Cherish Hard Read online

  Isa's father, Stefan, obviously had no reason to look out for his ex-wife's daughter with another man. Not that he'd much looked out for his own either.

  Her phone beeped.

  When she picked it up, it was to see her father's handsome face flashing on the screen as if she'd summoned him out of thin air just by thinking of him. "Hi, Dad."

  "Your mother told me you're finally taking more interest in her company," he said in Icelandic, as if they'd just spoken yesterday instead of four months ago. "Good. Once you get some experience there, you can move into a vice presidential position in my fleet."

  Isa rubbed at her forehead. This, this was why her parents' marriage hadn't worked out. They admired each other enormously and remained close friends to this day, but they simply could not stop playing the game of one-upmanship when it came to business.

  Even when it involved their daughter.

  Switching to the same language Stefan had used, the language that still colored her English, she said, "How's"--oh God, what was the name of her father's current wife?--"er, Jenetta," she finished, hoping he'd blame the pause on the international phone connection.

  "Oh, Jenetta and I parted ways two months ago, sweetheart. She was lovely, but a touch vacuous in the brain-cell department."

  Isa winced on behalf of the departed Jenetta. "So you're single?"

  "Not for long! I was able to get an expedited divorce--I won't bore you with the details of how. The wedding's going to be in New Zealand. You know I like you to be part of the bridal party."

  Any other person might've been confused. Any other person was not Isa and hadn't grown up with Stefan. "What's the name of your fiancee?"

  "Elizabeth Anne Victoria. Such an English name. Her parents are viscounts or something." A verbal shrug that only a man who was one of the wealthiest in Europe could make--a man who'd already married and divorced a princess and two prima ballerinas. "I'll send you the wedding invitation, but here's the date."

  Isa dutifully noted it down.

  Stefan hung up soon afterward as he'd received a call from a corporate partner on the other line. As she put down her phone, Isa realized she had no idea of her father's current physical location. She'd also forgotten to subtly nudge him for more information about Elizabeth Anne Victoria--specifically, the new fiancee's age. Morbid curiosity had her googling for a woman with that name who was the child of a viscount.

  Two results came up.

  One was an eighty-year-old married matriarch.

  The other a twenty-one-year-old lissome beauty whose Instagram feed was full of images of her in various bikinis with captions that were either "motivational" sayings about working hard and achieving the dream or giggly reports about her latest vacation to some sun-drenched island so exclusive that you needed a private yacht to get to it.

  According to her bio, she wanted to be the first woman to fly into space. Her goal was to be "an inspirational role model to younger women!" It seemed to have escaped Elizabeth Anne Victoria's notice that a number of women had already beaten her to the stars. And that, to achieve her goal, she might need to study something other than the "meaning of life through a cocktail glass."

  "Lots of brain cells there, Dad," Isa muttered, wondering if the ink would even have a chance to dry on the marriage certificate before Stefan got bored. For a smart man, he'd never made a sensible choice in marriage partners, Jacqueline included. He either chose barracudas like Isa's mother or, lately, women who simply couldn't keep up with the brain that had taken a fleet of failing cruise ships and turned it into a global empire.

  Putting down her phone, Isa stared in the mirror again. Her father was about to cross the last line--he was going to marry a woman younger than his daughter. That was it. Isa had had it. "I don't care what I have to do tonight," she vowed, "but I am not coming home without misbehaving at least once!" No more playing it safe. Not tonight.

  Devil Isa cheered.

  Decision made, Isa threw open her wardrobe. It was filled with full-skirted day dresses, well-cut shirts, and skirts that flattered her body but weren't too tight to wear to work. Clearly she couldn't wear any of those things to a party where she intended to commit at least one sin, maybe two. She wanted to look dangerous and sexy and delicious, not like a prim and proper high school teacher.

  "No turning back, Isa." Sucking in a breath, she pushed aside all the other clothes in the closet to reach into the very back. Her fingers brushed the hard edge of sequins. Stomach tight and fluttery, she pulled out the hanger holding the dress.

