What a Woman Wants (6 page)

Faith’s instincts had
been right. Adrianna Ross-Fuller was the type of person who was able to blend in well and get along with just about anybody, even someone who could be as standoffish as Shannon. Adrianna had even suggested they call her Anna like her family and friends did.

Not that Faith wanted to brag, but dinner had been great, and now they were sitting outside on the screened porch watching the waves from the ocean while sipping wine.

A shiver ran through her. She couldn’t keep her mind off Shane Masters. He had certainly been dominating her thoughts—even while she’d been cooking, which was another first. In the kitchen, the ingredients she would be using had always been foremost as she went about preparing what she wanted to be a mouthwatering meal. But for the two hours she’d spent in the kitchen, the only mouthwatering thing she could think about was Shane Masters.

“So, Anna, your grandmother’s side of the family actually owned land on this island? Back in the day?” Monique asked, reclaiming Faith’s attention to the conversation going on.

Anna smiled. “Yes, that’s how I got the beach house. Part of this new subdivision was built on land my family owned and later sold to the developers.” Anna was proud of her family’s history. It was history that had been shared with her since becoming an acknowledged member of the family.

“Hilton Head is home to Mitchellville, organized in 1862 as one of the first settlements of free blacks in this country,” Anna continued. “In fact, before the developers came, most of the sea islands, since the eighteen hundreds, were the home of free black men who formed a number of communities. These communities consisted of farmers, basket weavers, and fishnet makers. During that time the Gullah culture was still preserved,” she added.

Monique lifted a brow. “What’s Gullah?”

Anna smiled. “The Gullah was a strong group of African Americans, many of whom were born on the sea islands like Hilton Head, who spoke the Gullah dialect. My family did manage to retain possession of one island, Glendale Shores. It’s where my paternal grandfather was born and is across the water a ways from here. All of us have agreed not to sell out, although developers have tried twisting our arms to do so. But that’s before they came up against my uncle, Randolph Fuller. Once they do, then they—”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Shannon interrupted. “Are you saying
the
Randolph Fuller is a relative of yours?”

Anna smiled proudly. “Yes, he’s my uncle, my father’s brother. Do you know him?”

Shannon shook her head, grinning. “No, but I’ve heard of him. Who hasn’t? He is and always has been an attorney extraordinaire. I used to hear my parents sing his praises all the time. He’s made history several times by winning a number of high-profile cases.”

Anna looked pleased. “Yes, he has.”

“You’re part Vietnamese, right?” Faith asked. She thought Anna was simply beautiful with her medium brown skin, almond eyes, and mane of long, gorgeous black hair.

Anna took a sip of her wine before answering. “Yes, my father fought in the Vietnam War and eventually lost his life over there. Before he died, he married my mother.” She decided now wasn’t the time to share too much of her family history, especially not the part about where she had been separated from them for thirty-something years, thinking they wanted nothing to do with her. That was a part of her past she was trying to put behind her. The person who’d been responsible, a woman by the name of Angela who’d once been married to her uncle Randolph, hadn’t been operating with a full deck. Angela eventually really went off the deep end when her and Randolph’s son, Trey, married the daughter of a woman Angela despised.

“So are the three of you enjoying your vacations so far?” Anna asked, to keep the conversation flowing. It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself time to just sit back and chill and had been grateful for Faith’s invitation to dinner. She had met Faith’s parents last year, and all they’d talked about was the daughter they were proud of. Besides, engaging in conversation kept her mind away from the fact that Zach would be arriving in a week or so. She had taken some time off work. The Fourth of July was coming up, and they would be joining the others at Glendale Shores.

“Well, I’ve enjoyed our get-together,” Shannon said, standing and glancing at her watch. “But I have somewhere to go.”

She turned to Anna and smiled. “It was nice meeting you, Anna, and I can’t wait to tell my parents that I met Randolph Fuller’s niece.”

Anna leaned back in her chair and returned Shannon’s smile. “It was nice meeting you as well.”

Shannon made a quick escape into the house, and Anna couldn’t help noticing the worried expression Faith and Monique shared.

A half hour
later, Shannon saw that the auto repair shop was closed. Evidently they ended their workday early on Wednesdays. She weighed her options. She could either go back home and try this seduction thing tomorrow or she could get out of her car and check to see if perhaps the person she was looking for was still there— namely the mechanic who had more than stirred her interest. Since he lived over the garage, there was that possibility he was home. But what if he had a girlfriend in residence? Things could get ugly if that were the case. But then he didn’t have a ring on his finger, so in her book he was still fair game.

Making a quick decision, she got out of the car and walked over to the thick glass-paned window and peeped in. She dragged in a deep breath when she saw that although the garage was closed, the mechanic was still there and working on that same car. She glanced down at herself. She would be the first to admit that on any other woman the dress she was wearing would probably look somewhat sleazy with so much skin showing. But she thought that on her it looked right.. . considering what she needed it for.

Drawing in a deep breath, she tapped on the window. In fact, she did it several times before he finally pulled his head from underneath the hood of the car and glanced her way with an agitated frown. He stared, leaning against the car for a moment as if trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted. She knew the exact moment he recognized her as the woman from last week. He tossed the wrench he’d been holding in his hand aside and began walking toward the huge garage door that was connected to the bay he was working in.

