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‘Y-yes...why else?’ Maude stammered. ‘Unless you felt sorry for me. I know I have a few hang-ups.’
‘Shh.’
Maude trembled when he held one finger over her mouth as he continued to pin his dark, pensive gaze on her face.
‘No,’ she whispered, tugging aside his finger, but then keeping it linked with hers. ‘This isn’t me. I’m one hundred percent the professional.’
‘Maybe I kissed you because I wanted to.’
‘Of course you didn’t. You’re teasing me.’
‘I never lie about things like this. I kissed you because you turn me on.’
The breath left Maude in a whoosh and the dangerous ground she feared trembled underneath her feet, like a sudden earthquake.
How was this possible? How could she turn him on? Men ran to type, and his type was blonde and sensational. Was it because she was a novelty and, as they said, a change was as good as a rest? Had she awakened something in him, some kind of sexual curiosity, because he was seeing a different side to her, just as she was seeing a different side to him?
If that was the case, then the best and only thing she could do was to set him straight, because she wasn’t born yesterday. The guy could have any woman he wanted with the crook of his finger. Very few would be able to resist. It wasn’t simply because he was good-looking, or rich, or smart. Independently, those were traits that a lot of men possessed, and indeed some possessed a combination of all three, but not like Mateo Moreno.
Mateo Moreno was in a league of his own, and being swept up in the moment like an infatuated schoolgirl because he’d happened to pay her the compliment of the decade would be a big mistake.
‘Do I turn you on?’ he asked roughly, interrupting her thoughts with that single, devastating question.
‘That...doesn’t matter.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It means that that’s not what we’re about.’
‘Because I own the company you work in? Because I’m your boss?’
‘Amongst other things,’ Maude muttered, horribly uncomfortable but driven to stay and finish the conversation she had started.
‘Believe me,’ Mateo ground out with utter sincerity, ‘I don’t get it either. I have never believed in mixing business with pleasure. In fact, the opposite. I’ve always made sure to keep my private life out of the office.’
He raked his fingers through his hair and took a step back. The very fact that she felt the void and missed the heat of his proximity was enough to get the alarm bells sounding ever louder.
‘But we’re here,’ she shot back urgently. ‘It’s out of the ordinary...this...and I guess it’s taken us both unawares! It’s been pretty stressful, having to keep up the charade. I didn’t think... Well, you know, I didn’t think that there would be this much attention directed at us, but maybe I should have known. We’re both out of our comfort zones and we did something we would never have done in a million years!’
For a few seconds, Mateo didn’t say anything.
She was flushed, her eyes bright. Frankly, she was desperate to shove this small indiscretion some place where it could never see the light of day again, and she was right. Everything she said made sense. They were both out of their comfort zones. With typical self-assurance, he had assumed that this brief adventure would be a situation over which he would have ultimate control, and why not? He had ultimate control over every aspect of his life, didn’t he?
But he hadn’t banked on the woman gazing earnestly up at him having so much sex appeal, nor had he catered for his legendary cool being sideswiped by feminine charms he hadn’t come close to glimpsing in all the time they’d worked together.
Life, for once, had taken him utterly by surprise and he’d acted out of character.
This was the time to back away at speed—Mateo knew that. Maude Thornton wasn’t like the women he was accustomed to dating. She was serious, about her work and about life in general. She wasn’t someone to yelp with joy at the prospect of a fling with him and he wasn’t the sort to declare intentions he knew would never materialise to get a woman into bed with him, however much he knew that she would enjoy every second of the experience as much as he would.
In every respect, they stood on opposite sides of a divide, and it was a very important divide. Forget about the fact that he was her boss—they were two consenting adults at the end of the day. No, this divide was a more fundamental one. This was a divide anchored in a difference of mind set, a difference of goals, hopes and expectations.
She expected love.
It was who she was.
She might have her personal insecurities, but she was a woman who wanted it all, or at least all the things he didn’t want.
And she deserved to get everything she wanted without him messing with those dreams simply by taking her down a path she might end up regretting having taken.
