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His body caved with the weight of her accusation. The undeniable rightness of it. Her eyes bored into him, broadcasting her need, dragging him in.
“I wasn’t working with him,” she said. “I swear I had no idea what he or Gina were up to and as soon as I found out, I stopped it. I was coming to tell you when your sister showed up and everything went—”
“Pear-shaped?” he finished on a sigh.
She nodded. “It might have looked like I took his side but I was worried you were going to go all ultimate fighter and drop kick him into the middle of the next millennium.”
A conclusion that was fairly well founded. Deep down, he knew what she said was true and damn if he didn’t hate when unassailable logic butted up against his more visceral impulses.
“I know that the life you lead means you have a hard time trusting people, Jack. Half the world wants to sleep with you and the other half wants to be you. You’re richer than God, ten times as arrogant, and everyone wants a piece. But I don’t care about any of that. I’m not interested in what I can get out of you, Jack. I’m only interested in you.”
Her words humbled him. This was Lili, his Lili. The woman who never hesitated to put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own. Who chose him over her family when she sacked Gina. Shit, she had actually done that. Shame eddied through his gut that he could ever have doubted her.
She edged closer and incrementally, he matched her moves. At this rate, they might be within touching distance by Christmas.
“Do you mean that? You want me—not—” He couldn’t finish for feeling foolish. Not Jack Kilroy, not his image, not that other guy.
“Yes. Just you.” She stretched out her hand. Christmas had come early.
He grasped it for the life-saving device it was and bound her to him. Her helmet hit the carpet with a soft thud, her arms twined around his waist.
“I know I’ve made mistakes but I’m only human.” Her cheek felt wet against his throat. “And you’re here with your blockbuster chest and your hot mouth and all that terrifying certainty. I don’t want the man I see on billboards and magazine covers and TV. They can have him. I want the man who makes me feel like anything is possible.”
His heart clicked into place like the final puzzle piece. Did she not realize that she already had him?
“Forgive me, Lili. The things I said—I was out of my mind.” He clasped her close, all while murmuring words of affection and apology, and biting back the one thing fighting to find voice.
I love you.
He didn’t kiss her yet or scare her, or himself, with crazy declarations of love. Plenty of time for that later. Minutes passed as the tide of their breathing slowed to semi-normal.
“I can’t believe you canned Gina.”
Her eyes welled with tears, crumbling what was left of his internal organs to dust. “It had to be done. Girl was out of control.” Sniffling, she swiped at her cheek. “And I can’t believe you were jealous of Marco.”
Strangely, hearing her acknowledge it relaxed him. “I really should be more evolved than this.”
“The Neanderthal thing works. You’re pretty hot when you get all shouty.”
There she was, his beautiful smart mouth.
He cupped her cheek and glided his thumb across her quivering bottom lip. That tremble was all the invitation he needed. Their mouths searched and queried, frantic for each other’s attention. All his problems faded away in her kiss. Urging her closer, he pressed the hollow of her back, and her heat seeped through his denim-covered thigh, shiver-shocking him until he forgot his own name.
She pulled away from his hungry mouth long enough to ask, “Jack, are we dating again?”
He parted from her long enough to chuckle at her less-than-subtle plea for sex. “Yes, yes.
We’re dating again,” and then it hit him and he detached completely. “I don’t have condoms.”
He had stopped carrying months ago so he would be more likely to think before he had heedless sex with a production assistant or anyone who fit the bill for a no-strings lay. Could he order condoms through room service? Was that even possible? Of course, it wasn’t possible. And if it was, it wasn’t smart. He would have to go out. Leave her again.
Slowly, he might have said, languidly, she dipped into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a square-shaped, shiny blue wrapper. He almost fell to his knees in supplication at the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
After her, of course.
“Hmm, you think one’s going to be enough?”
“A girl who carries more than one risks getting a bad reputation.” With a sensuous slide of her tongue across her bottom lip, she drew out another and held it up with its mate like a winning poker hand. Her hand foraged again and retrieved more, which fell to the floor in a cascade. She had enough condoms to suit up an orgy.
