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“Yup.”
She nodded, lost in the crazy blue of his eyes.
“So,” she murmured.
“So,” he agreed.
She saw several thoughts in his eyes and all of them drove right between her thighs. He leaned closer, and she did the same, but he suddenly pulled back.
“What’s that?” he asked, and she thought for an instant he could smell how hot she got just looking at him.
“What’s what?”
“Is that your phone?” he asked, looking toward her bags.
“Shit,” she said, and scrambled over to her shoulder bag. “It’s a text from Hartley.”
“What does she want?”
Nita scanned the message and sighed.
“Magdalena and two of her guests are coming tomorrow for her bio-haptics test,” she said. “Arriving early in the morning, too. And it looks like the whole engagement is being moved up. Fuck!”
“How long are the tests?” he asked.
“An hour, plus the debrief, which can sometimes go very long,” she groaned.
“Uh oh. Sounds like roller derby practice is out,” he replied.
“Not necessarily,” she said, and grabbed two beers out of the fridge in one hand and scooped up her laptop briefcase in the other.
She handed him the beer, cringing when he used the metal edge of the glass coffee table to pop the caps. Happily, it didn’t shatter.
“What’s with the computer?” he asked as he settled back on the couch. She noticed he’d undone his belt and the top button of his jeans while she’d been reading the text. “I thought we could explore that lust thing you talked about.”
His voice was rough like a cat’s tongue, and it turned her mouth to sawdust. She didn’t want to look at him because she was sure what she would find. But when he shifted closer she couldn’t help shooting him a warning look.
Making eye contact was a mistake. A big mistake.
His eyes were on fire, making her fingers freeze over the keyboard. But then she was transported to another time, facing another man, and a fear kicked up in her gut.
Superimposed over Ryder’s face was Luke’s, a man who mocked her for working at a dating service. That was the lie she’d told him. Though he constantly belittled her for it, she never told him she talked daily with clients whose net worth had nine and sometimes ten zeroes behind it.
Focus,her brain yelled. That was a different time and a different man.
She straightened her shoulders and faced him squarely.
“There’s a shit-ton for me to do before Magdalena and her group get here. And I really don’t want to miss my practice, so I have to get started now,” she said. Habit put the word, “Sorry,” on the tip of her tongue, but she squashed it. She was truly sorry to postpone the sex, but he’d probably interpret the word differently.
She waited to see impatience flash in his eyes, followed by some derogatory remark about her roller derby friends. Maybe disparage her job a little, too. None of it came.
To her surprise, he looked at her with no emotion at all. Well, maybe a neutral interest.
“How can I help?” he asked, and slid to sit beside her to look at her screen. He kept a respectful distance between them.
It took her body a second to unclench from the net of anxiety she’d thrown over herself. Then she breathed again.
“This is the description of the engagement and this is the selection of costumes. This is the property where the event will be held,” she explained, then clicked the button to throw her display to the window in front of them. “God, that’s so cool.”
