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An odd, pointless, thought when I know nothing lasting can come of what happened between us last night. I’m no more part of his orbit today than I was yesterday or that first night I arrived at this building. For the next four months, I’m only borrowing this life, this world. After Claire returns, I’ll go back to my own reality.
And back there, I can’t ever be part of Nick’s world—nor anyone else’s. Not so long as I hide my own scars. My secrets are too many and they can’t be shared.
Looking at him now, I wonder how many secrets he’s hiding too.
Almost in challenge I feel, he holds my gaze as he leans his hip against the counter. “I have business later today in London. My driver will be picking me up within the hour. I’ll be gone for two weeks.”
“Oh, okay.” His abrupt announcement seems to be ample cue for me to leave, so I place my mug on the counter and start to slide off the stool. “In that case, I definitely should go and let you do what you need to do.”
What I really need to do is forget about Nick Baine and the amazing one-night stand we just shared, because that’s all it’s going to be. If I wasn’t smart enough to realize before now that he would be trouble for me, seeing him in this new light this morning is more than enough to convince me. Having sex with him is one thing. Allowing myself to get close to him—to care—is a risk I can’t afford. I won’t risk that.
When I step away from the barstool to retrieve my purse from the nearby sofa, his quiet command halts me.
“Stop, Avery.” He’s frowning as he places his mug on the counter, but there’s a trace of dark humor in his voice. He cocks his head, eyes narrowed on me. “Why is it that when you’re not running into me, you’re running away from me?”
“I’m not running away.”
He grunts. “Aren’t you?”
I go still as he rounds the counter and comes up close to me. He reaches out with his left hand—his good hand—and smoothes some of my disarrayed hair off my face. His expression is grimly sober. Intense in a different way than I’ve seen him so far.
“I want to see you again.”
I swallow. “Sure, okay. That would be great.” The lie sounds almost convincing to me. “Why don’t you let me know when you get back? We can try to make plans to get together for lunch sometime, or a drink maybe . . .”
He’s shaking his head, those shrewd blue eyes far too cynical to believe a word I’m saying.
“I want to see you. I want you in my bed again.”
I struggle to maintain my resolve. “What if that’s not what I want?”
His brows rise as if he’d never considered I might refuse him. But then his fingers slide through my hair to the tender skin of my nape and I’m already melting. As much as I want to think I can walk away from this man and forget him after last night, my full body response to his touch clearly disputes that.
“I want you, Avery. I will see you again when I return.”
Before I can manage another protest, he bends his head to mine and kisses me. His tongue breaches the seam of my lips, possessive and so hot I feel his demanding licks all the way to my core. I moan as I lean into him, fighting a losing battle.
When he draws back, his sensual, wicked mouth is curved in a pirate’s smile. “Like I told you last night, when I see something I want, I reach for it.”
Then, apparently to prove that point, his hand slips between my thighs to the furnace of wet heat already burning there. His breath leaks out of him on a ragged curse. We’re standing close enough that I can feel the hard ridge of his erection. He’s just as aroused as I am.
“Fuck it,” he rasps thickly, his hands already working the zipper of my jeans loose. “My driver will have to wait.”
Chapter 12
I’m still floating when I begin my Monday night shift at Vendange. The satiated haze Nick left me in when I stepped out of his penthouse this morning has barely faded all these hours later. I’d like to blame that early morning assault on my senses for the fact that I not only agreed to see him when he gets back from London, but I even gave him my phone number—something I never do.
So much for playing it safe or sticking to my resolve that I wasn’t going to let our one-night stand progress any further. But our one night and the morning after was beyond amazing, and I’m learning pretty quickly that Nick Baine is a difficult man to resist.
Make that impossible.
When I see something I want, I reach for it.
God, did he ever.
With his hands, his mouth, his wicked tongue . . . his insatiable cock. I didn’t think I had anything left in me to give, yet he proved me wrong time and time again. I’d barely been able to walk steadily after we parted and I made my way back to the fifth floor apartment. Walk of shame? Not even close. I’d never felt so shameless. So alive.
I still do. A smile curves my lips and I don’t even try to bite it back. Nor can I curb the twinge of arousal that ignites inside me just thinking about him.
