Seducing My Best Friend (Alphalicious Billionaires 4)

“Jesus,” Syd grumbled as she pulled out a bar stool at the massive island. He’d set the table in the open dining area beside that, with massive windows overlooking a huge yard and a manmade lake beyond that, with place settings, but she pointedly ignored it. He’d even lit a candle. Yeah. Wishful thinking. “Is there a single part of you that isn’t ridiculously good?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He tried very hard not to look at her wearing his t-shirt and sweats, or how they were way too big on her. How the shirt sucked in when she sat down, tugged tight across her beautiful, perky breasts. He concentrated instead, on how her hair was frizzy at the top, but even that was cute.

Damn it! A grown man thinking frizz is cute? Get a grip here.

He had it bad and he knew it. Unlike her, he wasn’t above admitting it.

When he set her plate in front of her, she started at the food like there was a good chance he’d poisoned it. Her stomach growled, loudly, betraying her. She picked up the fork he set in front of her and toyed with it as he took a seat a few feet away from her, far enough to give her space, but not quite far enough that she was comfortable with it.

“You probably had this delivered. It looks too good to be anything you made. You were always a terrible cook. You just about burned your parent’s house down twice making macaroni. The second time it was eggs. Easy things that no one should ever, ever, light on fire.”

“I might not have cameras in the bathrooms, but I do have security footage outside. I swear, I made it. You can review the tapes if you like.”

Sydney’s nose wrinkled adorably when she frowned. It was so like the old Syd, to literally turn her nose up at him, that he nearly laughed. Instead, he picked up his fork and dug into his food.

“You probably had your Jeeves butler dude fly it in on your private jet, land on the roof, and lower it down on ropes into the kitchen, spy style, just to evade any and all cameras you might have at ground level.”

He couldn’t hold back his laugh. “That’s a lot of work to go to. And I don’t have a landing pad. Not one you could put a jet on. Not even a helicopter.”

“How disappointing. You should have got it included with the house.”

“I don’t know how nice you think this is, but I can promise you, this isn’t the neighborhood where people are in the market for that kind of luxury.”

“Still. Should have got it thrown in. Or built it. The house looks brand new.”

“Someone built it and decided to sell. My parents picked it, like I said. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Eat your food. I can tell you’re starving, now that the shower washed away your hangover and the last of your bad intentions.”

“B-bad intentions?” she spluttered.

“Yeah. You obviously didn’t have good intentions in mind, drunk or not, when you put that message out there. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Just eat before all my effort to impress you goes to waste.”

“Impress me?”

“Of course. I’m going to pull out all the stops over the next couple of days.”

“I said we couldn’t go out. Maybe I should have said you couldn’t have anything snuck in either.”

“I don’t need anything snuck in. I have all the skills I need right here.” He waved his hands in the air and grinned.

Syd took that how she took it and ducked her head quickly, her cheeks painted scarlet. She began to literally shovel food into her mouth, like if she ate everything in two and a half seconds flat, it would somehow miraculously save her from his obvious nefarious intentions.

“Did you think about me when you were showering?”

Sydney’s fork clattered to her plate. She turned to him, wide eyed, horrified. “What?” she gasped. “Did I- think of you? In what way?”

“No way in particular. Just that I thought you might have done some thinking about what we’re going to do trapped in here for the next few days. How it could be… fun.”

“No. No, it’s not going to be fun.” She shook her head madly, but he didn’t miss the way her eyes shadowed, and her eyelids dipped just a little. Or the way she bit down on her bottom lip and her breathing changed cadence, coming harder, faster.

He was right. A thrill of triumphant elation shot through him. She was definitely into it. Some part of her remembered that night. Some part of her ran because she was scared that she’d enjoyed it, and some part of her meant it when she’d put that message out there for him. Just how much of her wanted it, wanted him, he wasn’t sure.