  She didn't know what Catie had been thinking, buying this for Isa's birthday a couple of years ago. Her sister had talked Harlow into going along with the choice--the two of them had pooled their money to be able to afford it.

  The dress was a vivid royal blue and sequined from top to bottom.

  That sounded impressive until you took the length of the dress into account: the thing had no straps and the one time Isa had worn it--for her at-home birthday dinner with Catie and Harlow--it had only come to halfway down her thighs. Bending over hadn't been an option, not unless she wanted to reveal the color of her panties to anyone behind her.

  Resolve teetering, she almost shoved the dress back in. A woman with breasts her size was not meant to wear a strapless dress. But if she didn't wear this, it would have to be a T-shirt and jeans.

  Real sexy. Real wild. Real breaking the rules.

  Annoyed with herself, she stripped down--bra included--and wiggled into the dress. It had a zip down the side that made it easier. It was only when she began to tug up the zip that she remembered the dress's tight fit. It had made her feel like a fat sausage until Catie pointed out that the tight fit was on purpose so that her boobs wouldn't fall out.

  "And it's meant to show off your curves," her sister had said with a sigh. "I wish I had some curves to show off, but since I don't, I'm going to make sure you don't hide yours."

  According to both her siblings, she'd looked "hot, hot, hot" in the dress.

  Dress on, she walked to the mirror again, then dared take a peek. The dress fit like she'd been painted into it, sliding down her back in a smooth curve before shaping itself over her rear. It was much the same in the front except that the smooth line was broken by the clever ruching across the stomach that made it appear as if she didn't have a belly at all.

  Up top, her breasts were impressively encased and pressed together just enough to create some admittedly sexy cleavage. Isa took a second look... and smiled. She owed her little sister an apology, because the dress? It was perfect for the woman she wanted to be tonight.

  Devil Isa was now in charge.

  Taking down her hair, she went to pick up her hair straightener--only to realize her wildly tumbled locks looked insanely sensual, as if she'd just gotten out of bed... or the back seat of the gardener's truck.

  Blushing red-hot, she waved her hands in front of her face while still grinning; okay, yes, she'd run away before really doing anything, but at least she'd done something. And if she ever ran into him again, she wasn't going to run away. No, she'd take him up on his invitation to enter the back seat, should the offer still be open.

  Her core threatened to melt.

  "Focus, Isa," she ordered herself. "Stop thinking about the gardener. I'm sure there are plenty more fish in the sinful sea. And you're going fishing."

  She picked up her makeup and got to work.

  Finished after a careful twenty minutes, she stepped back--and found a stranger looking out at her. A stranger in a smoking-hot dress with a tumble of red hair around her shoulders and lips so lush and plump they looked bitable.

  Yes, her hips were wider than was fashionable, and she definitely had more curves than she should, but tonight Isa was going to forget about should. Tonight she was going to celebrate who she was and let out the vixen within. Maybe if she did enough vixening, she'd forget the man with the blue, blue eyes who'd touched her as if he wanted to devour her in small bites.

  Those eye
s...

  She frowned, still unable to shake the feeling that she'd seen them before, though that was impossible. She'd have remembered that gorgeous face, those sexy lips, that incredible build. No, she'd never met her gardener before that steamy kiss that haunted her dreams.

  * * *

  NAYNA WHISTLED WHEN SHE SAW Isa. "Talk about sex on legs!" she said from the driver's seat while Isa got into the passenger seat. She'd come downstairs to wait for Nayna, determined not to chicken out and change.

  "Wow," Isa said of her friend's own dress. "It looks like you wrapped a black bandage around yourself and said you were done. It's holy-crap fantastic."

  The dress had thin straps, but otherwise it was similar to Isa's in that it hit Nayna midway down the thighs. The bandage look was made all the sexier because it didn't cover every single part of Nayna's body. A little gap by her ribs, a hint by the curve of her hip, a strip along her lower back; the exposed sections were tiny, but that was why they looked so damn tempting.

  Some of those exposed areas, however, were located in--

  Isa's eyes widened. "Are you naked under that?"

