Seduced By A Steele (Forged of Steele #12) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,51

meant everything to her. Evidently more to her than to him. Undoubtedly those kisses had been no different than any others he’d shared with women. They’d meant nothing to him and probably didn’t even compete.

No surprise, since she had limited experience when it came to men. Harold hadn’t wanted to make love to her and now she knew why. And that one time with Carlos Larson had been a total waste of time. Probably not for him, but definitely for her. She’d been wholly disappointed. Sloan had a feeling a night with Mercury would not disappoint her.

A night with Mercury...

She shouldn’t be thinking such things even after four kisses and a cuddling session in his lap. He’d only indulged her as his way to either chastise, comfort or talk sense into her. His methods were effective and quite enjoyable.

The ringing of the doorbell meant she had a visitor. Other than the Hollisters, who lived downstairs, the only people who knew where she lived were the Steeles. She tried ignoring the tingling sensation in her stomach at the possibility that it could be Mercury.

She checked the peephole and couldn’t see the person’s face for the huge green plant in front of it. Could it be Mercury? Swallowing deeply, she asked, “Who is it?”

She then held her breath. Hoping. Wishing. Wanting it to be...

“It’s Gannon, Sloan. I brought you a housewarming gift.”

She let out the breath she’d been holding and with it came deep disappointment. What had she expected? Had her claiming he was her fiancé made him want to put distance between them? That had to be it, although he seemed to have accepted her explanation as to why she’d done it. Had he given it further thought and decided he didn’t want her to get any ideas about where their relationship was going or wasn’t going? The bottom line was they didn’t even have a relationship.

That had to be it. What else could it be? Was keeping his distance a way of making sure she understood that?

“Sloan?”

She blinked. Gannon had to be wondering why she hadn’t opened the door yet. “Yes. Just a minute.”

Pasting a huge smile on her face, she opened the door and said, “Gannon! It’s good to see you. Come in. Ahh, this plant is beautiful. Thanks for my gift.”

Mercury leaned back in his chair and absently tossed paper clips back and forth in the center of his desk. Then he would gather them all up and start the process all over again. It was an unproductive way to spend his time, but he would do anything to keep his mind off Sloan.

He had deliberately stayed away from her the past four days and intended to add four more. That meant he would be a no-show Thursday night at his parents’ for dinner. He wasn’t ready to see her and at least he had an alibi. He would be flying out Thursday morning to Dallas for a high school basketball game. His eyes were on a player by the name of Brock Dennison. Brock was only seventeen, which meant he had to complete at least two years of college before he could get signed on with the NBA at nineteen.

Any other time Mercury would be looking forward to such a trip, but he was not this time. Although he knew he should keep putting distance between himself and Sloan, part of him didn’t want to. He wanted her. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to pique his interest for any other woman. He’d gone to Notorious four nights in a row and women had thrown themselves at him; a couple of them had all but invited him out to their cars for quickies, and he’d turned them all down. Granted, he did have discriminating taste, but still, he’d never gone this long without getting laid. So why was he going through self-induced torture?

He knew the reason and had already admitted to it.

He wanted Sloan. And he wanted her bad.

He wanted to seduce the hell out of her, knowing he would enjoy every minute of doing so. However, he’d made up his mind not to cross the line with her. She wasn’t one of