Tempted to ignore him, she looked back down to what she was doing. But she couldn't forget about him. He stood there, burning her with his eyes like a beam of sunlight through a magnifying glass. His shadow stretched across the showroom floor, long enough to touch her feet, and damn if it her skin didn't tighten and tingle with the memory of his caresses.
She could have gone out the back, through the delivery door, but her car was parked in the front lot. Throwing her shoulders back, she muttered a curse and crossed the shop to unlock the door. Bigger than she remembered, more alive, he stepped over the threshold and right into her personal sphere. Heat radiated from him. It wrapped around her and jacked her temperature up high enough that it felt like someone had turned off the air conditioner. She didn't have anything clever or cruel to say so she waited for him to speak first. She couldn't have started the conversation, anyway. His earthy scent wrapped around her, binding her to him.
"You'll need the code for your alarm system," he said after a beat of silence. "It's keyed up to the doors and windows. I also installed cameras at the front and back doors. The cameras are feeding to the new monitor on your desk."
So he wanted a professional approach. Good, easier to deal with the alternative. Speaking to his ear, she said, "You didn't have to come all the way over here."
Jude braced his shoulder against the doorframe. "You're not taking my calls."
Lord, the way he smelled. It reminded her of midnight satin and pleasure. Somehow, she finally managed to take a step backward. "I'll get a pen. Do you have an invoice?"
Desperate to hide the flush burning her cheeks, she turned her back on him and headed for the service counter. Behind her, the tiny bell over the door chimed as Jude let the door close. The sound of her keys jingling together, of the lock bolting home, made her breath catch.
From the corner of her eye, she saw him pocket her keys. Her pulse kicked up and a sense of inevitability, thrill instead of fear, slid down her back. She tried to ignore it. "The code? And my keys? House and shop."
He supplied a six-number sequence but said, "I think I'll keep your keys for now. I want to talk to you and I don't have the patience for a conversation through text messages. Especially when you're ignoring them."
Lily dropped her pen in a cup and turned to face him. Mistake. He sat in a casual sprawl on one of her overstuffed sofas. The hunter-green backdrop and the late sun coming through the wide front window did terrific things for him, darkening the golden hue of his skin and illuminating his dark-blond cut. While she watched, he spread both arms across the back of the sofa and planted his booted feet on the carpet. Knees bent, weekend cargoes stretched taut across his thighs, a king who could mount a throne anywhere he chose. His eyes asked a question she had no trouble translating.
Was she queen enough to match his confident, primal power?
Her mouth went dry. Was she?
It would be such a bad idea if she hiked her pencil skirt to her hips and straddled him there in the warm beam of the evening sun but bad idea or not, that's exactly the image that invaded her mind. Shoving it aside, she forced her gaze to his. "I'm ignoring your messages because I don't want to talk to you unless you're giving me access codes or delivering my bill. We have a business relationship. You have no right to communication outside the bounds of it and you especially have no right to force communication when I've blatantly denied it."
"Our relationship isn't strictly business anymore." He broke eye contact, but not to look away. Instead, he very deliberately refocused on her body, tracking from mouth to knees. "As to your rights, you unlocked the door and let me in. You haven't called the cops to get rid of me, and until you do, I'm going to talk. You asked who I was looking for last night."
"You could have answered when I asked. What does it mean to me now that you've had time to come up with some smooth story?" She asked stonily.
"Three men operate the Jungle. They're like me and we're Pride. The territory is our responsibility, both the geography and everybody who crosses in and out of it. Over the past few months, someone has been waging a war against us in the guise of brutalizing women who are connected to the club. At first, they seemed like random attacks but I have reason to believe otherwise. Whoever is hammering at our door is looking for a weakness, a way in, and he's getting closer to finding one.
"There was another attack last night. I was called in for debriefing. When I found you, I wasn't looking for you, I was looking for the man you'd chosen to play with."
"I didn't choose him," she said, unsure why she felt a need to clarify. "I worked out my terms with Ares and left the decision-making up to him. I didn't want any contact or connections. I just wanted … "