Kara Lennox - Reluctant Partners

He never should have slept with her. Now that he had, though, it was like Pandora’s box. He couldn’t put the lid back on.

Even as these thoughts chased through his head, Cooper did his best corporate networking, exchanging his newly printed business cards with other boat owners. As Allie had pointed out, people who owned yachts probably weren’t their target customers. But they might very well have friends who were.

By ten o’clock the party was in full swing, but Allie looked tired and Cooper took pity on her. They had another full day ahead of them. He extricated her from a group of younger women she appeared to be bonding with; they said a few goodbyes and slipped out.

“Thank God,” she said, leaning against the elevator wall and closing her eyes. “That was exhausting.”

“You didn’t enjoy it?”

She shrugged one delicate shoulder. “I’m not really a party girl. I guess I prefer my own company to just about anyone else’s.”

“Not too many people can say that.”

“A lot of people are scared to be alone with themselves, so they fill every spare minute with parties and drinking, TV, talking on the phone, shopping, cruising the Internet. But give me a quiet morning anchored in a deserted cove, just me and the ocean and sky and maybe a few seabirds. That’s when you really find out who you are.”

“You paint a pretty picture. Only one problem with it.”

She opened her eyes to look at him. “What’s that?”

“No man in it.”

“I don’t need a man.”

“Last night says you do.”

She backed away from him. “Last night was…unusual.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

The elevator doors opened onto the hotel lobby and Allie scurried out. She refused to meet his gaze as they waited under the hotel canopy for the valet to bring around his car. She continued to look uncomfortable as he drove the few blocks back to their own hotel.

All day he’d been looking forward to tonight, when he could have Allie all to himself again, naked and burning with passion in his bed. But her current attitude didn’t bode well for his plans.

It seemed she was having second thoughts.

The valet opened her door, and she stepped out and thanked him with a dazzling smile. She could have been a princess instead of a tomboy boat captain. She walked ahead of him toward the hotel’s revolving door, and he noticed the light dusting of freckles on her shoulders.

The curve of her bare back made his mouth go dry.

Nothing more was said until he unlocked the door to their suite.

“Well, we’ve got a long day ahead of us,” Allie said with false brightness. “I’m going to bed.”

“Whoa, wait a minute.”

She skidded to a stop. “What?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something? Didn’t we go to the party looking forward to when it was over?”

“You caught me in a weak moment. You know us having sex is a bad idea.”

He sighed. “If that’s how you feel. We could at least sit down and unwind. Maybe have a glass of wine and talk about our strategy for tomorrow.”

“Talk? You really want to talk?”

Amazingly, if they couldn’t go straight to bed-together-he did want to talk. Allie was one woman whose company he didn’t find tedious, who didn’t talk endlessly about shopping and TV shows he didn’t watch and the love lives of people he didn’t know and what her latest body-mass-index reading was at the health club.

“What I really want is to take you to bed and make love to you all night. But I get the distinct feeling that’s not in the cards.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she turned to face him. “Cooper, please. I don’t want to turn you down. In fact, I’m not sure I can. You’re too persuasive. So could you just cut me some slack and not push it?”

He sighed again, louder this time. If she’d played coy, he might have enjoyed the challenge of chasing her. But he couldn’t now, not when she looked like she was about to cry.

“Okay,” he said agreeably, as if it didn’t matter that much to him. “I’d still like a glass of wine to relax. How about you?”

She flashed him a cautious smile. “Sure.”

When they were settled comfortably in the living area-him in a chair, her on the sofa-with cold glasses of Chablis from the minibar, Cooper finally felt the tension seeping out of his muscles.

“Don’t worry, I intend to honor your wishes,” he said. “But I would like to know why you don’t want to spend the night with me.”

“Cooper. Surely you don’t need me to explain this to you. We are technically enemies who have called a temporary truce. There’s no future in you and me. Yes, I’ve been alone for a while, but I’m not desperate enough to compound last night’s mistake with more of the same.”

He lifted his glass to her. “Thank you for explaining all that to me. But I have never once thought of you as desperate.” In fact, he was the desperate one. Because the longer he sat there looking at but not touching Allie, the more he wanted her.

It shouldn’t matter. Why did it matter?

“Do you regret last night?” he asked her.

She looked down. “Last night we were in unusual circumstances.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

After a moment she looked back at him, holding his gaze so long that he finally had to look away. “No,” she said. “I don’t regret it. We were carried away, and I can forgive myself for that. Once.”

“More than once, if memory serves.”

He could have sworn a bit of fire flared in her green eyes.

“Don’t get technical on me.”

If he set down his wine, stood, walked the three steps that separated them and pulled her out of that chair and into his arms, would she still deny him? He had a feeling the answer was no. But he’d told her he wouldn’t push, and if he went back on his word he would just confirm every stereotype she harbored about dishonest, conniving, self-serving lawyers in general and him in particular. He had a responsibility to uphold the image of lawyers everywhere.

Right.

He gulped the rest of his wine in two swallows. Might as well face it, nothing was going to cool his ardor while Allie was within his range of vision wearing that dress. He wasn’t sure whether to thank Sara or curse her for convincing him to buy it even though Allie had nixed it.

Standing up, he set down his glass. “Guess it’s good night, then. I’ll order breakfast for about seven.”

She nodded and cleared her throat.

He turned, took two steps, then stopped. Had Allie’s eyes been shiny with tears? Surely not. But his feet remained rooted to the spot. He couldn’t bear it if he’d made her cry.

Slowly he peeked at her over his shoulder. She had her head down, her hands clasped in her lap, her breasts rising and falling in a too-quick rhythm to be natural breathing.

Damn it.

He was at her side and down on one knee in two seconds. “Allie, baby, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. Go away.”

“I won’t. Did I say something wrong?”

She took a deep, broken breath. “N-no. You said everything right. You did exactly what I asked you to do.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem…” She looked up at him, her eyes swimming in tears. “The problem is me. I’m weak and an idiot to boot.”

“You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”

“But not the smartest! Because secretly I was hoping you would make it impossible for me to say no.”

Cooper was looking at Allie like he wanted to devour her in one bite.

“Could you just leave me with whatever shreds of dignity I have left, please?” She didn’t like begging, but she was in desperate trouble here. He was within touching distance. In fact, he was touching her, smoothing her hair off her face, tucking a strand behind her ear.