As Hot As It Gets

  “What sort of compromising positions?”

  Mason asked as he slid his hands around her waist and pressed Claire’s hips against him.

  Her voice grew breathy as she got into their sexy play. “Like, maybe I need to give you something to get that private-investigator role I want so desperately.”

  Mason watched as Claire licked her lips, slid her hands up his chest and around his shoulders then took one of the buttons of his shirt into her mouth. Before he could stop her, she’d bitten it off and was going for a second one.

  “Don’t you know how to unbutton a shirt?” he said, though he could hardly give a damn if she cut his shirt off with a machete, so long as they got down to business.

  “Sorry, I was just trying to demonstrate my acting skills. Guess I got a little carried away.”

  “I’m looking forward to your performance.”

  Dear Reader,

  As Hot As It Gets tells the story of Claire and Mason, two characters from my first novel, Some Like It Sizzling. Many people who read my first novel wrote to me, asking if I was going to tell this secondary couple’s story, and although I hadn’t exactly planned on it, I decided that those readers were right—Claire and Mason deserved their own book!

  I had a blast revisiting these two strong, sexy characters and discovering how they would find their incendiary path to happiness. I hope you enjoy As Hot As It Gets as much as I loved writing it. If you’d like to drop me a note and let me know what you think of it or any of my books, you can reach me at jamie@jamiesobrato.com, or visit my Web site, www.jamiesobrato.com, to find out more about me and my next release.

  Sincerely,

  Jamie Sobrato

  Books by Jamie Sobrato

  HARLEQUIN BLAZE

  84—PLEASURE FOR PLEASURE

  116—WHAT A GIRL WANTS

  133—SOME KIND OF SEXY

  HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

  911—SOME LIKE IT SIZZLING

  997—TOO WILD

  AS HOT AS IT GETS

  Jamie Sobrato

  To Rich, for showing me how hot it can get

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  1

  ESCAPADE.

  Where adults come to play.

  Claire Elliot reread the resort brochure someone had left on her desk. The creators of the Fantasy Ranch bring you a tropical paradise on a private Caribbean island, an adult playground with every amenity, a hedonistic escape from harsh reality.

  Come. Adventure awaits.

  Claire frowned and clicked her French-manicured nails together. Her stomach formed a familiar knot, and she began to suspect that none other than her best friend and co-worker Lucy Walker had been the one to place the glossy magazine-size brochure prominently on the top of her in-box stack. In the midst of a slow afternoon at the travel agency, when the August Phoenix heat was keeping everyone indoors, it was impossible not to be drawn to the images of clear turquoise water, white sand beaches and palm trees casting shade over cool white buildings.

  Claire had already heard about Escapade, of course. It was her job as the manager of Sunny Horizons Travel to keep up with the latest tourism industry news, and word of Mason Walker opening a new adults-only resort had spread like wildfire. She’d had clients calling months ago to book vacations there, many of them fans of Mason’s other resort.

  The Fantasy Ranch inevitably brought back memories she’d tried hard to forget, memories that haunted her at night when she lay in bed alone. Correction, make that memories of a certain man that haunted her on those long sleepless nights.

  Mason Walker. The last man she wanted to think about. He was also Lucy’s brother-in-law, and her friend had employed some pretty sneaky tactics trying to get Claire and Mason together.

  Claire looked up from the brochure and spotted the person she was sure had planted it. Lucy was sitting at her desk trying hard not to look guilty, but she made the fatal mistake of glancing up at Claire’s doorway, and the curiosity in her eyes gave her away.

  Claire glared at her and crooked a finger in her direction. Lucy rose and came toward Claire’s office like a woman condemned. She stepped into the office and closed the door, then flashed Claire a stricken look.

  “Before you say anything, just hear me out,” Lucy said.

  “I thought you’d learned your lesson about matchmaking in Hawaii!” Claire still hated to think about the week she’d spent stranded in paradise with Mason, having been lured there by a fake invitation Lucy had concocted to get the two together.

  Not to mention the bachelorette auction dating disaster and the subsequent accusations of a stolen Porsche. Their first encounter at Mason’s Arizona resort had left Claire depressed and out of sorts over a man for the first time in the thirty years she’d been alive, and she had no intention of letting it happen again.

  Whenever Claire and Mason got together, sparks flew, no doubt about it. But rather than anything sexually incendiary, they were more like the sparks from metal grinding furiously against metal.

  “I just thought you should know all about the resort’s amenities, that’s all. Purely for professional reasons. You wouldn’t want to get caught off guard by a client asking you about it, right?”

  Lucy was becoming less and less convincing at the Little Miss Innocent act these days.

  “And that’s the only reason you put this on my desk?”

  “Absolutely,” Lucy said, but her gaze darted out the window over Claire’s shoulder.

  “You’re a terrible liar.”

  Lucy tried to look offended, but in the end she smiled. “I just think there’s something special about the two of you together.”

