Page 94 of Love Among the Ruins
“On my broomstick.”
“You think it’s funny?”
“Can’t you take a joke?”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes,” he growled, whipping out his cell phone.
“I still don’t understand why you’re so mad at me. Take it out on Alexander, don’t take it out on me.”
“Sorry.” He turned his back to her, giving her an unforgettable view of his back in a white shirt … broad shoulders going down to slim hips.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
“Bad night with Helen?” She really should have kept her mouth shut. She really, really, really should have. He spun around, that great, big, Herculean body of his now facing her. She couldn’t help the way her greedy eyes swallowed him all up. One night at Dominic’s place and she’d turned into a raving mad sex lunatic. How could she not?
“Helen?” His voice was quiet. The verbal equivalent of a pin being taken out of a grenade. There she went again with her preoccupation with death and destruction. Maybe she needed to see a therapist, more so now that she’d worked with Dominic Steele.
He bent down, his face level with hers, his cologne intoxicating her again, rendering her brain incapacitated. He inched closer, his face tanned, his eyes a kaleidoscope of gold sparkling in a sea of green and blue. He searched her face, and then … he moved in a little bit more.
He was … he was going … to … Kiss. Her. She licked her lower lip instinctively.
His gaze dipped to her lips. “You think I’m angry because of Helen?” His voice was a rumble deep in her chest.
“It’s just … a guess … you were …” Her brain had folded into itself, she struggled to think through the fog of her thoughts. His lips so near, his body so close she could feel the heat. He consumed her.
“I was?”
He stared at her, filling her body with ideas, and hope and even more longing. She parted her lips, wanting, wishing, imploring him to do the thing.
Focus.
Think of Jonas.
“You were happy when you left me.” She managed to sound normal. As if Jonas had thrown a bucket of cold water over her. “I’m glad you told me everything about your brother. I was prepared.”
She’d burst the bubble, and she would never know if he’d been about to kiss her. Standing up straight, Dominic turned away from her, whipping out his phone and ordering his driver to be ready. Then he called Miranda to fetch Eleni’s laptop and bring it to his office.
She started to get up, noting that he hadn’t answered her question. “You don’t need to do that for me. I can take care of it. I managed to get here, didn’t I?”
“I’ll see you back to your hotel.”
Dominic? Accompanying her to her hotel room? No. No. Never. “That’s not necessary—”
“It’s not your choice. The last thing I want is for you to fall down again and break the other ankle.”
I do, I do have a choice.She would normally argue her point, but … her brain, her racing heart, her damp panties. He might as well have kissed her for the effect he’d just had on her.
“It’s not broken. It’s sprained.”
“Whatever.”
She thanked Miranda for her laptop and gave her a final parting glance as she got into the elevator with Dominic.
She could already see the questions in Miranda’s eyes.
Miranda who was in love with Dominic, a fact that her boss was aware of and did his best to ignore, now looked at her like a rival.
This was so messy all around. They descended in silence, and once out of the elevator, Dominic ordered Sven to help her into the car. He was aloof, and didn’t talk to her in the car, to the point that she wondered why he’d come along at all.
