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Had he changed his mind about accepting her counteroffer?
“Julian,” she said quietly. “If you—”
Suddenly, he shook his head and turned to face her. “Sorry about that. I was just lost in my thoughts for a minute. I’ve got a couple of big stories I’m working on.”
Right.It isn’t always about you, Skylar.
She had to remember that.
“I won’t ask you to tell me about them, but I will say I read the expose you did on Branden Duke. It was amazing. You did a perfect job balancing an honest look at the privilege he’s been graced with while also revealing the hard work that led him to where he is now and the challenges he and his family face every single day because of his success and notoriety.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile. “That means a lot to me, coming from you.”
“Did you have a chance to meet his fiancée, Ms. Michal?”
“I did. She herself has faced incredible challenges since meeting Branden, only some of which I touched on in the article.”
Skylar nodded. “The story about her father . . . it was so sad, yet you managed to compensate for that by telling the world the truth about him, not just with facts but through the eyes of his daughter.”
“Yes, well, those truths were hard to come by, and Branden and Cara almost died to get them, so I had to do them, her father, anyone who would be affected by the article, justice.” He looked serious for a moment, then shook his head. “But as proud as I am of that article, that’s not why we’re here, is it. Would you like a drink?”
Skylar shook her head.
“Are you okay if I have one?”
“Of course,” Skylar said, noting that of the two of them, it appeared Julian was the one in need of liquid courage.
* * *
Julian selecteda bottle of whiskey and poured a few fingers into his glass, and added a single ice cube. Then, even though she’d said she didn’t want a drink, he repeated the process and made her one, leaving it on the bar. He loosened his tie and sipped the warm, biting whiskey as he felt Skylar’s heated gaze on his back. He knew she was confused about why he was stalling, and the truth was, he wasn’t quite certain of the reason himself.
Yes, she was a challenge, something he wanted to conquer. A mountain he hadn’t yet peaked. A race he hadn’t yet won. A poker hand he hadn’t yet called for others to fold. Skylar and making her come and solving the puzzle she represented—those would bring him satisfaction.
But despite how she had decided to play things, this wasn’t a business transaction for him.
He wanted her to experience the satisfaction a good orgasm could give her. Wanted her to discover why she couldn’t let go. Wanted to pull down those barriers that were keeping her from that shared intimacy with another human being. She could come. He knew this with certainty. She just didn’t know how. Not thetechnicalpart of it, but thewhypart of it. Something inside the dark recesses of her mind was holding her back. And he yearned to undo that trap. Unleash that part of her. Set her free.
Most of all, he wanted Skylar to fully embrace her own worth, not pretend at it the way she had with him at the bar. She’d said she was smart. And successful. Andreasonably attractive?
Was she fucking insane?
She should have said she was gorgeous. A fucking goddess. Sexy enough to bring a man to his knees and hold him in thrall for as long as she wanted to.
Yes, he wanted that for him and for her.
But some part of his mind was cautioning him. Telling him that it was even more than that he wanted.
Much more.
Yet to admit that would be the beginning of the end.
So he wouldn’t admit, even to himself, that when he looked at Skylar, he felt an instinctive pull, like she was his lodestone. He felt a penetrative longing to protect her. An itching desire to sift his fingers through her hair and caress her skin and hold her close to his chest. A haunting desire to not just strip her bare and find out everything there was to know about her, but a desire to strip himself bare and give her parts of himself he’d never given to anyone before.
No. He refused to even entertain any of that.
Even as a sense of warmth spread through his bloodstream as her footsteps sounded from behind him.
24
