‘Now, this is what you call a date.’ My mouth brushes the sensitive skin of her ear. ‘Tell me again how much you despise me.’
ChapterSeven
CHLOE
When the show’s finally over and Jayden collects the paperwork from the desk, we hop into a taxi, sitting decidedly closer to each other than in the last one we shared.
‘Home?’ I check, before directing the driver, trying not to dwell on how brazen that sounds and what might actually happen when we get there.
Jayden offers a swift nod, staring at me with unblinking intensity. His Adam’s apple bobs through the half light of the moon.
The air crackles. He’s a man on a mission and if that explosive panty-melting kiss was anything to go by, that mission is defiling me in what promises to be the most delicious fashion.
Heat suffuses from every inch of my skin as explicit images assault my brain of what the god-like creature sitting millimetres away from me might look like naked. If his top half was anything to go by at the pool earlier, I can’t wait to see what other hard muscles he’s packing lower down.
In a mad twist of a script I didn’t write, the irritation I usually feel for Jayden Cooper has ignited into an inferno of irrepressible carnal longing.
I’ve never denied he’s devastatingly sexy. But to be so viscerally attracted to a man, that until an hour ago I could have cheerfully throttled, is a total mind-fuck for a self-professed control freak like me.
That kiss was out of this world. The kind of show-stopping cathartic moment you normally only ever see on the big screen. For that experience to stem fromhimhas shaken the world as I know it.
From the day he and his rock star brother, Ryan, returned to our lives, he’s tormented me. Flirted outrageously. Teased me for fun. Did he mean every word? Or is he as shocked as I am at the turn of events?
And who’s to say he won’t turn on me again? I’ve been burnt before.
Mind you, we’re not kids anymore. Both consenting adults, apparently harbouring the same attraction to each other. Neither disillusioned with daft romantic ideals.
But despite the chemistry, I can’t help the feeling I’m heading rapidly towards disaster. If I sleep with him and it gets out, the world will assume that’s the only reason I was hired to help organise this tour. All my hard work building up my company will be forgotten. I’ll be labelled another notch on the bed of one of LA’s most notorious playboys.
Plus, there’s the teeny tiny fact Sasha warned me off him. If my sweet, sassy sister thinks he’s no good for me, then she’s probably right.
While I’ve been preoccupied over-analysing every single thought that pops through my head, we’ve reached my front door and I’m nowhere near ready for what might occur behind it.
Jayden pays the taxi driver while I’m mentally willing my ass to move from the spot where I’m rooted.
I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anyone. The intensity of it terrifies me. It’s not as if I can wave him off the next day and never see him again, like my previous conquests. Ryan asked us to organise this tour together. I’m going to have to face him not only at work, but at every major family occasion afterwards, too.
If we cross the line, how do we move past something like this?
And if we don’t cross it, how will we ever get over it? Because I’ve never felt attraction like it, and if I don’t get the chance to explore it, I’ll wonder about it for the rest of my life.
Why, oh, why does it have to be him?
Jayden’s firm fingers interlace with mine, tugging my hand, coaxing me out of the car. His grinning lips brush my ear. ‘Come on, Princess, I want to hear you scream.’
I was only joking about that. No one ever made me scream before, except in frustration, of course.
My stomach flips and I can’t work out if it’s terror or lust. Probably both. Until this moment, I never realised they could exist in parallel.
On the doorstep, he surveys me. Anxiety must be rolling off me in waves. Or perhaps it’s my trembling hands giving me away because the predatory look he’s been sporting for the previous hour has suddenly evaporated.
Taking the keys, he unlocks the door, ushering me into my home like he’s been there forever, not just a day.
It closes behind us. We stand chest to chest under the harsh light of the hallway, my ragged breath penetrating the air between us.
‘You ok, Princess?’ His velvety voice rumbles like a purr as he pins me in a pensive stare. My heartbeat goes haywire.
‘Who even are you?’ The question’s out of my mouth before I can overthink it.