  A distinctly naughty smile from her best friend. "Shh." Giggling at Isa's scandalized gasp, she said, "I had to hide this from my mother. I put it in a box marked Tax Documents and left my stilettos in the car. Then, tonight, I walked out in a giant coat and sensible shoes."

  Isa couldn't understand Nayna's decision to live at home, just as she couldn't understand her friend's agreement to an arranged marriage, but it was what Nayna wanted. "I approve of your cunning ways."

  "Did you see how it glitters when the light hits it?"

  "You look like a goddess of the night."

  Nayna cut herself off mid-laugh. "Damn." She pointed to where she'd hooked up her phone to act as their GPS. "Can you fix that?" For some reason the screen had gone blank.

  "What's the address?" When Nayna told her, Isa didn't bother to reset the phone. "I know the way. My mother used to take me to parties around there."

  Social events that had actually been more like business mixers.

  Jacqueline training Isa to be her successor. A mini-dragon. No matter if Isa had no desire to breathe fire and cut throats.

  "You met our host through work, right?" she said to Nayna about twenty minutes later as her friend brought the car to a halt partway down the long drive already clogged with a number of vehicles.

  "It's a couple actually." Nayna turned off her engine. "The kind of power couple who end up in the social pages. This is their annual pre-Christmas-slash-anniversary party."

  "Oh, I didn't bring a gift."

  Reaching into the back, Nayna held up a beautifully wrapped package. "Already taken care of. It's a his-and-hers spa package from that fancy place we took Catie to when she turned thirteen."

  Once out in the balmy night air, they took care navigating the drive, neither one of them used to walking in such spindly high heels. Isa also had to fight the urge to keep tugging at her dress. It wasn't going to get any longer no matter how hard she tugged.

  "Devil women," she said to Nayna, hooking her arm through her friend's. "That's what we are tonight."

  Nayna nodded, something haunted in her eyes. "Wild, wild devil women," she said. "Definitely not good girls who do what their families want."

  Isa wanted desperately to follow up on what she'd caught in Nayna's expression, in her voice, but there was also a desperation in her friend that said Nayna needed to have a good time. Tonight was not the time to talk about her choices and whether she truly could live with them.

  "I dare you to kiss a random guy tonight," she said instead of digging into Nayna's heart and fears. "A gorgeous, ripped guy you'd never normally approach." Her friend was confident in her work, but she was Isa's best friend for a reason--neither one of them was exactly the femme fatale type.

  "Dare accepted," Nayna said firmly. "Since we'll never again see each other, who cares if he thinks I'm a crazy woman?"

  Isa decided she'd have to keep an eye on her friend tonight. There was an edge to Nayna she'd never before felt. Or... maybe she wouldn't keep an eye on her. Nayna already lived life by too many rules. Tonight was about breaking them. "Just tell me if you're going to go off with someone so I don't worry."

  "You do the same." Nayna took a deep breath as they reached the open front door. "Let's go do bad-girl things."

  They entered to find the party already in full swing. To their right was a massive living area that flowed out onto a huge deck that, in turn, led into the glowing blue waters of a pool that already boasted several swimmers. The cathedral ceiling soared high above, a huge crystal chandelier glittering light across every surface.

  Music filled the space, not so loud as to halt conversation, but more than loud enough for those who wanted to dance--as a champagne-flute-waving group was doing in one corner, that area decorated with disco ball lights that turned it into a mini dance floor filled with beautiful bodies.

  Walking gingerly into the area where yet more beautiful people laughed and mingled, Isa had a sudden attack of nerves. What the hell was she doing here? She didn't look anything like these skinny creatures with their sleekly tumbling hair and skin tanned to golden perfection. If she tried to tan, she'd turn into a crispy critter.

  "Nayna!" A stunning brunette walked toward Nayna with her arms wide open.

  Going into them, Nayna hugged the other woman before passing on the gift package. "This is my friend Isa."

  "I hope you two brought swimsuits," the brunette said after a hug of welcome. "Though"--a wink--"from the look of it, not everyone is bothering with suits."

