She’d let him off the hook a lot easier than he deserved.
“I’m sorry about today, too. You wanted to learn about the cars and I was a dick about it.”
“Yes, you were. But the whole thing with Cal was my doing.”
“To make me mad, I know. You obviously aren’t attracted to him.”
She crossed her arms. “And how do you know that?”
He nodded toward her outfit. “Look at what you’re wearing.”
“Hey. What’s wrong with my dress?”
“You look like you just stepped off the Mayflower. No woman who wants to impress a guy would wear a dress like that.”
She laughed, obviously not insulted. “Okay, fine. You’ve got me there. So, we’ll start over?”
He smiled at her. “Yeah. We’ll start over.”
Her lips lifted too, making his gaze gravitate to them and stay there. He remembered last night and what it felt like to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her again, to take up where they left off. She’d felt good against him, her body molded to his, pliant and welcoming. He wondered what would have happened if they’d been someplace more private.
Like here.
He lifted his gaze to her eyes, saw the desire and wariness mixed there. Maybe Evelyn was remembering the same thing.
She should be wary. The two of them together wasn’t a good thing.
He took that back. Getting her in his bed would be a great thing, followed by the morning after, which would mean he’d still have to see her, work with her, and be reminded that she worked for his father. It would be a hell of a mess, which was why, despite her killer body and sexy mouth, he wasn’t going to take her to bed.
“I should go.” She stood, and despite that ugly-as-hell dress and the even worse shoes she wore, she looked as sexy tonight as she had last night. He didn’t think it had anything to do with the attire. Had to be the woman.
His dick totally agreed, because it twitched, still obviously thinking of kissing her and touching her last night. And his dick had a mind of its own. “You could stay for a while.”
She cocked a brow. “And do what? I left my laptop in my hotel room. We can’t work.”
Good. He liked the idea of not working, of not thinking of her as being part of his father’s life. He wanted to think of her as a desirable woman he could take to bed.
He took a step closer, inhaling her scent. Something clean and sweet. Not perfume, though. “There are other things to do besides work, Evelyn.”
“I’m pretty sure you made it clear last night you wanted nothing to do with me on a personal level.”
She’d worn her hair pulled back. He reached behind her and easily unclipped it, then spread her hair over her shoulders. “I was mad last night.”
She tilted her head back, meeting his gaze. Her breathing was hard and fast. “So was I.”
“You mad now?”
“No.”
“Good.” He slid his hand around the nape of her neck, closed what little distance there was between them, and did what he’d been dying to do—angry or not—all goddamn day long.
He kissed her.
TEN
EVELYN’S BREATH CAUGHT AT THE FIRST TOUCH OF Gray’s lips to hers.
A thousand reasons why this was a colossally bad idea ran through her mind, but then she leaned against a wall of hard male muscle, and all those reasons flitted right out of her head. All she could think about was the fullness of his lips, the way he brushed them back and forth against hers, and then his tongue invaded her mouth, sliding against hers. Her belly tumbled, her legs trembled, and she was lost.
She laid a hand on his well-toned abs, wound one into his hair and clenched a handful. He groaned against her mouth, and she let out a moan. When he cupped her butt to draw her closer, she knew she was a goner. Whatever objection she thought she might make wasn’t going to happen. She was in this to the finish line tonight. Her clit tingled with need, her br**sts felt swollen and heavy, and all she needed to know was how fast they were going to get to the bedroom, because she wanted to be naked and have Gray inside her as soon as humanly possible.
She slipped her hand between them and reached for the very hard part of him nestling against her hip, stopping short when Gray grabbed her wrist.
He looked down at her. “Whoa. In a hurry?”
“Actually, yes. Shall we move this to the bedroom?”
His gaze burned hot, but he shook his head. “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s slow this down a little.”
Oh, God. He was going to tell her he changed his mind. How embarrassing. He was right. This was a really bad idea. Where had her common sense gone? She knew where it had gone—somewhere between her legs.
Except Gray slid his hands down her sides, a slow trek that ended at her hips. And when he gathered her dress in his hands and began to raise it, her hem rising over her thighs, she looked down, then up at him, confusion reigning.
He held the material of her dress bunched in his hands, his breathing heavy, that hot, panty-melting look doing nothing to cool her libido.
She thought he was stopping things. This most definitely didn’t appear to be a thudding halt. And when he grabbed her butt and lifted her, he said, “Wrap your legs around me.”
Maybe they were heading to the bedroom after all. She laid her hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his hips as he carried her toward the bedroom.
But he stopped in the kitchen and placed her on his countertop.
Oh, my.
She’d always been a strictly bedroom type of woman. But as Gray pulled her shoes off, then pushed her dress over her hips, she was beginning to see the benefits of out-of-bed experiences. This was decadent, air from the vent of the air conditioner pouring down over them as he reached for her panties. And thank God she’d worn something other than random white ones.
“These black lacy things are sexy,” he said as he drew them down her legs. “You wear them for Cal?”
“There wasn’t a chance in hell that Cal McClusky was going to see my underwear tonight.”
He gave her a wicked, half smile as he looked up at her. “Good to know. Is that why you wore this hideous dress?”
“Hey. It’s not that bad.”
“Yeah, it is. It’s like a dress a nun would wear. You wore it to be sexless, didn’t you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You couldn’t be sexless if you wore a dress made out of porcupine quills, Evelyn.”