Diamond Lady Read online

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Diamond Lady

  ISBN 9781419915239

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Diamond Lady Copyright © 2008 Desiree Holt

  Edited by Helen Woodall.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Electronic book Publication April 2008

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/)

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Diamond Lady

  Desiree Holt

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  Dedication

  To my family, who keeps me sane through the insanity. I love you all.

  And special thanks as always to my editor, Helen Woodall, who is quite simply the best.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Mercedes: Mercedes- Benz USA, LLC

  Chapter One

  Anna Beloit stood on the wide patio of the Danbury Yacht Club, careful to stay as far as possible from the light spilling from the ballroom. The champagne cocktail she was holding was her third, yet the alcohol seemed to have had no effect on her. Probably because her anger kept counteracting it.

  Tonight was the last of the big parties before her sister, Shari’s, wedding. And as with every one of the pre-wedding activities, she’d been somehow paired with the groom’s law partner, John Boudreau. Not that there was anything wrong with him, he was just such a…lawyer. Every conversation turned into a debate or a pontifical explanation of something she really didn’t give a shit about.

  And if he wasn’t debating or pontificating, he was regaling everyone with stories about the top-dollar models he represented and the enormous fees he made from their contracts. Shari, one of those models herself, preened as everyone gasped at the income she obviously brought home.

  Big deal!

  If there was a moment left over to compliment Anna’s thriving bookstore, her pride and joy, she hadn’t found it yet. “Anna’s little toy,” is how the family referred to it.

  Well, she was sick of her family, sick of the wedding plans and sick of being thrown together with John who she assumed was to lift her from the level of the plebeian to the exalted upper class. She’d been the dutiful sister for weeks and now the wedding was just around the corner. They could do without her for one night, couldn’t they? She loved her sister but one more hour of watching Shari in her model’s pose holding court and she’d be headed for the nut house.

  Why was it that some women got all the attractive men while others, like her, attracted only the most boring individuals? Was it a matter of hormones or genetic selection?

  What she really wanted was to ditch this stupid, boring party and put a little excitement in her life. What she needed was an adventure with a handsome stranger like those in the erotic romances she read when business was slow. One who would help her live out the fantasies that were still just images in her mind.

  Fantasies that would shock the hell out of the very proper Beloits, who saw Anna as a recalcitrant child, even at thirty, who need to be brought to heel.

  “Damn them. They can all go to hell,” she whispered to herself, impulsively throwing the crystal champagne flute into the bushes.

  “I didn’t expect when I came outside that I’d be taking a shower.” The voice was deep and husky startling her with its nearness.

  Anna stumbled backward as a tall, well-muscled man in an impeccably cut tuxedo stepped from behind the shrubbery where she’d thrown her glass.

  “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” She continued to back away, shaking, as the man moved forward. “I’m angry and acting like a brat, paying no attention to what I’m doing.”

  He threw back his head and laughed, a low rumbling sound. “Anger is good, if properly controlled.” He looked at her from head to toe with experienced eyes. “But I see more than anger in your eyes. I see fire and passion.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “If you want to keep away from the light, which it seems you do, I’d stop backing up right about there.”

  She nearly tripped over her own feet trying to move back into the shadows. “Who are you anyway? And what are you doing hiding out here in the shrubbery? Wait, I know you. I’ve seen you at other functions that are part of this bizarre ritual my parents are conducting.” She shook her head. “I have, haven’t I?”

  He nodded.

  “How do you stand it? Lord. If I have to go to one more party like this and smile at one more jerk-head, I think I’ll scream.”

  “Not my cup of tea either but I do business with the groom’s law firm. I guess that put me on the permanent guest list.” His eyes hypnotized her, so dark and dangerous. “But I have had my eye on you for a long time, Anna Beloit.

  “Y-You know who I am?” She smacked her forehead. “What a dummy I am. Of course you do, if you’ve been coming to all these duck walks.”

  He laughed again. “Duck walks. An appropriate name for these events.” He winked at her. “Your name is not all that I know. But not nearly as much as I wish to discover.”

  “You want to learn more about me?” She could hardly believe that this very sexy, very mysterious man, with the enticingly accented voice, would rather go off with her than one of the glamorous females in Shari’s entourage.

  He pinned her with his gaze. “But of course, cara. You are the woman of my dreams.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Me?”

  “That surprises you? I don’t know why it should. You’re a beautiful woman, full of hidden fire.” His mouth shaped itself in a slow, sexy smile. “I would love the chance to bring that fire to life.”

  Anna shivered as delicious images raced through her mind, images from the pages of the erotic novels she read in a corner of her bookstore. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say nothing. Just tell me you’d like the same thing.”

  Well, she’d wished for an adventure, hadn’t she? “Aren’t you going back inside?”

