For His Eyes Only Page 4

  When she opened the flap and pulled the letter out, one glance at the first line told her it wasn’t good news. Once again, the school had denied her a scholarship.

  She tore the letter to shreds and watched as the tiny white bits floated around and landed on the carpet. Slowly, she unfolded the contest flyer and smoothed out the wrinkles, her gaze latching on to the amount of the prize money. Prancing around in her bra still didn’t appeal to her, but she could no longer afford to be picky.

  She had thirty days to escape her mother’s fate.

  Chapter Three

  The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom resembled a backup location for teenagers whose Spring Break had been rained out. Giggling women filled the place, most of them appearing to attend high school or college. Cleavage abounded and tight clothes left no curves to the imagination. It was exactly the kind of senseless scene Jacey had envisioned.

  She filched a brochure from the display table, rolling her eyes at the bikini-clad woman pictured on the front and the same headline that had screamed at her from the poster in the display window at work. YOU could be next summer’s Sleepless Siren.

  She had zero interest in being next summer’s Sleepless Siren. Her stomach churned at the very thought of signing a document that would legally bind her to such a job. But the contract only lasted for a year—that wasn’t so bad. She’d been through worse, and tough times called for tough decisions.

  She pulled a compact mirror from her purse and smiled at it, adding powder to her nose and crimson to her lips. The thought of breaking away from generations of hardship strengthened her resolve, and she pasted on her most confident smile as she pranced through the crowd, stopping at the first of two sign-up tables. She guessed this one was responsible for weeding out the girls who didn’t have a chance, because she’d already watched several of them run away in tears.

  “My name is Jacey Cass,” she announced to the bespectacled guy behind the table. “I bet you a hundred thousand dollars that I’m the Sleepless Siren you’re looking for.”

  “You and everyone else,” he mumbled, not looking up.

  Well, everyone else wasn’t quite as determined as her. Insomnia’s staff had set up a dozen floor mirrors in the room, and girls practiced their poses in front of each one. Jacey suspected none of them would be out of a home and an education if they didn’t win the competition.

  “Here, take a number.” The guy handed her a sheet of paper while his gaze raked over all the places it shouldn’t. “And fill out this form. They’ll call you over to that table when they’re ready for your audition.”

  “Thank you very much.” Fighting nausea, she gripped the ticket that labeled her as wannabe number four-oh-two. She’d read on Insomnia’s website that audience voting would decide the winner, and that was the only thing saving her sanity. Convincing a few thousand people she looked good in a teddy might not require genius, but it was still more proactive than having Alex slip the contract into her pocket after sex.

  She smoothed her hair, startled at the tremor that awakened her body when she thought of Alex and sex at the same time. Hadn’t she told Monica she was done with that fairy tale? In fact, if she won the contest, she would leave her customer service job long before next summer’s party. She’d never see him again.

  She was still wondering if she’d dropped her heart into a meat grinder forty-five minutes later, when a woman’s voice called her number over the loudspeaker. She ambled over to the second registration table. The dark-haired woman manning that station held out her hand to take her information sheet, then glanced up and frowned.

  “Weren’t you at the party last weekend?”

  Surprised, Jacey studied the woman’s face—she was the guest who had dragged Alex away from Jacey just as things had started heating up between them. Since it ended up being her last time with him, she thanked her lucky stars the woman’s plan to interrupt their night together had failed.

  “Yes, actually, I was,” she answered.

  The woman—Kim, according to her name tag—snorted. “I’ll have you know that the winner of this contest will be chosen by a public audience, not by Alex.”

  “So?”

  “So don’t expect your special favors to him will help you today.”

  Jacey fumed. Here was another reason she needed a degree—so people would quit assuming she was a dumb blonde without any nonsexual skills.

  “Alex doesn’t even know I’m here.” She didn’t bother to add that if she got her jobs through special favors, she’d be on the cover of the catalog already.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Will you please fill out the paperwork so I can finish my audition?”

