He sighs heavily and sinks back into the couch cushion. “I can’t do that to you. After everything you went through with your ex-husband, how can I possibly put you through the ringer like that?”
I roll my eyes, the newfound strength flowing through my veins like a surging river. “You wouldn’t be putting me through anything. This isn’t the same. This isn’t Eduardo trying to hoodwink me. This is you and me being honest and doing something that’s right. Doing something that matters for your brother, and for you.” As I voice the words, it hits me that this isn’t only practical. This is emotional. But it’s the good kind, the kind that brings a whole new round of closure. They’re right and honest emotions, born from a chance to settle the score on behalf of someone who needs it. “You said you wanted to repay your brother for how he helped you onto the right path when you were younger. This is your opportunity.”
“But what about you? What do you get out of it?”
I shimmy my shoulders. “I do believe there was a certain business expert who offered his help in nabbing a big travel account.”
“I didn’t think you wanted to mix business and pleasure?”
“Maybe now I do. I need a sharp mind. I need a fantastic analyst. And if you need something too, it won’t feel like we’re mixing business and pleasure so much as helping each other when we both need it.”
“Elise, as much as I want to fix this shitstorm for Erik, I don’t know if I can let you do this after what you’ve dealt with.”
I scoff. “Let me do this? You can certainly say no, but this isn’t about letting me. I’m not a delicate princess. I can handle this because I’m not interested in marriage. I’m not interested in forever. I am, however, ludicrously mad that someone’s been taken advantage of. And it seems like you and I have the power to stop it.”
He doesn’t say anything, and I suspect he’s taking a moment to process that I’m not messing around. “You’d really do this?”
“Not forever. But for a few months, for the time he needs, I would. I despise that she’s been tricking him. I don’t want her to get away with it. It’s wrong.”
I watch a range of emotions cross his eyes—eagerness, trepidation, and hunger for revenge. “Why do you want to right this wrong?”
“Because I can. I lost a few accounts when my marriage went south. It was awful, but I didn’t lose my whole business. I’m rebuilding it. And here’s your brother, completely blindsided by the love of his life breaking his heart and trying to steal the company your grandfather started more than fifty years ago. And you and I could tie the knot, and in that simple act, it would stop her.”
He lets out a long breath. “Damn, you’re fucking hot like this.”
I laugh. “Oh, shut up. You’re such a horndog.”
“I know, but can you blame me? You’re so fucking brilliant and beautiful and fierce, and your determination makes me want to fuck you even more.”
I set a hand to his chest. “No talking of screwing right now. I’m talking about making a deal.”
He shakes his head, as if chasing away the stray filthy thoughts. “Okay, deal talk.” His eyes stray to his crotch. “Down, boy. We have other business right now.”
I laugh at him.
He raises his face. “Okay, so where were we? You’re going to do the absurd honor of saving my brother’s sorry arse from his lovesick stupidity because you were burned by your jackass ex, and in return all I have to do is help you win an account? This hardly seems fair. Please, let’s make it a condition that for every orgasm I get, I give you four.”
I laugh so loudly, I’d be worried about waking up Erik, but I suspect he’s dead to the sober world now. I lean in close, and nip Christian’s earlobe. “That was always an unbreakable condition.”
I pull back, and he wiggles his eyebrows. “Obviously. I was just testing you.” He stares at me, as if he’s trying to find the catch. “You mean this?’
“We’ve already made it clear that our existing relationship has terms and conditions. That means it also has an expiration date,” I say, because what else could our arrangement mean? We so clinically laid out the details at the salon, and surely he wasn’t expecting it to go on forever. No man wants that.
That’s why it’s odd when he blinks as I say those last words, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to him. But quickly, he rights his course. “Of course, yes. We have an end date. Like a bottle of milk. Slap a best-by date on me, then chuck me in the bin.” He finishes with a laugh.
Since he’s laughing, I keep it light too—that’s the best way to approach a deal like this. “Toss me there too, right?”
He nods confidently. “Both of us. When it’s done, we’ll be done.”
“Exactly. But if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll find another business consultant and we can stick to the terms of our arrangement we discussed at the tea salon. I’m only offering this because we have the power to stop something utterly shitty.”
“Oh, I’m quite comfortable with everything.” He rakes his heated gaze over me. He cups my cheeks. “Do you have any idea how sexy you are?”
I laugh. “Your dick is quite distracting to you, isn’t it?”
He yanks me closer. “You’re distracting. You’re going to ruin me.”
Those words reverberate in my heart. I’ve already been ruined. Surely I can’t ruin a man like him, and he can’t damage a damaged woman like me. “I don’t think that’s possible,” I whisper.
He shakes his head and murmurs as he loops his fingers through my hair. “You’re going to ruin me, Elise,” he repeats in a sexy rasp. “You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever known, and nothing in my life will ever be hotter than you wanting to save my family’s business, all riled up, while you’re dressed in that skirt and those heels, after I’ve had you coming on my hand at a tea salon.”
His words light me up. They must ignite him too, because he tugs me closer, peppering kisses along my neck. “You’re stunningly gorgeous and completely brilliant.” His mouth slides down my throat. “And I want to marry you for three months, and I want to do everything to ensure you win that new account.” His lips reach the tops of my breasts. “And I want to take down that cow who broke my brother’s heart.” He flicks his tongue against my skin, and I shiver as he raises his gaze once more, meeting my eyes. “And most importantly, I want you to come all over my face before I fuck you.”
Heat sweeps through me like a fire, and I can barely take this closeness, this rampant desire in his eyes.
“Yes,” I murmur since I can’t form any other word right now. Everything with him is a yes.
He groans as he claims my mouth, planting a searing kiss on my lips. It’s harder than he’s kissed me before. It’s possessive and demanding at the same time, as if he needs my lips bruised and bee-stung.
This is the first time we’ve kissed in private. We’ve kissed on the steps of the design show, outside the metro, and in the salon. But this is a kiss for behind closed doors. It’s a kiss before clothes come off.
Yet I’m keenly aware his brother is in the next room.
He breaks the kiss. “This is what you do to me,” he says, taking my hand and putting it between his thighs so I can feel his hard length.
He’s beyond aroused. He’s thick and hard and hot even through his jeans, and I want to climb on top of him, slide down on him, and ride him right here on the couch in his living room.
Only we can’t. “I’m not going to sleep with you for the first time when your brother’s drunk in the other room.”