  The sounds of multiple conversations, laughter, the tinkling of cocktail glasses, all seeped out into the night air. He looked through the open doors at the crowd, then down at his dress shirt and jacket, soaked with champagne. Grinning, he gestured toward his dripping clothes. “I don’t think I’m appropriately attired to return to the party, do you?”

  “Oh lord.” She put her hands over her face. “I truly apologize. I was just acting like a spoiled brat and you got all the damage.”

  He laughed again. “Luckily I have a change of clothes nearby.

  Her eyes popped. “You keep an extra tux in the locker room?”

  “No, on my boat.” He nodded toward the water at the yacht club marina, where boats of every description bobbed in their slips.

  “You have a boat.” Well, yes, dummy, isn’t that what people who belong to yacht clubs own?

  He held out a hand to her. “Come. Your penance is to help me make myself presentable again.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To my boat, cara. You will help me change clothes and I will reward you with wine from my vineyards in Italy. It puts to shame anything you can find here.”

  Anna’s heart was skipping like a stone across water. Here was her chance to see if all those things she’d read about were really possible. Her stomach clenched and her pulse skittered. Hadn’t she been lying in bed nights wishing just for something like this? Dreaming it? Trying to conjure up an exotic stranger to lift her from her humdrum life?

  And now here he was. Devastatingly good looking, in the light spilling out from the club she could see he was at least six feet tall. A thick head of black hair topped a rugged-looking face. Black eyes with diamonds of light reflecting in them looked out from a thick fringe of lashes. A thin scar ran from just over his left eyebrow to below his cheekbone, giving him a rakish look.

  He might as well have been flashing a sign that said “Danger”. It was all she could do to keep from drooling. And he wanted her. Anna Beloit. Maybe her adventure was about to begin.

  “Come, Anna. Let’s see what the rest of the evening has in store for us.” He held out his hand to her.

  She put her small hand in his large, calloused one. The moment their skin touched her nipples hardened so abruptly they nearly poked through the thin silk of her dress. Moisture flooded the crotch of her thong. She walked slowly down the slope to the marina gate, careful not to trip in her high heels. “You know my name. Will you tell me yours?”

  “Of course.” He flashed a smile at her that made the muscles in her cunt ripple. “I am Dominic.”

  “Dominic.”

  “It sounds like music when you say it.” He used a key card to unlock the iron gate, then led her along the pier to the last slip. “I like to be as far away from activity as possible. See how quiet it is out here?
”

  All her senses were on full alert. The spicy scent of Dominic’s cologne mingled with the sharp tang of the water. The sky was midnight black, the stars splashed across it like a spray of diamonds, sharp and clear. A breeze so gentle it was almost nonexistent drifted over them.

  The boat was certainly more than the simple word implied. Yacht would have been more like it. It was large and magnificent and the name Diamond Lady swept across the hull in paint that glittered in the moonlight.

  “Is she named for someone?”

  He leaned toward her, his breath a whisper against her skin. “How do you know it isn’t for you?”

  While she was still catching her breath over that, he climbed up a short ladder and opened a segment of the hull that swung inward. Looking down at her, he shook his head. “Shoes like that were not made for climbing ladders. Or for walking on fine teakwood. Come here, cara.”

  He leaned over and placed his hands at her waist, lifting her as if she were as light as a rose petal. When he swung her into his arms the fresh citrus scent of his aftershave teased her senses. He slipped off her shoes and placed them on a table before closing the gate in the hull.

  “You must feel the elegance of the deck with your bare feet,” he told her.

  As he lowered her to stand upright, his hand slid beneath the skirt of her dress, up her thigh and over her hip to lie flat on her abdomen. She shivered at his touch.

  If she’d been bolder she would have opened her legs enough to permit him to slide his fingers beneath her thong and touch her dampening folds. She closed her eyes and imagined those thick fingers inserting themselves into her hungry cunt, stroking the deliciously wet inner tissues while she…

  Her eyes flew open and she looked up to see Dominic grinning at her, both hands holding her waist beneath her dress, his thumbs caressing her skin.

  He winked. “I think we will have a lovely evening ahead of us, don’t you? And isn’t this wood like satin beneath your feet?”

  “Oh yes.” Like a child, she wanted to glide her feet over the polished wood, sliding as she’d done in the halls of her house on cleaning day.

  “I’ll bet your lips feel just as good.”

  His face was barely an inch from hers. She opened her mouth to say something, then forgot whatever it was as his lips drifted across hers with the softest of touches. He nibbled her bottom lip, drawing it into his mouth and licking it with the tip of his tongue.

