Matched to a Billionaire(21)

The view factored pretty high in the decision, too.

Goodness. He was so gorgeous, dark lashes frozen above his cheekbones, hair tousled against the pillow.                       
       
           



       

How in the world had she convinced him to sleep in the same bed with her   and agree to hold off on intimacy? She'd thought for sure they'd have a   knock-down-drag-out and then he'd toss her out-bound and determined to   ignore his own needs, needs he likely didn't even recognize. But  instead  of cutting himself off from her again, he'd waded right into  the middle  of things like she'd asked, bless him.

Because his actions spoke louder than words, and his wife was an ace at interpreting what lay beneath.

If this bedroom sharing worked out the way she hoped, they'd actually   talk. Laugh over a sitcom. Wake up together. Then maybe he'd figure out   he was lying to himself about what he really wanted from this marriage   and realize just how deeply involved he already was.

They'd have intimacy-physically and mentally. She couldn't wait.

She eased from the bed and took a long shower, where she fantasized   about all the delicious things Leo would do when he finally seduced her.   It was coming. She could feel it.

And no matter how much she wanted it, anticipated it, she sensed she   could never fully prepare for how earthshaking their ultimate union         would truly be.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Leo was sitting up, rubbing the back   of his neck, and her mouth went dry. Even in a T-shirt, he radiated   masculinity.

"Good morning," she called cheerfully.

"What happened to my alarm?" He did not look pleased.

"I turned it off after listening to it chirp for ten minutes."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried," she lied and fluttered her lashes. "Next time would you like me to be a little more inventive?"

"No." He scowled, clearly interpreting her question to mean she'd do it in the dirtiest, sexiest way she could envision.

"I meant with a glass of water in your face. What did you think I meant?"

He rolled his eyes. "So this is what roommates do?"

"Yes. Until you want to be something else."

With that, she flounced out the door to check off the last few items on   the list for Tommy Garrett's party. It was tomorrow night and it was   going to be spectacular if she had to sacrifice her Louboutins to the   gods of party planning to ensure it.

Leo came downstairs a short while later, actually said goodbye and went to work.

When he strolled into the bedroom that evening, the hooded, watchful   gaze he shot her said he'd bided his time all day, primed for the   showdown about to play out.

"Busy?" he asked nonchalantly.

Dannie carefully placed the e-reader in her hand on the bedside table   and crossed her arms over her tank top. What was it about that look on   his face that made her feel as if she'd put on Elise's red-hot wedding   night set? "Not at all. By the way, I picked up your dry cl-"

"Good." He threw his messenger bag onto the Victorian settee in the   corner and raked piercing blue eyes over her, all the way to her toes   tucked beneath a layer of Egyptian cotton. They heated, despite the   flimsy barrier, and the flush spread upward at an alarming rate to spark   at her core.

What had she been talking about?

He shed his gray pin-striped suit jacket and then his tie. "You caught   me at a disadvantage last night. I had a few other things on my mind, so   I missed a couple of really important points about this new sleeping   arrangement."

Her relocation project had just blown up in her face. He was good and worked up over it.

"Oh? Which ones?" The last syllable squeaked out more like a dolphin   mating call than English as he dropped his pants, then slowly unbuttoned   his crisp white shirt. What had she done to earn her very own male   stripper? Because she'd gladly do it fourteen more times in a row.

"For starters, what happens if I don't keep my hands to myself?"

The shirt hit the floor and her jaw almost followed. Her husband had quite the physique hidden under his workaholic shell.

So maybe he wasn't mad. But what was he?

Clad in only a pair of briefs, Leo yanked the covers back and slid into   his side of the bed. She peeled her gaze from his well-defined chest  and  refixed it on his face, which was drawn up in a slight smirk, as if   he'd guessed the direction of her thoughts. Her cheeks flamed.

"I'll scold you?" She swallowed as he casually lounged on his pillow,   head propped on his hand as if settling in for a nice, long chat instead   of using those hands to do something far more...intimate. "I mean, it   wouldn't be very sporting of you."

"Noted." He stretched a little and the covers slipped down his torso. "What happens if you don't keep your hands to yourself?"                       
       
           



       

He was toying with her, seeing if he could get her to break her own vow   of chastity. In his thoroughly male mind, he'd be in the clear if she   made the move. His eyelids dropped to a very sexy half-mast and sizzled   her to the core.

"And Daniella? Be sure you spell really well so it's all very clear for   those of us who didn't barge into someone else's bed and start slinging   rules around."

Actually, the relocation project might be working better than she'd   assumed. At least they were talking. Now to get him to understand this   wasn't a contest. Their relationship was at a crossroads and he had to   choose which fork he wanted to take.

"There are no rules," she corrected. "I don't have a list of punishments   drawn up if you decide you're not on board with being roommates,   whether you want to go back to separate bedrooms or strip me naked right   now. You're calling the shots. You're the one who shut it down after   dinner the other night. Walk away, you said, and I did, but that's not   what either of us wanted."

"Yeah?" Lazily, he traced the outline of her shoulder against the   propped-up pillow at her back, carefully not touching her skin but   skating so close the heat from his finger raised every hair on her body.   "What would you rather I have told you to do?"

"No games, Leo." She met his gaze squarely. "I'm giving us an   opportunity to develop a friendship. But I also readily admit I want   you. I want your mouth on me. Here." Just as lazily, she traced a line   over her breast and circled the nipple, arching a little. "I want it so   badly, I can hardly stand it."

She watched him, and went liquid as his expression darkened sinfully.

"No games?" he asked and cleared the rasp from his throat. "Then what is this?"

"A spelling lesson." And she obviously had to really lay it out for him.   She dropped her hand. "You want me, then come and get me. Be as   emotionally naked as you are physically. Strip yourself as bare as your   body and let's see how fantastic it can be between us."

Stiffening, he closed off, his expression shuttering and his body angling away. "That's all? You don't ask for much."

"Then forget I mentioned it. We don't have to hold out for a connection   that may not ever happen. If either of us becomes uninterested in the   hands-to-yourself proposition I laid out, it's off." She flung herself   back against the pillow, arms splayed wide. "Take me now. I won't   complain. We'll have sex, it'll be great and then we'll go to sleep."

He didn't move.

"What's the matter?" she taunted, glancing at him sideways. "It's just   sex. Surely you've had just sex before. No brain required. I have no   doubt a man with your obvious, um...talent can make me come in no time   at all. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. I'm hot for you, Leo. Don't   make me wait a second longer."

"That's not funny. Stop being ridiculous." Translation: he didn't like being thoroughly trounced at his own game.

She widened her eyes. "Did you think I was joking? I'm not. We're   married. We're consenting adults. Both of us have demonstrated a healthy   interest in getting the other naked. We'll eventually go all the way.   It's your choice what sort of experience that will be."

This had never been about withholding sex. She'd be naked in a heartbeat   as soon as he made a move. All the power was in his hands and when  that  move came, it would be monumental. And he'd be so very, very aware  of  exactly what it meant.