Escape for Valentine's: Beauty and the Billionaire / Her One and Only Valentine / The Girl Next Door. Caroline Anderson
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Kristy was right. After all, who would have Sinclair’s best interests at heart more than her twin sister? A twin sister whose thinking wasn’t clouded by passion?
God knew his was clouded by something.
Sinclair had dressed for the evening in a brilliant-red strapless satin gown. When he glanced at her creamy shoulders, the hint of cleavage, and her long, smooth neck, his thoughts were definitely on his own best interest. And that best interest was in peeling the gown off inch by glorious inch to reveal whatever it was she had, or didn’t have, on underneath.
The bodice molded gently over her breasts, it nipped in at her waist, then molded over her bottom, while the full skirt whispered around her gorgeous legs.
“How am I doing?” she asked as the music’s tempo changed.
“Fine,” he told her, forcing his thoughts back to his job as dance instructor. “Ready to try something more?”
She nodded, blue eyes shining up at him, making him wish all over again that he could whisk her away.
He led her into a turn. She stumbled, but he held her up, tightening his hand in the small of her back, filing the sensation away in his brain.
“Sorry,” she told him.
“No problem. Just pay attention to my hand,” he reminded her, demonstrating the touches. “This means left. This means right. Back, and forward.”
He tried the turn again.
She stumbled.
He tried one more time, and this time she succeeded.
But, while she grinned, she fumbled the next step.
He tried not to smile at her efforts. “I can see this is going to take practice.”
“You’re too sudden with your signals. And why do you get to call all the moves?”
“Because I’m the man.”
“That’s lame.”
“And because I know how to dance.”
“Okay, that’s better.”
Someone tapped Hunter on the shoulder. He turned to see Jack, looking to switch partners. Before he knew it, Kristy was in his arms.
“Hello, Hunter.” She smiled, but he could see the glitter of determination behind her eyes.
“Hello, Kristy.”
“I see you’ve spirited my sister away to Paris.”
“I’m helping her out.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“What’s another?” he challenged, keeping half an eye on Jack and Sinclair.
“Why don’t you tell me what your intentions are?”
To have sex with Sinclair—the most amazing woman I’ve ever met—until we can’t see straight. “I don’t know what you mean?” he stalled.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
He did. And that was the problem. His interests and Sinclair’s did not coincide.
“I have no intention of hurting her,” he told Kristy honestly.
“You think Jack intended to hurt me?”
“I think Jack was insane to marry you.”
Kristy’s eyes flashed.
“You know what I mean. He went into it for all the wrong reasons.”
“Unlike you and Sinclair?” She didn’t give him a chance to respond. “She’s going to fall for you, Hunter. You’re wining her and dining her and she’s thinking she’s become a fairy princess. How could she help but fall for you?”
“Point taken.” Hunter tried a turn with Kristy, and she easily followed his lead. But it wasn’t the same as dancing with Sinclair. It was nothing at all like dancing with Sinclair.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“For tonight—” Hunter took a deep breath and made up his mind “—I’m going to switch rooms with you and Jack.”
Kristy and Jack were on a different floor of the hotel. And Hunter knew deep down in his heart that the adjoining door with Sinclair would prove too much of a temptation.
“You’re a good man, Hunter,” said Kristy, her eyes softening.
“Can I have that in writing? It might sway your husband.”
“I’m talking about your moral code, not your business savvy.”
“Nice.”
“But that’s none of my business.”
“The push and pull has been going on a long time,” said Hunter. “Jack, Gramps, the investors gripe and complain, but they take the dividends all the same.”
“Your investments make dividends?”
“And capital gains, each and every one of them.”
Kristy shook her head in obvious confusion. “Then why—”
“Because they think the odds are catching up with me, and they’re sure I’m taking the entire flagship down one day.”
“Will you?”
“Not planning on it.” He danced her toward Jack and Sinclair. He might not be able to hold Sinclair in his bed tonight, but he could at least hold her on the dance floor until the clock struck midnight.
Nine
When Hunter had squeezed her hand in front of Kristy and Jack, down in the lobby and said, “See you in the morning,” Sinclair knew it was all for show. So she brushed her hair, put on fresh perfume, and changed into the purple negligee from La Petite Fleur. She’d even touched up her face with a few of the Luscious Lavender cosmetics.
So, when the knock came from the adjoining hotel room, she was ready. Pulse pounding, skin tingling, anticipation humming along her nervous system, she opened the door.
“Hey, sis,” sang Kristy. Then she tossed a command over her shoulder, “Avert your eyes, Jack.”
Sinclair’s jaw dropped open.
“I brought a nice Chardonnay.” Kristy waved an open bottle in the air. “You got some glasses?”
Kristy breezed past her, and Sinclair met Jack’s eyes.
“Jack,” Kristy warned.
“Sorry,” he called, lowering his gaze.
Sinclair turned to her sister. “What on earth—”
“You might want to shut the door,” said Kristy.
“Where’s Hunter?”
“We traded rooms.”
Sinclair swung the door shut, battling her shock. “I can’t believe you would—”
“It was his idea. He asked me to do it.”
Why would Hunter ask to trade rooms? “Did you threaten him?” Sinclair asked suspiciously.
Kristy poured two glasses of wine. “Yeah. I did, so he backed off. Does that sound like Hunter?”
“No,” Sinclair admitted. Hunter refused to back down from Jack and his grandfather. He sure wasn’t going to back down from Kristy.
Kristy rounded the small coffee table and flopped down on one of the armchairs. “He traded rooms, because he doesn’t want to hurt you. I admire that.”
“He’s not going to hurt me.” Hurting was the furthest thing from what would happen between Hunter