‘Fine.’ Shuffling the papers into a neat pile, he placed them down on the table and picked up his coffee, dropping the difficult subject, leaving Lily to freefall with all the emotion he’d just triggered as he calmly drank his coffee in a couple of gulps then stood up. Even though she hadn’t wanted him to stay, suddenly she didn’t want him to leave, curiously deflated as this wild animal took one sniff of the air and seemingly meekly walked away.
‘Thanks so much for the lift.’ Lily stood up and walked him to the door.
‘No problem. Thanks for the coffee.’
‘You’ll be OK to drive?’
‘Why? Are you worried about me?’
‘You’re a client…’ Lily attempted, but he shook his head.
‘No.’ Very deliberately he excused himself and Lily felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as he took away that moral dilemma and plunged her into a rather more personal one. ‘I was never there for me—I was checking the place out for someone else. So, you see, I’m not your client, which means you have absolutely no need to worry about me—unless, of course…’ boldly he stared ‘…you want to.’
‘But you said…’
‘I’m not into group therapy.’ Even the most bland of words were laced with innuendo when Hunter said them, even the most subtle flick of his eyes had her head spinning. ‘I prefer things to be one on one. I really was just there to make sure that things were aboveboard for…’ He hesitated for a fraction. ‘A friend.’
‘And were they?’
‘Very.’ He nodded. ‘And the coffee was most welcome, but now it’s time to go, I can tell that I’ve annoyed you.’
‘A bit,’ Lily admitted, ‘but that’s my problem, not yours.’
‘Do you do it all the time?’ Hunter asked, still staring unashamedly, but it was his mouth rather than his eyes that held Lily’s attention now, thick sensual lips that barely moved as he spoke, but his words were all silkily measured. ‘I mean, everything someone says—do you analyse it? How can my obnoxiousness be your problem?’
A sliver of a smile shivered on her own lips, countered by a nervous pink tongue bobbing out, and it was as if they were writing their own rules for flirting, the manual that said eye contact was so important tossed aside as they both concentrated on a more subtle erogenous zone. For Lily the effect was devastating, her mouth rendered almost immobile, words stammered out in a breathless voice as her lips ached for his. ‘It-t i-isn’t—my reactions are m-my own.’
‘Well, I’m glad I can evoke a reaction.’ The irony of his statement wasn’t lost on Lily. Never in her life had a person evoked such a reaction, her mind, her body spinning with awareness, dizzy from a host of new sensations. ‘And I am sorry if I offended. I have this terrible superiority complex, you see. I know I’m always right.’
She was actually smiling now, terribly reluctantly but she was definitely smiling, and in that unguarded second he pounced, well, not pounced, but for the first time he touched her, his fingers picking up a strand of damp blonde hair and tucking it behind her ear. Even though she stood stock still his touch felt like a dam was bursting somewhere inside, rivers of awareness, arousal coursing through her as his free hand took the glass she was clutching and placed it carefully on the hall table.
‘Tonight’s been…’ He paused while he chose his words. ‘Unexpectedly pleasant.’
‘I’m glad I didn’t bore you.’
‘Far from it.’ He frowned quizzically at her. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Why bother checking?’ Lily gave a rueful smile, but it covered a nervous swallow. She somehow sensed what was coming next, almost knew what he was going to ask her. ‘Why would a pretty little thing like you give up on the pot of gold?’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Oh, but I think you do!’ He was pinning her with his eyes as he voiced a question most would never have dared. ‘How did someone as young and as beautiful as you get so cynical?’
‘Cynical.’ Lily smiled and frowned at the same time—cynical was the last word that she’d use to describe herself. She adored her life, her family, her friends, was happy, motivated and truly believed that the world and the opportunities it offered were there for the taking.
‘Yep, cynical,’ Hunter insisted. ‘All this talk about not believing in love—maybe you shouldn’t knock it till you try it.’
‘I tried it once and didn’t like it.’ She threw his own words back at him but despite her best attempts Lily’s dismissive voice couldn’t disguise the pain that was there.