Layla gaped, certain Gavin hadn’t asked her what she thought he’d asked her. What man would inquire that of a woman...especially one he’d known barely twenty-four hours? However, from the look on his face, he evidently saw nothing wrong with the question. He was sitting there waiting on an answer.
She lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest. When she saw his gaze shift from her eyes to her upraised breasts, she dropped her hands. “Do you actually expect me to answer that?” Somehow she managed to get the words past a constricted throat. The way he stared at her was making her head spin.
He shrugged massive broad shoulders. “Don’t know why not. We’re sexually attracted to each other. Just want to know what I’m dealing with when we decide to go for it and take the edge off.”
Go for it? Take the edge off? Layla shook her head, clearly missing something. She knew they were attracted to each other; she got that. What she didn’t get was him thinking that attraction meant they would eventually decide to “go for it.” She had no intention of going anywhere. She was here to do a job and not indulge his fantasies...or her own, for that matter.
“I think you need to explain what exactly you’re getting at. We agreed to keep sex out of this, Gavin.”
“I didn’t agree to any such thing. You suggested it but I didn’t agree to it. Why would I?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” she countered, not understanding his way of thinking.
He leaned back in his chair and her gaze watched his every movement. Restrained and controlled. She wondered if his actions were intentional, to put her off-kilter. When he picked up his glass of tea, her gaze automatically shifted to his hands. They were large and callous. They were the same hands that had sent shivers up her spine last night.
Memories of their kiss suddenly bombarded her and then her gaze shifted to his mouth as he took a swallow of iced tea. She was drawn to the way his mouth covered the rim of the glass and the way the liquid flowed down his throat. But what really got to her was the way he licked his lips afterward. When he caught her staring, those penetrating eyes darkened as they held hers.
“Want some?”
She snatched her gaze away. The lump in her throat thickened. She was glad to be sitting down; otherwise it would have been impossible to stand on both feet. The look he was giving her had her weak in the knees.
Somehow she managed to clear the lump in her throat and hold up her glass. “No thanks, I have my own.”
His eyes blazed as they continued to hold hers. “I wasn’t offering you any of my tea, Layla.”
She sucked in a deep breath. He couldn’t have set her straight any plainer than that. There was no need to ask what he was offering. That was the moment she knew Gavin Blake intended to be a problem. One she needed to deal with here and now.
“You never did answer my earlier question. When was the last time you were with a man?”
She set her glass of tea back down on the table. “And you never answered mine about why you wouldn’t agree to keep sex out of it.” Feeling flustered, she added, “We need to talk.”
A smile touched the corners of his lips. “I thought that’s what we were doing.”
There was no way he could have thought that. What he was doing was deliberately getting her all unglued. If he thought for one minute his arrogant behavior would make her run, then he didn’t know her very well. “There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding here.”
“Is there?”
“Undoubtedly. I’m here to do a job...that is, if you let me stay to do it. But under no circumstances am I here for your pleasure, Gavin. I don’t play those kinds of games. Evidently just because we shared a kiss last night, you’ve gotten the wrong idea about me. I need to set the record straight now. So hear me and hear me good.” She leaned part of the way over the table toward him. Although his face was void of any expression, she was certain she had his undivided attention.
“I am not here to engage in an affair with you, if that’s why you want to know about my sex life.” Or lack thereof. But that was something he didn’t need to know.
* * *
Gavin didn’t say anything. He knew she assumed his attention was on her words. In truth his attention was on the mouth delivering those words. Her lips were perfectly shaped with a little cute dip in the center. He liked the play of that mutinous tip whenever she frowned and how those same lips folded pensively when she appeared in deep thought. But more than anything, he couldn’t forget how those lips felt beneath his. Their lushness. How delicious they’d tasted. How sweet.
When she got quiet after delivering her spiel, he figured she thought she had set him straight. Far from it and it was time to let her know where he stood. “Are you finished?”
She seemed surprised by his question, but nodded nonetheless and said, “Yes, I’m finished.” She then straightened in her chair, her posture a lot more relaxed than it had been moments ago.
“Evidently, there’s a lot you don’t understand about sex, Layla.”
Her body tensed again. And somehow those gorgeous lips looked even more sensual. “What’s there to understand?” she asked.
Gavin continued to study her. He saw her nonchalant expression and noted her features had taken on a blasé look. Her apparent indifference to this discussion of sex could mean only one thing. She’d been cheated of something he considered as vital as breathing. Reaching her level of success in such a short period of time meant something had been sacrificed. An active sex life, perhaps?
“I want you and you want me,” he said, deciding to point out the obvious.
“And?”
He forced himself not to smile, thinking she was pretending not to have a clue. Then it occurred to him that maybe she wasn’t pretending. Maybe it was time to explain to her what it meant whenever a woman became the object of his personal fantasies.
“And...” he said, “we will sleep together.”
She sat up in her chair, straightening her spine. Her lips went from sensual to tense but turned him on even more just the same. “No, we will not,” she said adamantly.
He smiled. “Yes, we will. It’s inevitable.”
She frowned. “No, it’s not. Just who do you think you are?”
He figured it was time she knew the answer to that. “A man who wants you. A man who intends to have you. A man who will show you, Layla Harris, just what you’ve been missing.”
* * *
Layla tried to keep her heart from pounding deep in her chest, while at the same time fighting off the heat stroking through her body. She knew she shouldn’t ask but she couldn’t hold back.
“And just what do you think I’ve missed?”
“Hot, raunchy, mind-blowing sex. Evidently over the years you’ve been too preoccupied with other things to indulge. Don’t you know it’s not good to deprive your body of meeting certain needs?”
Her frown deepened. “I haven’t deprived my body of anything.”
“Haven’t you? Why do you think you’re so attracted to me?”
Layla actually rolled her eyes. Really? Honestly? Had he looked in the mirror lately? When was the last time he’d studied all those photos Ms. Melody had plastered on the walls. Any woman would be attracted to him. Even now he sat there not doing anything and still looked sexy as hell with that well-toned body of his. And here she was sitting across the table from him. Right within kissing