Her breath caught when the door rolled up and he was there, standing in front of her. The scent of a sweaty man filled her nostrils, and she raked her gaze over him, taking in the grease-smeared T-shirt and the well-worn jeans. Another thing she noticed was that he had a beer can in his hand. She returned her look to his face and noticed the beautiful dark eyes that were boring into hers. The heat that suddenly flushed between her legs was like a blast from a furnace.

‘The shop’s closed.”

She cleared her throat. ‘I know.” Her body was beginning to ache. Now in addition to the heat between her legs, her breasts felt tender against the material of her dress. And talking about the dress ... he was noticing it. He glanced up and down at her in a way that was winding her up real tight, and then he took a huge gulp from the beer can before tossing it into a nearby trash bin.

“If you know the shop’s closed, then why you’re here?” he asked in a raw whisper that not only assaulted her senses, but zapped every feminine thing about her.

She knew he was waiting on an answer. He wanted her to spell it out for him, did he? Well, she had no problem doing that... if she really had to.

Taking a step forward, she deliberately brushed her body against his. “Do I really need to answer that?”

He angled his head back and continued to stare at her ... and her dress. Finally he answered by saying, “No, I guess not.” He then stepped aside. “Come on in.”

The first thought that came to Shannon’s mind was that what she was about to do was crazy. She knew nothing about this man other than what he did for a living as well as what he did to her each time she saw him. What if he was a mechanic by day and a rapist by night? What if he was a serial killer? What if—?

She shook her head, ridding her mind of any visions of being held hostage or him doing her bodily harm. For some reason, even with his rough and raw nature she felt safe with him, so she dismissed all those crazy ideas going through her head as her mind started going crazy on her. She was the one in charge of things here.

Besides, she had questioned a couple of people about him, and although none knew him personally, the cook at the cafe, the one who’d referred her to this place yesterday, said that all the mechanics who worked for Kent Scott were fairly decent guys and didn’t get into trouble. He’d further gone on to say that although he didn’t know the mechanic who had moved above the garage, he must have been a close friend of Kent’s to live there, and the few times he’d come into the cafe to buy coffee, he’d seemed like a nice fellow.

Shannon also figured she had her back covered, since Faith and Monique knew where she was, and she would make sure he knew it in case he took it upon himself to try any sort of funny business. So, despite any misgivings she might have harbored, she stepped over the threshold, and when he pushed the button to lower the huge garage door back down, leaving her completely alone with him inside the warehouselike building, she boldly met his gaze. And the only thing she could think about was the possibility that for the first in her life she had gone a little too far.

Adam stood at
the sink to wash any grease and grime from his hands as he watched Shannon slowly move around his work area like she found everything she saw fascinating, including the pile of grease rags stacked in the corner. He definitely remembered her from last week and if the truth be told, she had entered his thoughts several times since then.

He could tell that she was nervous, which was a good sign that she hadn’t done anything like this before. A woman showing up alone to pick up a man wasn’t a real smart move, considering all the sickos in the world. He might be a lot of things, but a weirdo he was not.

Back in Memphis, most women thought of him as the lone wolf, skillfully predatory, yet painstakingly detached when he wanted to be. And he was a cautious man by nature. It came with his profession, since he’d heard and seen it all. One thing he was definitely leery of were women bearing gifts, especially the
let’s get naked
kind. And that dress she was wearing could mean only one thing. She had sex on her mind, and he was the male she had targeted. Sheesh, lucky him.

Oh, he knew her kind. Being the oldest son of Judge Warren Corbain, he was the object of numerous women’s pretended affections because of his family’s name and status. They were ladies who were well refined and dignified and who in the end would show their true colors only after a wedding ring had been placed on their finger. Those were the Exhibit As. Shannon Carmichael was one of those he tagged Exhibit B—high-class society women, the kind who dated one type of man during the day and slept with another type at night. She got her kicks walking on the wild side whenever the mood struck—preferably after dark—and indulging in fantasies that would never cross a “good” girl’s mind.

He was glad Sydney, his one and only sister, who was eight years younger than him, never got into the casual dating scene before she married Tyrone. Her long-term affair with Rafe, everyone thought, would surely end in marriage. He had been shocked as hell when Sydney announced to the family one day that she and Rafe were through. A little more than a year later, she was making another announcement that she had fallen in love with and was marrying a guy by the name of Tyrone Hardcastle. She had left the family firm to move to D.C. with her husband, and almost two years later they were expecting their first child.

Times were too dangerous to have too many sleeping partners for both physical as well as emotional reasons. Some men didn’t know the meaning of being a gentleman, but then he had a feeling a true gentleman was the last thing Dr. Shannon Carmichael was interested in tonight. But still, if she thought he would immediately fall victim to her wiles, she had another thought coming. Oh, he intended to eventually give her just what she came for, especially since seeing her dress this way painfully reminded him how long he’d been without a woman. But he would sleep with her on his time and his terms.

But first, there was something he needed to get out of the way. Now that he was seeing her again, a degree of passion he’d felt the moment he set eyes on her escalated to an alarming rate. But then he knew her full breasts, tiny waistline, spectacular, long sexy legs and attractive face had a lot to do with it.

He slowly walked over to her, saw the uncertain look in her eye before it was replaced by a glint of red-hot lust. Oh, yeah, she came here for only one thing, but he was going to show her he wasn’t easy.

When he came to a stop in front of her, he heard the thickness of her breathing at the same time he inhaled her scent, a seductive fragrance that he knew had been deliberate. He hadn’t been born yesterday and was well aware of how some women operated with seduction on their mind, and this one was working it.