One Exquisite Touch (The Extravagant #2)- Lauren Blakely Page 0,47

I say it like I don’t believe it, because I don’t.

“You’re the competition,” she says, almost like she’s imploring me to understand the nuances of this situation.

I set a hand on my chest, acting ever so innocent. “Me?”

“Both of you are, aren’t you?”

I dodge the question. “Hardly. And regardless of whether you’re competition, you’d be good for Cole,” I say, since why beat around the bush? I may as well speak the truth. I’d rather she know what I believe. Life is short. This is a chance. It must be seized.

“So you’re cupid,” she says, like she’s intrigued by this new bit of intel.

I give a little shrug, an impish one. “I might be.”

She taps her chin. “And why is that?”

I speak from the heart. “Because I care deeply for him.”

“And why am I right for him?”

That’s so easy to answer. “Because you’re smart, kind, respected. Because you’re learned, and so is he. Because you’re both passionate about your families. And you both play hardball, but are softies underneath,” I say, rattling off all the things they have in common, all the reasons I know this would work.

Her eyebrow remains arched, but her body shifts toward me, as if she’s slightly more convinced. “And are you sure that aligns with his wishes and wants? Or, to put it another way, are you revealing his weaknesses to me by saying he’s a softie?”

I shake my head. “I suspect you’ve seen that side of him already. It’s impossible to spend more than twenty minutes with Cole and not see it. He tries to pretend he’s such a hard-ass, but underneath he’s a teddy bear. Isn’t he?”

A smile seems to tug at her lips. “I suppose there’s a little bit of a teddy bear in him.” She’s quiet for a beat, her eyes lost in thought. “But I have a question for you.”

I hold my hands out wide. “I’m an open book. Hit me up.”

Her face is inquisitive, her eyes intense. “What does the cupid in you want, Daniel? Are you trying to set me up with him or with both of you?”

I give her nothing but the truth. “Either, Sage, either. And since we’re speaking the truth, let me tell you that I return to London after this weekend. He lives in the same town you do. I’m leaving. He’s staying. That ought to underline my intentions and my limitations.”

She nods several times, getting it. “So you’re offering up another time with the two of you before you go?”

My lips twitch, and my dick throbs at the possibility. “I would love another time with you. I’d love to see you savoring new worlds of pleasure. Isn’t that what we offered at the end of the party? To show you that. To give you that.”

Her breath hitches with a sexy little gasp. Her shoulders rise and fall. “And do you still want what we can give you?”

I inch closer, thoroughly captivated by her, and completely determined, too, to deliver this woman for us, and then for him. “I can still taste you, smell you, feel you. If you want us again, I’ll make it happen.”

She might be determined to resist. He might be determined to stay away from her. But I’m determined too.

Especially when she shivers all over from my words, then runs her tongue across her lips. She whispers, her voice already giving away her desires, “You don’t care that I’m your rival?”

I shake my head. “There are too many other things on my list that I have to care about. Fucking a rival or my friend fucking a rival is not one of them.”

She blinks, drawing a deep breath, like she’s digesting this information. “Then I have a question for you.”

“Ask it.”

Her chin lifts, a defiant gesture. “Why do the two of you do this? I know I’m not the only one.”

So he told her about Georgia. More proof that Cole likes this woman in all the ways I anticipated, because he’s opened up to her already. He’s told her something precious and private. “You’d have to ask him for his reasons. I can only give you mine.”

“And what are they?”

I slide a hand along her thigh under the table, savoring the way she trembles against my touch. “Giving a woman pleasure, more pleasure than perhaps she’s ever known, makes me feel less empty,” I say.

She presses her lips together, her eyes softening. Perhaps with understanding. “So you need it.”

“I do. But I also think he needs someone like you. And