  Kim made a show of going over her entry form as slowly as possible, then jabbed her finger toward a curtained-off corner of the room. “Fine. Go have your fun, but this game you’re playing won’t work. Alex is a professional, and he’s here to do what’s best for Insomnia.”

  That caught Jacey’s attention. “Alex is doing the auditions?”

  “If the three judges behind the curtain think you have the right look, you’ll go to Alex for final approval. Like you didn’t know. Do you really think he’s going to put you through just because you’re easy?”

  Her condescending laugh cut through Jacey’s chest. Easy. Until she’d met Alex, she hadn’t particularly liked sex. In high school, it had been a thirty-second event designed to get the guy off. As a kid, she’d associated it with men bigger and older than her who reeked of pot and pedophilia.

  She had no clue as to the identity of her father and she was certain her mother didn’t, either. She only knew that when she was fourteen, her mom had brought yet another stranger into the house, but this time she’d insisted Jacey was old enough to start contributing to the household.

  Just the memory of that man made her shiver. He’d had greasy hair and a stained shirt…and he had smelled horrible. When he’d focused that predatory look on her while her mother stood there smiling, she had run away as fast as her feet would carry her. Thankfully she’d met Monica, and she had never looked back.

  She didn’t intend to start now. This competition could make or break her future. Nothing, not Kim and her jealous wisecracks or Alex’s attempted handouts, would stop her from earning the win.

  Muffled, angry voices sounded on the other side of the partition wall that separated Alex’s part of the ballroom from the main audition area. He welcomed the distraction. The leather-clad redhead dancing in front of him couldn’t have been more than eighteen, and he could hardly bear to sit through another performance. The competition’s minimum age limit was seventeen, but it seemed everyone had mistaken that number for the maximum. Where had the over-twenty segment of the population disappeared to?

  He wanted an adult—a hot, sultry, provocative woman. Someone his customers would dream of being. Someone whose image would inspire other ladies to buy Insomnia’s lingerie so they too, could feel that damn sexy.

  The young girls, though attractive, weren’t cutting it.

  The redhead flipped her hair. Again. “So, what do you think?” she asked, changing back into her street clothes.

  Alex produced the fabricated smile that, after six hours of use, had begun to hurt his face. “Lovely. Thank you. We’ll call you tomorrow if you make the cut.”

  The girl beamed and rushed off. He sighed, hating to think of all the entrants who would sit by the phone for the next twenty-four hours, only to end up crushed by its silence.

  He heard a couple of women scuffling again—probably another fight between a pair of best friends, only one of whom had made it into the competition. He got up from his chair to see what was going on, but someone opened the door that joined the rooms and got to him first.

  His heart rate increased tenfold when he identified the woman standing there.

  Jacey. Was he seeing things?

  No, he’d recognize that cloud of blonde hair anywhere. Like something out of his dreams, the two of them were alone, her ga
ze locked onto his in silent acknowledgment of the intimate ways they knew each other. The piercing blue depths reminded him not only of what he wanted to see in a contestant, but of the four blissful nights he’d spent exploring her body.

  He fought to regain the function of his brain. “Jacey, hi. What are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you.”

  In fact, certain parts of him were a little too happy to see her, and that could very well interfere with his objectivity as a judge.

  “I’m here to audition, of course.” She smiled, but she crossed her ankles and then uncrossed them again, as though she couldn’t get comfortable. “Lucky for me, the judging panel likes me better than the woman at the desk. Why are you picking the contestants? I thought that would be some assistant’s job.”

  “I wanted to do it myself. It’s very important to me that this contest is a success.”

  Briefly, her eyes dropped closed, and he’d swear she said, “Me too.”

  Was she serious? Why she would rather audition for the contest than accept his personal invitation to do the catalog shoot?

  He crossed his arms. “I offered you the same job this competition is promoting. Why didn’t you take it?”

