His hand slid smoothly around my waist, the cautious drag of skin against lace. My breath caught despite myself. He was careful. The way he touched me wasn’t just lust, it was simplythat he was in command of the situation: practiced, confident, and patient.
I swallowed heavily and lifted my chin.
He pulled me closer until my glass brushed his chest. I could feel his chest rising and falling through the crisp white of his shirt, steady and unhurried. His palm rested on the small of my back, low enough to make my skin prickle, high enough to pretend it was innocent. A masterclass in seductive suggestion.
“This doesn’t seem very complicated,” I murmured, trying to sound amused even as the room tilted slightly around him.
He smiled, the corner of his mouth lifting. “You think I’m simple?”
“I think you want to be seen that way.”
“Maybe I want to see what happens when you stop pretending that you’re the one in control.”
My pulse stuttered. For a man who’d spent the entire night indulging my wit, he was suddenly the one setting the rules.
“That’s quite an assumption,” I retorted, stepping back just enough to force him to move with me or lose contact. He followed.
Of course he did.
He traced a line down my spine with his fingertip. It wasn’t overtly sexual. It was worse. It wascurious.Like he was testing a theory he already knew the answer to.
“You’re trembling,” he spoke softly.
I gulped, the sound too loud in the room. “I’m not.”
He tilted his head, blue eyes catching the dim light. “Then why are you holding your breath?”
I hadn’t realized I was. I quickly exhaled through my nose. “Occupational hazard,” I said, forcing a smile.
“Of what?”
I hesitated, hating how my body betrayed me, my heart beating too fast, mouth too dry. The part of me that belonged to ARCHEON screamed for distance. This was fieldwork. Data collection. He was just an assignment, not a man I could have any aspirations with.
But Roman looked at me like he already knew I was lying.
I set my drink down beside his, the ice clinking softly against crystal. “Of getting too close,” I said finally.
“And yet, here you are.”
He brushed a thumb under my chin, lifting my gaze until the rest of the room disappeared. He didn’t kiss me yet. He just stood there, the weight of his stare heavy enough to make me forget what I was supposed to say next.
I told myself it was all part of the game. That I was only letting him pull me closer because proximity made people talk.
Because ARCHEON wanted results.
That was the truth. This mission demanded intimacy. Everything else—the way my stomach flipped when his breath brushed my skin, the way his accent curled around my name—was all just noise.
And I was very, very good at ignoring noise.
Or, at least, I was beforehim.
He leaned closer, his mouth a whisper from mine. “Still think I’m pretending?”
“I think we both are,” I replied, my voice coming out quieter than I intended.
His smile deepened, his thumb tracing the edge of my lower lip. “Maybe. But one of us is better at it.”
“Then I guess we’ll find out who.”
