Free Total Package by Cait London Page A

to speak. “I’m going to take your family’s portraits—after this gig. I’ve got to do some stuff in New York to finalize, but I’ll come back. It’s the least I can do for this dress Ellie made. She’s a whiz. She even borrowed a pair of shoes to match. I don’t usually wear high heels—I hope I don’t fall and embarrass you.”
    He seemed very intent upon fastening the corsage to the square cut of her gown. “Mmm.”
    “Shoes?” Sidney repeated, her mouth drying as his fingers slid inside her bodice to protect her from the corsage’s pin. The pale orchid spotted with maroon drops was gorgeous. She’d press it and keep it and savor it after she had left Amoteh, just as she’d heard that other women did with flowers from special occasions. She had to have something to remember this night with Danya, even if it was a girly thing like a dead flattened flower. “They’re going to be after you tonight. The models, I mean. Some of them are—well, man hungry like I told you, and on location they get—lonesome. I’ll protect you, Danya. It’s the least I can do for all this trouble.”
    “Thank you.” He slowly removed his fingers and studied her. “What were you saying about shoes?”
    “That Ellie borrowed just the right size to go with this dress. Look. I shaved my legs.”
    She extended one foot and the long gown’s slit parted to show a bit of her leg. Danya crouched in front of her to study the black heels, his hand on her ankle. Then it slid slowly upward to rest briefly behind her thigh, drawing more of her leg into view. “They are nice and your leg is very smooth.”
    “Earl loaned me some makeup and he said to oil my legs so they shine and I wouldn’t have to wear nylons. That would be real torture.”
    When Danya stood, his hands slid up over the gown, over her hips to her waist. “Shall we go?”
    Sidney couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe and her heart raced wildly. “Okay. Let the pain begin.”
    A half hour later, Sidney held her shoes while Danya carried her from his truck in the parking lot into the Amoteh Resort. “I’m perfectly able to walk, Danya. You didn’t have to carry me down your steps and all the way to your truck, or into the resort. What will people think? That I’ve sprained my ankle? Oh, boy, that’s all I need—the models fussing over me….”
    She felt light and feminine—and scared, and Danya wasn’t making it any easier. He handled her easily, and just now he had just brushed a kiss against her temple. She justhad to smooth those waves at his nape and stroke the smooth line of his jaw. In close proximity of a devastating male, preparing for an event, she’d been fascinated, watching him as he shaved in the bathroom with only a towel around his hips—until he closed the door in her face. She’d never done a nude male portrait, but she ached to “shoot” him. But to be truthful, she wanted to slide her hands over those powerful shoulders and back and chest and those hard little mounds of his butt and down to his thighs and in between and—
    As Danya carried her toward the resort, he was looking at her breasts again, causing her unexplainable quiver. Sidney swallowed the tightness in her throat. “You smell great. Thank you for the corsage. It’s my first.”
    Danya nodded grimly. He leveled a stare at the men waiting outside the resort’s doorway—all the Stepanov males were standing there, grinning widely. An older man, slightly balding and shorter than the younger men, came forward. It was Viktor Stepanov whom she’d already met while hunting Danya. “My son,” Viktor said formally.
    “Father.” Danya’s acknowledgment was equally formal.
    “I am honored,” Viktor said as he took Sidney’s hand and brought it to his lips. “You wear my wife’s earrings well. That pleases me.”
    “They’re beautiful. I’m not hurt or anything,” Sidney felt obliged to say. “Danya just—”
    Viktor smiled warmly. “My son wishes to carry you.