Caught

“Where is it?”

Julia turned to point at the wooden box on the table by the bas-relief.

Alex ambled over. “I guess you can get high quality junk in Moroccan bazaars, if you’re a choosy shopper.” He picked up the box and cracked it open. “Why, I’ll bet that—” And then he just stared. “Good Lord,” he said slowly.

When his gaze met Julia’s, his eyes glowed green with wonder. The quick jolt of connection took her by surprise.

“What is this?” Alex gazed at the amulet, brushing a finger over it.

“Don’t touch it,” she said, but it sent a shiver through the pit of her stomach. She felt a vibration, as though it were making a sound at some frequency too low to be heard. She swallowed. “I don’t know what it is for sure. It could be nothing. It could be an antique forgery. Or it could be a three-or four-thousand-year-old amulet. Take your pick.”

He whistled. “Not bad for a flea market. So you came down here to poke around?”

“Exactly. Now, if you’ll just give me some privacy….”

“Not a chance.” He set the box aside. “Forget about the doodad for a minute. You said last night that we were going to talk, and that’s what we’re going to do. I think you owe me that, especially after the routine you pulled this morning.”

“There’s no need for it. Especially after this morning.” Julia stepped into the book repository. She just had to remember that it was time to break up with him and get her life in order, not time to fall back into bed with him, despite the little warm flare of arousal that had begun to radiate through her. This was nothing new, it was the same effect he always had on her.

It didn’t mean anything.

“I think we got things settled already,” she added, busying herself with the computer.

“Oh, I don’t think so at all,” Alex said easily, pushing the door back to follow her inside. “If you wanted to break up, then what was last night about?”

“Last night was a lapse.”

“A lapse? Is that what you call it when you put my—”

“A lapse,” she said firmly, struggling to push away the sudden vivid memory of straining naked against him. “It’s over with.”

“So you’ve said. I’d just like to be clear on why that is.” His voice was reasonable, his expression open.

Julia eyed him warily. She knew this Alex. This was the Alex who almost never walked away from a negotiation without getting what he came for. The Alex whose face said “trust me,” even while he was leading his victim down the garden path. This was the Alex who was exceptionally good at getting people to say yes.

People like her.

“We said from the beginning it was going to be casual, that when one of us decided things should be over, they’d be over,” she reminded him. That was good. Clear and indisputable.

“I’m just trying to understand.”

“I’ve had some time to think,” she said as carefully as though she were picking her way through the jungle, looking for booby traps, watching for the loop that might tighten around her ankle and whip her up to leave her dangling headfirst from a tree. “What I think is that it’s best for both of us to end this.”

“For us?”

“For me,” she amended, flushing.

“And when did you decide that? This morning?”

“I decided it last weekend. I’ve just been waiting for you to get home.”

“Last weekend, huh?” He rested an elbow against the shelves and scrubbed the other through his hair. “But now, here’s what I don’t get. You let me in last night, right?”

“Yes, but I—”

“And you came to the door in your robe, which didn’t stay on very long.”

“That’s because you—”

“And then you took off my clothes and dragged me down on your living room floor and let me touch your—”

“Skip it.”

“All of this after you supposedly decided we were finito.” His eyes sparkled. “So why was that?”

Because he had a way of making her forget her own name, let alone anything she wanted except him? “It was late, I was tired.”

“You seemed pretty frisky to me. Incidentally, did you find a button on your living room floor? Because you ripped one loose when you were taking my shirt off.”

“Well, if you’d gotten it off faster, I wouldn’t have had to—”

He grinned at her. “Yes?”

Dangling headfirst from a tree. Julia ground her teeth. “I got distracted.”

“I don’t know, you seemed pretty focused to me. I like those noises you make when you’re focused.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a joke.”

“I’m not laughing.” He reached out to touch the strands of hair that dangled from her chignon.

Julia jerked her head away. “You’re not listening either.”

“That’s because so far nothing you’ve said has made sense.”

Because he’d talked her in circles to where she couldn’t remember her points anymore. Her very valid points. Back to basics, she decided. “You’re not my type, Alex. And I’m not yours. This was just an…anomaly.”

He shifted. “And when I touch your anomaly, some very interesting things happen.” He reached out to stroke a finger down her throat.

Julia shivered. “I’m down here to work,” she said unsteadily.

“Go right ahead with what you’re doing,” he told her. “I’ll stay out of your way.” But his fingertips continued down, into the deep vee at the front of her jacket.

And her muscles weakened. How had he managed to get so close? She could smell a hint of his aftershave, spicy and clean. She could see the gold flecks in the green of his eyes. And she knew what came next, could already feel the tendril of heat curling between her thighs. It was the wrong thing to do, she knew it.

It was nothing she could stop.

“You’re not the kind of guy I go for,” Julia said, oddly breathless as she leaned into him.