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The gallery looked inviting and I took the stairs up to get some space.
Above the main room, I easily found Kalen now talked to a tall and gorgeous brunette. The inviting look she gave him was everything Scott’s mother spoke of. Why was I deluding myself? She was exactly right. This wasn’t my world.
When I looked again, Kalen was gone. I swept my eyes over the crowd, knowing it would be easy to find Kalen’s tall and broad features, but I felt him instead.
His big hands gripped my waist as his breath fanned over my neck.
“This is where you’ve been hiding.”
I wanted to say I hadn’t been hiding. But heat licked over my skin like a brushfire. My body was a raging inferno by the time I turned in his arms. It would have been easy to give in as Kalen’s penetrating eyes shadowed in inky black were focused on me.
“We can’t do this,” I protested, seeing nothing but five-alarm desire in his gaze.
“Do what?” he asked, like he wasn’t at all affected. “Fuck?”
I stepped back, only to be cut short by the railing. I twisted a bit to lean against a column.
“Any of it,” I said, more sternly than I felt.
“Are you backing out of our agreement? Because we both know you secretly want my cock buried deep inside you, right here, right now.”
God, the man was sin incarnate.
“As much as I want to, I can’t do this casual thing. I wasn’t built to be unaffected.”
He studied me. “You’re saying you want a commitment.”
I wasn’t sure what I wanted, just what I didn’t want.
“I’m saying I don’t want to be a dirty little secret.”
He closed the distance, leaving me nowhere to go.
“You aren’t a dirty little secret,” he said, his menacing eyes held on mine.
I stiffened my spine and stood a little straighter. “Really? You couldn’t seem to get away fast enough to talk to someone you knew without bothering to introduce me. Which is stupid on my part because we aren’t in a relationship. This is why I can’t do this.”
His kissable lips lifted in a knowing smile. “You’re jealous.”
“Yes. Which is also stupid. We’ve never had sex in a bed, not really if you exclude using the edge of it like a prop. I don’t even know where you live. You’ve never invited me to your place. Thus, leaving questions in my mind like if you’re married. And you owe me nothing.”
I didn’t wait to see victory on his face. I’d already lost too much tonight and now sounded like a hysterical woman. I slipped around the column.
“I’m ready to go home. I can catch a cab,” I said.
I didn’t look back as I dashed away as fast as my heels would allow. I assumed Kalen hadn’t followed until I got to the front. I turned, remembering I couldn’t get my coat without him.
He was there pocketing his phone. He stepped forward and produced the marker needed to get our garments.
“I brought you here. I’ll take you home,” he said quietly but determined.
There was no way for me to be impervious. Every word out of the man’s mouth was like a stroke over my clit. Then there was his touch as he innocently helped me into my coat.
He led me to his amazing car as if he’d contacted the valet before we exited the building, and maybe he had. I should have stayed at least until I’d spoken to the partner-in-charge of my current assignment. But it was too late.
I closed my eyes on the drive home. I couldn’t look at the man and not remember riding his cock in a different car not so long ago.
When the car engine died, I thought maybe I’d fallen asleep. The ride seemed way too short for me to be home and too eerily quiet.
I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. We were in an underground garage where a dozen or more spectacular cars were parked.
“Where are we?” I asked, amazed and a little shocked as I guessed the answer.
“You wanted to know where I lived.” My mouth fell open. He, on the other hand, didn’t lack for words. “You can go upstairs with me or I can take you home.”
The smart answer would have been home. Curiosity about the man won out as Lizzy’s suggestion played in my head. Did I have more power in this chess match between us than I thought? My queen to his king?
“What does this mean?” I asked, not moving yet.
“It means you’re the first woman I’ve brought home.”
“Ever?” I asked, feeling more like a pawn to his knight.
“Yes,” he said, his focus sharp on me. “Except those in my employ.”
“Why now?” That was a dumb question. Hadn’t I made that somewhat of an ultimatum, though I hadn’t meant to?
“Because I’m not ready to let you go.”
