The Guy Next Door - By Lori Foster, S Donovan, V Dahl Page 0,107

tempered her joke with a smile.

“I probably will. And you’d return the favor if anyone saw us.”

“We’d better be careful. I don’t want to damage your wholesome-brewery image.”

His smile faded. His pale eyes narrowed with intensity as he shifted, putting his hand to the wall next to her shoulder. “So what are we doing here?”

She took a deep breath and tilted her face toward his ear. “No one needs to know,” she murmured.

His pupils dilated as she felt a flush rise up her cheeks. She’d used his own words to lay it out as simply as she could. Let’s have a secret affair. No one will ever know.

“I’m in the middle of an important negotiation,” he said, his voice taking on a husky edge. “And my sister is here.”

“I know.” She left it at that. She would’ve held her breath if she hadn’t been so eager to draw in his scent. Afraid that panting aloud would be less than sexy, she inhaled slowly.

“Yet here I am,” he murmured. “With you.”

He eased a tiny bit closer. If he lowered his head, they’d kiss. Her pulse beat so hard she could hear it in her ears.

“This is not a good idea,” he said softly. “You said it yourself. So why are you willing to do this?”

Honesty, she told herself. A woman’s desires were nothing to be ashamed of. She raised her gaze from his mouth to his eyes. “Because I want you,” she admitted. “A lot. It’s that simple.”

One side of his mouth curved slowly up in a wicked smile. “I get the feeling you’re not a fan of complication.”

A montage of encounters played through her brain, as if her life were flashing before her eyes. The uncomfortable blind dates. The brief, failed relationships. The men she’d tried to love, and the men she’d wanted. Her constant, simmering sexual anxiety. “You’re right,” she murmured. “I’m a simple girl.”

A door opened farther down the hall. He glanced up, a brief moment of worry chasing over his face before he looked back to her. “Simple? I don’t believe that for a second.” His eyes lowered to her mouth.

“And I owe you,” she whispered. “Don’t I?”

“You don’t owe me anything. It was my pleasure.”

She licked her lips and watched his pupils tighten as she lifted her chin. He leaned closer, closer…

When the door behind them clicked open, he stepped smoothly away from her, shoving his hands into his pockets. By the time they realized it was only a banquet server, the moment was lost. Or she thought it was.

His jaw had gone tense, after all, as if he were angry. But apparently the determination in his eyes had nothing to do with saying no and everything to do with pursuing this madness. “Can you meet me in half an hour?”

“Where?” she whispered.

He met her gaze, his eyes darkening with emotion. “I’ll get a room.”

Beth blinked once. Shock hit her in the chest, but she tried not to let it show. As far as Jamie Donovan knew, she was good at this. Experienced. After all, she’d encouraged him to feel her up in a bar.

She didn’t have to fake her arousal, at least. That was charging hard through her veins, heating her skin. “Call me,” she heard herself say. “I’ll meet you there.” And then she headed straight downstairs to get a drink.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SHE WAS REALLY DOING this. Beth couldn’t believe it. She stared at the gold mirror of the elevator doors, watching the people in the lobby move behind her in wavy streaks. Could anybody tell what she was doing? She felt as if she was wearing a neon sign on her head advertising her unseemly intentions.

Her hand still tingled where the phone had vibrated against her palm when he’d called. “Room 421,” he’d said. That was it. No niceties or polite chitchat. Beth had said okay and hung up before hurrying toward the lobby. Unfortunately the elevator didn’t seem to be in as much of a hurry as she was.

When the Up arrow finally lit with a faint chime, she slumped in relief. Then she heard Roland Kendall call her name.

Her mouth made a comical O of alarm in the elevator door before it slid open. For a brief moment, she considered sprinting into the elevator and slamming her hand against the Door Close button, but that could possibly be seen as suspicious. So she pasted a numb smile onto her face and turned.

“Hello, Mr. Kendall. How’s Monica?” She spoke way too fast, but