Sherryl Woods - Isn't It Rich?

“I’m sorry about last night,” he apologized. “I never meant to make you uncomfortable. I don’t even know why I said those things. I just wanted to push your buttons, I guess.”

Temper immediately flashed in her eyes. “It was some kind of game? You didn’t really want to sleep with me? I knew it. What kind of man are you?”

Uh-oh. That had definitely come out all wrong. “No,” he said at once. “That’s not it. Dammit, somehow whenever I’m with you, my words get all tangled up.”

“I seem to have the same difficulty,” she admitted with obvious reluctance.

He wanted to be sure she understood. “I do want you, but I also respect what you were saying about not getting involved with a client or even a prospective client. Besides, it’s not as if we know each other well enough for me to haul you off to bed. That’s not a step two people should take on impulse.”

“No,” she agreed softly.

He risked another look into her eyes. The temper had faded, replaced by heat of another kind entirely. She lifted her uninjured hand and touched his cheek.

“Impulses are a risky thing,” she said.

“Melanie.” His voice sounded choked.

“Yes, Richard.”

“It’s still a bad idea. You were right about that.”

“I know,” she said, but her hand continued to rest against his cheek.

“I still want to kiss you,” he murmured honestly, aware that he was testing the waters, waiting for a response. When she didn’t protest or back away, the last of his resolve vanished. “Ah, hell,” he whispered, reaching for her.

She tasted of mint-flavored toothpaste and coffee. It wasn’t a combination he would normally have found the slightest bit seductive, but right this second it struck him as heavenly. He wanted more.

Her lips were as soft and clever as he’d dreamed about during the long, lonely night. Her tongue was downright wicked.

But even as his senses whirled and his blood heated, his conscience wouldn’t stay silent. A nagging voice kept asking him what the hell he thought he was doing. Seducing the sexiest woman to cross his path in months did not strike him as an adequate answer. It certainly wouldn’t hold up to a grilling by his aunt, who was this woman’s friend. Destiny might have a plan for the two of them, but he was relatively confident this wasn’t it.

Eventually he let the voice in his head win, releasing Melanie reluctantly and sitting back on his chair, his hands clenched together as if he didn’t quite trust them to do what his head told them to do.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“I kissed you back,” she said honestly.

He grinned at her determined attempt to be fair. It was not an attitude he especially deserved, and they both knew it. “True enough,” he said anyway, because he liked putting some heat into her eyes.

“You don’t have to gloat,” she grumbled.

He held up his hands. “Not gloating,” he swore solemnly.

She regarded him with an intense, unsmiling expression. “Richard, just so you know, nothing’s changed. I still won’t sleep with you and I still want that contract.”

Richard didn’t doubt either claim. He just wasn’t sure he could live with them. Worse, he didn’t know why the devil that was, which meant mistakes could start piling up before he figured it out if he didn’t watch himself around her every single second. The trouble with that plan was that he much preferred simply watching her.

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