it business or pleasure?” Viva didn’t close her eyes in mortification when she heard the question trip off her tongue, but mortification rolled in hot and heavy waves all the same. Pleasure was always a given when it involved Rook Lourdess. She knew that well enough, didn’t she? Again, she waved. “Sorry to pry.”
Rook grinned. “You’re not.”
“So, um, what part of Italy are you visiting?”
“Belluno.”
“Ah...” Viva smiled and closed her eyes as she nodded. “That’s not far from Cortina. It’s really beautiful this time of year.”
“So I hear.” Hands hidden in the deep pockets of his dark trousers, Rook strolled closer. “Has your work taken you there?” He somehow resisted asking if her knowledge of the place was on a personal level.
Viva was already nodding. “I did a movie there two years ago while the show was on hiatus. An ensemble-cast thing. It was fun.”
“Ensemble cast, like the show. How’s that going?”
“Very well. We’ve been a truly blessed bunch.”
“So no talk of finales anytime soon?”
“If only.” Viva threw back her head and sighed. “I was sure we’d be done after season four with everyone so busy with other successful projects, but...” She flexed her fingers over the pants that matched a shimmering blazer. “The audience still loves us, the ratings are dynamite... I’d say we’ll be a bunch of kick-ass secret agents well into our nineties.”
Laughter hummed around the terrace then.
“So, um, are you visiting Italy on new business for the firm?” Viva figured additional prying couldn’t hurt at that point.
“Remains to be seen,” was all he could share before the party volume grew to a maddening pitch and tipped over to deafening.
Rook and Viva realized the French doors had opened as chief of detectives Sophia Hail exited with congratulatory cheers behind her.
“There she is!” Rook’s voice carried across the terrace as he closed the distance to Sophia and enveloped her in a bear hug. “The news is in the air. Congratulations. It’s a good night for the Philly PD,” he said and kissed her cheek.
Sophia, the recent recipient of an unexpected promotion to chief of detectives, wore a grin that seemed to make her entire face glow.
“Thanks.” Sophia laughed, returning Rook’s tight squeeze. “But I can’t let any of these accolades go to my head, no matter how good they feel floating up there.”
The accolades were well deserved. Sophia and her team had just come leagues closer to wrapping up a complex money-laundering scheme that had implicated several members of the force. Sophia’s predecessor was among them.
Viva stepped up to draw her younger sister into a tight squeeze. “Congratulations, sweetie. Are you done for the night?” she asked once they broke from the embrace.
“Hardly,” Sophia sighed in a manner that sang with satisfaction. “I just wanted to get back. Mama went to all this trouble to put together this party for me. My people can handle the wrap-up and I’ll be back at the job in the morning.”
Sophia slid Rook another smile and squeezed his arm. “Think you can fit me in for a quick talk sometime tomorrow?”
“Sure. Might be early. I’ve got a five a.m. chat to Europe tomorrow.”
Sophia whistled, her eyes twinkling. “Good luck with that.”
“I’ll need it.” Rook smoothed a hand over his chest as though the idea pained him. “I should’ve been in bed hours ago.”
“Well, I plan to make it an early day myself,” Sophia said. “I’ll make time whenever you can drop in.”
“Count on it.” He nodded before gracing Viva’s face with his arresting gaze.
Sophia appeared as though she could read the look. “So, V, I’ll just see you inside, okay?”
“No, you stay,” Rook said. “I’m the one who needs to get going.” He gave Viva a smile. “Good seeing you. How long before you leave?”
Viva lifted her shoulders and let the move hold a few seconds before she lowered them.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Don’t leave without saying goodbye, okay?”
“Count on it,” she returned the earlier confirmation he’d given to her sister. With effort, she kept a cool smile in place while he said good-night to Sophia and made his way from the terrace.
“He hasn’t changed.”
Sophia smiled at Viva’s remark. “Did you think he would?” she asked.
The ebony flecks in Viva’s warm chocolate stare appeared to sparkle beneath a sudden nudge of emotion. “I prayed he wouldn’t after everything that happened. Sophia, um...is he, um...is he seeing anybody?”
Sophia looked off in the direction where Rook had taken his exit. “I’d have to ask Tigo,” she said, referring to her fiancé and one of Rook’s oldest friends, Santigo Rodriguez. “Far as I know there hasn’t been anyone since you.”
Viva shot her sister a stunned expression.
“No one steady since you,” Sophia qualified.
Viva wasn’t wholly convinced of that either, but such a statement was easier to swallow than one suggesting there had been no one since her.
Rook Lourdess was a presence. He exuded a power that went beyond the obvious potency presented by the striking breadth of his physique. His massive build, combined with a jolting stare and remarkably crafted face, had a talent for unsettling women as thoroughly as it mesmerized them.
Still, it was the subtle aspect of his persona, Viva believed, that was even more alluring. Unarguably, the face and body were difficult acts to follow. The body was a well-honed six and a half feet of solid muscle sheathed in a rich caramel-toned casing that was only rivaled by the face. It was surrounded by a halo of blue-black that, despite the efforts to keep it close-cropped, remained an unruly cap of waves.
The carefully crafted face was accentuated by a heavy-lidded amber stare of such a hue, it seemed almost translucent. The nose emphasized strong, high cheekbones offset by a generous and fully kissable mouth—one Viva remembered was capable of exerting the most extreme forms of pleasure and release.
She cleared her throat, not sure if the moan she’d just given in to had been overheard by her sister or merely an echo in her own head.
“Sure you don’t want to catch up to him? He probably hasn’t gotten to his car yet.”
Viva snorted. “If I punch you, would that be considered assaulting an officer?”
Sophia gave in to a sly
