Page 34 of Hard to Hold

“Or is it that I know your negotiating skills leave something to be desired.” She doesn’t crack a smile, so I move toward her. “What’s the deal, Lennox? Something about this situation is bugging you and you’re not telling me.”

“It’s nothing.” She twists her lips as she stares at me—almost as if she’s caught in indecision—and she’s such a shit liar that I know something is off.

“You know,” I murmur, thinking humor might bridge the gap and get that smile back on those full lips of hers. “We should stop beating around the bush and just admit to what’s really going on here.”

“What’s that?” she asks in an equally soft voice, as if there’s someone else in the room listening to us.

“That you concocted this whole scenario just to get me into bed with you. I mean, I get it. I do. It’s not every day you’re faced with a handsome, tattooed, talented, British bloke like me.”

Her sigh fills the space as she turns to face me. “Yes. That’s it. That’s exactly right.” She throws her hands up. “Let’s go right now and get it over with.”

“Get it over with?” I laugh. “Because that’s not a blow to my ego or anything.”

“I don’t think anything affects your ego.”

“Guilty,” I say and raise my hand giving her a sheepish grin. “But since Cannon implied your job is to make sure I’m happy, the least you can do is keep a smile on those gorgeous lips of yours.”

She gives me the smile I’ve been working for, and my balls don’t draw up in a good way at the sight of it.

“I assure you that nowhere in my contract does it say ensuring your happiness is a requirement.”

“It does. I saw it.” I move closer to her, unable to resist tucking that errant strand of hair that’s fallen from her bun behind her ear. I hear her quick intake of breath at my touch, and know this woman will be beneath me within no time at all. And I’m not quite sure what it is about her that causes such an urgency in me to want to do so. “So what do you say? Should we sit down and make a list of all the ways you could make me happy?”

She lifts a lone eyebrow and eyes me, a smile gracing her lips. “I’m flattered. I truly am,” she says in that prim yet irritable tone as she takes a step away from me, “but nothing’s going to happen between us.”

My chuckle fills the room as I step back from her and take a seat at the conference room table.

Something’s shifted in the way she looks at me. She wants me, but she’s somehow pulled away.

What the hell happened in the last twenty-four hours? And how do I get it back?

Challenge her.

Lennox Kincade is a natural-born competitor. That will get that spark back.

I grab a pen and look up at her with a devilish smirk. “Shall we get started on that list?”

CHAPTER TWELVE

LENNOX

I’M IN A SHITTY MOOD.

I’m standing here with a smile plastered on my face and Rush is standing beside me as Cannon puts us through the paces of his dog and pony show-announcement, but I don’t feel an ounce of excitement toward any part of it.

None.

Truth be told, I regret the decision to take this job with Cannon, but hell if I’d ever admit it, because that would make my sister right about him being shady—and she’s always right.

But I am the one who signed the contract without getting the particulars answered . . . so that’s on me.

And it makes me grumpy and surly and hating the entire day’s events.

I despise when plans are changed and buck against anyone telling me I have to do something other than what my mind has made up to do.

Like Rush.

One hundred percent, but how do I prove everyone wrong? How do I say I don’t sleep with clients to get them and then turn around and sleep with the one client I’ve been contracted to get?