‘Yes.’ His breathing was as laboured as hers. ‘I seem to have no control where you are concerned.’
His head descended toward hers but she pulled back before his lips could claim hers again. ‘What about the bet?’
When he looked at her his eyes were hooded. ‘You win. Congratulations.’
Eleanore frowned. ‘I win?’
‘And I lose. Now kiss me again. I need to taste you on my tongue.’
‘No.’ Her addled brain was trying to tell her something and then she got it and stilled. ‘You don’t care.’
‘On the contrary, I care very much.’
‘No. I mean about the bet.’
‘Oh, that.’ He shrugged and dragged a hand through his hair. ‘That not so much.’
‘But how can you not?’
His dark gaze held hers. ‘The hotel is still mine. I don’t need to have my name on it to know that. Attachments will always make you weak.’
She slipped off the desk and out of his arms, her mind reeling. ‘I can’t believe this.’
He stared at her as she put distance between them, his smile pure sex. ‘I can’t believe I waited a week to kiss you. You’re like a firecracker in my arms.’
She shook her head. ‘Don’t you have any morals?’
‘None.’
His face had become a hard, impassive mask, hiding his thoughts from her. Instinct told her not to believe him. But what kind of person made a bet they didn’t care about?
The type who didn’t care about anything at all, a rational voice informed her.
And she’d always known he was like that. Right from the start. So why was she prevaricating? Did she want him to be more than he said he was?
Closing her eyes, her body still humming from where he had touched her, she hardened her resolve. ‘I don’t want you to touch me again.’
‘You liked it a minute ago.’
‘Well, I don’t like it now.’ She gulped air into her lungs like a dying goldfish. ‘You’re not my type and... and apart from that it’s completely unprofessional. I’m here to work on your hotel. As soon as it’s completed I’m leaving.’
His gaze dropped to her lips. Eleanore could almost feel the warmth of his mouth as if he was still kissing her. She tried to blink the effect away but when her eyes lifted to his once more his held a mocking light as if he could see right through her flimsy denial. His next words confirmed as much.
‘Keep telling yourself that and you might even believe it.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
HE WASN’T HER TYPE. The irritation that had sparked in him at those words still hadn’t waned. At the time Lukas had determined to forget all about the attraction he felt for her. All week he’d taken meetings out of the office and kept away from her but still he noticed her presence. Or more, felt her presence. Just as he also felt her absence. Like now. He didn’t need to go to her office to know it would be empty. It was the oddest sensation and one he couldn’t explain.
Nor could he explain how he’d nearly lost control with her last week. If she hadn’t stopped him he’d have taken her right there on her desk with the door unlocked and damn the consequences.
Frustration gnawed at his gut. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. Or the way she made him feel. Somehow alive and more engaged in life than he had been in a long time. And she wanted him. Not that she would admit it.
Another bite of frustration clenched his stomach.Should he apologise to her for letting things get out of hand in her office last week? And would it make any difference? And what would he say? Can we start over? Invite her to dinner? No point in that. It wasn’t as if he was desperate. He could call up any number of women from here to Australia and have a beautiful woman in his bed moments later. Well, maybe hours later if she was from Australia, but dammit, where was she?
‘Where’s who?’
Lukas hadn’t heard Petra come up behind him and he scowled at her. ‘No one.’
‘Are you muttering about Eleanore?’
His PA had been regarding him strangely all week. The last thing he needed to do was set off her romantic radar over his conflicted emotions about Eleanore. She already gave him enough grief over his choice of women. ‘I don’t mutter,’ he said. ‘But where is she?’
The lift pinged behind him and his blood fired in his veins. Only it wasn’t Eleanore, it was Zoe, the staff member who had admired Eleanore’s shoes in the conference room.