Christie tried to kick-start her sluggish brain cells. “Your place?”
“Yeah.” He smiled that incredible smile of his and a few more of her brain cells expired in ecstasy.
“As in go home with you?”
“I think that’s what I said, didn’t I?”
Christie’s mouth dried, a peculiar feeling curling through her body. A weird combination of fear and anticipation and…excitement. She tried to ignore it. “But why your place?”
Joseph’s gaze turned intent. He fiddled with her phone, turning it over and over in one long-fingered hand. “Would you like a benign, well-intentioned lie or complete honesty?”
Something about the way he said it made all the air in her immediate vicinity feel very thin. “Um… Maybe honesty,” she said unsteadily.
His movements stilled. The look in his eyes pinned her to the spot. “Because after the interview, I’m planning on seducing you.”
The air went from being thin to nonexistent. “W-what?” Damn, bloody stutter.
He tilted his head. “Too honest? I could go with the well-intentioned lie instead. And that involves me giving you the interview you wanted, and you giving me the explanation that I wanted, then me shaking your hand and letting you leave. Would you prefer that?”
He had to be messing with her. They’d both been there, done that with each other. Why a repeat?
“What I prefer,” she snapped, “is the truth.”
“I told you the truth.”
“But you didn’t mean it.”
His eyes widened. “Of course I bloody meant it. Why shouldn’t I?”
“Come on,” she said, feeling oddly defensive. “The whole reason you even kissed me in the first place was only because you were grateful I noticed your stupid stereo.”
Surprise crossed his face. “Actually, honey, if you remember, you were the one who kissed me.”
She flushed. Oh yeah. So she had. “Well…I didn’t mean to.”
“You didn’t mean to?”
Christie’s jaw firmed. “No. I didn’t.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“And what about the sex? Was that only because I was grateful you noticed my stupid stereo too?”
Anger flared from some deep, fragile part of her soul. “Well, wasn’t it?”
“No. It wasn’t.” His gaze held hers, so intense all the hot, angry words she’d been going to say dried up in her mouth. “The sex afterward was because I wanted you so much I couldn’t stop myself from having you.”
Something squeezed hard inside her chest. A hope she couldn’t allow herself to have. “I don’t believe you.”
Joseph bit off a curse, tossing her phone carelessly onto the couch beside him. Then he leaned forward and reached for her, his hand on the back of her head, pulling her to him before she could move. And then the whole world stopped on its axis as his mouth covered hers.
The kiss stole her breath. Stole her mind. Every thought vanishing from her head.
Hot, hungry, and so very, very insistent.
And over way too soon.
Joseph released her, sitting back in his seat, leaving her shaking and almost unable to speak.
“Do you believe me now?” he asked softly.
Christie stammered like an idiot.
At that moment a knock came on the suite door and his media person stuck her head around it again, giving Christie a pointed look. “Time’s up. Are you ready for the next one, Joseph? It’s Complete PC.”
Joseph sat back in his seat, composed. As if he hadn’t delivered the kind of kiss that would have made a stone curl its toes. If a stone had toes. “Yeah, Liz. Send them in.” And then he added quietly, for Christie’s ears alone. “If you want to continue this interview, then meet me downstairs in an hour. If not…” He picked up her phone and put it in his pocket, the look in his eyes all challenge, “Don’t.”
Chapter Five
The interviews took forever and he hated every minute of them. Hated sitting still. Hated answering the same boring questions over and over again. But considering that the launch of the E-Slate was his personal baby, it was important he showed up personally.
Thinking of Christie, of the kiss he’d given her, did not help.
Perhaps that hadn’t been a good move. But she’d seemed so adamant that he couldn’t possibly want her that he hadn’t been able to think of another way to convince her.
And convincing her had seemed quite vital at the time. He’d wanted her to know he was serious. Seriously attracted. Maybe he’d been too blunt about that, but he liked to be up-front with people. And he liked them to be up-front in return.