“Don’t deny it. The chemistry has been there from the moment we reconnected.”
“Only a rich, arrogant millionaire intent on getting his greedy hands all over my company would say that.” She rose from the chair she was seated in. “Neither I nor my company is for sale, Lucius.”
She stalked out of the lounge with as much dignity as she could muster given that he was partly right. There was something there between them. She had to be on her guard with Lucius at all times. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—fall prey to his charms like most of the women he encountered.
She was in the elevator and the doors had nearly shut when Lucius caught up to her and worked them open with his large hands before stepping inside.
They were alone in the elevator.
Lucius glanced at the elevator buttons. “We’re on the same floor, fate is bringing us together.”
Then he walked purposely toward her, and Naomi automatically shrank back a couple of steps. But when she did, her back hit the wall—not a good position to be with a dangerously sexy man like Lucius. His hands splayed on either side of her face, caging her in.
“You do want me,” Lucius countered, “even if you won’t admit it.” He reached for a strand of her hair and twirled it around his index finger. “How about we put your resolve to the test, hmm?”
Naomi caught the challenging gleam in his eye right before his lips descended on hers. Naomi thought the kiss would be hard, but it was soft, as were his lips. She’d always wondered what they’d taste like, and now she knew. He sipped at her lips until she gasped and a low moan escaped her lungs. Lucius used it to his advantage, demanding full entry between her lips at the same time his hands slipped from the wall to cup her bottom so he could press her to him.
Naomi felt his hard, flat stomach and his broad chest as he held her firmly to him. She also felt the swell of his erection that sprang to life against her stomach. His hands ran up and down her body, and Naomi trembled.
Lucius lifted his head long enough to stroke her hair back from where some had fallen around her face, his eyes searching hers for a sign to stop. Finding none, he lowered his mouth once more to engage hers. He kissed her top lip, wetting and nibbling it with his tongue before going to her bottom lip. He sucked on it voraciously, and Naomi felt her nipples become taut and expectant. Of what?
Of Lucius’s mouth on them?
The elevator doors suddenly opened, and Naomi sprang from his embrace as if they were two randy teenagers caught making out underneath the bleachers. The bellman smiled at them both and pressed the button for the next floor.
Clearly, he knew what they’d been up to.
Did she?
What had possessed her to kiss Lucius back? Naomi knew what Lucius wanted, and she had no intention of succumbing. And as soon as the bellman was gone, she would tell him so.
She didn’t have to. Once he’d disembarked two floors up, Lucius turned to her. “That was bad timing. I should have waited until we were in my room.”
“Your room?” Naomi asked. Her shoulders squared. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Lucius’s hand rubbed his neatly cropped head. “Really? Are you going to act like you didn’t enjoy that kiss just now? Like if that bellman hadn’t interrupted us, you wouldn’t have been mine for the taking?”
“Of all the...” Naomi stabbed at the elevator button. She couldn’t wait for her floor to arrive.
Lucius leaned back against the wood paneling inside the elevator, regarding her quizzically. He watched the rise and fall of her chest, and his gaze immediately dropped from her eyes to her breasts. Was he assessing their size? Did he prefer huge breasts to her B-cup ones?
His eyes returned back to her face, and she felt flushed. He couldn’t know what she was thinking, could he?
“All right, Naomi. I’m going to let you go tonight.”
“Let me go?”
He smiled at the challenging tone in her voice. “That’s right. Because, trust me, if I tried, I could seduce you into my bed tonight, but I won’t. I want you to come there willingly.”
“There is no way in hell that’s happening.”
The elevator chimed and doors opened, indicating it was their floor. She stepped out and turned around long enough to hear Lucius say, “We’ll see. We’ll see.”
Naomi was in a foul mood the next morning for the final day of the conference. She hadn’t slept well, having tossed and turned due to the melodramatic threat Lucius made the previous evening. He’d made it clear that the inevitability of them becoming lovers was a foregone conclusion.
Was he right?
Naomi didn’t want him to be.
Or did she?
He was right in that they had chemistry in spades, but how could there not be when he stared at her like he was dying of thirst in the desert and she was his oasis? It was enough to put any red-blooded woman on alert.
Once she’d returned to her hotel room, her mind had gone haywire. The memory of Lucius kissing her, his tongue delving deep inside her mouth, the way her nipples had turned rock hard along with the telltale sign of wetness between her legs, tormented her. It had been shocking how turned on she was by one kiss from Lucius. Naomi’s face flamed at the realization she’d wanted him—or at least her body did.
Was this a sign that her former crush on Lucius had never gone away and instead had just been buried deep in the recesses of her mind until his kiss brought it forward?
Why did this have to happen now? When she might possibly have to fight to keep her company? If Kelsey did indeed want to dissolve their partnership and sell her shares, it would leave Naomi vulnerable to an attack from Knight International. And not just on the business front. Lucius was coming for her personally.
She’d seen the determined look in his eye last night as the elevators doors shut. A look that told Naomi he meant to have her.
Would she be strong enough to fight him off when her own traitorous body found him irresistible?
* * *
Lucius woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed given there was no valet or butler to assist him for the day. He was on his own. And perhaps that was just as well. He suspected that to get through to Naomi he would have to be himself.
There were no airs to Miss Brooks. Instead, she was a woman who appreciated the simple, basic things in life. So he was sure it came as a shock to her that she too could be led astray by the desires of the flesh. She’d probably been bedding nice guys who had no idea how to bring out the vivacious woman he’d seen last night.
But she was there. He’d seen it in her eyes and body language.
And he was just the man to bring out the sensual side of her nature. Once he got her alone, he would seduce her. Last night, when his hands had roamed over her body, he’d had just a sample of what it would be like to touch that beautiful body of hers, and he craved more.
An added bonus was that while he was rattling Naomi’s cage, Adam would be working on Kelsey. The soon-to-be second-time mother might be his way to get enough shares of Brooks and Johnson for a takeover.
But first things first—he had a certain woman to woo.
Downstairs in the convention center, Lucius discovered that finding Naomi wasn’t all that easy. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was avoiding him. After reading the itinerary for the second day of the expo, he attended a lecture he’d thought would surely interest her, but