  “Yeah, special like an atomic bomb. I don’t need any more explosive relationships.” Claire dropped the brochure into the recycling bin next to her desk.

  “Aren’t you even a little curious about this resort? I mean, Escapade—it sounds scandalous. It’s billed as being even wilder than the Fantasy Ranch, and from what Mason says, the place is really luxurious.”

  “What kind of idiot would build yet another resort in the already resort-laden Caribbean?”

  “The same guy who turned a failing resort in the middle of the Arizona desert into a smashing success.”

  “You’re a little biased, considering.” Considering Lucy had met the love of her life at Mason’s Arizona resort. Judd Walker was Mason’s younger brother and more than reason enough for Lucy to feel biased with regard to all things Walker.

  Lucy smiled. “Maybe a little, but picture what he’s done—sultry tropical setting, upscale accommodations, hedonistic atmosphere, a private island….”

  “I’ll just direct all interested clients to you for information,” Claire said in a tone that indicated it was her last comment on the subject.

  Lucy’s expression fell. “Okay, fine. If that’s what you want…”

  “It is!” Absolutely. Positively.

  But Claire spent the rest of the afternoon feeling distracted and edgy, thoughts of Mason crowding her mind. This was dangerously close to the very same state of misery she swore she wouldn’t endure again. She’d been sure she had finally overcome the obsession, yet here she was again, out of sorts at the mere mention of Mason’s name.

  After leaving the office, Claire navigated the streets of suburban Phoenix in her ragtop Musta
ng, the top up to protect her from the sun, wishing in the midsummer heat that she could give up her obsession with vintage muscle cars in favor of a nice late-model roadster with reliable air-conditioning.

  Instead, she swiped at the perspiration that had formed on her forehead, then rolled down her window. Mirages of water glistened and then disappeared on the sweltering road ahead, and the nauseating scent of car exhaust filled the air.

  Either the exhaust fumes were affecting her brain, or the guy in the car next to her bore a resemblance to Mason Walker. Claire blinked and looked at the man again. Definitely not Mason, but close. He had the same dark brown hair, cropped short with a slight wave, the same strong jawline darkened by an uncontrollable five o’clock shadow.

  Claire couldn’t help but imagine the feel of Mason’s rough skin against hers—and actually, imagine was all she could do, because they’d never even kissed. On their few explosive encounters, they’d never done anything more intimate than hold hands, and maybe that’s why her imagination went into overdrive where Mason was concerned. She’d always gotten her man, so to speak, except for Mason.

  And as she sat at a stoplight with the Mason look-alike idling next to her, she felt an unwelcome stirring that started in her belly and radiated down between her legs. Claire sighed and shifted in her seat, but the movement only exacerbated the problem, and she knew what was coming.

  The images, fictional as they were, had become all too familiar to her by now. Mason, taking her in a wild frenzy, in some hot, wet, tropical place. She closed her eyes for a moment and didn’t notice that the light had turned green until cars behind her began honking their horns. Her eyes shot open and she stepped on the gas too fast, burning rubber as she accelerated through the intersection.

  It only made matters worse that Mason’s new resort was located in the same kind of lush tropical locale as her fantasies about him. What was that all about, anyway? It was as if he could read her mind, even hundreds of miles away.

  Mason had the sort of intense gaze that suggested he might possess such powers, and as she recalled the way his green eyes seemed to see right into her soul, the tension in Claire’s belly coiled tighter. The fantasies came at her again, images of his naked body against hers, his tongue teasing her breasts, his hands working unspeakable magic on her.

  In this fantasy, like the rest, Claire was powerless to resist him, as helpless and docile as a virgin bride—the exact opposite of her real personality.

  She imagined his hard length pressing into her, filling her with the sweetest sensations she’d ever known….

  Then came the impact and the sound of the crash. Her head slammed forward and the seat belt pulled tight against her shoulder as she heard metal crunch against metal and realized she’d just rear-ended the truck in front of her.

  She’d managed not to notice the red light, the traffic stopped in the road, the huge semi-truck that her dearly beloved Mustang was now wedged beneath.

  Claire blinked at her unnaturally close view of the truck’s license plate and felt hot tears forming in her eyes. A moment later when the driver of the semi peered into her window to ask her if she was okay, and she burst into tears, Claire knew without a doubt that something had to give.

  MASON WALKER HAD LEARNED the hard way to avoid fiery women. He liked his women compliant, sweet and devoid of any strong opinions. It was easier that way, and it wasn’t like he was looking for a serious relationship, anyway. At the age of thirty-six, the bachelor life suited him just fine, and the best way to stay a bachelor was to date the kind of pretty but vacuous women who never seemed to mind that their relationships existed mostly in the bedroom. They were the bonbons of the female persuasion—utterly delicious but nothing to sustain oneself on.

  So when he heard Lucy’s panicked voice on the phone asking him if he’d seen Claire Elliot, his stomach dropped to his ankles.

  “Why would I have seen Claire?” he asked, already dreading the answer.