  “I take care of myself,” she answered immediately. “I don’t want charity.”

  His mouth opened in disbelief. If he wanted to know more about her, he’d just learned his first lesson. She was stubborn as a bull.

  “Charity? I offered you a job. A paying job.”

  “It was a job you were going to give me because you think I look good in bed. A lot of chicks look good in bed, and a lot of them want to sleep with you. Go shower them with your generosity.”

  He stepped closer, intent on showing her the truth—she meant a lot more to him than some cheap one-night stand. “I don’t want anyone else,” he told her, his voice low.

  She held his gaze, and desire darkened her eyes. But when he reached for her, she moved away, determined to state her case. “Look, I’d be an idiot to pass up the kind of cash the contest is offering. But if I win, then I win fair and square because people voted for me. Not because I gave the VP a blowjob.”

  Her statement stunned both of them into silence. Alex stared at the wall behind her, inexplicably hurt by her tawdry description of their nights together.

  “All right, then. Have it your way.” He gripped his clipboard and returned to his chair.

  His heart continued to pound at the nearness of her body, and he was suddenly grateful he wouldn’t be the one choosing the winner. He had a responsibility to do right by his company, but Jacey’s refined eroticism tended to drag his thoughts away from brand recognition and profits. In fact, he had already marked her down as one of the thirty contestants.

  But it certainly wouldn’t hurt to see her audition.

  He assumed his most professional tone. “See that X over there on the floor? Stand over there and show me what you’ve got. Your body, from all angles. Use the chair too. Let me see your flexibility.”

  Where had that come from? She didn’t lack flexibility—he had learned that much during their first encounter on the bathroom sink.

  She struck a pose that turned his knees to jelly and made him thankful he was sitting down. She looked fantastic. The miniskirt and high heel combo showed off her long, lean legs, and a sheer camisole revealed her narrow waist and sexy navel. Those red lips shone at him again, and her hair tumbled down her back to form a profile that could only be compared to a goddess.

  Unsure which head was doing his thinking now, Alex hurried to the second part of the audition. “You need to wear lingerie. You can use your own or we’ve got a rack over there to choose from.”

  She laughed. “You want me to strip?”

  Boy, did he ever. But he just said, “Yep.” That’s why he had a private room. The first round of judges scored on figure, face and hair, a test Jacey had no doubt passed with flying colors. Once a woman made it to him, it was his job to decide if her bared look was worthy of a cover shoot.

  She considered his request, then shrugged. “Okay, but shame on you for forgetting what my body looks like—in and out of lingerie.”

  “Oh, I haven’t forgotten.”

  He had memorized the surface of her skin to the point that he could almost taste it. The vision had provided him with quite a few instances of self-satisfaction, but his hands were a poor substitute for Jacey. Just the thought of seeing her body again made him ache in ways he wouldn’t be able to relieve for far too many hours.

  She approached his chair, then slid her hands over his shoulders and down his chest. “Well…” she whispered in his ear. “In case you need a refresher.”

  She stepped back and peeled her shirt off. He stared, motionless, while she ran her hands down her torso, her hips gyrating in a slow, painful tease. He shifted in his seat. He’d been watching women do this all day long, but something about the way Jacey moved…

  Her skirt slipped down her legs and hit the floor. She stood before him in Insomnia’s newest, hottest bra set. Skimpy. Red. And absolutely transparent.

  He tried hard to remain professional, though it was nearly impossible given the look in her eyes. She was no longer performing for the audition, but for him.

  “Jacey—um—you don’t have to show me quite that much.”

  She stuck a shoe on each side of his legs and straddled his lap. “I thought you wouldn’t mind.”

  The fruity scent of her long, curly mane wafted into each breath he took. When her mesh-encased nipples prodded his shirt and he imagined the soft patch of blonde hair pressing into his groin, the last of his bureaucratic intentions scattered.

