Seduced By A Steele (Forged of Steele #12) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,25
thought? Was that what her rotten attitude was about? Well, she could certainly wipe that notion from her mind. He bedded women, not controlled them.
“Let me assure you, Sloan Donahue, controlling you is the last thing I want to do to you.” There was no need to tell her that what he wouldn’t mind doing was kissing some sense into her again. “I’m merely here to help you.”
“If you feel obligated to help, then don’t.”
He didn’t feel obligated; he felt responsible for her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here. Hell, when was the last time he’d been made to feel responsible for anyone? Thanks to his dad, he did now. “Look, Sloan. You need help and I’m willing to help you. What does it matter if it’s my money or your friend Lisa’s?”
She glared at him. “It matters because I know Lisa, but I don’t know you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Hell, I don’t know you either, but I’m willing to help you out. I have been helping you out. Again, I will ask you—where would you have stayed last night had I not made sure you had a decent roof over your head?”
“Why do you keep throwing your help in my face?”
He stared at her, getting more frustrated by the second. “That’s not what I’m doing. I’m trying to get you to see, to recognize, that I have been there for you, regardless of how well I know you or you know me.”
She began nibbling on her bottom lip, and seeing her do so sent a flare of response throughout his body. It made the muscles beneath his business suit tighten with desire. And if that wasn’t bad enough, remembering the taste of those lips and her tongue kicked in his body’s most primal reaction with a vengeance.
Glad she was too deep in thought to notice, he moved from where he’d been standing, directly in front of her by the car door, to where his erection wasn’t so obvious. “We don’t have all day, Sloan.”
What he wished he could say was that he could only take so much of his body’s intense throbbing.
She glanced over at him. “How much?”
He lifted a brow. “How much what?”
“How much are you willing to loan me?”
He shrugged. “How much do you need?”
“Just enough to tide me over until I get a job.” Then she quickly added, “And earn my first paycheck. Then I will pay you back every penny.”
Because he knew she wouldn’t accept things any other way, he said, “And I intend for you to do so, but I’m willing to break down the payments into installments so it won’t be so hard for you.”
She nodded. “Thanks. That will work better.”
“Now can we go into the bank?”
He watched her unbuckle her seat belt before easing from the car, not knowing she’d flashed a portion of her thigh in the process. Heat curled inside him, threatening the control he’d thought he’d reclaimed.
Then she stood beside him, dark eyes staring up into his. “Yes, I’m ready.”
“No, absolutely not! I will not let you put that much money into my checking account. I’ll never be able to pay you back, Mercury,” Sloan said, not caring if the man staring at her, the man who owned the bank and who was one of Mercury’s closest friends, Jaye Colfax, was doing so with keen interest.
“Mr. Colfax? I’d like a private word with Mercury.”
The man stood and smiled. “The two of you can certainly use my office to hash out the details of your bank account.”
As far as she was concerned, there was nothing to hash out. There was no way she’d let Mercury deposit twenty thousand dollars into a bank account for her.
“So, what’s the problem now, Sloan?” Mercury asked as soon as the door closed behind Jaye Colfax.
She glared at him. “There is no way I can let you open a bank account for me by putting that much money into my account. It would take forever to pay you back.”