‘No.’
‘No?’ Ruby all but vibrated against the soft leather seat. ‘You just told Sydney’s biggest blabbermouth that we were leaving together in a voice that implied we were leaving together.’
‘How you could ever go out with someone like that I’ll never know.’
‘I didn’t go out with him.’
‘Glad to hear it. So why did you take him to Tino and Miller’s wedding?’
‘None of your business.’
Sam noted her stony profile and stiff shoulders, the colour high along her cheekbones. Could it be that Harris had just been a beard at the wedding? A way of keeping Sam at bay? Irritatingly, if it had been, it had worked.
‘Don’t worry, I think I know.’
Ruby gave up glaring at the window and glared at him instead. ‘Know what?’
‘Why you took Harris to the wedding. You wanted me but you didn’t want to admit it.’
‘You are so full of yourself I’m surprised your enormous ego can fit inside the car with us.’
‘And you’re snippy.’ He leaned forward, his knees brushing the outside of hers. ‘Snippy, prickly and jittery. Now, why is that, do you suppose?’
‘I don’t know, Sam. You’re the one who knows everything, so you tell me.’
‘I think you can’t forget what happened between us last week any more than I can.’ A flush rose up along her cheekbones and he wanted to reach out and tug her onto his lap. ‘I think you’re not sleeping properly because you can’t forget how it felt to have my hands on you.’ His voice dropped to a rumbling purr. ‘My mouth.’
Her eyelids fluttered shut for a brief second.
‘Tell me when you knew it was me,’ he pressed softly, not realising how important her answer was until he’d voiced the question.
She frowned across at him, not following where his mind had gone before a cynical smile twisted her lips. ‘I don’t see what that has to do with anything.’
‘Humour me.’
‘Why?’ she parried. ‘If anyone should be asking that question it’s me.’ She looked down her nose at him. ‘After all, you were the one who claimed that a man with any integrity should know if he’s ever kissed a woman before.’
It took Sam a moment to place that comment and when he did he laughed. ‘You knew it was me that early on, huh? Well, that does stroke my enormous ego. So why the anonymity?’
She shifted restlessly in her seat. ‘Maybe I didn’t feel like making small talk.’
‘And maybe there’s more to it than that,’ he said, knowing he was right when she narrowed her eyes.
‘As I said, I should be the one asking you that question.’ She gave him a cool look. ‘When did you figure out it was me?’
He leaned back against the soft leather upholstery and tried to remember the last time he’d enjoyed talking to a woman as much as he did Ruby. ‘I knew the exact moment you turned those frosty green eyes on me,’ he said quietly.
She glanced back at him, her eyes suddenly wary. ‘If that’s true then why didn’t you say anything at the time?’
‘I did. I offered to carry your drinks.’
She bit into her bottom lip, her brows drawn together. ‘I thought you were trying to pick me up.’
A grin spread slowly across his face. ‘I was.’
‘Oh—’
Before she could blast him with yet another fiery put-down a car horn honked and almost immediately their driver swerved, muttering curses as he slammed on the brakes. The car lurched to a sudden halt and Ruby slid from her seat straight into Sam’s arms.
Startled, she braced her hands against his shoulders, her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat. He knew because his hands were on either side of her ribcage, right beneath the swell of her soft breasts.
The car started forward, the driver muttering an apology over his shoulder as he manoeuvred around a stalled taxi in the centre lane.
‘What happened?’ Ruby asked breathlessly.
‘Fate,’ he answered roughly, one hand lifting to slide beneath the thick fall of her hair as he brought her mouth to his.
As soon as his lips covered hers she opened for him, her eager tongue tangling with his with a hungry abandon that matched his own.