Dance of Seduction by Elle Kennedy Page B

merchandise onto the uneven sidewalk and were beckoning the occasional August tourist to stop by and examine their grossly overpriced goods.
    Normally Ellie got a kick out of seeing the pale-skinned, Hawaiian-shirt-clad people barter with the shop owners. This morning, though, her sense of humor eluded her.
    “Subtle isn’t going to cut it anymore,” she declared, then lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip of ice water. She slammed the cup down on the stained wood table, causing the ice cubes to whirl around and collide into each other.
    “Okay,” Vivian said, finally snapping out of whatever funk she was in.
    “I need to bring out the big guns. Throw all my cards on the table.” She pursed her lips together in thought. “I’m going to tell Luke I want to sleep with him.”
    Vivian raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
    “Yep. I think it’s the only way I can get him to leave.”
    But do you want him to leave?
    The little voice in her head was seriously annoying her today. Of course she wanted him to leave. Unless she agreed to come home, Luke would continue to hang around and pressure her, and she was sick of being pressured. So what if his hot mouth had felt wonderful against hers? So what if her lips still tingled from his kiss?
    “Where is all this coming from?” Vivian paused. “What exactly happened last night?”
    Ellie suppressed a groan. “Luke happened.”
    Vivian’s face lit up for the first time all day. “Ah, so the plan worked. Seeing you with Miguel succeeded in making him jealous.”
    “Oh yeah.” She blew out a sharp breath. “He kissed me.”
    Kissed her? Wasn’t that the understatement of the year. More like he’d greedily devoured her.
    “I see. Well, did you like it?”
    She moaned. “Yes.” Not only had she enjoyed it, but the second Luke’s lips had crushed over hers she’d felt as though it had been meant to be.
    She’d pined over the guy for so long it was almost ridiculous. He’d been her first crush. The star of her early sexual fantasies. The guy she’d wanted to lose her virginity to. God, how incredible would it have been if Luke was her first. But he hadn’t been, of course. Scott had. Sometimes she still wished she’d acted differently, never gotten involved with Scott, waited for the right man.
    But how was she supposed to know Scott would throw her away like a piece of garbage after—
    Don’t think about it.
    “What’s wrong?”
    The urgency in Vivian’s voice snapped Ellie out of her thoughts. She found her boss’s green-eyed gaze searching her face with concern.
    “Nothing’s wrong,” she said quickly.
    “Then why do you look like you’re about to cry?”
    “I…I’m fine.” She took a breath. “I was just thinking about…the past. That’s all.”
    Vivian reached a manicured hand across the table, grasped Ellie’s hand with it and held it tightly. “You’re white as a ghost, honey.”
    She turned to the front window of the restaurant to examine her reflection and was surprised to see she did look a bit pale. Thinking about Scott always did that to her, made her feel weak and dizzy.
    She let out a shaky breath and struggled to find words that would ease Viv’s worry. “When Luke kissed me…it just made me wonder what it would be like, you know, to actually be with Luke.”
    “You may not have to wonder anymore.”
    “What?” she asked.
    “Well, if he kissed you last night, maybe he’s starting to see you as more than his friend’s sister.”
    Maybe there was some truth to that. Ellie remembered the way he’d pressed against her, his unmistakable erection. There was no doubt in her mind he’d been turned on. That she’d turned him on. But with Luke, even the obvious wasn’t as obvious as it seemed to be.
    Although they’d known each other for fifteen years, she had no clue what was in his heart. All of his relationships were brief, fleeting, you blinked and he had another woman on his arm. And that had always made her