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“True,” he shrugged. “And is it enough for you?”
Colour bloomed along her delicate cheekbones. “We said a week,” she hedged the question with a lack of panache that made him smile.
“I’ve never really wanted a woman for longer than a week. Not two. Not three. But I can’t see a time when I’ll stop wanting you. I want you to stay with me, Finn. Stay. Just … stay. Don’t put a time on it. Stay for as long as we’re having this kind of … fun.”
The silence was a deep, plunging gulf of promise between them. It wasn’t a declaration of love. It wasn’t even an offer of a proper relationship. But it was an admittance that he was as addicted to her as she was to him.
He stood, his eyes still locked to hers as he moved around the table and held his hands out to her. She put her own in them unquestioningly, so that he could pull her to standing. He put his arms around her waist, so that she could feel his warmth. She was addicted to it. The way he felt close to her would be with her forever.
“It’s stupid,” she said with a shake of a head. “I have a life in London. I have a job.”
“I can hire you,” he said pragmatically. “So that no one else can.”
“No!” She scolded sharply, her eyes showing her offence. “Don’t you dare. That would be … humiliating.”
He frowned. The scruple surprised him. Not that he’d have put Finn in the same column as the mercenary women he usually slept with, but his offer made sense. “It would suit everyone. You could stay with me and still draw a salary. Your company would get paid.”
“God, Caradoc, not everything in life is a bottom line. I would never stay with you if I thought you were paying my wage.”
“Then stay with me because you want to.”
Her heart was sinking all the way down to her toes.
Caradoc pressed his mouth lightly against hers. “Do you remember what I said the first night we slept together?”
She shook her head, and tears were stinging behind her eyelids. He was offering her everything she wanted in that minute. Was she brave enough to take it, regardless of the consequences? Could she be that irresponsible and careless as to risk her job and reputation just for a little more time with this man?
“I want you to stay here. I want you in my bed. I want you here when I come home from work. I want you on my arm when I go to dinners. I want you with me. But I’m only going to ask this once and I’m not going to beg. You have to decide what you want, Finn, and to decide quickly.”
She breathed in deeply. He smelled so good. His shower gel was spicy, but it was more than that. It was him. Caradoc. He was so masculine. She groaned softly. She was lost. “And if I go?”
He ran his fingers down her spine, until they reached the waistband of her jeans. He teased her naked flesh, keeping her pressed to him. “Then you go. And we’re done.”
Her heart turned over in her chest. “So if I go back to London, and to my job, this is over?”
He kissed her then with all the hard hopes he had of her staying with him. “What we have doesn’t work if we’re not toget
her,” he said simply.
Oh, but for Finn, that just wasn’t true. What she felt for him wasn’t purely defined by his presence or his sexual power. There was so much more to it.
Breathing felt difficult. As though the very air in her lungs was frigid, and iced over. She tried to make light of it, but the joke fell flat. “Jeez, talk about blocking me into a corner.”
He kissed her once more, his expression impossible to read. “There is no corner. Only a choice, and the choice is yours. I want you to stay. I’m asking you to stay. You have to decide what you want.”
CHAPTER TEN
Three weeks in Manhattan, and Finn felt she knew neither Caradoc nor the city any better. Just as the city was an impenetrable jungle, he too was a mystery. An eternal conundrum, one she doubted she’d ever be able to process. Yet with each night they spent together, she felt herself falling deeper and deeper into the heart of his wonderment.
She still didn’t comprehend him, and yet she felt, completely, utterly and eternally right when she was with him.
Gone was the uncertainty that had dogged their early relationship. She now felt that they were as well suited as any two people had ever been. She loved him, she knew that without limitations, and she could only hope that one day he would begin to realise he felt the same.
For surely he must.
“Do you have to be all day?” She murmured, her cheek pressed against her folded-up knees. The bed sheet was crisp around her midsection, and beyond Caradoc, a panoramic view of Manhattan spread like a painting. Snow dusted against the windows, and Finn felt a sigh of complete happiness warming her soul.
“I do.” His eyes didn’t leave his reflection in the mirror as he knotted a steel grey tie around his neck. She watched his fingers move deftly, as they always did. Fingers that had given her such immeasurable pleasure she would always blush to remember it.
