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“I know.”
“I forgot, you never run out of energy.”
Except she felt oddly tired now. And more than a little unnerved. She wasn’t sure why she’d responded to him the way that she had. Yes, he was a good kisser, but women were supposed to be more cerebral about these things. The mind was supposed to be her gender’s largest sexual organ. Which meant the whole not-liking-him thing should have mattered. Should have affected her enjoyment of the kiss. And yet, it didn’t. If anything, it fueled the excitement of it.
It was strange especially because of her past experience with sex and anger. But this felt…completely different.
Even so, it seemed weird that she liked it so much. But her feelings for him had never been neutral, so of course, kissing him wouldn’t make her feel neutral.
And she was a woman, after all. She wasn’t immune to sexy men. Like Thad. He was hot, and she had definitely noticed. If she was Thad’s type who knows? She might have indulged in a little fling with her personal assistant. Maybe. If the idea of trying to seduce a guy didn’t make her sweaty and nervous.
She hadn’t had time to be sweaty and nervous with Ferro because her brain had been nonfunctioning. But it was starting to function a little better, and the nerves were definitely coming.
“Right. Yeah. Late nights don’t really bother me.”
“Me, either, it was just an excuse. I’m not especially fond of these kinds of events.”
“Why is that?”
His expression went ice-cold, hard, his lips, sensual before, thinned into a flat line. “Old memories. The past has never been my favorite place.”
It was the first time she’d seen him falter. Sure, she’d made him angry before, but even then, he’d had control over what he’d displayed.
The chill that came over him now wasn’t anything like what she’d seen of him before. It seemed more real. And a whole lot scarier.
“Right, well, me, either. High school basically sucked. I had braces and zits and these really thick glasses…”
“Sounds like it was tough,” he said, clearly not of the opinion that it was. “But it’s time to go.”
But he had no idea. No idea what it was like to feel like an outsider, not just in school, but at home. To have your mother pay a guy behind your back to be your date. And to have that date…that date that still had a twenty from your mom in his wallet, try to force you into sex, then hit you when you said no.
No, he didn’t know about that. And he didn’t need to. It didn’t matter anyway. Because now she understood, understood that normal wasn’t so shiny and perfect. That normal and “functional” didn’t really mean anything at all. Because somehow everyone had thought that a guy who would try to rape his date was normal, while those same people were convinced something was wrong with her.
It hadn’t left her with much confidence in people.
She nodded slowly and he looped his arm through hers. They went back into the ballroom and she felt like all eyes were on them, which they doubtlessly were. They’d just very conspicuously gone out to the balcony for fifteen minutes, and now Ferro was rushing them through the crowd at a speed that spoke of urgency.
Oh, yes, they had earned the stares.
She’d never been big in the dating scene, so it was an interesting experience being on the arm of a guy like Ferro.
Well, since becoming a billionaire she’d had more than a few guys after her, but they were all the same. Gorgeous, dumb, lazy and in possession of very little knowledge of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In short, totally worthless to her.
But they didn’t count. They didn’t even have the decency to want her for her body. Just her money. And that wasn’t exactly a turn-on.
Of course, her for-show kiss with Ferro should not have been a turn-on, but darned if she wasn’t just a little on the turned-on side of things. Pulse racing, breasts aching. Yeah, turned on, for sure.
She hoped her heated cheeks weren’t as pink as she was imagining them, and followed Ferro out of the ballroom and to the front of the hotel, where his limo was already waiting.
“Nice work, Calvaresi—texted your driver did you?”
