“I’m sorry, Samara. I know we shouldn’t have done that. I was just so...you get me so hot. I was furious at you, and relieved you’re okay. Oh yeah, and did I say, furious?” He paused while she gave a choked little laugh. “We have to get the hell out of this country and back to Portland.”
“No.”
He rolled onto his side to look at her and firmed his lips. “Do I have to spank you again? Christ, woman, you drive me crazy. Do you not realize how dangerous this is?”
“I want to finish what Dad started.”
“Samara.” He cupped her jaw forcefully and turned her face to his. “Don’t you see? There is no project here.” Then he closed his eyes briefly. “Shit. I’m going to have to tell you this. I knew I was going to have to tell you but not for this reason. Jesus.”
“Tell me what?”
He blew out a long breath. “Seven years ago your father and I had a big blowup about...something he was doing.”
“My mom mentioned something about that.”
“She did?” He frowned. “What did she say?”
“Um...she said that you two argued about it. She said that’s what you’d been talking about when I overheard you.”
He wanted to roll his eyes. Oh, yeah, that conversation. Shit.
He sat up on the bed, naked, momentarily distracted by Samara lying there also naked, beautifully naked, her perfect breasts bare, her long hair a tangle of auburn silk on the white pillow. He swallowed and tried to focus.
“She also said you thought Dad was doing something illegal.”
He sighed. “I came across some documents that led me to believe your father had gotten involved with...with a drug cartel in Matagalpa.”
“Drugs?” Her mouth fell open. Then she laughed. “That’s crazy.” She pushed herself up to sit also, distracting him yet again with her slender shoulders and arms, her naked breasts tipped with tight little nipples, her small waist. She grabbed the duvet and tucked it up under her arms.
Travis rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. You’d think. I didn’t know what to do about it, and I went to Dayna for advice. Well, she confronted Parker, and they had a big argument about it, and then he was furious at me for saying something like that to her. For even thinking he would do something like that.” Travis shook his head. “But he didn’t deny it. He just told me I should trust him and not worry about it.”
“Well, there had to be some explanation.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But he wouldn’t give it to me. There were a lot of drugs coming into the country from Matagalpa at that time. Cocaine mostly, some opium. The DEA was involved, and I think they were investigating your father. I think they thought he was smuggling cocaine into the country with coffee shipments. Nothing ever came of it, so either he stopped before he got caught...or...hell, I don’t know.”
“I can’t believe that!”
“I know, and Parker was furious that I thought that. He was even more furious that I talked to your mother about it. It was a...well, let’s just say it was a challenging time for Parker and me. It just about ended our partnership.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that why you moved to L.A.?”
“Yes.” Travis nodded, his mouth a grim line. “That’s why.”
She sat quietly for a moment, thinking, then said, “But he got over it.”
“Yeah. He did. We both did. Thank Christ. But...I’ve been worried that your dad was involved with drugs again. I think that’s why he was here in Matagalpa, and I think that may be what got him killed.”
Her brows drew down. “How can you say that? He wouldn’t have been involved with smuggling drugs. That’s crazy, Travis.”
“I know, but...he was so evasive about what he was doing here. He wouldn’t tell anyone; it was all top secret. You know, you couldn’t find anything much either in all his files. So let’s just go home, Samara, before we get ourselves mixed up in something we shouldn’t.”
“I did find something.” She lifted her chin and held his gaze. “I did.”
“What?”
She told him about the Paquita coffee bean, and all the information she’d found on her father’s laptop.
He listened. He took it in, considered it, examined it. Was it possible?
“It’s true, Travis. If we can finish that deal, it will be an unbelievably profitable deal for the company. It will make us all kinds of money.”
“Yes.” Oh, man. Oh, hell. “I don’t know, Samara. I still have a bad feeling about this. About being here.”
A flash of something in her eyes made him pause. “What?”
“Nothing.”
He gripped her chin with his fingers and forced her to look at him. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”
She lowered her lashes and nibbled her bottom lip. “Well. Yesterday, this man approached me as I was getting on the elevator and told me I should go home.”
“What! Who was he?”
“I don’t know. He’s staying here at the hotel. I saw him by the pool, and I thought he was watching me. Then I saw him in the bar, and he followed me to the elevator and told me I should go home.”
“Jesus Christ!” Red hot fury surged in him again. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about! How could you be crazy enough to come to a place like this on your own!”
“There’s more.” She bit her lip, peeked up at him through her lashes. “This morning, I started to drive to the Alvarez estate to find Javier Alvarez.”
“Hell. I was afraid of that. But...” He frowned. “Why’d you come back?”
“I think...someone was following me.”
He sucked in a breath. “Oh, for Chrissake.” He closed his eyes. His chest started to hurt again. She was determined to give him a heart attack.
“I don’t know if it was the same guy, but whoever he was, he was dark like him, wearing sunglasses. I started driving around, just to see, and he kept following me. He was staying back, and he was actually pretty good at it, but I got nervous, so I decided to come back to the hotel.”
“That’s why you looked like that when you walked in. Jesus.” He should have made her tell him right there and then what was going on, but his emotions—and hormones—had gotten the better of him, and instead, he’d dragged her up to her room to spank her and fuck her. Hell.
“That’s it,” he said determinedly. “We’re getting out of here. Right now. Next flight back.”
“No. I told you no, Travis.” She set her small jaw. “I’m going to see Javier and see if I can still make that deal. It’s going to help get us back on track.”
“It’s not worth our lives,” he gritted out. “Don’t be stupid, Samara.”
“You just told me I’m not stupid. You just told me you know I’m all grown up. I know I’ve made some mistakes. But I want to do this.”
He strode across the room and picked up the phone. Ten minutes later, he’d discovered the next flight back to the States was tomorrow night. He sighed, but booked them on it anyway.
He hung up and turned to face her. “We’re leaving tomorrow night.”
“We have tomorrow, then, to go the estate.”
He slowly shook his head. “Samara.”
“Come with me. Please, Travis.” Her eyes held his.
Hell. His resolve disintegrated beneath her clear green gaze. And the enticement of an incredible coffee bean. “Fine,” he growled. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
She smiled. Tipped her head. “Thank you. So, what should we do to pass the time until then?”
She slid off the bed, moved toward him, and dropped to her knees.
“Oh, hell.”
Her fingers encircled his cock, which swelled and lengthened at her touch. His blood surged hot in his veins, and lust exploded in his brain as her tongue played with the head, circling, rubbing against that sweet spot on the underside, licking up and down, getting him wet so she could slide the tight ring of her lips over him and down. Up. Back down. He closed his eyes, let his head drop back, and fisted her hair in his hands. Her mouth was a dream, a hot, wet, sucking dream. Sublime sensation consumed him, a fiery tortuous ecstasy, making his legs go weak. He widened his stance, bare feet planted on the thick carpet, and when her fingers slipped between his legs to fondle his balls, he almost lost it right then.