I pinched her nipple, loving the splay of emotions across her face.“If we kiss like that again, we’ll be in trouble.”I pinched her other nipple and she whimpered, rolling her lips in.
“Why are you doing this?”Her voice came out breathy while she clenched her fist harder into my shirt.
“To be convincing.”
Her other hand drifted between our bodies, quickly finding the thick ridge of my cock through my pants.“See how you like it.”
Clara ran the heel of her palm over my erection.I inhaled sharply, tightening my arm around her waist to bring her flush against my body.
“Don’t do that again,” I growled in her ear, “unless you’re okay with thirty strangers seeing you grabbing your ankles in this lobby.”
“I’m just doing my part,Nash.”She smirked.“Did we convince her or what?”
Oh right.Haley.I scanned the foyer again, but there was no sign of Haley Reeves.
“I think we sold it, because she’s gone.”
I took a step back, adjusting myself so that we could walk out of the restaurant together, hand in hand.I pulled Clara into my arms as we waited for my driver to bring the car around, and she shivered against my chest in the unnaturally cold April wind.
Once we were loaded into the car and heading toward Clara’s building, she said, “Thanks for lunch.That was probably the best meal I’ve ever had.”
“You haven’t had my chef’s meals yet.That’s changing immediately.”I pulled out my phone, scrolling through my calendar.“Let’s do dinner Friday.My place.”
She bit her bottom lip, her gaze darting toward the driver then back to me.I could tell she wanted to say something but wouldn’t with other ears around.
“I’ll find a babysitter,” she promised.“Because we must have a formal ranking of meals.”
“I already know my chicken alfredo from dinner the other night is going to win,” I informed her.“So we can just take that out of the running now.”
“Right,” she said with a laugh.“You win by default.And now we can determine who gets second place.”
We teased each other like this the whole ride home, and I was surprised when we arrived at her building so quickly.In fact, I was sad to see her go.
“Thanks again, Nash,” she said as she slid out of the car.My chest bottomed out for a moment, and I slid toward her still-open door.
“One more for the road?”I asked, feeling a lot like that hopeful teenager after a first date with his crush.
“Mmm.So he liked his dessert,” she murmured, stepping closer.I snagged her at the waist, my fingertips sinking into the softness around her hips as our lips met one more time.Heat snapped inside me, sending awareness to every corner of my body.Fuck.I wanted more.I wantedso muchmore.
And that thought scared me a little.I needed to get back on track.
“Don’t forget we need to convince everyone.Marco has no doubt this is real now,” I whispered into her ear before I released her.Maybe now that would remind usboththat this was fake.That sexy kiss-bitten look was on her face again, and it took everything I had in me to let her walk away.
Once she was back inside her apartment and I was marked safe from inventing another excuse to kiss Clara, I let myself sink deep into my thoughts.I needed to reorient, because that lunch had awoken a hunger in me I hadn’t felt in a long time.Not just the desire to get laid.It was more than that.Because it was too easy to kiss those perfect lips.Too easy to spend an entire afternoon with her, shooting the shit, enjoying each other’s company, moaning with delight over royal red shrimp.
A phone call from Archer jostled me out of my thoughts.My jaw locked tight and I swiped to answer.
“What is it?”I asked.
“Jeez, is that how you answer the phone nowadays?”
“Only when I feel like you have bad news.”
He scoffed, indignant.“How do youknowevery time?”
I rubbed my forehead, already worried about what news he had for me.“Just spill it.”
Archer let out a long sigh.“We have a big problem.It’s with the Gideon Hotel project.”
