He sat back in his chair and brought his steaming cup of coffee with him, wincing as his head protested the movement. Mingmei threw him one of those curious glances she’d been sending his way, as if her spies had told her he’d walked out on his and Mina’s dinner. Or maybe it was just because he’d tuned out half an hour ago.
He’d been a fool to think he could ever control this thing between him and Mina. Their chemistry was too strong, the opportunities to exploit it too plentiful. He’d like to say he could turn back the clock and wipe out that brief moment of insanity last night, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not when the awareness between him and Mina pulsed across the table like a living, breathing entity. Not when he’d put his hands on her in the most intimate way possible and made her cry out his name with the lights of Hong Kong blazing around them.
Mina gave him a veiled look from beneath her lashes. Confusion, hurt, apprehension. He hadn’t come back to their suite until well past midnight last night, the six-course dinner long cleared away. Had gone to the gym early this morning to keep some distance between them.
He cared about her. Genuinely cared about her, which was a first for a woman. But he could never offer Mina what she would eventually want—that white picket fence and a family to banish the loneliness she’d carried with her for so long.
She claimed she could handle an affair between them, but could she really? Would it turn their working relationship into an awkward, untenable partnership that worked for neither of them when it was over? Could she give him her virginity in the uncomplicated transaction she’d spoken of and walk away after this year without emotional ties?
If he didn’t take her up on the offer, then someone else would. He closed his eyes as the image of a man like Franco becoming Mina’s first lover made his head throb.
He took a long sip of his coffee. He could shut it down between them. Fall back on his excuse he never mixed business with pleasure, but Mina was right. Their relationship had already blurred so many lines, there was no going back. The only question was how to move forward.
* * *
Mina stood and forced a smile to her face as they concluded their meeting with Sheng Zhu, exchanging bows all around. It had been easy to keep to her role of active listener today. Her brain was running in circles, like a dog chasing its tail, humiliation and confusion taking turns preserving the momentum.
Why had Nate walked out on her like that? What had she done wrong? Why had he looked so angry?
She didn’t regret one second of what had happened between them. Learning to go after what she wanted in life, enjoying these heady initial successes, had stoked her craving to experience everything life had to offer. But, she acknowledged miserably, if it was going to ruin everything she and Nate had started to build together, then it had been a big mistake.
Which it might just have been. She had fallen asleep at midnight with Nate still not back, the sumptuous dinner Mingmei had arranged for them sent back virtually untouched. Then woken up to his stone-cold, unapproachable face this morning when he’d come back from the gym.
Had she pushed him too far? He had been pushing, too. Challenging her. Tempting her. It had not been a one-way street.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she headed for the coffee machine before their next meeting. Nearly jumped out of her skin when a shadow fell over her.
“A word, please.”
Nate’s sophisticated cologne filled her head in a tantalizing reminder of last night. She risked a look up at him. He still looked distinctly agitated.
He jerked his head toward the hallway. She followed him, the snap of the door as it shut behind them making her flinch.
He turned and rested a hand against the wall. “We need to talk.”
Sì. They did. Before she crawled right out of her skin.
“I think it should wait until we get to the Maldives,” he said tersely. “I have a pile of work to do on the flight. And this particular conversation needs to be done in private.”
She couldn’t read anything from his expression. Nothing.
“I agree.”
But it wasn’t so easy to endure an entire morning of meetings before they boarded the jet for the Maldives. Nor the several-hour flight in a strained silence between them. By the time they set down on the short, single runway in the tiny island republic in the middle of the Indian Ocean, she had crawled out of her skin.
A car took them to the harbor, where a boat transported them the rest of the way to the exclusive resort Nate was about to buy, situated on its own private island. Mina’s breath caught as the boat pulled up alongside a dock with a private villa attached to it. Perched in the middle of the ocean with only a narrow walkway connecting it to the island and resort, it was a floating paradise.
Lights glittered inside the grass-roofed villa as sunset approached, illuminating its luxurious interior. A private plunge pool, Jacuzzi and lounge area completed the idyllic picture. But all Mina could look at was the endless vista of blue all around them, as if they were alone in the middle of the ocean.
This was where they were staying? It seemed far too intimate, far too inescapable, no matter which way their conversation went.
A white-shirted butler emerged from the villa, introduced himself and spirited their luggage inside. Nate went with him. Mina stayed outside drinking in the view. They had beautiful beaches in Sicily, but they were crowded and busy and this...this was like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
> Nate appeared beside her, his jacket and tie gone, the top buttons of his shirt undone. “I thought we could have a drink and enjoy the sunset before dinner.”
Her pulse kicked up, her palms growing damp. She nodded and swallowed back her nerves. “I’d like to change first.”
He inclined his head toward the villa. “I’ll see what there is to choose from.”