Moisture pooled again in her mouth.
“Damp, not dry.”
Heat pounded low in her stomach.
“Surprisingly hot to the touch.”
Dampness trickled from between her legs yet somehow she managed to form a coherent thought and speak. “Hot?” The word escaped her burning throat.
“Sizzling.”
Like the heat that flared in his eyes, Mallory thought. “As in the opposite of frigid?” she asked.
A grin caught hold of his lips. “Most definitely.”
With more regret than she’d let him see, she leaned forward and brushed her lips over his for one last kiss. One last lingering taste before she forced herself to her feet, and rose on unsteady legs.
He leaned back and eyed her warily, though thanks to his analytical mind, Mallory sensed he knew exactly what she was thinking. His next words proved her right.
“You made your point.”
“I suppose I did.” In more ways than one, she thought, knowing she’d learned a valuable lesson tonight as well.
She inclined her head to one side. Thanks to his indulgent ministrations, the brush of her hair against her shoulders felt like an erotic caress against her sensitized skin.
No way did she want the evening to end, but she’d accomplished her goal and a good strategist got out at the optimum moment—before they lost what they’d gained. “So I guess we can call it a night.”
Something flickered in his darkened gaze. She’d like to think it was dismay.
“I suppose so.” He rose from his seat. As he began a lazy, sexy stride toward the door, he turned back and approached her once more. “You’re one hell of an opponent, Mallory Sinclair.”
His lips touched hers too briefly and then he was gone, leaving Mallory alone, sexually charged and for some strange reason she didn’t understand, emotionally unfulfilled.
She lifted the ring of grapes and she wondered who had been the teacher and who the student. And who had learned the greatest lesson of all. Because though she’d taught Jack his well-deserved lesson, she now knew she could never repeat the instruction without succumbing herself.
CHAPTER FIVE
JACK ROLLED to his side and came face-to-face with the glare of the morning sun streaming through the windows. The shades he’d forgotten to draw when he’d come in late last night mocked him and reminded him how distracted he’d been upon his return.
The source of that distraction haunted him still.
Mallory. They’d never eaten dinner, the episode with the grapes providing enough sustenance for them both. Though he hadn’t quenched the full extent of the hunger she’d inspired, he hadn’t forced the issue. Instead he’d let her call an end to the evening and had made his escape while he was still able to think clearly. Before he’d taken things with his colleague too far.
His colleague. He wondered if he’d ever be able to think of Mallory as just his co-worker ever again. A vision of coral—lips, toes and fingers—hovered behind his closed eyes. He could still feel those nails digging into the skin on his wrist as she kissed him into sensual, sexual oblivion. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. A slight pounding in his head leveled off to a dull roar, a combination of vodka, which he didn’t drink often, and shock. He’d known Mallory was his intellectual match and he’d respected her abilities. He hadn’t known she was a woman capable of enticing him sexually as well.
But that had been her point—to teach him a lesson about jumping to conclusions and punishing him for his casually tossed insult. Jack had always been a good student and last night he’d learned fast. And now that he’d seen her other side? Now that he’d been exposed to the duality that existed within her, could they go back to a peaceful working relationship?
He shook his head. The barriers she’d always kept in place were gone for good along with the cool pretense. No way d
id he believe she could or would keep him at arm’s length by dressing the part of the repressed attorney any more than he could ignore truth. She was a beautiful woman with a sensuality he longed to explore.
And he wanted to be the man to plumb her hidden depths. Their working relationship be damned.
He glanced at the phone and noticed the blinking red light for the first time. He wondered if he’d slept through a phone call or if he’d managed to miss the message indicator late last night. He dialed the voice mail, an amenity of Lederman’s luxury hotel, and listened to the message. His host had canceled all meetings today as he’d unexpectedly been called out of town.
Jack didn’t like the man’s disappearance any more than the sudden and strange, personal phone calls Lederman had received. More accurately he didn’t trust them. Jack never took on a case he didn’t feel confident he could win. Not that he won them all, but he had to have faith in the dispute he was fighting. Before he committed to this case or Lederman committed to him, he had to figure out what the hell the man was hiding.
And he had to fill Mallory in on today’s change of plans. A quick shower to clear his head and he’d have no choice but to face his beautiful, no longer repressed colleague. His only consolation lay in the fact that she had to face him as well.