Scandalizing the CEO

“Don’t stop. I like it.”

She started moving her hand again, and noticed that his hand was caressing her arm. There was nothing overtly sexual in the touching; it was two people comforting each other, she thought.

“I haven’t slept with that many people, either. I tend to go back to my place instead of sleeping over.”

“Really? Why?”

“I don’t like mornings. It’s always awkward.”

That revealed a lot to her. He didn’t like to stay because though sex was okay, anything resembling a relationship made him uncomfortable. “Awkward how?”

“Normally I have work to do and have to leave early and—you don’t want to hear this.”

Yet she did want to. She didn’t want to know the details of his past affairs, but she did want to know why he left. Or was she simply drawing a conclusion based on her perceptions of who he was? Work was one reason but she suspected that was an excuse. Steven was the CEO of a large company. If he came in late, no one was going to say a word to him.

“Work’s not the reason you leave,” she said. “You leave because you don’t want to stay.”

His hand stopped moving on her arm and she wondered if she’d said too much. Even so, she didn’t care if she had. This affair with Steven was something totally new to her. She wasn’t going to hedge her bets or try to play it safe. If he didn’t want her once they’d slept together, she wanted to know now.

“I think you’re right. I’ve never given it much thought. Just got up and left when I wanted to. Work calls…My job is my life…”

“And no woman could compete with that,” she finished for him.

“That’s right.”

She lay still next to him, knowing that she was going to ask the next question whether it was wise or not.

“What about me?”

He turned on the bed so they lay facing each other. He put both arms around her—one around her neck the other over her waist and drew her flush against his body.

“I have no clue. You aren’t like anyone else.”

That didn’t reassure her at all and in fact raised more doubts about being with Steven. He wasn’t an easy man to get close to. With each step she took toward him, he found a new way to freeze her out and keep her at arm’s length.

She wanted to ask more questions, but she had a feeling that was all he’d admit to her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed being so close to him. She put her arm over his waist and tucked her head under his chin.

He held her like that until they both drifted off to sleep. Ainsley tried not to let it mean too much that he held her as tightly as she held him.

Steven woke to bright sunlight streaming in through some filmy curtains. Ainsley was curled by his side. He eased out of bed to go to the bathroom and saw his clothes where he’d left them on the overstuffed chair that sat in the corner of her bedroom.

He almost walked over and got dressed. He could leave. Nothing was keeping him here. But as he looked at Ainsley sleeping in her bed, her hand reaching out to where he’d lain, he couldn’t do it.

He didn’t want her to wake up alone. He had the feeling from what she’d said last night that she’d led a very solitary life.

Dammit, he cared about her. Yet he didn’t want emotional entanglements. How had this happened? She was a woman who looked like she shouldn’t have touched any of his emotions. But she had.

And that was the problem.

“Steven?” she called his name as she sat up in bed. She wore a pretty flower-printed nightgown and her hair was tousled around her shoulders. Her eyes were sleepy as she tried to see him. Last night he’d learned that she wore contacts—something as new to her as her weight loss.

He saw her reaching for her nightstand and the glasses she had set on the top last night.

“I’m here.”

“Are you leaving?” she asked.

“Do you want me to?” he asked. It would be so much easier if she said yes. He could walk away and he’d never forget the time he’d spent with her, but this encounter would fade into a memory. Nothing more.

“I would like it if you came back to bed.”

He smiled. He went back to the bed and sat down next to her.

“Happy now?”

“Yes,” she said, squinting up at him.

“Put your glasses on,” he said.

“No. They aren’t attractive at all. I’ll go put my contacts in.”

That made no sense to him. “You don’t have to.”

He reached for her glasses and handed them to her. She held them for a minute and then put them on. “There you are,” she said lightly.

“Here I am.”