  The brunette was tugged away by another woman a second later while a grinning Isa looked at Nayna in a silent question. Not saying a word, the two of them began to head toward the pool.

  And the back of Isa's neck prickled with a sudden, visceral awareness.

  Of hot, blue-eyed trouble.

  9

  Voodoo Games

  ISA TURNED AROUND WITH A pounding heart... to see only the glossily beautiful people she'd already spotted, including a couple of men who were trying to catch her eye. Ignoring them, she kept on looking for the cause of her prickling awareness.

  Nothing. No sign of her hot gardener.

  Disappointment was a leaden rock in her stomach.

  "Oh my God." Nayna's awed whisper snagged her attention. "Is he even real?"

  Following the other woman's gaze, Isa saw that it was locked on the heavily muscled form of a tall male with bronzed skin and rough scruff around his jaw, his black hair tumbled.

  He was dressed in a classic white T-shirt that hugged his pecs and biceps, teamed with a pair of jeans that were well-worn and comfortable rather than being too tight--no showing off the goods like some of the men around here. Of course, that just made women all the more curious about what lay underneath.

  Confidence pulsed off him in waves.

  Isa could definitely see the attraction, even if her own female hormones were still sulking at being denied another taste of a certain gardener.

  "Go for it," she whispered to Nayna. "That's your kiss target right there."

  When her friend just stared at her, Isa said, "Wild women, remember?"

  "Not humiliated women though." Bland words that didn't manage to hide Nayna's disappointment. "Have you seen the woman he's talking to?"

  Isa glanced over just in time to see the gorgeous stranger's eyes skim across the crowd and land on Nayna. Her best friend wasn't looking, more interested in making sure her dress was covering her butt, but that dark-eyed glance didn't skim away from Nayna as it had everyone else. Not until the busty raven-haired beauty in front of him put a hand on his forearm and literally tugged for attention.

  Isa smiled. "If he's not taken by that woman, and my instincts say he's not," she whispered to her friend, "then I think you've got a good shot. He was just staring at you."

  Nayna was unimpressed. "Probably wondering what a nerd like me is doing in t
his den of freakily good-looking people." Grabbing Isa's arm before Isa could reply, she continued moving forward. "Come on, let's at least go see some skinny-dipping."

  Sadly, when they reached the pool it was to realize that their hopes of wild debauchery were premature. The swimmers all appeared to be in swimsuits. "We'll be the skinny-dippers," Nayna announced. "After the lights are off and everyone's gone home."

  Isa's shoulders shook. "Deal."

  Her own smile wide, Nayna turned to grab a drink from the tray of a passing waiter, her sleek black hair shining with reddish glints under the outdoor lights. "You want one?" At Isa's nod, she passed across the first flute and was reaching for a second one when her hand collided with a big male one. "Oh, I'm so sorr--"

  Isa watched her friend freeze as she came face-to-face with the man at whom she'd been staring earlier. The scruffy-jawed hunk smiled and said, "Here." He handed over a flute of champagne. "I'm Raj."

  When Nayna shot Isa a frantic look, Isa gave her "wild devil women" messages with her eyes before deliberately melting back into the crowd. She didn't go far, wanting to be there if Nayna needed her. It wasn't as if she had anything else to do--unlike Nayna, she wasn't interested in breaking the rules with a single man at the party.

  None of them had the right blue eyes. Or the right sinful smile.

  She was going backward as she moved away from Nayna and the scrumptious Raj, so it was hardly surprising that she bumped into someone. Something cold and wet splashed against her bare upper shoulder.

  Shivering, she turned to apologize since it had been her fault. "I'm sorry, I wasn--"

  Blue, blue eyes looked into her own.

  * * *

  SAILOR HAD ONLY TURNED UP to this party because he'd promised Raj the company. His friend wasn't a big party person--like Sailor, Raj was more interested in putting his spare time into his business than in frittering it away with random strangers. However, the couple hosting this party were clients who'd turned into good friends, and they'd really wanted Raj to attend.