Page 118 of The Rebel Billionaire

“Somehow I find it hard to believe you were happy to shrink into the background.”

It’s my turn to smirk. “My older brother had something to say when I turned up with purple hair.”

Alex lifts a hand and runs several strands through his fingers.

“Purple?”

I swallow.

Shit. A slip of the tongue.

Brooke is a quiet, mild-mannered woman, not the type to choose a wild dye job.

“It was a dare,” I lie, hating myself just a little bit more. “It didn’t last long.”

I lift my gaze, our eyes clashing. His pupils dilate, and I become aware of my quickening heartbeat.

Before I can think twice, I lean forward and brush my lips against his. He doesn’t push me away. Instead, his hand slides up and around the back of my head, sinking into my hair, pulling me more tightly against him. Our mouths move against one another. I inhale sharply as my stomach muscles contract. The need to be closer, to demand more, floods my system. For the first time, I want to go further, all the way.

I moan.

He takes that as an invitation, deepening our kiss, his tongue entering my mouth, duelling with mine. He lifts me until I’m half across his lap, his cock hard beneath my thigh.

I pull back sharply, my hands resting against his chest, his rapid heartbeat thundering in time with mine. But this is all kinds of wrong. He’s just broken up with his girlfriend in front of me.

He loosens his hold, enabling me to pull back, though not move away entirely. He closes his eyes, his forehead dropping against mine.

“Shit, Brooke, I’m sorry. That was…”

I laugh drily.

“You’re sorry? But I kissed you.”

His eyes open as he stares at me. “Did you?”

My brow furrows. I know I wanted to. I’ve been thinking about what it would feel like to be kissed by him since our brief encounter in Italy.

My hands fly to my cheeks, mortified. What was I thinking? What must he be thinking?

After Italy, I said this would never happen again.

Before my brain explodes, I slide across the car into my seat and grab the door handle, throwing myself out of the car. He doesn’t stop me or follow as I hurry inside my building. I look back through the glass door, my heart thundering, every nerve ending alive as I watch him sitting in his car. Our gazes meet for a second before I turn away.

I race upstairs, throwing myself into the apartment, pressing my back against the now-closed front door.

Shit, shit, shit!

CHAPTER 34

ALEX

Iwatch her run into her building like her arse is on fire.

Fuck, what was I thinking?

I clearly wasn’t, at least not with my brain.

Brooke has been an anomaly since she entered my life, turning my thoughts upside down. The guys have teased me relentlessly, no doubt able to see what I couldn’t admit to myself or had chosen to ignore… My physical attraction to my PA.