyebrows slashed together; then she pursed her lips and opened her mouth.
Uncle James elbowed his wife and shot her a shut-the-dickens-up frown.
He faced Su-Lin and nodded, sending a ripple down his multiple chins.
“Of course, love, if that’s what you’re used to.” His large, moist hand patted her small one, and she tamped down the wave of revulsion his touch provoked. “If I slip tonight, correct me. I want everyone addressing you the way you prefer. And if you do decide to move to Hong Kong and live with us, the oriental name will come in handy.”
Live in Hong Kong? With them? Had he mentioned that before? Su-Lin searched her nonchronological memories of the past few weeks. Even if he had mentioned her living in Hong Kong, she hadn’t agreed, thank the Fates.
“Have you three ordered?”
Su-Lin jumped, and her head swung in the direction of Terrence O’Connor’s deep, husky voice. One moccasin-clad foot edged the chair adjacent to hers away from the table, and he sank into it, his long legs stretching out and disappearing under the pristine white tablecloth.
“Just our drinks,” Uncle James replied. He snapped his fingers and said, his voice clear and ringing over the low murmur of conversation and laughter swelling on a cool gust, “Garçon, garçon.”
She swept a glance at Terrence and caught his stifled wince, the brief shuttering of his eyes, and the slight pursing of his mouth. As if he’d felt her gaze, his gray eyes held hers, and the warmth and intensity blazing there made her lungs stutter.
He straightened in the chair, shifted, rested his elbow on the table, and propped his stubbled chin in a cupped hand. “My first mate’s working on an itinerary, James. You did say earlier that you wanted to include the Greek isles in the cruise?”
“Definitely. Haven’t done this excursion in over a decade. The wife and I are looking forward to it.”
“And what about you, Jenny? Are you looking forward to it?”
Distracted by the way the sun’s rays tinted the auburn in his hair to a fiery red, she startled at his words.
He turned so his back faced her relatives, blocking her view of them. Su-Lin’s hands flexed; she slanted a gaze at the tablecloth fluttering over the tight black jeans he wore, the snow-white linen caressing his bunched thigh muscles. She wondered if the pulse shattering every thought in her brain beat loud enough for him to hear.
“Yes.”
“Sir, you’re ready to order?”
“About time. Three of your biggest, juiciest hamburgers and double portions of french fries. What will you have, Terry?”
Su-Lin sucked in her breath as she felt his gaze on her.
“Ditto. Add a Heineken to the order, will you? Jenny, would you like something more substantial than that glass of water?”
She shot a surreptitious glance at Aunt Emma, and her shoulders slumped at the woman’s pinched features. When her aunt had found her having a glass of wine at the hotel’s bar last night, she had made more than one remark about young women drinking alcohol.
“James, Emma!” came the shouted greeting from across the restaurant.
Su-Lin didn’t recognize the couple coming toward them, but then again, six weeks ago she hadn’t known of her relatives’ existence, far less their friends’. The noonday sun outlined the couple, and even shading her eyes, she could only make out their silhouette.
Aunt Emma’s lips spread into an unaccustomed smile, baring a chipped canine and two rows of ivory-rimmed yellow around the perimeters. She stood up, hands outstretched.
Tanned to a shade darker than a Brazil nut, the woman approaching appeared all angles and planes, her small head perched on a long neck and an even-longer torso and legs. She looked like a cutout body with a mismatched face. Su-Lin stifled a giggle, but a peep of sound escaped.
Terrence, in the middle of rising to his feet, swept her a glance.
Guilt at her unkind thoughts washed over her, and she clamped her lips together.
When Aunt Emma made the introductions, Su-Lin remained seated. She muttered hello even though she hadn’t caught the couple’s names.
After shaking hands with the man and woman, Terrence slouched into the overstuffed wicker chair, shifting it closer to Su-Lin’s. The slight grate of wood on concrete went unnoticed.
“Aren’t you itching to try out another head on that body?” he whispered into her ear, his warm, smoky breath fanning her neck. “One more birdlike?”
A surprised smile twitched her lips upward, and she slid sideways on the cushioned seat to fully face him. And just like that the world faded away, and she drowned in those gray lagoons, tumbling into an Alice in Wonderland parallel reality.
His hand slid along the wooden back of her chair, and one finger trailed her shoulder blade. “I need to kiss you, darlin’. Go visit the powder room. I’ll be there in a second.”
Amid a stream of introductions, vacuous chatter, and drink orders, Su-Lin tried to decipher if she’d really heard those words, if this god of a man actually wanted to kiss her. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t follow the conversation, and her eyes couldn’t leave his face, his mouth.
As he settled back into the chair, he said, “I’ll go first.”
She watched as he threw his napkin on the table, white on white, thick fingers brown against the fabric, and followed his tight butt and warrior shoulders as he stalked to an alcove across the room. When he turned around under the shadowed arch and crooked a finger, she rose to her feet, muttered an excuse, and headed in his direction.
He’d disappeared by the time she reached the arch and uncertainty tangled her feet, making her stumble. Su-Lin rested a palm on a faux-aged oak door to prevent a fall.
It whipped open.
She gasped.
Terrence curled an arm around her, lifted her off her feet, and whirled about so his broad back held the door shut.
One hand tipped her chin up.
She blinked.
Her mouth went dry.
Excitement and fear crested and fell, climbing higher as their locked gaze strained over tens of seconds.
“We can hook up tonight, darlin’. But I need something to tide me over.”
His voice sounded gruff, clipped, as if words proved an effort.
Su-Lin’s knees buckled and the arm circling her waist firmed, curving her into his body.
