Grip Tash. As in get one.
She walked down to the largest guest suite. She knew this room had been earmarked for him. There'd been enough fuss about what papers and magazines to leave for him on the small table in the corner - Le Monde, the Financial Times, Vanity Fair and GQ. Whether to leave an espresso machine in the room - no, too B&B. And whether orange blossom oil in the diffuser was too girly - at this point Scott had told Holly to stop fussing; Nathaniel Campbell was here to assess the business opportunities and write a book and being male meant he probably wouldn't even notice there was an oil diffuser in the room, never mind care what scent was in it.
Tash held the door open for Nate, surreptitiously inhaling his masculine, citrusy scent as he passed. Sod the orange blossom, she'd be happy to just to smell him all day. She walked into the room with him, embarrassed at her thoughts.
"Your, er bed." Tash gestured towards the king size sleigh bed, feeling vaguely stupid. "Sorry, I never know how to show people their rooms without sounding like a twat. Holly usually does this bit. As far as I'm concerned a bed is a bed and if you can't work out the difference between the ensuite and a wardrobe or work the switch for the blinds well…you don't deserve to have it pointed out to you. Not you obviously, I wouldn't imagine for a minute that…I think I'll just shut up now."
Argh. What is happening to me? This is not like me.
"I quite agree." Nate laughed and her chest relaxed in relief. "I hate it when hotel staff insist on showing me how my room works. I always want to tell them to sod off and leave me in peace."
Tash wanted to say 'me too' but then she'd never actually stayed in a hotel. The odd cheap guesthouse and B&B but nothing grander than that.
See? We have nothing in common. Nothing.
"So, everything's okay?" She hovered, pulling her arms across her chest again, not wanting to adopt a defensive posture but not knowing what else to do with her arms.
Does he want me to sod off?
"Everything seems great," Nate said, feeling the mattress with one hand while staring straight at Tash. "Nice and firm, just how I like it. How about you?"
"Um…" Tash's body had heated up so much she half wondered if she had a temperature. She wasn't a novice when it came to sexual tension or flirting. In fact she considered it her specialist subject but this…Never had she felt so jumpy, so physically jolted by an attraction and it was freaking her out.
This really won't do.
She was used to being the one in control, not the one being played. Sex meant very little to her. It had always been a currency, a source of power, a way to get physical affection and sometimes even to get a roof over her head.
"I only get a bunk bed to sleep in so I'm probably not the right person to ask." She stood rooted to the spot, her gaze fixed on the mattress where Nate had patted it.
"Is that right?" Nate asked, eyebrows raised.
About the bunk bed or not being the right person? Damn, does he think I've just told him I'm not interested?
Nate pulled his red tie off and flung it onto the bed, maintaining eye contact as the silence stretched taut between them. The corners of his mouth twitched; he was playing her all right.
All Tash could think about was Nate using that tie to bind her wrists while he bent her over the bed and did very bad things to her.
She blinked hard, trying not to gape at Nate as he discarded his jacket. Beneath his shirt she could see he was as fit as she'd first thought. Gym body, rugby playing fit. Hard taut muscles fit.
Oh God.
She inhaled deeply, trying to locate her sanity. Wishing she had the small talk gene after all.
It's just sexual desire. Someone's turned the dial up on the intensity, that's all.
She'd always assumed people were exaggerating when they used words like 'irresistible' or talked about love at first sight. It wasn't love, how could it be if you didn't even know the person? It was a primeval response to mate, a need just like hunger or thirst.
It just went to show it meant nothing if she was experiencing these…feelings for a man like Nathaniel Campbell who had nothing in common with her, nothing to do with her world.
Focus. I need to do what Holly said, do it well and not let my hormones distract me. That’s all.
"So, you want me to show you Verbier?" She asked brightly.
He looked at her, amused, appraising her as his gaze travelled the length of her body. She felt it on her legs, her neck, her lips, her breasts…Her skin prickled as though it were a physical touch and he were stripping her. There could be no mistake, no other interpretation, no innocent meaning in that look.
It was both an announcement and an invitation.
Boy, he really doesn't hang about does he?
Maybe she ought to be annoyed, to protest, but what would be the point? It wasn't like directness offended her; it was her preferred method of communication after all.
He knows I fancy him and he's playing me. But weirdly, I don't mind. I don’t mind one little bit.
“I want you to show me everything,” he replied quietly in a low tone that set Tash’s pulse racing.
"Oh?" The word barely made it out of her mouth, all the air in her lungs had mysteriously vanished. She stared at the dark chest hair visible at the exposed neck of his formal white shirt, her cheeks burning.
"But there's one thing I need to be upfront about Tash." Nate's tone changed from flirtatious to serious.
"What's that?" She continued to clutch her arms across her body, as though that might protect her from the force of nature that was Nate Campbell.
"My work is everything to me,” he said. “Fun always has to come second. And I don't do complicated, I haven't time for complicated."
Huh?
A stirring of indignation at his presumption rose above the haze of sexual desire.
"Aren't you making a bit of an assumption here?" She narrowed her eyes into a fierce expression that usually cowed lesser mortals. "We've just met and I thought we were talking about me showing you around Verbier?"
He laughed then, eyes sparking with good humour. "And I thought you didn't do all that small talk bullshit? I like you and you like me. We both know it so what's the point in pretending otherwise? Scientists have proven we know if we're attracted to someone within ninety seconds to four minutes of meeting them. Fact. Why waste time sending oblique signals? We can have fun if you like, or not. It's up to you."
He shrugged as though he could take her or leave her, it was all the same to him and Tash's hands itched to slap him. And then rip his clothes off.
"Actually, you know, you were right." Tash smiled as sweetly as she could manage and backed towards to the door.
"Oh?" Nate unbuttoned his shirt, his smile sexy and confident
Tash swallowed hard at the bare chest he revealed, at the hair snaking down from taut, toned muscles into the waistband of his tailored suit trousers. Was he actually planning to strip in front of her? Ask her to do it here and now while the others were just in the next room? It was tempting to wait and see just how much he was going to strip off.
Maybe