Risking the Crown (The Crown 2)

I could tell she was trying not to smile, but it happened anyway. “I don’t think I’ll ever get all those Australian sayings.”

“And I don’t think I’ll ever get all of your American ones.”

I could see it. She was considering it. The walls were coming down.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” she grumbled.

I slung a heavy arm around her shoulder as if she were an old friend, not the woman I lusted over for the past month. “Never, baby.”

She rolled her eyes, tossing my arm from her body. “No calling me baby. None of those weird animal names either. None of that Australian stuff. This is a professional interview. You’re not getting back in my pants.”

“Aren’t you wearing a skirt?” I glanced toward the tops of her thighs and followed the lines to the fabric hugging her ass.

She huffed. “Seriously?”

I laughed. “Calm down, I’ll do the interview.”

“The interview isn’t what I’m worried about.”

I felt the challenge. The thrill of the chase in front of me. It might have been a month since I had taken Ava to bed, but we’d be back there in a matter of hours. I’d forget I wasn’t in the water. I’d forget I was pissed as hell. I’d forget everything but how fucking amazing she was.

4

Ava

It was clear the Rio heat had melted not only my brain but my panties. I was walking down the sidewalk with Blaine Crews. How had this happened?

He was a reminder of everything I shouldn’t do.

A drunken night. Blurring the lines of my professional code. Getting my hopes up that he wasn’t a playboy like everyone said he was. Drinking too many dark Australian beers and being seduced by his green eyes, sculpted arms, and that accent, and I wasn’t going to make any other decision but go home with him.

It was stupid. I knew it was when it happened.

I’d practically memorized every word. Every move. Every look he made. And replayed them a thousand times in my head since that night. I was never going to forget how it felt to be with him. Never.

Blaine had the kind of eyes that made my knees weak and my heart beat against my chest when I knew it shouldn’t. I couldn’t look away even when I willed myself to turn my head. It was the damn dark eyelashes that made his eyes sexy, sinful, and the window to every mistake I would make.

“So is it going to be your place or mine?”

Blaine’s voice shook me from my fog.

“What?”

“Where are we going, love? Your place or mine?”

My breath caught. That wasn’t happening. I couldn’t be alone in a room with this man. Not if there was a bed there. One look and I’d fold.

“Hotel lobby?” I suggested.

“Aww, not what I was thinking.”

“Then stop thinking it,” I scolded. Shit, I sounded like a prude. Like a ridiculous, over anxious prude.

This was what Blaine did to me. He made me lose my senses. My control. My mind. My body.

We continued to walk in silence toward the hotel where I was staying. I saw the phones emerge as we walked. The tourists and locals knew who he was. I waited while a few fans stopped him to take selfies.

There was a small lobby and a bar in the front entrance of the hotel. I hoped it was empty in the middle of the afternoon. By tonight, the bar would be full and I didn’t want anyone to find out about my story with Blaine before I got it in to Vic.