Seduced The Unexpected Virgin - By Emily McKay Page 0,27
I want to handle.”
He couldn’t help smiling at her bravado. And her choice of words. He should probably walk calmly away from that innuendo, but, damn it, he just couldn’t. “Am I to assume you want to handle me?”
She arched an eyebrow, opened her mouth as if to speak, then seemed to think better of it. After giving him an assessing stare, she admitted, “I don’t know.”
That careful consideration made him nervous. A quick yes, he could have easily dismissed. That need to pull her into his arms and devour her still pounded through him, but the cadence of it had slowed a little. It was controllable now. Gazing deep into her inky eyes, he could read nothing in them except the lingering traces of her passion.
She pressed her fingertips to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Like she was trying to block out the chatter of her internal debate.
A second later, she opened her eyes, her expression just as confused. “I know I don’t want to walk away from this. I don’t want to walk away from you.”
“Hey,” he said trying to keep his tone playful. “It’s not every day a celebrity saunters into your life, right?”
The hard edge in his voice surprised him. He’d long ago gotten over any annoyance over the nail-a-celebrity scorecard some women seemed to keep. And he didn’t really think Ana was that kind of woman. But apparently, he still needed to hear that straight from her.
“It’s not that.” Annoyance flickered across her face. “Which you know.”
And to be fair, he did know. It wasn’t about that for her. Obviously. She’d worked in Hollywood. Met plenty of stars bigger than him in her life before Hannah’s Hope. He didn’t know how she’d managed to escape male attention in Hollywood. Thank God her figure was lush and curvaceous. Maybe in the land of skinny starlets the men there were all too stupid to appreciate Ana’s figure. Though it was the spark of passion that really spoke to him. Her devotion to Hannah’s Hope. He was less confident about what attracted her to him.
“Then what is it?” he pressed, surprised by his desperate need to hear her voice her attraction. He wasn’t generally the kind of guy who needed to have his ego stroked.
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. But would it be so bad if we let it run its course? If we waited to find out?”
He let out a low grumble of displeasure. Again, he shook his head. “I’m not going to risk your heart out of curiosity.”
“It’s not your heart to decide.”
He cupped her cheek in his palm. “Here’s the thing. Celebrities are very easy to fall in love with. But we’re almost impossible to love.”
Sadness flickered across her face. For an instant, he thought it was because she thought he was blowing her off. But then her lips curved in an almost smile and he realized he’d mistaken sympathy for sorrow.
“Yes. You said that already.” She bumped up her chin and met his gaze boldly. “But I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
Despite his grim mood, he found himself smiling. “You’re not?”
“No. Not even a little bit.”
“You promise?”
Her smile turned a little mischievous. “Cross my heart and lock it with a padlock.”
He still knew he should say no. He should push her out the door. Shut it behind her. Put her on a plane back to San Diego and never see her again.
This instinct he had to possess her, to keep her with him…it wasn’t good for her. And he was a selfish bastard for giving in to it.
But what could he say. He wanted her, plain and simple. And it had been too long since he’d wanted anything. He’d grown greedy during his emotional abstinence and if she didn’t have the good sense to leave, he didn’t have the strength to make her.
“Okay,” he agreed.
She smiled broadly, as if she’d won some kind of prize. Like she was the lucky one here, when in reality he was the one who would walk away the winner. He would inevitably disappoint her and she’d be lucky if she didn’t get crushed.
She rose up on her toes, her hand sneaking around his neck, but he carefully dodged her grasp.
“But we take it slowly,” he explained. “I may want to take you to bed and do all kinds of sinful things to your body. But we’re not going to do that now.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. And then a blush streamed