A Madaris Bride for Christmas

She took a sip of her wine. “Why isn’t there a steady woman in your life? Why aren’t you taken?”

His chuckle was low and throaty. “Should I be?”

Most men who look like you usually are. “I’d think so.”

He paused in the midst of chopping the tails off the shrimps. “I could ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you taken?”

She shrugged. “I have my reasons.”

“Share them with me.”

“I asked you first.”

Lee chuckled again. “So you did.”

He put the knife aside, leaned against the island and leisurely sipped his wine, as if giving a lot of thought to what she’d asked. “One of the main reasons is because I’ve been too busy for an involvement,” he said finally.

“We were barely getting the Grand MD Dubai erected when the opportunity came to build here. It was a miracle that Mitch Farrell got that land on the Strip. And when he approached me and Angelo about building another hotel before the first one was completed, we jumped at the chance, even though we knew doing both would be tough.”

She rested her hands under her chin. “So your busy schedule is just one of the reasons you aren’t involved with anyone. What’s another?”

He looked down into his glass of wine. When he lifted his head his expression was serious. “I’ve never met a woman that I wanted to spend a lot of my time with...whether I was busy or not. In other words, Carly, there has never been a woman I craved. Until you.”

She wished his words didn’t send a surge of desire rippling through her. “Crave?”

“Yes, crave. You know how you get a taste of something, and you aren’t satisfied until you get some more? That’s how it is with me when it comes to you. I taste you, and I want to taste you again. I lust after you. Yearn for you. Ache for you.”

Carly stared at him, not believing he would admit such things. She said nothing as he put his wineglass aside and picked up the knife to finish the shrimp.

He moved around her kitchen, checking on the pasta and the bread baking in the oven. Her gaze traveled over him, appreciating the way the fabric clung to his masculine thighs. He had removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, displaying a powerful chest, great abs and wide shoulders. He radiated sensuality that drew her in like a magnet, powerless to resist.

He placed the shrimp in the colander and walked over to the sink to rinse them off. Glancing over his shoulder at her, he said, “You never said why you’re unattached.”

“I didn’t?”

“No.”

She shrugged. “Let’s leave that discussion for another day, okay?”

He held her gaze, nodded and then said, “Okay. We’ll table it, but there will be another day, Carly.”

Carly had no reason to doubt him.

Chapter 5

“Well, what do you think?” he asked once they were at the dining room table.

Instead of answering, she closed her eyes and slowly licked her lips before moaning softly. “Mmm.” She opened her eyes and smiled. “What does that tell you?”

It told him a lot. It showed him what she could do with her mouth. She thought she’d demonstrated how much she’d savored the food, but his lascivious mind had conjured up something else entirely. He could imagine her expressing that same satisfaction after she tasted him. He could even envision how it would leave him—so damn satisfied that his erection throbbed when he thought about it. He had to force air through his lungs to get past the images floating through his brain.