“I control my impulses just fine,” he countered.
“Yes, that’s right. You especially controlled those impulses when you were bench-pressing me over you the other night.
“And if I recall…” He did his own little lean and brought his face in line with hers, putting his firm mouth within licking distance. “My reward was your tight, hot pussy as I moved you up and down. Best damn workout of my life.”
It took everything she had not to moan and tremble at the recollection. “Ah, so you do remember.”
“I may have given in the other night, but that’s what I’m trying to rectify from here on out.”
Ice water would have been more subtle than that cold phrase.
She stood up straight and plastered on her best fake smile. “Good luck with that, then.”
“You really looking to challenge me?”
“I’m just looking for some honesty,” she said again.
“I want you,” he growled. “That’s not a secret.”
“But you’re trying to resist me?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“Because you threaten something very important to me.”
Her mouth dropped. Wow, that stung. What an ass. “Oh, I threaten your precious reputation, huh?”
“No,” he said quickly.
She almost believed him. But it didn’t matter. Fact remained that they were opposites in almost every way, and she wasn’t going to stand there and try to be buddies with a man that made her wet at just the sight of him.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not falling over myself to get to the messiah of Diamond. Not my style.”
“I’m aware,” he said lowly.
She paused for a moment. Maybe she was being too hard on him. But he was being so freakin’ cryptic. The man was a walking contradiction. One moment he was looking at her and talking to her like she was the object of all his
fantasies, the next he was trying to push an odd, platonic notion of a coffee date on her. Manners vs. desire. He was walking a very thin line, and it was one she couldn’t walk with him.
It was fine trying to be nice. She wasn’t completely without manners. But good manners never stopped her from claiming something. She wanted someone, she went after him. But Ryder was looking for rules, boundaries, and…
“Control,” she whispered. It all came together. His control was what she threatened. She’d felt it that night she was with him. He held such a tight grip over everything, it seemed, yet when he was with her, he let out his wild side. A side of him she’d give anything to experience again.
And all he wants is coffee…
Nope, she wasn’t going to play the part of “boring date”.
“All right, Mr. Diamond, you’ve made your intentions clear. And while they’re noble, I’ll still have to decline.”
“What?” He frowned, and she leaned over the bar, pressing her cleavage together.
Yeah, that got his attention.
“I’m not interested in being friends. In fact, I’m not at all interested in this faux Ryder Diamond in front of me.”
His brow sliced down, and he stared at her with pissed off lust, and she knew she was pushing those same buttons she’d found before. Did no one ever challenge him? Ever turn down a date with him?