Page 233 of Tease Me


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With a shrug, she nodded. “So that’s your choice. Forty-seven days of guaranteed physical intimacy or the potential for a lifetime of intimacy in its every form.” She put a finger on his lips. “Don’t answer me. You have my number. I want you to really think about this. Call or text me later when you’re sure of your choice… I suppose option three would be we go our separate ways and—”

“There’s no option three,” he said, capturing her hand in both of his. “How long do I have to wait before I give you my decision?”

“I want to be confident that you made the right choice for you. Xander…” she murmured, sliding their linked hands to her chest. “We can’t tell each other only what we think the other wants to hear. You promised honesty. You have to trust me to hear you, to consider you. I’m not trying to trick you. I swear…” Opening her fingers, she slid them up his jaw to the hair at his temple. “You are attracted to me, right? You said that you’d thought about sleeping with me.” She smiled and pushed closer, moistening her lips. “If that’s what you want, you can have it, baby. No judgment. I won’t reject you for being honest.”

“Sex wasn’t the only thing on my mind,” he said, his hand skimming over hers. “I thought about waking up with you. Coming home to you. Asking your opinion on issues… Pouring wine for you after a hard day. Joining you in a bubble bath… Lifting your veil to kiss you.”

Laughing, she drew back, putting some space between them. Falling into him would be so easy.

“We need some coffee,” she said, sweeping up her cup. And some perspective. It had been an intense few days. After a long drink, she put the cup down again. “I suppose now we’re being honest, I can ask about Lance. You didn’t want to talk about him before. Can we talk about him now?”

“What do you want to know?” he asked. “Unfortunately, I can’t fire him for a personal dispute.”

She showed both hands in surrender. “Your personal issues are your own, I won’t get involved. But I am curious how he got you to make the agreement. Did he just goad you into it or were there stakes?”

He hesitated for a second. “I mentioned the Summit Sponsorship?” She nodded. “We disagreed over a potential investment opportunity. If I stuck it out here, we’d never talk about it again. If I didn’t, he gets the investment.”

“That’s huge,” she said with concern. “What if it fails? You could lose a fortune.”

“My time is worth more than my money and he didn’t ask for that. Losing only costs me a million dollars—”

“A million dollars?” she asked, stunned. “Oh my God!”

His warm smile didn’t settle her hammering heart. “No amount of money could replace you. Ethan is in Sydney dealing with a complicated negotiation. It’s not even four a.m. there yet. I’ll call him in a couple of hours, tell him to release the million for Lance’s BlueGold investment. He can run point on it.” He winked. “And deal with the paperwork.”

“I thought you had ninety days. Why are you conceding now?”

Might he just vanish overnight? The prospect was unsettling.

“The deal was I commit myself for ninety days. He gave me credit for nineteen days ‘cause he fucked my chances with you.”

“So for seventy-one days, you have to commit yourself to a woman who doesn’t know you’re a billionaire playboy?”

“I’m not much of a playboy, Button. And yeah, that was the point.”

“Was there a time limit? He couldn’t have expected you to meet a woman on day one.” Although he had. Clarity switched her thoughts. “Hold on, back it up and forget I said that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes,” she said, lacing their fingers together. “You’re handsome, and smart, and charismatic. If a woman knew you were straight, she’d go out with you in a heartbeat.”

“I’m straight,” he said, coming over all serious for a second before conceding a smile. “Just making sure you know.”

“You shouldn’t give up,” she said, squeezing his hand. “According to what you’ve said, I’ve been the main woman in your life since we met and that was…”

“Forty-three days ago,” he said before she worked it out.

Astounded, she recovered by liberating a short laugh. “Was that quick math or have you been keeping track?”

“Both.”

“Gwenie still wants to go out this weekend,” she said, distracted by their linked hands. “You can come with us. We know plenty of bars that would be target rich… Does your lady have to be committed to you for the full term?”

“No, we talked about that. I can’t bring up commitment on day one.”

“No, or you’d be the same as the women trying to race you down the aisle… You don’t want a woman who gets serious from day one either. She’ll be harder to shake in seventy-one days.”

He raised her chin with a finger. “None of that matters anymore. I’m done with that. I only want you.”

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