His tongue lapped at the seam of her mouth. It felt so delicious and mysterious and magical. She went slack in his hold, eyes closing, senses racing to where his tongue made contact, savoring the way blood raced to each touch of his mouth against her wet lips.
“Open,” he ordered, and she smelled smoke and oak and salt and sea.
She obeyed, the submissive female part of her craving his domination. His tongue slid in and out of her mouth, tangling with hers, tickling a heady sensation on the roof. Her hands fisted his shirt and she wanted to be horizontal, feel the weight of him on her, rub against the hardness grinding into the V of her torso.
“Is anyone in there?”
A burst of knuckles rapping against wood seeped in small increments at the edges of Su-Lin’s mind. His lips left hers, he murmured something, and the feather touch of his mouth over his words flamed her body. She didn’t want this to stop. Her fingers crimped the soft linen covering his chest.
“Jaysus.” He tugged her tight to his pectorals, and one warm hand slipped under Su-Lin’s blouse to stroke the small of her back. “Answer the fricking woman, darlin’. Say you’ll be a few minutes.”
Voice shaky and wavery, Su-Lin did as he commanded.
All at once, she realized what would happen when the door opened, and she couldn’t prevent a slight groan. “Oh no. My aunt, my uncle, if they knew…”
Chucking her chin, he met her gaze and muttered, “I’ll take care of it. They won’t know. Where are your parents, Jenny? Why are you with your relatives?”
The questions slid like a glacier through her soul, filling crevices with a familiar dread, one she’d lived with all her life. Gymnastic training stiffened her spine, and she concentrated on the next second, the next surprise, the next obstacle. “My parents are dead. This trip is my graduation present, and my uncle and aunt are my only relatives. I don’t know them very well, but my aunt will disapprove, I know it.”
His thumb stroked the frown between her eyebrows. “I said I’ll take care of it, and I will. Now, I’ll go out first, and if the road is clear, I’ll knock once on the door. Wait a few seconds and then make your way to the table. Got it?”
He balanced her chin on the tip of his forefinger forcing Su-Lin to meet his eyes.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be at the cocktail reception tonight. We’ll finish this later.”
Finish?
He set her away from him, his hand lingering under the curve of her breast. “We have three weeks together on the cruise, darlin’, and you’re in the cabin next to mine.”
Su-Lin stood staring at the closed door after he’d left. She pinched her forearm hard, felt the sharp pain, waited for the skin to color a dusky rose, and still didn’t believe the events of the last few minutes had actually occurred.
The reflection in the mirror above the marble sink told a different tale. Lips swollen and red, her slanted jade eyes glazed, her taut nipples poking against the sheer black top broadcast her arousal. Each touch, each scrape against the material made her nipples burn a notch higher.
She splashed water against her hot cheeks, dried her skin, and held her breath when she heard the slight graze of knuckles on wood, Terrence’s signal. She opened the door, letting oxygen out in a whoosh when the alcove proved empty. In a studious attempt to regain control, Su-Lin focused on the smooth turquoise surface of the sea and a majestic white sail billowing above a sleek navy boat.
Terrence stood when she reached the table and slid her chair away from its edge. She sat. He nudged her back into position, and her knees and thighs slipped under the white tablecloth.
His hand curled around one leg about two inches above her bent knee and Su-Lin almost flew out of her chair. He must have felt her muscles tensing, for he gave a soft chuckle and rubbed a slow, rhythmic circle right there. Heat flooded her veins and a slight sheen of perspiration broke out on her forehead. She gulped down the entire glass of water.
Conversation subsided as the waiter appeared with a busboy in tow.
A sensual fog mobbed her brain and warped the twenty minutes that followed.
Her uncle and aunt and their friends chatted and laughed.
Aware of only the man at her side, his hand caressing her thigh, Su-Lin became oblivious to her surroundings. Even the bloody meat on her plate didn’t faze her. Bemused, she followed his one-handed consumption of the hamburger and fries, his every movement fluid with the grace of a powerful man comfortable in his own skin.
“You’re not eating,” he said, and his thumb punctuated the statement with a soft press on her leg. “Shall I feed you? My lips to yours?”
“Oh,” she gasped and checked right away to see if anyone had noticed, but her relatives and their friends proved unmindful of the two of them. Sending him a sideways glance, Su-Lin picked up a french fry and nibbled on the crisp potato.
The strident tones of Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” splintered the tactile tranquil ambience of the Eden Roc restaurant. A violin strummed, the lyrics, “I get knocked down,” crashed into a sudden quiet.
“That’s me, I’m afraid,” Terrence grouched, and he glared at a metallic BlackBerry lying next to his white plate. “Excuse me.” He swapped the phone for his crumpled napkin, rose, and strode over to the balcony.
Taking his seat again a few minutes later, he shifted to face Su-Lin, one arm along the back of her chair. “I have to go, darlin’.” One forefinger slipped along the scooped back of her shirt, shooting sparks across her flesh. “Remember, tonight you’re mine. Say it for me.”
“Okay,” she whispered. It was time, and fate had chosen him as her first lover. A heady thrill had Su-Lin entranced. She followed the progress of the slow, satanic curling of one corner of his mouth, the way his slate eyes darkened at the edges, and she wet her lips, ravenous for another taste of him.
“Perfect.” He rose and threw his napkin to the left of his plate.
“James, Emma. I have to cut short this delightful lunch. I’ll see you later on this evening at the reunion cocktail party. It’s been a pleasure.”
Much to her disconcertment, he walked away without a backward glance.