Think of all that is bad, for Christ’s sake.
‘So, are you going to tell me why you’re here?’ he said. ‘Or am I going to have to tease it out of you?’
That did it, and his implication sparked an indignant fire that had her eyes spearing his. ‘I’m surprised you can’t guess.’
‘I’d like to think you couldn’t stay away from me,’ he said, and she ignored the flutter in her tummy. ‘But after that display it’s clearly not the case.’
‘At least you’re not deluded.’
He cocked a brow, his smile soul-corrupting. ‘Touché.’
She considered him, all laid-back charm and charisma, and her internal warning sign flared. He was dangerous to her on so many levels. Either he was an utter bastard, or he was a man she could like...really like—
Like? Was she crazy? He’d near enough lied to her.
‘How could you do it?’
He tensed,
all trace of humour evaporating. ‘Do what?’
‘Sleep with me when you knew we’d have to work together? Let me do all manner of...’ Her voice trailed away. Memories now tainted in shame burned her through and she looked away, taking another drink before she could speak again. ‘How could you?’
‘I really am sorry.’
‘Sorry isn’t enough,’ she blurted, looking back to him with rising anger. It didn’t matter that his apology sounded sincere—she needed more than a simple sorry. ‘Did you not think about how it would make me feel? How mortifying it is to know you kept it from me? That you let me do all that, knowing we would have to sit in a fucking boardroom together and deliver a professional front?’
The knuckles of the hand holding his glass flared white—he was going to snap the stem if he wasn’t careful. She almost wished he would. Red wine all over his pale furnishings was the least he deserved.
‘I wasn’t thinking,’ he said quietly. ‘The truth is, there’s no excuse I can give for my behaviour.’
‘So, you’re not even going to try?’
‘I don’t think it’ll help.’
‘Let me be the judge of that.’
He studied her, long and hard, his eyes wavering. ‘Okay, I’ll give you my excuse,’ he said eventually. ‘So long as you assure me it won’t affect us going forward.’
‘Affect us?’ She gave a small snort. ‘It’s a bit late to worry about that.’
Silently, he studied her, his inner battle written in his face, and then he hunched forward, his eyes flicking away, to return dark and brooding. ‘The truth is, the moment you walked into that bar I was hooked.’
Her eyelids fluttered, along with her heart, but she kept herself steady, refusing to look away.
‘When you returned my interest I would have moved heaven and earth to have you.’
She swallowed, and the warmth spreading through her belly now was nothing like shame as her defences took a direct hit.
‘And, as I’ve already told you,’ he continued, ‘when I found out your identity I tried to stop things. But you can be very...persuasive...when you want to be.’
Her cheeks coloured. ‘You still should have told me.’
‘I know,’ he admitted. ‘And under any normal circumstances, with any other woman, I would have—could have. But with you...’ His eyes trailed over her, a subtle crease breaking his brow. ‘For some reason I couldn’t. I couldn’t even think straight. I couldn’t think past what you were doing to me.’
‘You expect me to believe a man like you is ruled by his penis?’
He flinched, his own cheeks streaking with colour.