The Fiancee Charade

‘You have the most beautiful eyes,’ he murmured with all sincerity, and he moved even closer to her.

She watched the space between them disappear, her pulse skittering. Role-playing? She was meant to endure his pick-up lines and charm? First-hand?

Oh, gawd.

‘They called to me from across the room,’ he murmured softly, leaning down towards her.

She could smell the softly spiced scent of his cologne, could feel the heat of his body emanating from him, could feel his words brush her neck, making spirals of sensation sizzle down her spine. ‘I—’

He put an arm on the window above her and leant closer, staring into her eyes as though he wanted to drown in them, as though he could stay right where he was for ever.

Her breath snagged in her throat, her heart thundering in her chest. What in heaven’s name was he doing to her?

She hated men. Womanisers. Him.

His gaze drifted down to her lips. ‘Say the words I want to hear,’ he murmured, his breath against her ear.

Jess dragged in a breath, opening her mouth, willing her brain to work over the rush of heat through her veins. This guy was dangerous to every woman on the planet.

His gaze drifted again to her lips, something glittering deep in his eyes, dark and dangerous.

She moistened her lips instinctively, with only one thought spiralling through her mind.

CHAPTER FOUR

ALEX breathed in her sweet perfume, the scent of vanilla and cinnamon invading his senses like the allure of her lips.

It would be just so easy to lean closer, to claim those full red lips that were just begging to be taken. He could feel it, just as he could feel her heart pounding in her chest, her short, shallow breaths, the fire in her eyes.

Was it so easy to awaken a Women Against Womanisers’ heart to a man again…? Could she want him?

The thought excited him, filled him, swept through him with a surety that he knew he could rely on. Maybe she hadn’t been romanced, appreciated and seduced by an expert…Maybe he personified everything she wanted in a man and she just hadn’t realised until now.

‘Say it,’ he whispered, almost touching the creamy smooth skin of her cheek with his lips.

She dragged in a deep and shaky breath.

He couldn’t help but smile. Did he really need to know anything other than this? It could be just a matter of fate or luck when it came to love…but this he had down to an art form.

She raised her eyes to meet his, flickering with a hot intensity, and she placed her hands against his shirt, branding him.

‘I’ll tell you what you want to hear,’ she whispered, her breath on his neck. ‘Get your self-centred, self-important sloppy routine away from me.’

She shoved him backward.

He stood back. ‘What?’

The cool air of his office licked around him like a rude awakening. He’d been so sure he had her. The signals had all been there—or was he just deluding himself because he’d wanted them to be?

She wasn’t going to be easy. The thought rushed through him like liquid fire.

He leant back against his desk, crossing his arms, kicking himself—because he was doing something wrong, something that chafed against her like rubbing fur the wrong way.

‘What was wrong with that?’ he asked, pushing down the stir in his loins. She was a consultant, not one of his women. All that mattered was what he could learn from her.

‘What was right?’ She straightened her clothes, staring at his plush carpet. ‘You came on all sex, as though you were God’s gift to the bedroom.’

He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘And?’ He already knew that—couldn’t stop thinking about it, having her there, with him…

‘If you want sex—fine. If you want a woman to think of you as anything more than a hot tumble between the sheets then you have to get real.’

He watched her hands smoothing down the fabric of her trousers, tracing the curve of her hips with a dubious fascination. ‘You think I’d be a hot tumble?’

She shot him a cool look of disapproval. ‘I think you’re all sex and no substance.’

He straightened. ‘So you’re saying I shouldn’t be offering bedroom eyes? Then what should I offer?’ he asked slowly, trying not to smile at the irony of getting the woman to instruct him on something he knew better than anyone.

‘You.’

He frowned. ‘Me?’ Wasn’t he always offering himself? His time, connections and money?

‘Yes. Hello?’ She stepped forward and rapped him on the head with her knuckles, then pulled her hand back as though she’d forgotten herself. ‘What else have you got to offer besides sex?’

He smiled. ‘Hot sex?’

She frowned, her eyes darkening. ‘Besides hot sex?’

‘What else is there?’ Hell, there was nothing he wanted more than to show her just how important hot sex was—and how good it felt, flesh against flesh, dancing to the rhythm of life.

She shook her head, glaring at him, her fists clenched tightly by her sides. ‘Well, what are you looking for in a serious relationship that you’re not getting in your shallow little flings left, right and centre?’

He couldn’t stop the smile on his face. She was so easy to rile and so pretty when she was mad.

Alex shrugged. ‘Someone to talk to, I guess. Be friends with. Someone on my team, you know?’

She stared at him, biting on her bottom lip. ‘What do you think you should first offer a woman when you meet her? Apart from maybe a compliment given in good taste?’

‘Not sex, then?’

She jerked to her feet and strode towards the door. ‘Look, when you decide to get real and stop wasting my time, Calahan—’

He moved fast and beat her there, holding his hand against the timber door, looking down into her blazing eyes. ‘Okay, okay…I’m sorry. I’m just not comfortable talking about this stuff.’

Alex closed his eyes, trying to think through his past experiences. The women who’d paraded through his life, taking what they could. ‘I’d offer her something about myself that we’d have in common,’ he said slowly, watching her for a reaction, toying with the concept.

Jess closed her eyes as though she was counting to ten. Finally she looked up at him. ‘So you’d say something like…?’

Alex stared down into her emerald-green eyes, sizzling with irritation. ‘Hi, my name’s Alex. Did I see you last night at the Opera House?’