Your Alluring Love (The Bennett Family 6)

He effectively breaks the ice, and I find myself grinning.

“Yep. Whipped them good, gave them a lecture. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

“You’re not.”

I lick my lips. “What?”

“You heard me.”

Oh boy. His voice is low and seductive. Bedroom voice. Right, I can’t let my mind go there. I called with a purpose.

“I wanted to ask for some tips. What will the meeting with the Delicious Dining people be like?”

“You should definitely have a pitch prepared.”

“A sales pitch?”

“More than that. They’ll want to know about you too, the story behind the restaurants. In a nutshell, they want a captivating story. Something to keep viewers glued to the TV. You should elaborate on the points we talked about when we met at Blue Moon.”

My stomach sinks. I know my strengths

, and captivating a group of strangers with my storytelling isn’t one of them. I can efficiently prepare a sales pitch, and I can even confidently throw around marketing terms such as ‘unique selling proposition’ and ‘competitive advantage,’ but telling a story is another beast.

“Sounds complex.”

“I’ll help you prepare.”

“I like how there’s no question mark at the end of that sentence.”

“Not giving you a chance to turn me down.”

“You have time? I’m sure you have a million things to do before leaving.” My throat almost closes up as I utter that last word.

“I have time. Does Friday evening work?” His tone is downright bossy now. A delicious twinkle of awareness travels through my limbs. I can’t believe bossy is doing it for me. His alpha caveman tendencies were one thing, but this is different. Maybe it was just a mishap. I should test this some more, make sure I’m not imagining things.

“What if I say no?”

“I’ll show up anyway.”

“You don’t even know where I’ll be.”

“Damn you, woman, stop fighting or I’ll kiss you again when I do find you. And I’ll kiss you good, hard, and long.”

Oh my! There’s definitely a twinkle, possibly even a sizzle. I don’t recognize myself.

“You’re a bad man.” My voice is a raspy whisper—my bedroom voice. Pulling myself together, I smooth a wrinkle on my bedsheet with the back of my hand, forcing my trail of thoughts on a safe path again. “But thank you for wanting to help. I really appreciate it, Nate. Let’s meet at Blake’s bar so we can include him in the conversation. Even if he won’t come to the meeting, I don’t want him to feel left out.”

“Sounds great.”

“My car is out of the mechanic’s shop,” I add quickly before he can offer to pick me up.

“Afraid to be alone with me?”

“Yes.”

“Good. You should be.”

“See you on Friday.”