Jill Shalvis - Tangling With Ty

“Your computer is calling you,” she said far more unevenly than she would have liked.

Still leaning over her, his mouth wet from hers, he slowly blinked, giving her a heavy-lidded look that made her want once again to melt all over him. “What?”

Pulling all the way free of his hands so she could get her brain functioning again, she stepped away, disturbed by how devastating one simple kiss had been.

Bottom line, when he laid on his easygoing charm, he was dangerous to her mental health, and this power seemed such an innate part of him she just needed to stay the hell away, period. “Your computer,” she repeated, licking her lips and tasting him on her. “It’s calling you.”

It took him a while because first he watched her tongue dart out to lick her lips, but finally he turned his head and looked at his computer screen.

His breathing wasn’t even either, Nicole noticed, just as she’d noticed every little detail about him. Like his bare chest, lightly tanned and hard with lean muscle. Or his faded, soft jeans, and the not-so-soft bulge behind the zipper.

She turned him on. The unexpected knowledge, along with the overwhelming and equally unexpected power of that, blew her away.

She turned him on. She, the original geek, turned on the sexiest, most erotic, most sensuous, passionate man she’d ever met. And that shouldn’t have been so…thrilling. “You have mail.” Her voice sounded breathless again. Not good. If she wasn’t careful, he’d notice and take it as an invitation. “Aren’t you going to look?”

“Yeah.” Blocking the screen with his big body, he read the e-mail, then put the computer on sleep mode. And though his face was carefully creased in one of his trademark easy, slow smiles, tension came off him in waves. “Where were we?” he asked in a light lilt that could have melted Iceland as he reached for her.

“Oh, no,” she said, backing up, right into a wall. “Not so fast.” She slapped a hand to his chest, his bare chest, which radiated heat. Her fingers started to curl into him, wanting more, so she wrenched it back. “I’m out of here.”

“You going to let a little kiss bother you then?”

She lifted a finger and pointed it at him. “You are not going to goad me into another one.”

“Because that would be…mind-blowing?”

“Because that would be…stupid.” She ducked beneath his arms and moved to the center of his office. “I came here to give you the plans and tell you I’m not attracted to you.”

“Which we’ve proved is a lie.”

“Okay, so I don’t want to be attracted to you,” she amended. “And now I’m gone.”

He waited until she got to the door. “Would it be so bad, Nicole, if we gave in to it?”

Not turning to him, not daring to, because at one look from him, she’d cave. Instead she tipped back her head and studied the ceiling. “Yes.”

“Because…?”

“Because. Just because.”

“We’d heat it up good, darlin’, you know that.”

Since her body was still heated up good, she had no doubt of that. Then his computer beeped again, accompanied by a surprisingly low and vicious oath from Ty. Turning back, she caught his unguarded expression as he reached for the keyboard.

Fury, plain and simple.

Wondering what was wrong, she sidled up behind him almost without realizing it, so that when he whipped around hiding the screen, she would have fallen backwards if he hadn’t grabbed her around the waist.

Fingers gripping her tightly, he lifted a brow. “See anything interesting?”

“No.”

His voice had lost all of its warmth. “You were right to run, Nicole. You should run. Now.” He let go of her, and she stumbled back. By the time she regained her balance, he had turned away, hands fisted on the windowsill as he stared outside.

She stared at his stiff back. “I didn’t see anything.”

“You’ll have to be quicker next time, huh?”

His temper stirred hers. Whirling, she stalked through the door, then down the hallway, and was reaching for the front door when he wrapped his long fingers around her elbow and spun her around. He had both his hands on her arms now, holding her still. He towered over her, her dark-haired, blue-eyed mystery man with the low, gruff voice and the sexy mouth that she was attracted to only every breathing moment she looked at him.

She struggled to free herself, but he wasn’t having it. “I can bring you to your knees with one well-placed kick,” she warned him.

“A moment ago I might have been in the mood for an all-out, drag-down, dirty fight, but not now.” His hands gentled, and he used one to cup her face. “I snapped at you and I’m sorry.”

“Fine.”

He sighed at her unbending, rigid stance. “Look, I was feeling nasty, all right? And I tend to take it out on anyone around me.” He sighed again. “Which is why I don’t often have anyone around me.”

She wanted to stay mad. Mad gave her energy to leave. But with him looking at her in that disarming way, with his hands still on her…it all dissolved.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated softly.

“I said fine.”

“Forgiven?”

She had to shake her head. “I’m usually so nasty when I’m not working, no one wants anything to do with me. My own family would rather I just- Damn it. Damn it. ” She slapped her forehead. “I forgot to go to the family dinner my mom planned. There’ll be hell to pay for that.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have a family like mine, I take it,” she said wryly. “Big, bossy, noisy and more demanding than any work schedule I ever face.”

“No, I don’t have a family like that.” His eyes were curiously flat again. “I don’t have one at all.”

No. No, that wouldn’t tug at her either.

“I really am sorry,” he said very quietly, cupping her face, letting his long fingers stroke her skin. “Don’t let me and my foul mood chase you off.”

“I…need to go.”

“You know, I never would have pegged you for a chicken,” he taunted softly, and stopped her in her tracks.

She put her finger to his chest. “Take that back.” No one called her a chicken, and- And his chest…damn! His chest was captivating her all over again.

His smile reached his eyes again, when instead of continuing to poke him she ended up dragging her finger in slow circles from one pec to the other. “I am not going to sleep with you,” she said, but mmm, he had the best body. When her fingernail scraped over his nipple, he made a little hiss through his teeth. The sound shot straight to her good spots. “I’m not.”

“There you go, your mind in the gutter again.” His voice was a little rough around the edges now, even rougher when her finger ran over his nipple again.

“You weren’t thinking it? Not even a little?” she whispered.

“Well, I know you were.”

“I can lust after you and still keep my distance.”

“Can you?”

“Watch me.” She whirled to the door, put her hand on the handle, and…hesitated. “Are you…going to be okay?”

“Okay?”

“After that e-mail.” She glanced at him, but he’d perfectly shuttered his expression.

“Don’t you worry about me, darlin’.”

She had the feeling no one did. He had no one, which was almost beyond her comprehension. Her own family was a regular pain in her ass. But they were also always there for her, no matter what, and always had been. She couldn’t imagine being totally alone.

“I can see those wheels turn, doctor.”

“I was just wondering how it was you came to be all alone. What happened to your family?”

“Personal questions? From you?” His smile seemed a little off. “Tell you what. I get a question for every one of yours. Let’s start with this one. How is it you’re so beautiful and sexy, and yet the fact that we turn each other on makes you nervous as hell?”