is the first time I’ve been in the South in over a decade.”
“Then maybe we’ll bump into each other again—” she gifted him a wry smile “—in ten years or so.”
The numbers tallied up in his head. In ten years he’d be forty-five. God willing, his business would still be going strong. But other than that …
Would he still have the same circle of friends? He’d probably still be a bachelor. Fact was he’d never contemplated marriage. After his abomination of an upbringing, he’d go so far as to admit he shuddered at the idea. If a woman he was seeing began to slow down whenever they passed the diamond rings laid out in a jewelry store window, he quit calling. Harsh, perhaps, but necessary. He wasn’t looking for a wife. Didn’t want a family or a son “to follow in my footsteps.” He’d sooner put a gun to his own head.
They arrived at the hotel, the oldest and best respected in Royal, so the maître d’ had told Daniel this morning on his way out. Elizabeth had stopped before a monster of a potted palm, looking like an earthbound angel as a dry breeze combed her long fair hair.
She peered up at the hotel’s stone facade. “Well, this is it.”
He braced his legs, shoulder-width apart. “Yes, it is.”
“Good luck again.” Her tone was sincere.
So was his. “You, too.”
“Don’t work too hard,” she said over a slender shoulder as she turned and walked away.
Daniel watched as those sexy pink heels clicked a provocative tune all the way down Main’s wide pavement. When she’d disappeared around the next block, he sucked down a breath and moved inside the quiet, high-ceilinged lobby then crossed the plush Oriental carpet to the lifts. In his suite two minutes later, he stopped to study his Cattleman Club’s mock-up and grunted. Giant steer horns. Not one of his better ideas.
Decided, he snapped his cell phone from his belt. No use delaying.
Abigail’s number was ringing when the doorbell sounded.
He tossed an impatient glance over. Damn. He’d meant to put out the Do Not Disturb sign. Housekeeping could make the bed after he’d vacated.
He strode over and fanned open the door. Rand stood in the corridor, surprise on his face.
“You’re back already?”
Daniel huffed. “No thanks to you.”
“Boss, you pay me the big bucks to read your mind. You might not have wanted me to leave but you most definitely wanted to be alone with Elizabeth Milton.” Crossing his arms, he leaned up against the doorjamb. “How’d it go?”
“Actually, very well,” Daniel conceded. “We had coffee. Chatted about the town’s history, how that might play into a new design.”
Rand straightened. “Are we back on?”
“No. We’re out of here,” Daniel confirmed. “Let me make a call and I’ll get back to you in ten with an exit plan.”
“Want me to let the pilot know?”
“Midday takeoff, if he can do it.”
Rand pivoted away and had disappeared inside his own suite next door when the elevator pinged. Daniel’s door was halfway shut when the earth stopped revolving and, off balance, he nearly toppled sideways.
What the devil was Elizabeth doing here?
She emerged from the elevator like a star stepping onto a red carpet. