She’d struck Eric Hamilton speechless. There was a certain pride in that, since she knew firsthand from watching him in a courtroom how hard that was to do.
“I’m sorry you think so poorly of me,” he finally said.
She shrugged, saying nothing.
“I intend to change that, though.” He shot her a cocky smile, one that was way too flirtatious for her well-being. “Starting now. Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight, Ms.…?”
A laugh escaped her. She couldn’t help it. “I literally just told you I wasn’t interested in you, and now you’re asking me out on a date? Seriously?”
“No, but I’ve made a bad impression, and since we work together, I think it’s best if we try to overcome that, don’t you? Think of this as more of an…olive branch.”
“I don’t particularly like olives.” She smiled politely. “Or branches.”
He choked on a laugh and reclined against the wall, crossing his arms and his ankles. “Please. I feel awful. Let’s start over. I’m Eric Hamilton. And you are…?”
He looked far too casually calm for her taste, especially since her heart was racing because Eric Hamilton just asked her out on a date, no matter what he tried to call it. The stupid, girlish side of her was excited about that. But the more mature, smarter half told that other part to shut up and go back to drawing hearts on paper.
Guys like Eric were no good for girls like her.
“You know…” She clumsily stuck her key into the lock. “I’m not going to tell you my name, no matter how many times you trail off like that, Mister…?”
He laughed again and then looked surprised.
What? Did the guy never laugh?
“You really don’t like me, do you?” he said, still smiling.
“I don’t,” she admitted.
He stepped closer, his front alarmingly close to her back. She stiffened because when he was this close to her, she could smell him. Feel him. Want him. “I can fix that.”
She pushed her door open and turned to face him, irritation mixing with that annoying attraction to him she always felt but tried her best to ignore. “Why the sudden interest in me?”
“Well…” His gaze dipped down her body, and by the time his eyes met hers, she felt naked, exposed, and improbably turned on. The way he looked at her… He made it seem like she was the only woman on Earth, and he was about to stake his claim. “To be completely honest? I don’t know how I never noticed you before, but now that I have, there’s no forgetting I did.”
Glancing down, she noticed a puddle on the floor by his feet, where she’d stood moments before. That puddle served to remind her that she was literally soaking wet…in a white shirt.
She looked down, and sure enough, her nipples were hard and very visible. Gasping, she crossed her arms over her breasts, her cheeks heating.
His gaze followed her motions, and he shifted on his feet imperceptibly.
There was something about that shift, about the way his lids lowered over his eyes, that screamed of seduction even though he hadn’t said a word.
She didn’t know what to do with this. With Eric Hamilton looking at her like he was starving and she was his next meal. His nostrils flared, and he stepped a little closer, almost as if he sensed her thoughts.
Without breaking their eye contact, he shrugged his jacket off, laying it over her shoulders and tugging it closed for her. It dwarfed her smaller frame.
When it settled around her, she took a deep breath. His cologne was so…so…him. “If it makes you feel better, I didn’t even take note of your…uh…situation…until you crossed your arms just now,” he said, letting his hands fall to his sides again. His hand brushed hers as it fell, and a short, electric jolt shot through her veins.
She jumped slightly, and their locked eyes.
Did he feel it, too?
“Yes, you did,” she said, leaving his jacket where it was even though it smelled like him and did weird things to her insides. “I saw you look.”
“After you crossed your arms.”
“Before,” she argued. “Admit it.”