“What? No.” Cage shook his head.
The guy flew to China to kiss me, but he was too chivalrousto stay in the same room with me. Man, I loved him before it ever made sense.
“I’ll just go to another hotel.”
“No way.”
He smirked.
My skin heated from his what-are-you-implying look. “I’m just saying, it’s silly when I have this suite that my boss is paying for and it’s not even that late. We could still do something tonight.”
Cage’s smirk deepened.
“And by something I’m not implying anything like…”
“Like?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to jump you. I don’t mean any of it in a sexual way.”
Yes, in a strip-me-down-and-bury-your-head-between-my-legs sort of way. That was exactly what I meant because Ineededsex and Ineededit with him. Sweat began to bead along my skin.
He quirked a brow. “Jump me?”
“I just mean we can share a room without having sex, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Cage took a quick scan around the lobby. “You think I’mworriedabout having sex with you?” he said in a hushed voice.
“No, I just don’t want you to feel obligated to have sex with me. The kiss was enough.”
It wasn’t enough. Oh my word, I wanted so much more. What had happened to me? When did I become such a liar? There must have been something in the Minneapolis water, probably pesticide runoff, and nothing was safe to drink in Beijing, at least that’s what Thad told me. First Shayna and then Cage. What was my deal with all the lying?
“This is the craziest conversation I have ever had.”
I sighed. “Just come.”
His eyes widened.
I shook my head. “Come up to my room, er… just…” I’d been transported to junior high again where every word meant something sexual in the eyes of immature, giggly girls. How did I become that girl again at twenty-four?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE GIFT
CAGE
Flyingto China on a whim was met with a shit-storm of opposition from the people in my life whom I’d hired to keep me focused and out of trouble. I wasn’t the guy prone to trouble, but the day I signed with Minnesota, trouble seemed to chase me, usually in the form of greedy people claiming to have been my best buddy in elementary school or women desperate to crawl into my bed.
Seventy-two hours after threatening to fire the very people I hired to keep me from making rash decisions, I found myself in a suite at a Beijing hotel with a woman who made me question my direction in life. That scared me. She scared me.
“So what do you want to do that doesn’t involve sex?” Lake tossed her purse on the black couch by the window overlooking the city.
That’s where I would sleep. The king-sized bed in the middle of the room looked inviting after my long trip, but I needed to stay as far away from her bed as possible. My time would be equally divided between the couch and cold showers.
I nodded. “I love that the idea of us having sex has now become a joke of sorts.” I set my suitcase on the luggage stand.
Lake lifted her shoulders and grinned. “You’re staring.”
I blinked several times. “Sorry, just… taking you in.”
