After a few seconds, his other fingers feathered across the bottom of my foot and my leg jerked.
He took my heel off his knee and stood, his eyes coming to my face. “You’re right, nothing’s broken, but you’re probably going to have one hell of a bruise.”
“Gee, where’d you go to medical school?” I asked.
Landen shook his head and came closer, his belly touching my knees. I watched him warily when I saw the look on his face. He no longer seemed concerned so much as pissed off.
Leaning forward, he propped his hands on the countertop on either side of my hips. “Why haven’t you been returning my calls?” he asked, going directly for the jugular.
Wary of the gleam in his eyes, I studied him before I answered. “I didn’t know it was you,” I lied.
Don’t ask me why I lied, I didn’t know. Well, yes I did. To answer him honestly would have given him the upper hand and I wasn’t prepared to do that right now. In addition to being addicted to a challenge, Landen was also wickedly intelligent. Winning an argument with him was damn near impossible, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
Unfortunately, he knew it. “Bullshit. You’ve called me enough to have my number memorized. You knew it was me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Maybe I didn’t feel like talking to you, did you consider that?”
He stared at me for several long moments and I didn’t look away. I kept my eyes level on his. No way would I back down, not when he was this close to me. It felt too much like surrendering and I wasn’t willing to throw out the white flag just yet.
“No, I don’t think that’s the problem either,” he murmured. His voice was soft, as though he was talking to himself rather than to me. “I think you’re off balance and you don’t know how to deal with me. You can’t place me in a neat little box.”
I fought to keep my expression the same at his words. He was both right and wrong. I didn’t know how to deal with him. Or a man like him at least. Then there was the fact that we couldn’t get along. He was domineering and arrogant. I might admire his confidence in the professional world but I didn’t want to date someone who would take it for granted that I would do whatever he said. Because I wouldn’t.
I might let things slide in the office. Okay, sosometimesI let things slide in the office because I didn’t want Chris to feel obligated to fire me, though I still enjoyed giving Landen a hard time.
But in romantic relationships, I wanted something different. I wanted a partner. Someone who wouldn’t treat me as though I were an employee but an equal. I had a hunch that Landen wouldn’t know how to treat me as an equal. Not just because of his arrogance but his intellect. The man was smarter than anyone I’d ever met, including my boss, Chris, who was no slouch when it came to brains.
I’d barely made it through business school. I understood the principles and concepts, but I still struggled the entire time. I didn’t retain information the way Landen and Chris did.
Oh, and he was a freaking client. That had to be a no-no, even if it wasn’t in the employee handbook. Ethics and all.
There were too many reasons to think that getting involved with him was a bad idea, no matter how attractive I found him.
“Earth to Chelsea,” Landen drawled.
I realized that I’d been staring into his dark blue eyes with an unfocused gaze for an indeterminate amount of time. “What?”
He smirked at me and leaned forward. I sucked in a sharp breath as his lips barely touched mine, suddenly very aware of how thin my skirt was and how close his body was to mine.
Then he pulled away and said, “Are you hungry?”
I shook my head but my stomach awoke at the question of food and growled loudly. I felt the heat rise up my neck and into my cheeks and I scowled.
Landen just laughed and grabbed my waist, lifting me off the counter. I didn’t squeal this time, though it was a near thing, and grabbed onto his shoulders to keep my balance as he set me on my feet.
I wobbled when I put down my sore foot and realized my shoes were still on the floor next to him. Before I could say a word, he crouched down before me and grasped my ankle. I kept my hands on his shoulders for balance as he slid my shoes back on, one at a time. Then my stomach turned a somersault as he trailed the tips of his fingers up the back of my calf and prayed I hadn’t missed any spots shaving that morning.
When he rose, my breathing wasn’t entirely steady and I could feel the flush still heating my face.
He studied me in silence for a protracted moment before he reached up and took my hand off his shoulder. “Let’s get dinner.”
Landen tugged me along behind him out of the kitchen and over to my desk. He perched on the edge as I shut down my computer and removed my purse from the bottom drawer. I slipped the strap over my head so the bag lay across my body.
He picked up the picture frame I kept next to the pencil cup and stared at the picture as though he were trying to figure out a puzzle. It was a photo of five of us at Lucy’s first photography showing here in Dallas last year. Lucy was in the middle, flanked by Tanya, Yancy, Grier, and me. We all had our arms around each other and wide, bright smiles on our faces. Well, they were all smiling. I had my head tilted back as I laughed. I remembered it was because Marcus had cracked a joke. I couldn’t remember what he’d said, but Lucy’s ex-boss, a world-renowned photographer, was hilarious. And very sexy. He wasn’t necessarily my type, but I could appreciate the gifts nature had given him.
“Landen, about what happened this weekend at the wedding—” I began. His head snapped up and he placed the frame back on my desk. Something about his posture gave me pause but I steeled myself and continued, “We both had a little too much to drink and got carried away. I don’t think it would be smart to read anything more into it than that.”
My body tensed when he got to his feet in a fluid motion and stalked toward me. All thoughts of standing my ground scattered as he closed in on me. Self-preservation kicked in and I retreated until my back hit the wall behind me.
