“Why? You want to gut my family’s company.” Her brow furrowed. “I mean, Underhill Associates.” She shook her head, the confusion too much. “I have good workers. Smart people. They should know their jobs are secure. My job should be secure.”
“I’m not talking about work here,” he said bluntly. “And I think you know that.”
Her lips parted. “But work is all we…” Frustration colored her cheeks. She lifted her hands and pressed her fingers against her temples. “Argg. You’re doing it again, confusing me and twisting everything up. I couldn’t sleep last night after you did what you…and firing me…and, and cleavage…”
He could look at her cleavage all he wanted right now, but things were suddenly getting interesting. “You couldn’t sleep because you were thinking about me?”
She rocked her foot back onto its heel, and he instinctively positioned himself closer so she couldn’t kick him. The move put his body a hairsbreadth away from hers. She was warm from all that dancing. Her skin glistened with perspiration, leaving it damp and kissable. Lickable.
She flattened her hands against his chest again, but this time he didn’t budge. It flustered her. She shifted against the jukebox, but he wasn’t letting her get away now—not when he finally had her talking to him.
Her lips pressed into a straight line. “I wasn’t thinking about you, I was thinking about my proposition…purpose…my proposal.”
Interesting choice of words.
But the alcohol she’d consumed had her on a roll. “You made me late today. I kept wondering what you were going to do. What were you going to think? How were you going to smell?”
“I smell?”
“Not you. It’s just…” Her cheeks went red. “Your aftershave smells nice.”
Her words died away, but all thoughts of taking her home to Daddy left Cam. Taking her home, though, wasn’t such a bad idea. His body felt hard and hot. He’d been stressed all day, but the tension gripping him now was another sort entirely. “What do you think of me, Lexie? Really?”
Her gaze locked with his, and he saw something new in the dark depths. Something that made his heart rate slow down, and the thick pumps sound loudly in his ears.
“You make me uncomfortable,” she said, her voice low.
“Uncomfortable, how?”
She bit into her bottom lip, and her gaze skittered away. “Just…uncomfortable.”
The awareness he’d felt on the elevator came back, heavy and deep. It was the first indication he’d had that she saw him not as a threat, but as a man.
He wanted another.
But he didn’t know when he’d ever get it.
She was skittish around him. Guarded. The closest he could get to her was in meetings. Stuffy, mind-numbing meetings. Right now, her defenses were down. He couldn’t. He shouldn’t, but he wanted to know…
He reached for her.
Ever so gently, he ran his fingertips down her bare arm, all the way from shoulder to elbow. As he watched, goose bumps popped up on the warm flesh. She shivered and her breath caught. When she looked at him, her gaze was a little wild.
“You make me uncomfortable too,” he said gruffly.
They stared at each other, the music throbbing and the air hazy around them.
“Really uncomfortable,” he muttered.
Closing the distance, he sank into her. He watched her closely as their bodies pressed from chest to knee. The heat was intimate, the contact electric. For a moment, she was stunned still. Then all those emotions she’d kept tempered for so long rushed forward to meet him. Her anger. Her heat. Her sweetness. He felt it in the way her body melted. He heard it in the catch in the back of her throat.
“Lexie.” He kissed her. Firmly, fully, mouth locked on mouth. He sealed their lips tight, and the sensation was so good, it damn near made him groan aloud.
Her lips were soft, velvety and they clung. The kiss deepened, their mouths opening wider for more contact. For a woman who was as strapped in and lashed down as she was, she knew how to kiss.
And then some.
That hard-on he’d gotten when he’d seen her dancing atop the bar came roaring back to life. He kissed her harder, letting his tongue slide over hers. A sound left her throat, and her fingers bit into his shoulders. He did it again, loving her heat, loving the way she responded. She moved restlessly, her body grinding against his. Softness against hardness. Heat against heat.