“Min green,” he explained quietly, amusement lighting his face in that horrifyingly attractive way. “The green of your eyes.”
“Smooth.” She shook her head, clenching her fist. Wishing he’d let her go. “You’re right. We’ll do this later. We have six m-m-months, right?”
How could one little touch be too intimate?
“No we should work on this now.” His smile grew wicked. “And you need to add something to the Twitter thing too, right? I can’t be bothered with the picture idea. What words instead?”
She paused. Like she was supposed to be able to think of something witty now? “Thanks for the congrats? I think we should ignore the haters.”
His expression hardened ever so slightly and he released her hand. “Ah yes, the haters.”
“There are thousands.” She ditched the pen and picked up the spoon again. She needed the sugar. “Predicting the failure of our relationship already.”
“Don’t you love being a foregone conclusion?” His eyes narrowed, undermining the glibness of that comment.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him, trying to determine what that vestige of tension meant. Did he want to prove them wrong?
She couldn’t believe he’d care. He always seemed to joke. But underneath? She glanced at his body. Underneath the loose tee, the low slung jeans? Muscle, strength. Masculine beauty.
Bad idea to look. Really bad.
She shifted her gaze to the left of him, stared at the expanse of glass desk. So hot in here. And it was too late. Her mind went crazy. She imagined him on his knees beneath the glass, big and strong and hell-bent on pleasuring her... touching her, kissing her, while she sat there in his chair with her legs spread, supposedly Skyping some client while trying not to squirm...
OMG, what was with the exhibitionist fantasy? That was so not her. But it took all her self-control not to shift on her seat. To rock.
“Min?”
Startled she came back to the present—to find him still right in front of her, his leg pressing hard against her knee. His expression knowing, as if he’d picked up her outrageous thoughts.
Telepathy wasn’t one of her talents, so maybe her lust had just been written all over her face. She felt that now familiar heat beat its way into her cheeks. Blood pulsed in her lips.
He stared back at her. Faint color scorched his cheekbones. A muscle in his jaw became more pronounced. The ice blue in his eyes was ferociously swallowed by dark pupils.
“We need to get out of this apartment,” he suddenly spoke, his voice edged. “You need to get out of the apartment. You’ve been locked inside for hours. You need some fresh air.”
“No I d-d-don’t.” She reached to the side of him and grabbed the ice-cream. “I’m fine. I get allergies from fresh air.”
“You’ll get RSI from typing and go blind from staring at the screen all day. You really should do some exercise.”
“I prefer to exercise in private.”
He sent her an amused, ironic look. But for once refrained from the obvious innuendo.
Oh hell, she hadn’t meant that.
“Come on.” He straightened. “Put a jacket on, it’s cold out.”
“What about the c-c-crazies…” she trailed off. For all her desire to get out of this mad situation, those photographers scared her.
“I have a plan,” he said calmly. “Give me a minute.”
She watched as he left the room, her mind regressing to only basic instinct functionality. She wanted to see through that tee of his to the hard-built muscles beneath. And the way his shoulders tapered so beautifully to those narrow hips? The butt that was begging to be clutched and pulled close? The so-at-ease-in-his-own-skin way he walked, all barefoot and beautiful and like he knew just how to work his own body to its very best?
Slowly she stood, abandoning the ice-cream. She did need fresh air, it might clear the dizzying sensual fog in her head. She went to her room and slipped her boots on, her coat. When she got back out to the hallway he was waiting.
“Baseball cap, check.” He tossed her a navy cap. “Got sunglasses?”
She nodded, waving with the hand that held them. “Isn’t this disguise all the m-more obvious?”
“They can’t capture your expression if your eyes are covered,” he said. “Keep the cap tugged low and turn the collar of your coat up.”
She did as he suggested. “This is r-r-ridiculous.”
“It’ll work. Come on.”
She frowned at him—still wearing only the tee and no shoes? “Aren’t you coming?”
His smile burst forth. “No sweetheart, I’m not coming.”
Disappointment hit. She stiffened—but he’d seen it in her eyes already. She knew it.
“That is,” he elaborated with a wink. “Not yet.”
She nearly growled. The innuendo was just too much. The guy seriously needed taking down. Hard. How he could manage to irritate her so much—and yet make her want him to the point of cray-cray?
“Don’t worry,” he soothed. “Ed will take good care of you.”
“You’re sending me out for a walk with your m-m-minder like I’m your pet dog?”
“Babe,” he mock crooned. “You’re not a dog.”
She glared at him, half inclined to stalk back to her bedroom and bolt the door. But that would be petty and childish and just because she was feeling that urge, didn’t mean she was going to act on it.
Same went for the insane lust urges too.
She turned towards the door and heard him mumble something beneath his breath. She stopped and swivelled back to face him, eyebrows raised. “Mmm?”
“Hang on a minute.” He walked towards her.
She stood, crazily immobile as he moved within her personal space. She couldn’t speak.
“Turn around.” His words were soft, but the light in his eyes was hot and hard.
Swallowing, she simply did as he asked.
She felt his fingers lightly brush the back of her neck and fought to suppress her shiver. He lifted her braid and gave it a light shake. “This is a dead giveaway,” he murmured. “It’s so thick.”
She felt him tug on her hair slightly, then he pulled her coat so he could feed the braid down it, hiding it.
“You’ve always kept it long?” he asked, an edge of roughness in the softly asked question.
She nodded and pivoted a fraction to see him.
“You ever wear it out?” he a
sked.
Their eyes met.
Slowly she shook her head, not trusting her voice.
“You should.” He turned away. “Come on, let’s make your escape.”
Surely the photographers would be gone. This was Manhattan, there were way more famous people to stalk, right?
Ed was waiting downstairs looking all business. He quickly ushered them into the office behind the security desk. “Decoy is ready to go,” he said in a low voice to Logan.
Decoy? Min stared past the tall, broad-shouldered man back out to the lobby.
There was another woman out there. Similar in height to Min, she wore a giant cover-all jacket, massive sunglasses that covered half her face… and was that a long braid hanging down from under the cap she was wearing?
Min turned to Logan. “You’re k-kidding.”
He merely smiled. It was that cynical-edged curl. “She’ll take the heat off. You’ll go out a few minutes after her, Ed will be a couple of paces behind. Go to the park.”
She didn’t want to be sent to the park like she was some underage charge who needed her daily hit of fresh air to stay healthy.
But her pointed glare was wasted, Logan wasn’t even looking at her to feel the effect. He was watching one of the security screens—it showed some other big, strong, obviously security guy exiting the building with the decoy in tow. Fascinated, Min stepped closer to the screen to watch. As soon as they hit the sidewalk the paparazzi appeared. Two of them, called out, following the woman who was immediately swept under the protective arm-span of the ridiculously muscled man.
They were that insistent?
“Ms Jones?”
Startled, she turned. It was Ed.
Min looked past him, but Logan had vanished.
“You’re good to go,” Ed said impassively. “I’ll ensure you’re not bothered.”
Too late. She was totally bothered.
“You need to go now.”
She sure did. She ducked out of the building, heading in the opposite direction to the decoy. She walked quickly, aware Ed was keeping pace a few feet behind her.
Crazy.
But as she walked, the hot mess of thoughts in her head cooled and settled. She was in Manhattan, staying in the most amazing apartment she’d ever walked into, why wasn’t she just relaxing and enjoying the ride? He’d be bored with the idea in another day or so and she’d be free. Her business would be safe. There was no need to take this that seriously. Soon she’d be able to laugh the whole thing off.