Jo Leigh - One-Click Buy - September Harlequin Blaze

His face flushed. “You’re referring to the Ladies League ball.”

“I am.” She lowered her eyelashes.

“That’s not the real me. You just caught me on a bad night.”

“Not from my point of view.” She winked. “I thought you were very, very good that night.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I took advantage of you.”

“That’s not the way I recall it. In my memory, I clearly took advantage of you.”

“Either way, it was a life-altering experience for me.”

“How’s that?”

“Ever since that night I’ve been unable to think about anything but you.”

“Really?” she said.

“Believe me, that’s not normal.”

“Way to flatter a girl,” she teased, “telling her it’s not normal to be wanted.”

“That’s not what I mean…” He pressed a palm to the back of his neck, chuffed out a breath. “I’m handling this badly.”

She studied his face, clean-shaven, honest, aboveboard. If this had been the Middle Ages, he most certainly would have been a dutiful knight, stalwart and well-intentioned.

Something scary shifted inside her. Maybe she shouldn’t try her Martini dare on him. He was too nice of a guy and she didn’t want to hurt him. “Liam, I…”

“Yes?”

The way he was looking at her caused her feminine sex to clench with a swift squeeze of ravenous need. A deep-seated tightening of desire. She had to have him, never mind the costs.

Befuddled by lust, she dropped her gaze, fumbled blindly for her briefcase, heard her heart pounding blood rapidly through her ears. “I…I’ve got your proposal right here. I’ve gotta warn you, the designs are a bit racy, but you did say you wanted sex.”

The word sex hung in the air, as provocative as heavy breathing.

Unnerved, Katie pushed aside the appetizer plate, scooted her chair closer so they could both see it and placed the file folder on the table between them. “Obviously we’re appealing to young, urban professionals with a high income.”

“Obviously,” he agreed, and leaned over her shoulder. The warmth of his breath fanned the hairs along the nape of her neck.

She flipped open the file, then looked at him to gauge his initial reaction to the graphics of her mock-up.

Suddenly, she understood exactly how much she wanted his approval.

Liam tilted his head to study the photograph with interest, but his face remained unreadable. Damn him and his perfect self-control.

In the ad, a lithe young woman was stepping naked from a patio hot tub underneath a starlit sky. She was holding a white terry cloth towel in her hand that barely covered her explicit parts.

Seated on a lawn chair, in the dark, at the far end of the patio was a man equally as naked, his explicit bits hidden in the shadow cast by a glistening chrome barbecue grill. The man’s eyes were hooked on the woman, the unmistakable signs of feral lust on his face.

The woman was as blond as Katie, the man as dark-haired as Liam. The setting was totally intimate. The choice of models and setting had not been accidental. She’d worked very hard to create an erotic, atmospheric draft that was still subtle enough for mainstream media. It had been a tricky balance, getting the right play of light, capturing the seductive interplay without going over the top.

“We’re thinking of a caption along the lines of-James Place Condominiums…Where Your Most Forbidden Fantasies Come True,” she said. “But the copywriters are still working on it.”

He raised his gaze from the photo, locked eyes with her. “It makes me want to sell my penthouse apartment and move in tomorrow.”

“You really like it?” His approval gladdened her heart.

“It’s exceptional work. You’ve accurately captured exactly what I was going for. The color, the mood, the marketing elements. You’re a master at this, Katie. You can go as high as you want in your career.”

The way he was looking at her made her feel competent and accomplished and reliable. She could honestly say no one else had ever made her feel quite this proud of her work. Katie wasn’t accustomed to impressing a man with her artistic skills, especially a man with as much business savvy as this one. He made her want to truly commit to her career. To throw herself into it the same way she threw herself into romantic adventures.

It was a new experience, this desire to be industrious and self-reliant. She liked it.

And she liked him.

Then he did something completely unexpected.

Liam reached over, took her hand in his, stared deeply into her eyes and said, “After dinner, would you like to go bowling?”

BOWLING?

Why in the hell had he invited her to go bowling? Liam had never bowled a day in his life.

Why? Because Tony had advised him to throw her a few curveballs. And his friend’s advice had seemed to work with the dog collar and taking her to Carmine’s when his instincts had been to send long-stemmed roses and take her to the fanciest French restaurant in town in a limo.

But bowling? Maybe he should have given the monster-truck rally more consideration.

Unfortunately for him, Katie had been excited at his suggestion. Apparently the girl loved to bowl. Who could have suspected a well-bred Brahmin blue blood would go for bowling?

The alley was alive with noise. He was seriously out of his element as he laced up the two-toned rented shoes. Why on earth was he doing this? His forte was the boardroom, not the bowling lanes.

Then he looked at Katie with her face aglow and he knew why. Her smile made him happy. The realization surprised him. The happiness surprised him.

Absentmindedly, he raised a palm and pressed it against his heart as he watched her pick up her bowling ball and take aim at the ten pins. She looked adorable in those ugly bowling shoes, the hem of her dress swirling around her firm thighs and her hair tumbling over her shoulders in untamed abandon.

He loved her gung-ho spirit and her lively personality. She could turn something as mundane as taking out the trash into a grand adventure. Life with Katie would be lots of fun.

Trouble was, Liam wasn’t used to fun. If he wasn’t working, he felt guilty for leaving things undone. He hadn’t made it where he was today by goofing off with frivolous activities such as bowling.

Being with Katie made him understand how much he’d been missing out on. And he was tired of missing out. Even if it meant he had to make a fool of himself at the bowling alley.

She bent over to take the shot.

Underneath his palm, he felt his heart rate kick up.

She wiggled her butt and he couldn’t help but think she was teasing him. Then she was in motion, floating gracefully down the lane as only a bowling, blue-blooded princess could. She let go of the ball. It rolled down the alley, mowing down every pin.

“Strike!” she yelled gleefully, and spun around toward him, a huge smile on her face. She came trotting over to where he sat. “High five.”

He slapped her upraised palm. The smacking sound, the resulting tingle as his flesh met hers, caused a stirring deep inside him. A stirring unlike anything he’d ever felt before. He had no name for it and that bothered him.

Her gaze met his. Nervously, she flicked out a tongue to lick her lips. It wasn’t a calculated gesture, of that he was sure. But the sight of her sweet pink tongue darting out to moisten those full red lips caused his stomach to contract and his penis to harden.

“Where’d you learn to bowl like that?” he asked. “Last time I checked they don’t have bowling alleys in Beacon Hill.”

“My mother,” she said.

“Bowling isn’t a sport that high-society mamas usually encourage their daughters to take up.”

“My mother was an exceptional woman.”