Convenient Cinderella Bride

Kat slowly sat upright and frowned when she saw Tess backing away. Huh, so Tess wasn’t sticking around for moral support. She frowned at her friend, who shrugged. “I have to get to work. I’m late as it is. Sorry,” Tess explained, walking backward into the hall.

Sorry? She didn’t look sorry at all. Kat slapped her bare feet onto the floor and stood, wishing she didn’t look like a bag lady on a bad day. She ran her tongue over her teeth and pushed her hand into her hair, sighing when her hand snagged on a knot. Really? This was now her life?

Kat forced herself to meet Jonas Halstead’s amused eyes. “What on earth are you doing here? How did you find me?”

He reached into the back pocket of his pants and tossed a check onto her coffee table. “Fourteen hundred dollars. It’s to pay for the dress I ruined.”

Bloody Sian. Kat had thought she’d keep her mouth shut! Dammit. Kat looked at the check, sighed and decided to lie her ass off. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Jonas jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants and narrowed his eyes at her. “The hell you don’t. You borrowed a designer dress. You were going to return it. I pulled the tag off, which, as Sian told me, was a stupid ass thing to do. You are now on the hook for fourteen hundred dollars. I’m taking you off the hook.”

Kat looked at the check, back up to his determined face and back down to the check again. God, it was so tempting to take his money. It had been his fault. He had pulled the tag off and it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford the donation. He was Jonas Halstead, billionaire.

But it was still a donation and she didn’t accept charity, ever. She especially didn’t take handouts from sexy men who threw cash around like it was confetti. Nothing was simple when it came to money and motives should always be questioned. Nobody, especially hard-assed businessmen, handed out money without wanting something in return.

Between her ex and her father, she was sick of men and the games they played with money. Kat folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “I’m not going to cash your check.”

Shock ran across his face, through his eyes. “What?”

“I’m not taking your money.” Kat spoke slowly, as if she were her explaining her position to a three-year-old. “I chose to wear the dress, even knowing that I couldn’t afford to pay for it if something went wrong. Something did go wrong, but it’s my problem, not yours.”

“The hell it is!” Jonas snapped back, his green eyes flashing with frustration. “I should not have been presumptuous enough to take the tag off.”

“Maybe not, but I’m still not taking your money,” Kat told him, feeling stubborn.

“Consider it a tip,” Jonas suggested, matching her bullishness with a healthy dose of his own.

“Too late for that,” Kat said. “Thanks for the offer but...no.”

“You are the most infuriating, annoying, frustrating, sexy...”

Kat hauled in a breath when he said the last word and their eyes clashed and held. One little word and something hot and crazy buzzed between them. The air around them seemed to thicken and tighten, filling with electricity. God, he was as attracted to her as she was to him. She saw it in the way he clenched and unclenched his fists, in the green fire in his eyes. If she took one step toward him she’d be in his arms. She’d feel the heat and strength of him. She would know whether his sexy lips felt as good as they looked, whether sparks would jump from her skin under the warmth of his hands.

She wanted him. Annoying, cash-on-the-table cretin that he was, she wanted to taste him, feel him, make love to him. She was losing her mind; she was sure of it. Too much stress and not enough sleep...this craziness was the result.

Kat heard Jonas snap out a swear word, heard his “This is insane” mutter. Then his hand breached the space between them and his fingers encircled her wrist. He held her lightly, giving her the opportunity to pull out of his grip if she so wanted.

She didn’t.

Instead Kat allowed him to pull her in. She didn’t step away when his hand rested on her lower back and jerked her hips into his, allowing her to feel the hard length of his erection pushing into her stomach. His other hand covered her right breast; his thumb finding her nipple with deadly accuracy. He hadn’t even kissed her yet and her panties were damp.

If he didn’t kiss her she would die. From want, need, sheer frustration. Kat stood on her tiptoes, her mouth aligned with his. Not bothering to be coy, she slammed her lips onto his, her tongue darting out to trace the seam, to tempt him to open up.

This wasn’t her, Kat thought from a place far away. She waited for men to make the first move, to kiss her, to lead. She followed. But not today.

