Sliding his hand down her back to cup her elbow, he steered her back toward the elevators. “Are you in the habit of encouraging men to hit on you?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but all he wanted from me was to see if I knew what time it was,” she said, clearly exasperated.
Blake grunted. “Yeah, and I’m Buffalo Bill Cody.”
When the elevator doors opened, she stopped dead in her tracks. “Why are we going back upstairs? I thought we were going to dinner.”
“We are.” He urged her forward, then pushed the button for the top floor. “I had the staff set up our dinner in my suite.”
“Why?” If her expression was any indication, she was anything but happy about the arrangement and more than a little suspicious of his motives.
“I thought it would give us a chance to talk uninterrupted and catch up on old times,” he said, shrugging.
She looked at him as if she thought he might be a few cards shy of a full deck. “Catch up on old times? Since I started working at Dakota Fortune, we’ve only spoken briefly at the office and a few times at the social functions I’ve attended with Creed.”
His gut burned at the mention of his half brother’s name, but Blake stifled the urge to curse aloud. The success of his mission depended on him keeping a cool head.
When the elevators doors opened, he guided her down the hall toward his suite. “You’re forgetting that we attended the same high school.”
She shook her head. “Don’t feed me that line, Blake Fortune. You didn’t have the slightest notion that I existed back then.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Sasha.” Opening the door to the Admiral’s Suite, Blake stood back for her to enter his private domain. “I would have had to be as blind as a damned bat not to have noticed one of the prettiest girls in school.” He smiled. “And I’ve never had vision problems.”
“Give me a break.” She rolled her eyes. “We had a photography class together for one semester and in that whole time, I don’t remember a single instance of you speaking to me.”
Walking up to stand in front of her, he touched her soft cheek with his index finger. “Believe me, sweetheart, I found out all I could about you after that first day of class. But you were too young for me back then.”
“There’s only … three years difference in our ages.” To his satisfaction, she sounded a little breathless and confirmed his suspicions beyond a shadow of doubt that she was still attracted to him.
Smiling, he shook his head. “I was a typical eighteen-year-old boy with a raging case of hormones. I wanted a whole lot more from a girl than sharing a few chaste kisses. And let’s face it, Sasha, at fifteen that’s all you were ready for.”
“Why are you telling me this now, Blake?” Her confusion was reflected in her luminous green eyes and he didn’t think he’d ever seen her look more desirable.
He was going to enjoy his seduction of Sasha Kilgore. But it was time to back off a little and let her catch up.
Deciding it would be in his best interest to put a little space between them, he guided her over to the table his staff had set up by the window overlooking Deadwood’s historic district below. “I told you. We’re talking about old times, sweetheart.” He held her chair, then seated himself on the opposite side of the small round table. “You were in the chorus weren’t you?”
“Yes, but you weren’t.”
The flicker of the small candle on the table between them brought out the highlights of golden red in her auburn hair, fascinating him. “That doesn’t mean I don’t remember your singing at my graduation.”
“Oh, dear,” she said, her cheeks coloring a pretty pink. “You remember that?”
“It was quite an honor for a freshman to be asked to sing a solo at another class’s graduation,” he said, nodding.
He’d anticipated her wanting to know what he remembered about her and he’d done his homework in advance. Besides thumbing through his high-school annual, Blake had spent several hours trying to think of all the times their paths had crossed during his last year of school.
The color on her cheeks deepened. “Having to perform in front of all those people made me a nervous wreck. That’s when I decided to limit my singing to the shower.”
“That’s a shame. You have a beautiful voice and did a wonderful job with the song.” Reaching across the table, he took her hand in his. “I’d like to hear you sing again sometime, sweetheart.” He smiled and before he could stop himself, he added, “My shower has great acoustics.”
Her eyes widened a moment before anger filled their green depths. “I don’t think so.”
“Never say never, Sasha.”
She pulled her hand from his and, pushing her chair back, rose to her feet. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Blake Fortune. But it’s not going to work.”
Rising to face her, he didn’t think twice about taking her into his arms and drawing her to him. “I’m not up to anything more than having dinner with a beautiful woman that for years, I’ve wanted to get to know better.”
He heard the hitch in her breath a moment before she trembled against him. “Why now? Why after all these years are you—”
“Hush, Sasha.”
Before she had the chance to question him further, Blake lowered his mouth to hers and at the first contact, he felt as if he’d been hit by a bolt of lightning. Nothing could have prepared him for his reaction to the softness of her perfect lips, yielding to the demands of his.
But it was her response that had him hard in less than two seconds flat and forgetting all about slowing things down. Resistant at first, when she melted against him, her fingers curled into the front of his shirt as if she needed to hold on to him to keep from falling at his feet.
As he tightened his arms around her and continued kissing her, a tiny moan escaped her slightly parted lips and he took advantage of her acquiescence to slip his tongue inside. Blake acquainted himself with her tender inner recesses, exploring her thoroughly, savoring the sweetness that was uniquely Sasha.
He slid his hands from her back, up along her sides to the underside of her breasts, but stopped just short of cupping the soft mounds. He sensed that too much, too soon would only scare her away. And that was the last thing he wanted to do.
Reluctant to completely break contact with her, he held her slender body close as he eased away from the kiss. Neither spoke, but he could tell that he’d accomplished two of his goals. He’d managed to stop her from arguing with him, as well as establishing the direction he intended for their friendship to go.
Three
As Sasha sat, staring at Blake across the elegantly arranged table, she had no idea what she was eating or how it tasted. After that kiss, she was lucky to remember her own name, let alone take notice of the food on her plate.
When she’d been a teenager, she’d fantasized about him holding her, kissing her. But she’d never thought the dream would come true. Nor could she have imagined eleven years ago how his kiss would affect her. It had been at least fifteen minutes since they’d sat back down for dinner and she still felt as if every cell in her body tingled.
“How is your steak?” he asked, pointing to her plate.
She stared at the filet mignon, amazed that she’d eaten almost half of it without recalling a single bite. “Uh … very good.”
His pleased smile caused a little flutter deep down in the most secret part of her. “I had