Because she has you captivated. Because she makes you want to talk, to open up. Because she makes you want to be the better person.
And isn’t that part of her appeal? What makes you want her?
Something stirred deep inside and he frowned at the road. It didn’t matter the reasoning, he wanted her, and he didn’t back away from what he wanted. The consequences, whatever they might be, could come later.
She retracted her hand, folding it into her lap. ‘Thank you for saying that.’
Her voice was so soft, so thoughtful. He slipped her a look beneath his lashes and his stress evaporated. She looked so goddamn delicious. His comment had brought out a glow in her cheeks, her eyes still shone, and all he wanted was to roll back the seat and reacquaint himself with every stretch of her perfect skin. Bury his own unease in the ecstasy they could so easily conjure.
But she hadn’t agreed to cross that line...not yet.
He forced his attention onto the road. Off her smoky grey eyes that he wanted to lose himself in; off her lips, so full and appealing as they glistened in soft pink today; off her dress, and the way the red fabric fell over the gentle swell of her breasts, hinting at the perfect rose-tipped nubs; off her delicate waist and her legs, bare from the mid-thigh down, and definitely off her cute red-tipped toes that peeked from her heeled sandals.
Hell, summer could bring torture in itself.
‘Maybe I will drive after all.’
His eyes shot to hers.
Caught gawping while driving could easily be a new traffic offence.
He gave a lopsided grin and shook his head, as much at her as himself. ‘You shouldn’t have worn that dress if you expected me to focus.’
‘I may have had an ulterior motive.’
His heart raced.
Was she saying...? Was it possible?
‘An ulterior motive, you say?’
Her fingers dropped to toy with the hem of her dress, teasing him with little glimpses of more. ‘Perhaps...’
‘Care to share?’
‘I think it’s more fun for you to find out,’ she said, and the sultry heat to her gaze almost had him pulling the car over anew. ‘But for now, I think it will serve us well for you to concentrate on the road.’
She turned away, her hands shifting back to grasp her tablet, and telling him the moment had passed. For her. He was still in the thick of it. And with it came a weird sense of panic. Now convinced the line was about to expire, that he could have her, was it right?
He wanted her. She wanted him. But was she looking for more? Was he letting his desire drown out all the warning signals? The signals that had kept him free of emotional baggage, free of this...
And what was this?
He’d never wanted a woman as he wanted her.
So who was he really trying to protect: her or him?
His chest tightened, and he tried to forget it, to think on less troubling things, like the curve of her legs outstretched beside him, but it was no good. The woman to which they belonged didn’t just trigger desire any more, she had set off an emotional torrent within him that he couldn’t understand.
He was still trying to rationalise it away over an hour later, the journey having been spent in a strange silence, broken only as often as was polite to engage in the odd remark, mainly from her.
‘You’d love living in Hertfordshire. It’s beautiful out this way—a real getaway from the city. You know, the house we’re viewing already has a lot of interest; I’m hoping you’ll like it, but it’s a bit of a risk based on the info I’ve gleaned from you.’
And so on. All of it tame and professional, and way off the elephant filling the intimate cabin with a thrumming tension.
He didn’t know where concern over his own confused feelings ended, and his concern that she would want more began.
‘This is it,’ she piped up, her sudden excitement palpable, and he looked to her, to all that was happy and alive in her face, and realised his concern for her far outweighed his own. Julia’s warning struck home, as did his own. She wasn’t right for him.