Jonas swiped her nipple with his thumb, held her tight against him and let her kiss him. When he didn’t open his mouth or kiss her back, Kat, unsure of what she was doing or whether she should be doing this at all, started to pull away. Jonas growled a harsh no against her mouth and moved his hand from her breast to the back of her head to keep her in place. She wasn’t going anywhere, Kat realized, and when his mouth started to move, she also realized she didn’t want to.

Jonas Halstead was kissing her. It was candy floss and crack, sunshine and sin, pleasure and pain. He took command of her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers in a sexy dance. Kat, senseless, pulled his shirt from the back of his pants and put her hands on his hot, masculine skin. Jonas groaned his pleasure and she ran her palms over his gorgeous ass, annoyed at the barrier of clothes between her fingers and his flesh.

Jonas kissed the corner of her mouth and trailed his lips over her jaw, down her neck. It had been a long time since a man had kissed her liked this, touched her like she was something infinitely precious and incandescently gorgeous. She’d missed this. His teeth scraped across her collarbone. The tiny sting and the wave of pleasure made Kat’s eyes fly open. Her gaze landed on the dress.

The one he’d just offered to pay for.

Kat stiffened in his arms as dismay swamped desire. Oh, God, did he think she was taking the money and this was her way of showing her gratitude? Did he think she was so easily manipulated? Did he think she was desperate, so eager to be with a man who was supposed to be brilliant at business? And in bed?

What the hell was wrong with her?

Kat jerked away from him and wrapped her hands around her waist.

“What did I do?”

Cynicism returned and Kat snorted, convinced he’d practiced that expression of puzzled surprise. “I’m not taking your check and, to be very clear, I’m not sleeping with you.”

Jonas’s eyes turned frosty. “I didn’t make that assumption,” he said, his soft voice holding an edge of danger. “And sex is not what I came for.”

“Really?” Kat whipped out the words. “You didn’t take very long to kiss me.”

Jonas jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, those clever lips now thin with anger. “I’d like to point out that you didn’t fight me off.” He pulled on the tail of his shirt before tucking it back into his pants. “This shirt didn’t pull itself loose.”

Kat blushed, dropped her eyes and released an irritated sigh.

“Why are you mad, Katrina? Because I kissed you or because you liked it and wanted me to do more?”

Neither. Both. Crap.

Kat, feeling thoroughly off balance, brushed past him, deliberately connecting her shoulder with the top of his bicep before storming toward the hallway. Her attempt at intimidation had as much impact as a fly trying to move a cow.

When she reached her front door, she pulled it open and, when Jonas reached her, she gestured for him to keep on walking. “Just go.”

“No. You’re obviously upset and I want to know why.”

She could never explain. For the first time in four years, for a few minutes in his arms, she’d felt protected, not so alone. She’d felt like the world wasn’t conspiring against her, that life would get better, that things would eventually be okay. It had nothing to do with the check but everything to do with his strength, the power that radiated from him. He made her feel stronger...

God, he made her want to lean, to ask for help, to think that maybe, someday, she could trust someone again. Love someone again. He made her remember what attraction and pleasure and, dammit, what affection felt like. She’d deliberately pushed all of that away, locked all those emotions and memories in a box, refusing to look at them. Memories hurt, dammit.

But one kiss from Halstead had snapped that lock like it was made of spun sugar. She couldn’t allow herself to look back; she couldn’t afford to remember. It hurt too damn much. And, worse, it might tempt her to make the same mistakes she had before.

“Please go.”

“Katrina...”

Kat was quite convinced that her head was one minute away from exploding. Anger rolled in—so much easier to deal with than fear. “My name,” she yelled, “is Kat! I’m twenty-eight years old. I haven’t had sex in four years. I’m flat broke and I’ve done no work to prepare for my LCA final! I’m exhausted and I don’t need this! I have exactly one nerve left and you’re friggin’ standing on it. Go away!”

Kat felt her lungs pumping, heard the buzzing in her head and knew that if he attempted to speak again, she would kill him. Slowly. With her bare hands. It didn’t matter that he was twice her size, she had so much adrenaline and unused sexual energy pumping around her system that she could take on a herd of angry hippos and win. Jonas Halstead didn’t have a chance in hell.

Jonas sent her a you’re-bat-crap-crazy look and walked into the hallway.

Kat slammed the door closed behind him and stomped through her living room into her bedroom. Climbing into bed, she pulled the covers over her head and wished she could just stay there for the rest of her life.