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‘You get a good enough look this afternoon?’
Shame combined with panic, and the inappropriate shaft of heat climbing up her torso.
‘You saw me?’ she blurted out, before she realised how incriminating that sounded.
He stepped closer, making her even more aware of her height disadvantage in the woolly socks. The subtle scent of pine soap filled her senses and she saw the glint of fury turn the mossy green of his irises to emerald fire.
‘Uh-huh,’ he said, almost casually.
But she could see what the semblance of control was costing him in the rigid line of his jaw and the vein pounding in his temple.
‘Next time you’re going to use binoculars to check out my junk, don’t stand facing the sun.’
‘I... I wasn’t checking out your junk... Precisely...’ she said, but even she could hear the weakness in her denial. And feel the tell-tale blush warming her cheeks.
‘Then what were you doing... Precisely?’ he snarled.
‘I was watching an eagle... Or... Or possibly a hawk.’ She hesitated, hopelessly flustered. ‘I’m really not sure what it was.’
Shut up, Cassie. Rambling incoherently about the bird you couldn’t identify before you got fixated on his junk is not going to make you look any less guilty.
‘I couldn’t find it in the book,’ she added, so jittery now that she was incapable of obeying even her own instructions. ‘But it was big... Very big.’
Her gaze drifted south, entirely of its own accord, then shot back up so fast it was a miracle she didn’t break her neck. The blush exploded.
The muscle in his jaw remained as rigid as pre-cast steel. And about as forgiving. ‘Why did you track me to the cove? And why were you spying on me there?’
The questions sliced out on a grim murmur of suspicion.
‘I didn’t track you to the cove. I didn’t know you would be there. And I wasn’t spying on you.’ She fought back, trying not to see all his naked beauty in her mind’s eye, but guilty heat glowed on her face regardless.
His eyes narrowed, but then his jawline relaxed, his lips quirking in an arrogant smile that only made her feel more insecure... And volatile.
‘Damn...you got a kick out of it, didn’t you?’
‘I... I don’t know what you mean...’ she said, but the flush had become radioactive.
‘You know, for a corporate spy you’re a real crummy liar, Cassandra,’ he said.
He stepped closer, crowding her personal space, making her more and more aware of the heat flowing straight to her core and turning her heartbeat so frantic her tired limbs became animated. Energised. A flash of lightning from outside blinded her for a moment, and electrified the sexual tension already sparking between them.
‘If you want sex, why don’t you just say so?’ he growled, the low, husky tone of his voice both provocation and promise. ‘No need to sneak around and spy on me. I can’t think of a better way to pass the time now we both know exactly where we stand.’
The spark leapt and sizzled, searing her nerve-endings, burning down to her core. But she jerked back a step, her bottom hitting the counter, even as her body clamoured for her to get closer, to take him up on his insulting offer.
She couldn’t give in to this yearning again. However powerful, however intoxicating. Not after everything he had accused her of. She had to control the chemistry, the yearning, or she would be lost.
‘I don’t want sex from you—not any more,’ she said.
‘You’re lying,’ he said, so confident, so arrogant, so sure.
‘No, I’m not,’ she said, but the denial came out on a shattered sob, daunted rather than decisive.
How did he do that? How did he make her want him when she knew she shouldn’t?
She lifted her hands, palms out, determined to shove him away, to preserve what little was left of her dignity. But just as her palms flattened on his broad chest a lightning flash and a deafening crash of thunder plunged the house into darkness.
She gasped, blinked, but the black veil was so impenetrable it grabbed her by the throat and yanked her down into a bottomless abyss.