  She swayed against him, a heady feeling of sensuality consuming her. His tongue was like the flame of a candle, dancing now here, now there, until the entire inside of her mouth was consumed. Yet never once had he increased the pressure of his lips or taken her mouth roughly. He was tempting her with his lips and his tongue, a dance partner beckoning to her. In frustration she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and pressed her lips hard against his, sweeping her tongue into the warm wetness of his mouth. If she could have, she’d have swallowed his tongue whole.

  He lifted his head and chuckled. “I knew there was a hellcat under that proper demeanor. I just didn’t know I could unleash it so quickly.

  He picked her up again and carried her down a short flight of stairs to the cabin below. Anna kept her arms locked tightly around his neck, wondering if she could trick him into another one of those kisses. Only this time hotter and steamier. God, the man had lips like an angel. Or maybe it was a devil. He certainly made her burn hotter than the fires of hell and they hadn’t even done anything yet.

  He flipped a switch that turned on recessed lighting and gave the room a soft glow.

  She let her eyes travel around the room, trying to take in every detail. “Why, it’s almost like a small living room.”

  “I stay on her often so I wanted to have all my comforts.” He set her down and headed toward the built-in bar. “I promised you the finest wine you would ever taste and I always keep my word.”

  He selected a bottle from a wine refrigerator, opened it and filled two crystal goblets, smiling as he handed her one. “I believe in adventure, don’t you, Anna?”

  “Oh yes.” Her voice had a breathless catch to it. What she really wanted to say was, You bet your ass I do.

  He touched his glass to hers. “Then to adventure.”

  “To adventure,” she echoed and sipped the clear amber liquid. “Oh my. This is delicious.” She looked at the label. “Diamond Lady Vineyards.”

  “As I said, it’s a special blend from my own winery in Italy. This one is a limited edition.”

  “Are the vineyards named after the boat or the other way around?”

  “The boat for the vineyards. The winery had been in the Fellini family for generations. At the end of the first successful year, my great-grandfather bought my great-grandmother diamond earrings. Tiny ones but real stones nevertheless. Each year after that, he gave her something with diamonds. The men in my family have carried on the tradition.” He grinned. “I tell my family if the winery ever falls on hard times, we can live out our lives very comfortably on the sale of all those sparklers.”

  “I don’t imagine they take to that idea too well.”

  He shrugged. “Sentimental, all of them.”

  “So who have you given diamonds to?” Did she sound jealous?

  He shook his head. “Only to my boat so far.” His eyes burned into her. “Perhaps tonight that will change.”

  “Where do you live when you’re not on the boat? Italy, where your family is?”

  “I live many places. Perhaps I shall take you to see them.” He reached for her hand. “That’s enough questions for now. Come. You can help me get rid of these clothes. I usually drink my champagne in a glass.”

  Body quivering, she let him lead her into a bedroom with mirrored walls and the biggest bed she’d ever seen. She couldn’t help gawking at it.

  “I told you, I like my comfort. When I play, I want a large playpen.”

  “And are we going to play?” she asked, a slight tremor in her voice?

  “I certainly hope so.” He guided her to the edge of the bed and gently nudged her to sit down. “That is my intention.”

  While she watched he removed his clothing one piece at a time, jacket first, next the cummerbund, then the studs and cufflinks from the dress shirt, which he placed carefully on the dresser. His image was reflected in every panel of the mirror and she could see the muscles of his back ripple as he divested himself of his garments. When he reached for the button at the waistband of his pants she started to get up again but he moved to stand directly in front of her.

  “I think I’ll need you to help me with these. Too much champagne soaked into the fabric. The zipper’s stuck.”

  She stared up at him, heart thumping. Here it was, the place where the rubber met the road. Up until now it was all teasing. Once those pants came off, it was Game On. Was she all talk or did she really want the erotic journey of her lifetime?

  “Afraid of me, Anna? No need to be. “His voice was a soft caress. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to. Any time you want me to stop, just tell me and I’ll take you back to the club.”

  She drew a deep breath and her lips curved into a tempting smile. Then, as if they had a mind of their own, her hands moved to the top of his slacks. With fingers that shook only slightly she drew the zipper down, her knuckles grazing the impressive bulge of his erection. She pushed the dress pants down past his hips, her hands caressing his taut skin as they moved over it.

  Dominic toed his patent leather dress shoes off and quickly rid himself of his socks and the pants. Then there was nothing between them but snug black silk boxers that left nothing to the imagination. On impulse Anna leaned her cheek against the fly front, the swelling of his cock pressing against her skin. Impishly, she stuck out her tongue and licked the thin material, being careful not to reach through to the skin. Up and down she moved in long, smooth strokes, not touching any other part of him, the moisture from her mouth dampening the fine silk.

  He held himself stiff, his thighs pressing against her breasts but when she began to nip him through the cloth, sucking him into her mouth, he threaded his fingers through her hair, pulling her head against him.