Her veins filled with ice even as traitorous tears sprang to her eyes. Dear God, what had she done? Opened herself physically, emotionally, to a man who cared so little about her? Fallen prey to a tale as old as time? Well, he had messed with the wrong woman. It would be a cold day in hell before she let herself be used to satisfy the sexual appetites of a lascivious, unconscionable reptile of a man.
“How dare you.”
CHAPTER10
Mack realized half a second too late what he’d done.
Winnie’s expression flitted from horror to anger, and worst of all, to disappointment. “Howdareyou,” she said again, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Jesus, no, not like that.” His words tripped over each other. “Never like that.”
She edged further away from him, each step driving a knife through him. “Tell meexactlyhow you didn’t just threaten to fire me if I refused your attentions.”
“You’renotfired. Damnation, I truly am an incomprehensible ass.” He cast wildly about for the right words. Why was it so hard tothink? “My first thought was that kissing you wouldn’t even be a debate if we didn’t work together, but what I should have said was ‘Then I quit.’” He shook his head at his idiocy. “That would have made my point more profoundly.”
“And you wouldn’t have insulted me!”
“That too.” He winced. “The truth is that I’ve wanted to kiss you from the first moment I saw you in the office. And just now, it broke me to see you so afraid. I wanted to help, and before I knew it, my mouth was on yours. It wasn’t planned, and I swear there were no ulterior motives. I just…couldn’t resist you any longer.”
He tried not to shift from foot to foot beneath her scrutiny.
“It might make me the world’s biggest fool, but I think I believe you.”
The relief was so profound his legs wobbled. “I understand your hesitation. Too many men take advantage of their position with female employees. It disgusts me, and I would never do that to you or anyone else. If there’s one thing you can believe, it’s that whatever we do together will remain private.”
Her eyes widened slightly at the wordswhatever we do together, but she didn’t object. Maybe he hadn’t ruined everything after all.
“Truthfully, I thought I was more adept at speaking to women. But every time I open my mouth around you, I make an utter mess of everything. I can only beg for your patience.”
She uncrossed her arms. “For an editor, you certainly lack a command of the English language.”
“Perhaps I’m too enthralled by your beauty.” There, that would make her melt.
Instead, she snorted so hard her shoulders bounced. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Then what will?”
“Seriously?”
“I’m as serious as a steamboat captain navigating the Puget Sound in a heavy fog.”
“Which, as I recently learned, doesn’t always end well,” she pointed out, a smile tugging at her lips despite her effort to hide it.
He didn’t reply, only grinned at her.
Her cheeks flushed at his scrutiny. “What?”
“You’re smiling.”
“So?” she asked.
“Your smile makes me…happy.”
His lame compliment did exactly what he’d been hoping for: her expression softened, those gorgeous emerald eyes dipping shyly to the ground and then back to him. Their audience be damned, he reached for her, determined to catch another blissful sigh with his mouth.
He froze as a terrible scraping noise pierced the fog.
A second later, the steamboat shuddered and pitched violently to the side. Mack dove forward, flinging one arm around Winnie. With the other, he gripped the railing and eased them down to the deck, where there was less chance of falling overboard. She clutched him with both hands, whimpers of fear escaping her. He made soothing, shushing sounds even as his stomach flip-flopped.
