“Nick,” she let out on a croak, pressing her suddenly sweaty palms down on her faded cut-off shorts which barely skimmed past her bottom. The only thing else she had on was her cropped sleeveless white tee which suddenly felt like it could stifle her especially as Nick was giving her a thorough once-over. A flicker of appreciation crossed his face and she could swear it made her panties all the moister.
He finally lifted his gaze to hers, a predatory smile flashing white against his smoothly tanned face. “Why do you look so surprised? I should have thought you’d be expecting me.”
“If you’re here to play your games…,” she began tightly, and saw him lift his hands in surrender.
“I come in peace,” he cut in mildly. “And hopefully I’ll get invited for a cool, long beverage. I drove over straight from the office and I’m sort of hot and bothered.”
“Yeah, right,” Keyonna muttered, surprising herself by stepping to the side to allow him in even as she said, “Okay - but no hanky-panky.”
Nick laughed deeply, brushing past her and into her sizeable, elegantly furnished open-plan apartment. “Do people really still say stuff like that? No hanky-panky. Don’t worry, I had no such thing in mind.” He chuckled once more, shaking his head and turning to face her in the middle of the living room done in highly modern chic with red, cream and black accents. Well lit and filled with tasteful artifacts gracing the walls and corners, it wasn’t an overly large place but every item had been picked with care and thought.
Keyonna led him to one of the stylishly upholstered sofas, and watched him survey the contemporary surroundings with an appraising air. “Nice décor,” he commented. “Did it all yourself?”
“I handled the design, yes,” she murmured, inwardly brimming with pleasure at his light approval. “Would you like to sit down? I made some iced tea – would you like that?”
“Sounds nice,” he said with a slightly mocking tilt to his smile, and Keyonna resisted the urge to make a face at him as she headed for the kitchen. She returned some minutes later with a pitcher of cubes and two filled glasses to find him standing by an inlaid shelf, looking at the framed pictures set there.
He sent her a glance. “I take it these are your parents?”
Keyonna nodded. “They’re back home in Illinois. I’m an only child and they more or less groomed me to fend for myself. It’s a lesson I took along with me to this day, living far from my family and trying to make my way in the world.”
She handed him a glass which he took with a nod of thanks. “I’m sure they’re very proud seeing the success you’ve become,” he told her mildly, and she smiled with a shake of her head.
“Still a long way to go. But then, I’m grateful for what I’ve achieved.”
There was a pause as they both sipped from their drinks, Nick’s brows rising in enjoyment as he murmured, “This is good.”
Keyonna took a much too hasty gulp of her iced tea as their eyes met over the glasses. The fact that they were having small talk, here, seemed incongruous to what was actually sizzling beneath the surface. There was that twang of awareness between them that made perspiration slide down her bare back in tiny rivulets. She’d never known a man to look so potently male with all his clothes on – making her start to imagine just how much more tantalizing he’d be naked.
Damn…the thought of Nick Vitale, naked, was enough to turn her nipples into granite-hard knots now straining against her thin tank.
“Looks like we have more in common than I had realized. We’re both an only child – and we’re both go-getters determined to achieve our goals,” Nick said in a steadily deepening voice that seemed to tease the very hairs on her pores. “We’d make a perfect combination, don’t you think?”
Something that glinted darkly in his eyes right then made Keyonna’s throat constrict. His beautiful lips curved in a tyrannical smile and Keyonna just knew she’d been a fool to let him in. Not that she’d had the chance to even think or consider the right or wrong of giving Nick the chance to invade her personal space the way he was doing now.
“Perfect combination for what?” Keyonna heard the slight tremor in her voice and bit on her bottom lip. Crap. Looking into Nick’s deep brown gaze reminded her of the moment he’d kissed her in his car. Now that had been one hell of a hard, hot and passionate kiss. No games, just lust. But then he’d ruined it by talking like he wanted nothing to do with her. Called her a distraction he didn’t need or even want.