but didn’t want her to know that he wanted to fuck her.
It was bloody weird, and she liked it.
“Doe as in person of unknown origin,” she admitted.
“Ah,” he nodded tactfully. “I see.” His smooth expression said that he really did see, that he knew. Speaking of weird.
“Do you live in Seattle, Mr. Roarke, or are you visiting?” she asked with real curiosity.
“Julian, if you please. May I call you Aerin?”
“Sure.” With a voice like that, he could call her any damn thing he wanted.
“I’m in town for a summit, of sorts, with a few of my colleagues,” he said.
“Oh?” Aerin prodded.
“We’re all here at the behest of our…boss.”
“Who’s your boss, maybe I’ve heard of him?”
“You undoubtedly have done, but I’m afraid I cannot say.”
“That so?” Aerin flicked ash to the pavement. “I was curious before, now I’m intrigued. Let me guess, the Mafia?”
His silent smile caused the finest of lines to branch in his otherwise flawless skin as he shook his head.
“International drug cartel? Private security? Fashion Police? Interpol?” she joked. “The Vatican?”
A dark eyebrow twitched.
Her stomach twisted. “Oh God, don’t tell me I’ve been flirting with a really well-dressed priest.”
Julian’s dark sound of amusement washed her in goose bumps.
“Not quite.”
“Good thing you’re not vague,” she snarked with a good-natured laugh. “These colleagues of yours. You in charge, or what?” Aerin had been in business a long time, and men such as Julian Roarke were never just middle management.
“We all have our roles,” he conceded. “Nicholas is in acquisitions, mergers, and hostile takeovers. And Drustan… he makes cuts where need be. Spends most of his time on the front lines, as it were. And Killian, he’s mostly in weights and measurements. Product distribution. Getting everyone where they ultimately need to be.”
“And you?” At this point, her relentlessness shut down most men. Not Julian Roarke, he seemed even more amused by her.
“I’m often more of a silent partner, called in only when my expertise is needed.”
“Which is…” She rolled her hand in an impatient gesture.
“My specialties are microbiology and bio-chemistry. Though I have been known to dabble in agriculture and the… population density management of certain carbon-based organic colonies.”
Aerin grinned. “Cool, I’m in IT.” It wasn’t hubris to admit that it was hard to find men who could keep up with her intellectually. It seemed that Julian Roarke could not just do that, but also challenge her.
Which was so rare.
And so unbelievably sexy.
His smooth, cool façade warmed another notch, a pale fire glowing bright in his eyes. “So, Aerin Doe, you’ve been flirting with me?”
“I think I was working my way up to being less subtle.” She gave him a look from beneath her lashes, and if she wasn’t imagining it, a tinge of color dotted his cheeks.
“What brings you to Seattle?” he dodged the subject. “Business or pleasure?”
The way he said pleasure caused odd warmth to bloom in the region of her panties.
Down girl, she thought.
“I’m still trying to figure it out. I think I have to be on a ferry in the morning.” Somehow, she hadn’t gone west enough. And someone with her own voice was calling her across the Puget Sound.
“Are you hungry?” she asked him. “Can I buy you dinner?” And then have you for dessert?
His brows drew together and his expression turned stormy, as though she’d just asked him to lick the ashtray. “I would rather die than allow a lady to pay for my meal.”
She shrugged. “Okay… You haven’t caught up to the twenty-first century, but I can deal. I’ll let you buy me dinner.”
“There isn’t time,” he whispered with a look of such profound regret, Aerin suddenly felt desperate not to let go of him. What the fuck? Desperate wasn’t a word that had ever been in her repertoire before.
“Drinks?” she offered. They could exchange info, and maybe meet up later.
“You’re not intimidated by me, are you?” It was a question in the form of a declaration and it intrigued Aerin to no end.
“I could ask you the same thing, Julian Roarke. Are you intimidated by me?”
“You terrify me.” The statement was full of truth. And sex.
She put her cigarette out. “I promise to be gentle…the first time.” She threw him her most suggestive look.
That sadness was back. That reluctant, ancient loneliness. A yearning…one that went beyond sex, beyond emotion, into a realm she didn’t quite understand blasted at her from him, and she had to fight not to take a step back.
“There is something I must do Aerin,” he murmured by way of