A Convenient Arrangement(16)

“Nope, I don’t think so.” Gwen said. She pulled her hips back, loosening Leo’s grasp on her ass and King Kong’s pressure on her kitty. “Too risky. I mean yes, of course I do feel this attraction that we share, Leo.” She threw him a kind of patronizing but noncommittal smile, as if their attraction to each other was an ordinary thing. Such a lie. “But I really don’t want to skulk about and hide this from my friends and your family. You know if any of them discovered that we were in a ‘convenient arrangement,’ they’d never leave us alone. Ever. For the rest of our lives. They’d assume—erroneously, of course—that we were meant for each other. Imagine Aubrey. She’d be unmerciful. It would just lead to the very type of attention we’d be trying to avoid.”

“Seems like an excellent reason to say no to my offer.”

She smiled. Ding, a winner! She’d played this entire scenario perfectly even while her hips had attempted to betray her.

“Except for one thing.”

Her heart skipped a beat and her eyebrow raised. “And that is?”

“This.”

His arms gripped her like an anaconda around a gazelle as his lips descended on hers. Her nipples stiffened beneath the lace of her bra. Her mouth opened to his greedy, demanding, nearly overpowering kiss. Her knees trembled and he tightened his hold. She pressed closer, wanting to rip off his clothes, to let King Kong have his way with any piece of her body that he wanted.

She couldn’t think. Stars exploded behind her eyes like giant fireworks and heat pulsed through her body. How did he do that? Just a kiss, his kiss was like an earthquake, a hurricane, and a tsunami all rolled into one. She’d ceded control of her muscles and her mind; all she wanted was for Leo to carry her to the loveseat and strip her naked. Never mind the living room filled with his family. Nope. None of that mattered a whit, because Leo Travati was a sex god, a complete and utter sex god. Just like last night, when the man kissed her and she’d surrendered, even after all her strong words today, Leo could have his way with her, have her every which way, in fact.

He slowly pulled his lips from hers. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t even open her eyes. Her heart raced much too fast for anything but concentrated breathing. “You agree we have a conundrum.”

Who could say the word conundrum—no, who could think the word conundrum—after a kiss of such earth-shattering proportions?

“Hmm.” Deep breath. She needed to recover her cool, unimpressed exterior somehow. Gwen tapped her fingertip to her lips and opened her eyes. “While I do see your point—your kisses are nice” Yeah, like David Beckham’s ass looks just okay. “—I really don’t see this working.” She shook her head slowly, as if breaking the news to a potential intern that they hadn’t gotten the job. “No, this won’t work for me. I’m sure you understand, don’t you?”

She slid out from between Leo and the wall, away from this gorgeous hunk of man that she wanted to eat with a spoon, and closed her eyes. My God, one more kiss like that and she’d be stripping off her clothes for him. She needed to escape this room. Too much heat. Plus, the memories of last night were about to sink her. Her neck was flushed and soon she’d need to fan herself or pass out for lack of oxygen.

She smoothed her hand down the front of her sweater and tugged the edges near her waist. Then she straightened her black crepe skirt. Yes, out. She needed to get out.

Leo grasped her arm. She looked over at him and her breath hitched in her chest. Could he tell how badly she wanted to fall into those eyes, to moan his name as she’d done over and over last night?

He cocked his eyebrow, and with a smug, self-assured smile said, “I think you’re making a mistake.”

Yes. Yes, a big mistake. Every bit of her lady parts wanted to let Leo sleep with her for the next week, month, six months, however long he’d have her…but what then? He’d tire of her, as he always tired of the models and actresses and heiresses, even an astrophysicist. And then she’d be exactly where she was now, only awkward and embarrassed in front of his family and her friends, because inevitably someone, Shelly or Nina or Aubrey, would discover what was going on between them. She really wasn’t that great a liar, especially to women who knew her so well.

Nope. She didn’t have the necessary cool exterior to take a dip in the fuck-buddy pool without breaking her heart and blowing her cover, at least not with this guy, not with Leo Travati.

“Maybe,” she said and straightened her spine, pretending once again that she was sophisticated and unmoved by the heat that raged between them. “But it’s a mistake I’m willing to make.” She ran her hand over her hair to tame the tiny wisps that had escaped her chignon during their lip lock. Then she turned, and walked out the door.