  He hadn’t seen her since that nightmare trip to Hawaii when he’d spent one long, torturous week trying to avoid her, and he didn’t ever intend to see her on purpose again.

  “She wrecked her car yesterday, and this morning I found a note on my desk telling me that I’m in charge of the travel agency until she comes back—with no mention of where she’s gone or when she’ll return.”

  “So?”

  “I tried her cell phone, and she has it turned off, but I’m pretty sure she’s headed to your island, to Escapade.”

  Oh, hell.

  “Fiery” was only one of a long list of colorful adjectives Mason could use to describe Claire. She was the wildest, most headstrong, infuriating, craziest lunatic of a woman he’d ever met. She was also impossibly sexy—okay, the absolute sexiest woman he’d ever met, too, but that was only until she opened her mouth to spew one of her many strongly held and wrong-headed opinions.

  “Why do you think she’d be coming here?”

  “Because I, um, sort of talked to her about the resort yesterday afternoon, right before she wrecked her car,” Lucy admitted.

  The memory of Claire stealing his Porsche and leaving him stranded in the desert came to Mason then. He’d been forced to hitch a ride back to the Fantasy Ranch in the middle of the night—no easy task. And to think that the redheaded bundle of trouble was headed for Escapade at that very moment—

  “Lucy, you weren’t trying to play matchmaker again, were you?”

  “No!” she said a little too quickly. “Well, maybe, but I had no idea she’d just take off like this. I thought she’d need a little more persuading.”

  It did seem odd that Claire would come running in his direction. After all, she’d been just as adamant about avoiding him as he had been about her.

  “Why would she come here? She couldn’t possibly want to see me.”

  Lucy expelled a ragged sigh into the phone. “I’m not sure, but I think it might have something to do with getting you out of her system.”

  Mason blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I think Claire is possibly a bit…bothered by the way you two left things.”

  “Bothered?”

  “Or not. Never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “That woman is incapable of having a normal relationship with a man.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that,” Lucy said.

  Mason had to give Lucy credit, she was a smart woman, and Claire was her best friend—maybe she did know what she was talking about.

  “I thought Claire hated me.” The lamp she’d clubbed him on the head with in Hawaii had made that pretty clear.

  “I don’t think it’s you so much as it is her inability to control you that she hates.”

  And that was exactly why he and Claire were never going to happen. She expected men to grovel at her feet, and Mason was not a groveling kind of guy.

  “So should I call the police if I see her?” he asked, only half joking.

  “No! Just try to forgive and forget.”

  “Right. Why don’t I hand her the keys to my car while I’m at it.”

  Lucy produced a strained laugh. “Let’s don’t get carried away. Could you leave a message at the front desk for her to call me as soon as she gets there?”

  “No problem—if she comes here.” Maybe, if he was lucky, she was on her way to Aruba. Or better yet, Siberia. “Is that little brother of mine treating you right?”

  “Of course he is. I occasionally have to pry his attention away from the case he’s been working too hard on, but I have my methods.”

  Mason could hear the smile in her voice. In his weaker moments, he felt a tiny bit envious of what his brother and sister-in-law had. But those moments didn’t last long because he always remembered how much he hated being tied down, how much simpler the bachelor life was.

  After they’d said their goodbyes, Mason hung up the phone and stared at his office door with trepidation. What if Claire was lurking on the other side?

/>   Now wait a minute. Was he really going to let her presence intimidate him? Hell, no. He just dreaded the uproar she always caused, but hey, he owned the resort. If she caused any trouble, he’d have her removed, simple as that.

  He expelled a pent-up breath and strode out of his private office into the administrative center of Escapade. The concept for the resort had been brewing in his mind for years, and to see it finally a bustling reality gave him no small sense of satisfaction.

  While the Fantasy Ranch, his first venture, was a success, it hadn’t been his dream resort. The ranch setting had already existed when he’d taken over the failing business and turned it around. Profits from it had given him the capital to build his second adults-only resort from scratch, exactly the way he wanted it.

  The tropical setting, the hedonistic atmosphere, the lush, well-appointed resort—they all combined to make people set aside their inhibitions, let their hair down and have a good time while they were at Escapade. Mason was determined to make this business a success, too, and if their grand opening weekend two months ago had been any indicator, he was well on his way.

  He passed through the administrative area and made his way to the reception desk, where he caught his breath at the sight of a woman in the lobby with flaming red hair. Only when he realized it wasn’t Claire did he breathe easy again.

  “Hi, Mr. Walker,” the desk clerk greeted him.

  “I need to leave a message for a guest who may be arriving today. Can you check the reservation system to see if Claire Elliot has booked a room?”

  The desk clerk checked the computer, then nodded. “She’s scheduled to arrive this afternoon, actually. What’s your message for her?”

  Tension began to build in his temples, and he willed himself to relax again. Mason relayed Lucy’s message, then stalked across the lobby to the entryway.