  “I don’t.” He tossed his clipboard to the floor, then plunged his hands into her silky hair and kissed her until his cock grew painfully rigid with need.

  She threw her head back so he could move his mouth down her neck. “Alex, do me a favor.”

  “Anything.” He moved against her, burning to get out of the mobbed ballroom and into his condo, where they could be alone and he could make love to her all night. Her skin was smooth and hot beneath his tongue, and he vowed not to let her get away a second time.

  Her shaky whisper brushed his ear. “Take me one more time, because I can’t see you again.”

  Kim Starr tapped her pen against the growing stack of entry forms waiting for Alex’s attention. They only had an hour left to choose three more contestants, but she knew that Alex had already picked the winner in his mind.

  For seven years she had been his assistant. She used to want him—she’d had a few drinks with him at a Christmas party a few years back and, finally, he had accompanied her home. But he hadn’t spoken to her much since then unless he needed her to run an errand, and her attraction had waned.

  Now, though, that one night they’d spent together proved vital to her success in getting the information William had asked for. Alex still believed she wanted him, and his mistake provided her with the perfect cover for taking an interest in his personal life. He would blow off her curiosity, assuming she was just nursing a crush on him.

  “Excuse me, are the rest of us going to get a chance to audition or what?” A reed-thin brunette stood on the other side of the table, her hands on her hips to punctuate her demand. “I’ve been waiting all evening.”

  Kim stopped her pen mid-tap, taking a long look at the girl who bore a striking resemblance to her younger sister. She sighed. The second anniversary of Katelyn’s death was right around the corner and Kim had been seeing her face everywhere.

  “Let me see what’s going on.”

  She rose from her chair and walked to the opaque curtain that blocked off the audition area. She was about to call Alex’s name when she peered around the edge of the fabric and saw the blonde slut from the summer party sitting on his lap, nearly nude, with her mouth attached to his.

  She dropped the corner of the curtain and put a hand to her mouth to conceal her grin, her stomach flipping somersaults. William was goin
g to love her when she told him about this. She could hardly believe her luck that the woman had showed up for the audition. She couldn’t have planned it better herself.

  “You’re next,” she announced to the brunette when she returned to the table.

  The girl nodded, then turned away to continue waiting.

  Kim couldn’t stop watching her. The girl’s thick hair fell straight to the small of her back, just the way Katelyn’s had…and the way Kim had worn her own hair until she’d chopped it to shoulder-length after the accident. What she would give to get her hands on the brainless bitch who had been behind the wheel of that car.

  It was disgusting, really, the way a half-witted beauty queen could get away with anything if she showed enough skin. The sorority princess who’d run the stoplight and killed Katelyn had gotten off with a fine and a few months of community service, despite the fact that she’d been driving with more alcohol in her system than a brewery. And now there was Blondie, thinking she could make the big time because she sexed up Insomnia’s second-in-command on a regular basis.

  Feminine laughter floated out from behind the curtain, and Kim cued the brunette to make her entrance. Then she rifled through the entry forms until she found the object of Alex’s affection. She ripped a Post-It note from its pad and scribbled down the girl’s name and other identifying information. Then she dug her phone out of her purse and made the call.

  It rang twice. “William Vaughn.”

  Kim smiled. “Hey, there. I’ve got all the proof you could possibly need.”

  Chapter Four

  Alex rubbed his neck and stared out the window while his father examined photos of the Sleepless Siren semi-finalists. He had picked some stunning contestants, but his dad’s disparaging eye was working overtime as usual. He heard mumbles after each flip of a page, comments like “bad hair”, “too fat”, and “too old”.

  Suddenly the room fell silent, prompting him to turn away from the incredible view of the ocean and face his father’s desk. The inspection had come to a halt. A grin crinkled the corners of William’s eyes while he bent close to one of the pictures. Alex stepped closer to see which girl had managed to garner approval, and the sight of Jacey in that scrap of a bra filled his mind with blazing memories.