Her face went pink. “I’d be honored to be your friend. As long as you don’t expect me to…” She trailed off.
“To share my bed?”
“Larkin!” She put her hands to her cheeks. “Quit saying things like that. You told me you don’t get involved with clients.”
“That was before I met you.”
“I’m boring.”
He could see in her eyes that she believed it. She wasn’t fishing for compliments, but he offered them anyway. “You’re beautiful and sexy as hell. I could spend twenty-four hours in that bed with you and not be done.”
“Is that even possible? I thought men…well…”
Her artless confusion amused him. “I might have to rest now and again, but you wouldn’t be disappointed.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist, rocking slightly. “I never said that was an issue. I’m trying to make you believe I’m not the kind of woman you’re used to. And it would be embarrassing and awkward when you find out my shortcomings between the sheets.”
This endless argument was getting them nowhere. He’d simply have to rely on proximity and the magic of Wolff Mountain to win her over. “We’ll drop the subject for now. But it’s not going away, I promise. Sooner or later, I’ll convince you. So you might as well get used to the idea. Bringing you here was not one of my better ideas, yet here we are. I’m selfish enough to want to take advantage of the situation. Tell me you don’t want me, and I’ll leave you alone. But I don’t think you can say that, can you?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re arrogant?”
He grinned, looking forward to the days ahead. “I’m a Wolff. It comes with the territory.”
* * *
Winnie fell back on the bed, her arms outstretched. What had she gotten herself into? Larkin Wolff was a charismatic, masculine man with enough macho hormones to put any female’s heart in jeopardy. But she was a pragmatic woman. And she had discovered long ago that her life would be spent in the service of others.
The art of deep personal relationships was not something she had ever mastered. Even with her parents there had existed a distance created by devotion to their life’s work and by Winnie’s inability to express to them what she needed emotionally. In the aftermath of their deaths, she had lost her way for a time…with disastrous consequences. After that experience, she decided to pour her heart, time and money into something bigger than herself.
Knowing that she was protecting women and children who had few resources, either financially or otherwise, gave her a deep sense of satisfaction. The money in her various bank accounts had never meant much to her, other than the freedom to help those in need. Her personal fortune had complicated her life, and that same money was to blame for her misgivings when it came to Larkin.
For most of her life, she had been judged by the size of her financial bottom line. No one looked at Winifred Bellamy and saw a young woman with potential. All they cared about was what her net worth could do for them.
Larkin was different. He had no interest in her money. So why couldn’t she believe him when he said he wanted her? She knew she carried scars—deep ones. But was she so damaged that the interest of a virile, appealing man threatened her somehow?
For the next hour and a half, she prowled the room, unable to sit down. The spacious apartment was peaceful and serene. Winnie’s thoughts were anything but. She dreaded meeting the entire Wolff clan. Large groups made her nervous.