And somehow, she couldn’t move. She stood there like a complete fool, staring at his shining, thick hair, at his impossibly broad shoulders to which his soft white sweater clung so lovingly. She wanted to drop back into her chair and ask him about his day, to tell him the real truth—that she missed him in the deepest, most elemental part of herself. That she wished things were different, but she was not a good choice for him as a friend or a lover or anything else, and he ought to know that....
He glanced up a second time. “What is it?” he asked. Gently. Coaxingly.
“Nothing,” she lied yet again.
He began closing books and stacking papers. “I need to take everything back upstairs. Only a minute, and I’ll walk you out.”
“No, really. It’s fine, I—”
He stopped and pinned her with a look. “Wait. Please.”
The problem was, in spite of everything—all she could lose, all the ways it wasn’t going to work—she wanted to wait for him. She wanted to be his friend again.
And more. So much more...
“Fine,” she said tightly.
He tipped his head sideways. “You won’t run out on me?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head while a frantic voice in her mind screamed, You idiot, what’s wrong with you? Get out and get out now. “I’ll be right here.”
He gathered the materials into his big arms and turned for the stairs. She stood rooted to the spot as he went up, knowing she ought to just duck out while he wasn’t looking—but somehow unable to budge.
He came back down again and picked up his tablet. “All right. Let’s go.”
* * *
A few minutes later, along a wide, marble-floored corridor on the way to Rule and Sydney’s apartment, he stopped at a gilt-trimmed blue door.
She frowned at him. “What’s this?”
He clasped the ornate gold latch and pushed the door inward. On the other side, dimly, she saw a sitting room. “An empty suite,” he said. “Come inside with me.”
She moved back a step. “Bad idea.”
He held her gaze, levelly. “A few private minutes together in a neutral setting. We’ll talk, that’s all.”
“Talk.” She said the word with complete disbelief.
“And only talk,” he insisted. He sounded sincere.
And she was tired of resisting, fighting not only him, but also herself. She wanted to go in that room with him. It was hopeless. Every minute she was near him only made her want to steal one minute more.
She let him usher her in.
He turned on a lamp. She sat on a velvet sofa and he took a floral-patterned armchair.
“All right,” she said. “Talk about what?”
“Why making love with me on New Year’s Eve has upset you so much. To me, it was exactly right, a natural step. The next step for us. I don’t understand why you can’t see that.”
She stared at him and said nothing. The truth was too dangerous.
He watched her face as though memorizing it. “I miss those black-rimmed glasses you used to wear. They made you look so serious and studious.”
She’d had laser surgery six months before. “Life is easier without them in a whole lot of ways.”
“Still, they were charming.”
She almost messed up and gave him a real smile. But not quite. “You dragged me in here to talk about how you miss my glasses?”
He set his tablet on the low table between them. “Put down your laptop.”
She had it clutched to her chest with both hands. It was comforting, actually. Like a shield against doing what she really wanted and getting too close to him. But fine. She set it down—and felt suddenly naked. “This is ridiculous.”
“I’ve been thinking it over,” he said as though she hadn’t spoken, a thoughtful frown carving twin lines between his straight, thick brows.
“Max. Why are we doing this? There’s just no point.”
He shrugged. “Of course there’s a point. You. Me. That something special between us.”
“You still love your wife,” she accused. And yeah, it was a cheap shot, the kind of thing a jealous girlfriend looking for promises of forever might be worried about. Lani was not looking for promises of any kind, no way.
He answered without heat. “My wife is gone. It’s almost four years now. This is about you and me.”
“See?” she taunted, childishly. Jealously. “You’re not denying that you’re still in love with her. She’s still the one who’s in your heart.”
Something happened in his wonderful face then. Some kind of withdrawal. But then, in an instant, he was fully engaged again. “This is not about Sophia. And we both know that. You’re just blowing smoke.”
Busted. “Can’t you just...? I mean, there have to be any number of women you could have sex with, be friends with, any number of women who would jump at the chance to get something going with you.”
His mouth twitched. What? He thought this was funny? “Any number of women simply won’t do. I want only one, Lani. I want only you.”
Okay. Crap. That sounded good. Really, really good. She made herself glare at him. “You’re working me. I know what you’re doing.”
He sat there so calmly, looking every inch the prince he was, all square-jawed and achingly handsome and good-hearted and pulled-together. And sincere and fair. And way, way too hot. “If working you is telling you the truth, then yes. I am shamelessly working you. I waited five endless weeks for you to come to me again, to tell me whatever it is that’s keeping you away from me. It was too long. So I took action. I’m not giving up. I’m not. And if you could only be honest, I think you would admit that you don’t want me to give up.”
Why did he have to know that? It wasn’t fair. And she needed, desperately, to get out of there. She grabbed her laptop and popped to her feet. “I need to go.”
He shifted, but he didn’t rise. He stared up the length of her and straight into her eyes. “No, Lani. You need to stay. You need to talk to me.”
Talk to him. Oh, no. Talking to him seemed only to get her in deeper, which was not what she wanted.
Except for when it was exactly what she wanted.
He arched a brow and asked so calmly, “Won’t you please sit back down?”
She shut her eyes tight, drew in a slow, painful breath—and
