All you need to do is make plans to attend my inauguration party.”
“Pretty damn sure of yourself, aren’t you?” Jonas asked, rolling his eyes.
“And there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be,” Eli said smoothly. “Like I said, I’ve been eyeing that position for years. I’m the best person for the job and they all know it.”
Jonas laughed. “You don’t have a short supply of confidence, do you?”
Eli took a sip of his drink, deciding not to waste his time acknowledging what Jonas had said. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Stacey when she walked off from Whiterspoon to head toward the snacks table. The owner of Ireland had given them a private room. And because most in attendance were some of the man’s most loyal customers from the hospital, he had even prepared a tray of finger sandwiches for them.
“Excuse me a minute, will you?” he said, already moving away and not waiting for his brother’s reply. He needed to talk to Stacey. He wasn’t sure what he would say to her when he did talk to her. But as he crossed the room toward her, he knew he would think of something.
The closer he got, the more he realized that, except for what he’d been able to glean from his brothers without them getting suspicious, he knew very little about Stacey Carlson. And for some reason, which he didn’t fully understand, he intended to remedy that.
He was headed in her direction.
She felt her hand holding the small plate of food begin to tremble and forced her composure to strengthen. After all, Eli Steele was just a man. But what a man he was.
Not able to resist a moment longer, she released a deep sigh and then turned her head to look at him. The features returning her stare were so intense they almost took her breath away.
She met Eli’s steady gaze when he approached her, grabbing his own plate to fill it as if he hadn’t deliberately sought her out. “I’m surprised to see you here, Stacey.”
She heard something in his voice. Was it an arrogant gloat? After the kiss they’d shared, had he expected her to go home and daydream about it? Hide out behind locked doors and pant until the next time she saw him?
“I’m surprised to see you here as well, Eli,” she decided to say. She’d bit into a tasty sandwich earlier but nothing, she thought, was tastier than her memory of his kiss.
“I get around,” was his quick comeback.
“So do I,” was hers.
He chuckled dryly. “Why do I feel that we’ve gotten off to a bad start?”
She wondered why he was trying to make it seem as if they hadn’t met months ago or hadn’t kissed earlier. The attraction had been there in the beginning. She would even admit feeling more than a tinge of something that night at Cohen’s birthday party when they’d been introduced. At least she could definitely claim that was when he’d begun invading her dreams.
She inclined her head. “And what makes you think we’ve gotten off to a bad start?”
He smiled, as if admiring the little bit of spunk she was trying to bolster. That was good, she thought. He didn’t have to know that although she might be trying to display a tough facade, she was all mushy inside and was somewhat annoyed by the vulnerability she felt around him. And it was the type of weakness and defenselessness she had no business feeling around any man. All it took was a memory of what Wallace had done to remind her that all men were a liability she could do without.
But Eli was different. Not only was he different, he was even more dangerous than any man she’d ever known. Never before had she been so attracted to a man, desired him so much. She was even entertaining thoughts of getting into his pants and ruffling his usually cool demeanor. Thinking about how fine he was could make her pant for days, but actually seeing him in the flesh would be enough to give a woman heart failure.
“Us getting off to a bad start was just my take on things,” he said quietly.
“Then let me assure you that your take is wrong.”
He looked at her and she wished he hadn’t done that. The last thing she needed was for those green eyes to be trained directly on her. “Possibly,” he said softly. “But you know very well why I think that way.”
Yes, she knew. But she needed to make him think, get him to assume what would go down as the best kiss of her life was nothing she intended to lose sleep over. “Then rest assured you shouldn’t think that way. It was only a kiss.”
He didn’t have to know it had been a kiss with the power to curl her toes and make her stomach quiver. The less Eli Steele knew of her innermost reactions to him, the better. He didn’t have to know that even now, despite his reputation, she wouldn’t mind going somewhere to jump his bones.
He moved closer, as if he wanted to try one of the sandwiches on the tray in front of her. Instead, he leaned into her and his thick-lashed green eyes made her heat up all over. In a low, gruff voice, he said, “I’d love to prove it was more than that, Stacey. And let me give you fair warning that one day, I will.”
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