I’m not the one they are trying to snap photos of.” She pursed her lips toward Katie. “Hope they don’t run you off.”
“If anyone runs me off,” Katie said, squeezing Luke’s arm meaningfully, “I can assure you, it will be Luke.” She glanced at him, their eyes clashing in a strained connection before she forced a smile in Maria’s direction. “And it’s nice to meet you, by the way.”
Katie’s attention flickered to Jessica, whom she’d concluded either a) had a big-time crush on Luke, or b) was sleeping with him, or maybe even c) had slept with him at one point and hoped to again. Whatever the case, she was going on the suspect list. “Nice to meet you, as well, Jessica.”
Jessica gave her a barely there nod and then eyed Luke, speaking to him, not Katie. “She’s in the room next to yours.” There was a message there—I know she isn’t sleeping with you.
Maria quickly responded, as if she sensed her daughter’s agitation and inference, and was trying to cover it up. “It’s a beautiful room,” she said. “Let me know if I can do anything for you while you’re here, Katie.”
Jessica remained focused on Luke. “Should I show her to her room?”
Katie grimaced, disliking the way Jessica spoke as if she was not there.
A slow, intimate smile slipped onto Luke’s lips as he glanced down at her. “I’ll show Katie to her room myself.” Okay. So if Jessica thought the separate rooms meant they were not sleeping together, Luke’s stare, at that moment, must have rattled her. Because even Katie was almost convinced she was sleeping with Luke based on that hot, steamy look.
Maria cleared her throat, her cheeks red. “We’ll leave you for the night and head home. Oh, and Katie, your bag is in your room.”
“Thank you,” Kate said quickly. At the same moment, Luke slid his arm back over Katie’s shoulder, another intimate, overly friendly gesture. She wanted to shove him away, especially when little ripples of awareness began spraying along her nerve endings. She had so many reasons to dislike this man, yet her body couldn’t seem to get in agreement with that rationale. Nor did she have time to dart away when Maria and Jessica finally departed.
The instant she and Luke were alone, Luke turned to face her, pulling her to him, hands still around her waist. “You thought Jessica and I were together.”
Denial seemed futile. “Are you?” she challenged, her fingers melded to those damn, far-too-appealing muscular arms.
“She’s my housekeeper’s daughter, Katie,” he said, his voice laced with disbelief. “I was at her sweet-sixteen party. She’s a kid. I have not, nor would I ever, sleep with Jessica. You really want to hate me, don’t you?”
Yes! And it would be easier if he would let her go and stop touching her. “You’ve not exactly given me reason to do anything but hate you.”
She got her wish. He dropped his hands from her waist and stared at her. “Because I was trying to get rid of you, and for the record, I know I was a jerk and I’m sorry. But you have to admit you were an easy target, with all kinds of preconceived notions about me.”
Her eyes went wide. “You admit you were a jerk?”
“Yes,” he said pointedly, hands on his hips. “And I said I’m sorry, in case you missed that part. Now it’s your turn. Do you admit you judged me before meeting me?”
She sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest, her foot tapping with nervous energy. It was true, she had prejudged him. “Okay, yes, I did, but I’m not apologizing. You were a jerk. I have no reason to believe it was an act.”
“Do you make a habit of kissing jerks?”
“Apparently, I do,” she replied shortly.
His expression darkened, eyes flashed. “I’m not him, you know.”
She knew who he meant. Her ex. The one who had said he was different from all the others but wasn’t. She chose to play dumb. “Who might that be?”
He nodded decisively. “Got it. You don’t want to talk about the past, and that appears to be the root of all my evil.”
“You learn fast,” she said. “But you seem to create your own evil quite nicely. You don’t need anyone from my past to do it for you.”
His jaw tensed, heat firing from his eyes, a mixture of anger and arousal. He wanted to kiss her into submission—she could see it in his eyes, and she barely contained the urge to back away.
“I’ll drop it.” Then he added with emphasis, “For now.” He considered her a moment. “I’ll show you to your room.”
“Oh, no,” Katie said with a nervous laugh. “I don’t need you to escort me to my bedroom.” She’d kissed him. She didn’t want to do something crazy, like undress him, and considering she kept thinking about it, a solo trip to her room seemed smarter. “Just point me in the right direction.”
His anger slid away with the appearance of a twinkle in his eyes. “Tucking tail and running?”
Yeah, she was, but she wasn’t admitting that. She was running, and doing so fast and hard. Ripping his clothes off would get her nowhere but in trouble, yet she wanted to. Oh, boy, did she want to. That she was even thinking about it spoke volumes about where her head was right now, and it wasn’t a place that allowed her to do her job. Luke was in danger. She was here to protect him, not get naked with him. It was time to get it together.
And yet, with that grand plan in mind, she still responded to his challenge, still could not resist saying, “I do not tuck tail and hide.”
“I said run, not hide.”
She shrugged. “Same thing.”
“If you say so,” he said, obviously unconvinced, but he didn’t push. “I’m hungry. You like Chinese food? There’s a spot up the road that delivers.”
She shook her head, trying to clear the skid marks from the sudden change of topic. “What game are you playing, Luke Winter?”
“No game. I’m hungry. I figured you might be, too.”
He was trying to get her to let down her guard again. She wasn’t a fool. This man and this situation were turning her upside down. “You’re my client.”
“Right,” he said, reaching for a cordless phone on the bar and sitting down. “And that means what exactly?”
Her chin inched up. She wanted the parameters set. The line drawn in the sand. Directness seemed her best option. “I can’t do this, Luke,” she said.
“Eat with me or sleep with me?”
“I can’t sleep with you.”
He arched that damnably sexy eyebrow and said, “Chinese food is okay, though, right?”
She inhaled, suddenly feeling really not so good about her directness—embarrassed, in fact. Maybe he’d already played his game and won the kiss. Maybe he’d moved on, and she was making something big out of nothing. He was a jerk, and she’d
