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“Come, we’ll go inside and have a nightcap,” he said invitingly, his fingers splaying across her back before he’d ever let the jacket go, gently yet insistently urging her to her feet. Kady suspected he wanted her to move so he wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time enduring the cold now that he’d used his coat to warm her instead.
“Yes, of course,” she replied, standing as he’d suggested and falling into step beside him. One of his hands slid downward to the small of her back as they went, sending little thrills over her senses like icy tendrils of desire. Somehow they all managed to converge right behind her clit, making it throb. She determinedly told her body to behave itself since she had not yet decided that she’d be doing anything involving that piece of anatomy with him.
“How did you find your bedroom?” Archer asked conversationally as they walked down the long, marble-tiled hall. “Was everything to your liking?”
“Oh, yes, it’s great,” she answered shyly. “Thanks for asking.”
“I want you to be comfortable,” he said softly. “If there was anything lacking, I would like to know. I am willing to provide you everything you might need while you’re here, Kady. You know that, right?”
“I-I guess so,” she stammered, looking down at her feet as he opened the door to the study. She went to step inside, and found his hand on her back again briefly as she did so. He released her so she could sit down and moved over to the wet bar in one corner of the room.
“You can be sure of it, okay?” he said as he went. “I never say anything I don’t mean.”
“A commendable trait,” commented Kady as she sat near one edge of the loveseat and began to fiddle nervously with her fingers.
“Here, try this,” said Archer as he set a drink into her hands, the brush of their fingers causing another wave of desire whirling through her.
“I don’t usually drink alcohol,” she admitted, her voice getting higher toward the end of the sentence when he sat down right beside her, despite the sheer number of other places he could easily have chosen.
“This is a very fine blend of whiskey, and I’ve given you plenty of ice,” he explained. “Just a sip and it’ll take the edge of that bout of nerves you appear to be suffering. However, if you don’t like it, we can always fix you something else.”
Kady sniffed the drink with some uncertainty, but since she didn’t know how a very fine whiskey was supposed to smell, it didn’t do her a whole lot of good. Blushing under his intense look, she brought the glass to her lips and took a sip. Only when he was certain that some of the drink had been ingested did Archer glance away.
Wrinkling her nose, Kady considered what her opinion of that drink might be. In the end, as it sat on her tongue for a few moments and began to seep in, she realized it was quite pleasant. Then she realized that she’d begun to giggle for no apparent reason. Could she possibly become drunk just from a sip?
Archer laughed as he caught sight of her face. “You really don’t drink much, do you?”
“I told you that I didn’t,” she excused herself, still chuckling.
Archer placed an arm around her shoulders as he took a long sip from his glass. When he had finished with it, he set it on the end table just beyond her other side. This action, of course, meant that his body brushed hers along the way. Kady’s heart started thudding in her chest, and she was sure the wicked man knew it.
“What’s the matter, Kady?” he asked in a smooth, sultry tone. It sent shivers down her already quivering spine.
“N-Nothing,” she lied. Archer knew that she was lying. He knew exactly what affect he was having on her, both her body and her mind.
“You know, I’ve been wondering if advertising for the mother of my child-to-be was in my best interests, just as you pointed out,” he commented, as one finger of his free hand began playing at the curls beside her ear. “Do you think we should just treat this like some sort of a blind date instead? Maybe see if we would hit it off, you know, instead of it being just an impersonal business deal.”
“What are you saying, exactly?” Kady wanted to know, curiosity and desire peeking at his huskily spoken words.
Archer said, “That I find you very interesting, far beyond anything I had expected when I made that silly flyer. That maybe ‘doing things the right way’ could begin with a meeting of our minds as well as our bodies.”
“I see,” Kady responded nervously. As nice as that sounded, she knew she needed to be as honest with him as he was being with her. “But I’m in no position to allow myself the luxury of letting my feelings play into this. For you, if it didn’t work between us, you would simply send me on my way. But for me, if it didn’t work, where would that put me and my future? I really need to know that I’m going to have a roof over my head this time next year.”
Archer sighed. “All right, I see your point. But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s clearly more going on between us than a simple business transaction, does it? Surely you must be feeling the connection too?”
“I-I’m sure you’re right about that,” Kady agreed. Her body more than agreed. “I just don’t know if it would be a good idea to acknowledge it. I think maybe I need to go back to my room now. Maybe we can figure all this out tomorrow?”
Without another word, Kady dove off the couch, propelled by her nerves and the overwhelming situation, and bolted for the door. Archer didn’t try to stop her, choosing simply to watch her go. She swore she could feel his dark gaze burning into her back like a brand the entire way back to her room.
Chapter 10
Back in the bedroom, Kady carefully removed the dress that she had borrowed, lovingly returning the designer garment to its rightful hanger, and put her own clothes back on. Her nerves were so jangled she could barely even think, but there was one thing in her mind that she could hear loud and clear. She needed to get out of there.
If she didn’t leave Archer Devonshire’s home right now, her virginity was in definite danger of being a part of her past. Which by itself wasn’t that big of a deal, except that she wasn’t at all sure a man like him was someone to whom she should be giving such a valuable gift. Hadn’t she always considered that part of her to be very personal and special? Was she really going to just suddenly throw it away like it was nothing?
Kady remembered the words he had spoken to her just a little while ago about the connection between them. Would it really be nothing with him? She turned aside, facing the large bay windows. Was that what she was really afraid of?
Besides, the two of them were worlds apart. The man didn’t even know what it would be like to live in her shoes. He was obviously born with a silver spoon in his handsome mouth, wasn’t he?
