With the back of his knuckles, he caressed the soft skin of her cheek. “I want you,” he murmured.
Her eyes narrowed. “Why do I sense ‘a but’?”
“No but,” he assured her, and then changed his mind. “Maybe one.”
Zoe started to slide her hands away from his neck. He reached up and caught her hands, pressing them to his chest. “There you go again,” he said. “Convicting me without a trial. Aren’t you even going to ask what it is?”
“No,” she said in a clipped tone. “I don’t want to know. I don’t like conditions. A ‘but’ is a condition.”
The fingers of one of his hands found her hair and he brought her mouth just within reach of his. Their breath mingled. “Yes, you do. You want to know.” Seconds passed.
One. Two. Heat swirled between them. He wanted to kiss her, to taste the sweetness of those perfect lips. But he resisted. “Don’t you?” he demanded; his tone a bit rougher.
“No.”
He stepped closer, his cock pressing into her stomach, their bodies too intimate for a private building well monitored but he didn’t care. “Don’t you?” he said, his tone more forceful.
Her lashes fluttered. “Okay, damn you. Yes.”
The sound of a neighbor’s door opening, though quite a distance away, forced Declan to retreat. Brushing his lips over hers, he released her. Reaching for her hand, he motioned toward the apartment. “Let’s say our goodbyes and then we’ll talk.”
Heading for the door, he was only half surprised when she grabbed his forearm. He turned to her, his brow inching upward in question. “Talking isn’t what I had in mind,” she said.
Avoidance seemed his best option. He wasn’t promising what he couldn’t deliver. They were going to talk. “I know what you had in mind and believe me,” he promised, “I like it.”
With that said, he opened his mother’s door and successfully stopped any further debate. Later, when they were alone, he’d find a way to make her open up to him. He could be convincing when he put his mind to it…and in this case, perhaps his body.
* * * * *
The streets were busier now, and Declan and Zoe walked side by side, arms touching, awareness charging the air around them. Neither spoke, yet words weren’t needed. Not to express the desire and attraction between them. Declan had the most intense desire to reach over and entwine his fingers with hers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d held a woman’s hand, but it felt right with Zoe. Still, he had a feeling she’d recoil. There was no doubt she wanted him. That she, too, felt the unique dynamic
of their attraction. But she rejected the emotional content of their bond. She wanted it to be all physical. All about sex.
Taking the subway stairs, their feet moving in unison, he wondered what she was thinking. Did their silence bother her? It didn’t him. He had thinking to do. Planning. If he was going to get her to open up, he had to handle himself just right. Giving her a sideways glance, Declan decided she was doing the same. Only she was trying to figure out how to keep him at bay. How to push him away without saying goodbye. No doubt her guard was up. She didn’t like attorneys and he wanted to know why. Hell, he didn’t know why he even cared. But he did. Plain and simple, he did.
A thought formed, slowly taking root. He wouldn’t push her to talk the minute they walked into her apartment. The lady had instructed him to fuck her and fuck her he would. Fast and hard. Then slow and easy. He’d make her so hot she burned and leave her soft with satisfaction. Before this weekend ended, he would get Zoe to open up to him.
And as he stepped onto the subway, Zoe next to him, he smiled. A rush of people surrounded them, some entering and some exiting. No time like the present to put his plan in action. He reached for her hand and with a gentle tug, Declan pulled her close, anchoring them both to a pole, thighs pressed together. Her fingers melted into his chest, her chin tilting upward as her eyes locked with his. The look they shared smoldered with heat. It did nothing to break their silence and everything to press their desire. Slowly, he lowered his head, allowing his breath to mingle with hers, lost…in the moment. In the anticipation. In the woman.
* * * * *
Zoe couldn’t get enough of Declan and it scared the hell out of her. No man had ever taken her to such extreme desire. Her hand shook as she unlocked her door and she prayed he didn’t notice. Logic told her to send Declan home, to send him away. He was everything she despised. A hard-core businessman who lived in a corrupt corporate world that had caused Zoe nothing but pain. A world that had taken her father and