Like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The same on the inside, yet so utterly different on the outside.
He felt humbled to have played a role in the transformation, even such a tiny role. Yet he wanted her to see what he saw—a stunning young woman.
His thumb stroked along her jaw line, caressing the soft skin, noting the pink flush spreading across her cheeks, the parting of her pouty pink lips, the way his heart beat faster in his chest when her stunned gaze met his.
Vale did something totally out of character.
He lowered his lips to hers.
Faith’s knees wobbled. Firecrackers detonated in her chest, pounding her heart against her ribcage, demanding freedom to burst into a million projectile pieces.
No way was Vale kissing her!
If a trip to the salon and an upscale dress boutique was all it had taken to get his lips on hers, why hadn’t she gone shopping months ago? Had her hair streaked with strands of gold and a trained professional paint her face?
What was she thinking? This was Vale. Her boss. She should not be letting him kiss her.
He cupped her cheeks, drawing her closer, tasting her lips with a softness that belied the tough man she knew him to be.
She stood stock still, hands at her side, sure if she moved or even breathed, the fantasy would disappear, a pleasurable vapor she’d grasped at but failed to hold on to.
For eighteen months she’d wondered what this man tasted like, what his lips would feel like against hers, and now he was kissing her. So she gave in to the desire erupting within her, kissed him back, tasted his lips, opened her mouth to let him inside and hoped he’d never let her go, that he’d never stop kissing her.
Tiny explosions ripped through her one after another in the wake of his tongue thrusting into her mouth.
He was no longer cupping her face but her bottom, pulling her fully against his hard body.
He was hard. Amazingly, eye-wideningly … Oh, my!
As much as Faith wanted to spread her arms wide and welcome him, to take whatever he would offer her, she had to stop him before she completely lost her mind and became one of the many women to move in and out of his life.
Before he realized just how much she wanted him. Because Vale only wanted one thing from women. She had to think of her career.
She pushed against his chest. “Stop.”
He lifted his head, his lids half covering his desire-laden eyes. He wanted her. He had kissed her, wanted her, might have carried her to her sofa and made heart-pounding, thigh-slapping love to her if she hadn’t told him to stop.
Her head spun. Her eyes blurred. Her equilibrium shifted.
Regret that she’d stopped him filled her, making her wish she’d dragged him into her bedroom rather than push him away. But make-over or not, she wasn’t one of his playthings. She was his employee, a physician with plans to have a phenomenal career within his neuro clinic, and not by sleeping her way to the top.
Although with her lack of experience, sleeping with Vale might get her sacked instead of promoted.
“Why did you do that?” Wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, she stepped back, wishing she wasn’t shaking, wishing she didn’t want to beg him to kiss her again. She had to take control of the situation prior to him figuring out just how much she wanted to jump back into his arms.
“You needed to be kissed.”
If he thought his hot kisses had left her any less in need of being kissed, he was wrong.
All he’d managed to do was to show her what she’d been missing, what she now knew she desperately wanted. His kisses.
Determined to salvage her pride, she frowned, wishing he wasn’t still touching her. “Says who?”
He rubbed his thumb across her lower lip. “Says me.”
A shiver whipped through her body, prickling her flesh. “Even if I did need to be kissed, that’s not your place. I told you on the day I agreed to this trip with you—I won’t be lumped into the category of one of your girls.”
He seemed to consider her comment a moment. “You’re wrong, Faith. Kissing you is exactly my place. This weekend, you are my girl.”
CHAPTER THREE
OF ALL the arrogant comments Faith had ever heard!
She was not Vale’s girl. Just because she’d agreed to a working weekend to save him from his family’s matchmaking, that did not make her his property and certainly not one of the arm decorations he paraded around New York’s social scene.
She snuck a glance at his powerful profile. Staring straight ahead, watching traffic as he drove to Cape May, he looked exactly the same as he always had. Same sun-kissed light brown hair, same sparkling blue eyes that could pierce a person’s soul with their intensity, same handsome face. Same calm presence, completely untouched by the kiss they’d shared.
He was whistling, for goodness’ sake. An upbeat melody that was slowly driving her insane.
Urgh. He frustrated her. Infuriated her. He’d kissed her. Taken notice of the fact that she was of the opposite sex and kissed her. A toe-curling, thigh-melting, neuron synapse-searing, honest-to-goodness kiss.
Yes, she’d been the one to stop him, because she’d had to. But she’d wanted him to take her into his arms, tell her he’d been a fool not to see what was right beneath his nose, and could she ever forgive him?
Okay, so that was pure fantasy and not the kind of thing that happened in reality. But men like Vale kissing her didn’t happen in her reality either.
At least, nothing like that had ever happened before.
“You’re staring a hole through my head.”
How did he know that when he hadn’t glanced away from the traffic on the New Jersey Parkway?
“Impossible.”
As if she hadn’t just taken a shot at him, he grinned. “I meant figuratively, not literally.”
“I knew that,” she pointed out, determined not to let him get the upper hand. “I was referring to your hard-headedness making staring a hole through your head impossible in any shape, form, or fashion. Figuratively or literally.”
He laughed, a husky male sound that warmed her insides. “Point taken.”
Eyes narrowed, she twisted in her seat to more easily look at him. “Are you mocking me?”
She’d swear his lips twitched with amusement. What was so funny? He’d kissed her and turned her world upside down and now he was laughing at her? If he hadn’t been driving, she’d … she’d … well, she’d have come up with some horrendous punishment, if her life wasn’t literally in his hands.
“Relax, Faith.” He glanced away from the road long enough to meet her gaze. “Maybe we shouldn’t have brought the patient profiles with us.”
“Why not?”
“This isn’t going to be a working weekend after all.” She wouldn’t gulp. Not even if she really, really needed to gulp.
“Why?” She gulped.
“Because I’ve been working you too hard, and you need to relax, have a little fun.”
“I have fun.” She didn’t want him thinking she was a dull Jane. Even