Page 25 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

He blew out a breath and got to his feet. It didn’t escape her notice that he favoured one leg. ‘I think I know what the problem is.’ He walked to the door and turned off the light, plunging them into near darkness again. ‘Much better.’

‘How is this better?’ Every nerve-ending she owned was waiting for his next move, his next breath. ‘You can’t just wish our differences away with the flick of a switch. It doesn’t work like that.’

‘Plenty of people think it does.’ He stayed leaning with his back to the door, watching her, a grey cat in the dark. ‘Let’s experiment. Nothing too difficult or time-consuming, you have my word. I just want some clarity about what really went down in the dust storm.’

She was beginning to see why he was so successful in business. ‘You mean besides your test helicopter?’

‘I do like to run tests,’ he murmured.

She got to her feet and eyed him warily. ‘If I asked you to step aside and let me leave, would you do it?’

‘Of course.’

But she didn’t ask and he didn’t move. A curse on her curiosity. ‘What kind of experiment?’

‘A kiss in the dark.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

IN ARI’S EXPERIENCE, kisses were careful things, sparingly given. She was the product of a night of passion, raised by a single mother who trusted too easily, loved too willingly and time and time again had paid the price. Impressionable Ari had grown up wary. She wasn’t against love, or trust, but they had to be earned.

‘You’re playing with me.’ That was what playboys did.

‘I’m not.’

‘You’re a playboy, and rich, and you can have anyone you want. So why me?’

‘I’m not a playboy. I never have been, no matter what the tabloids say. I am smart enough to know when I’m onto a good thing. We found something in that tent.’ He hadn’t moved. ‘I want to explore it.’

‘What if it’s gone?’

‘It hasn’t. Kissing you will prove it. It’s a test. I’m an engineer. Engineers love tests.’ He nodded, and the light from the window caused his previously shadowed eyes to glint. ‘It makes perfect sense.’

She didn’t know what to make of any of it.

Her gaze dipped from his eyes to his lips, with their strong lines and tempting shape, and she wondered what it would feel like to trace them with her fingertips, taste him on her tongue. No point denying that she was tempted.

‘One—’ She cleared her throat and tried again. ‘One kiss and if it’s not...right, that’s the end of it.’

‘Agreed.’

Honey smooth.

Too smooth as he touched a finger beneath her chin and with the gentlest pressure tilted her head upwards. Ari clenched her hands to fists and held them rigidly at her sides so she wouldn’t reach for him if the kiss did measure up to impossible expectations.

‘I don’t know what you think is going to hap—’ But the rest of the word had nowhere to go as his lips claimed hers and set off a cascade of sensation that lit her from within. That connection she’d imagined in the tent? It was there in his kiss. A warm blaze that promised home, with teasing hints of laughter and passion licking at the edges of her thoughts.

He reached for her, broad palms against her shoulders until he ran his hands down her arms and caught at her fists with warm fingers, teasing them open and bringing them to his chest to where his heart beat strong and sure. As the kissing continued, inviting her on a journey so full of promise she trembled with the need to take another step.

Deeper now, as her tongue tangled with his and he pulled her body closer to his, and she did nothing to discourage him. She loved the feel of being in his arms and pressed into his long, lean length and the way he savoured her as if they had all the time in the world.

It ended with a hushed quiet, his hands cradling her head and his forehead resting against hers as they traded ragged breaths and fiercely beating hearts.

And even though she didn’t believe in love at first kiss, she was now a very firm believer in the lightning-bolt power of a first kiss.

‘So.’ She stepped away from all that hard-muscled warmth.

‘So.’ He sounded deeply, smugly satisfied.

---