Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (inspirational books .TXT) 📗

balcony within cell phone camera range in the company of a woman. The cover of darkness plus a veil of rainfall was no cover at all. He’d have to warn Nina. He did not want her to be blindsided.

This gave him the perfect excuse to knock on her door. Every cloud, a silver lining…

* * *

He knocked, but there was no answer. The famous pool party was raging downstairs, and he decided to check it out. Not because he thought it would be fun to celebrate the Fourth with a bunch of drunken strangers, and not because he enjoyed being passed around like a photo booth prop, which was sure to happen, but in the vague hopes that she might be there.

Downstairs, he was ushered without question beyond the velvet ropes. He ignored the assortment of vodka on display at the bar and ordered a gin and tonic. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a woman elbowing her way toward him, and he readied himself. Holding up her camera, she begged for a photo. “My boyfriend will die. He’s your number one fan.” Women seldom admitted to liking his films. It was always a husband, boyfriend or brother who got them to the theater.

The bartender volunteered to take the photo. He was a fan as well. With so many fans, Julian wondered how his film had flopped. Then he grabbed his drink and moved away from the bar. From his vantage point on the veranda, he scanned the crowd below. It was possible that Nina had done the reasonable thing—checked out of the hotel and flown home. But then he spotted her on the dance floor, and it was clear to him that reason wasn’t the fuel she was running on.

Julian didn’t make a move—he couldn’t. In the short time he’d known her, he’d seen her angry, distraught, threatening and resigned. But here was a side of her that he hadn’t guessed existed, and he was riveted. Nina was playful, dancing freely and having fun. But then he noticed the tight set of her jaw. Her movements were forced. He recalled what she’d told him the night before. He’d lost his mother years ago and knew exactly what she was going through. He’d been in Hawaii filming a special crossover episode of Riverside Rescue when he’d learned of his mother’s untimely death. The loss had sent him reeling for months.

Julian lost sight of Nina. When he spotted her again, she was standing dangerously close to the edge of the pool, throwing back a shot of the night’s signature vodka. She wore a little white dress held up by thin straps. Her hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders. Her dark skin gleamed in the soft light of the setting sun. She was so bloody beautiful.

He raced down the stairs and forged a path toward her despite mounting doubts. Leave her alone. She doesn’t need you. Then a few things happened to erase his concerns. A rocket exploded overhead, causing the crowd to compress and swell. Nina lost her balance and tipped backward into the still waters of the pool and vanished. It was possible that he was the only one who’d seen it, and now there was no question that she needed him.

* * *

He’s not my type.

Nina had spotted Julian the moment he’d entered the upper-level VIP veranda, the same she’d been turned away from an hour earlier. She’d had to access the party at the general population entrance by the lower-level pool. Although the whole ordeal had irritated her to no end, her irritations were washed away when a hostess presented her with an array of fruit-flavored vodka shots to choose from.

She’d slept well the night before—either the sofa bed was surprisingly comfortable or she’d been too exhausted to notice the difference. In any case, she woke up with a clear head and realized that attempting to travel on the Fourth of July was plain dumb. She had the suite to herself. Julian had set out early—she’d heard him fumbling around in the sitting area actively trying not to make noise. Once he left, Nina ordered room service and sat at the antique desk to write in her journal. But she’d refused to stay cooped up in her room while a party was in full swing outside.

Nina was relieved that Julian had not yet returned when she left the suite in her made-for-a-Miami-(or Vegas)-pool-party minidress. And yet she was doubly relieved when she spotted him on the VIP veranda. She’d enjoyed the quiet in the suite, but there was such a thing as too much quiet. She had missed his voice. And then she watched as he pulled a bikini-clad beauty into a hug. Her mouth went dry, and she turned away in search of more fruit-flavored vodka.

Whatever. He’s not my type.

She went for clean-cut lawyer/stockbroker types. Men who couldn’t bench-press anything heavier than a laptop but still managed to wear suits beautifully. Julian Knight in his jeans and tees worn mostly to show off his sculpted body was the opposite of that.

Assessing the attractiveness of one action hero on the scale of lawyer to stockbroker was an insane waste of time. She was at a party crowded with men! Nina infiltrated a squad of women on the dance floor. The DJ played the summer hits, and above them the sky was turning purple. She laughed at the crazy moves of her new friends and matched them with moves of her own. Soon, though, the crowd swallowed her up. She searched around for the others, but the group had dismantled.

The dance floor stretched alongside the pool, and Nina danced her way toward it. She took a breath. I’m tipsy, she admitted, and scooped another glass from a passing waiter’s tray. Might as well get good and drunk. She sent coconut-flavored vodka down her throat in one gulp then clutched the empty shot glass to her chest. Still, the words crawled across the ticker of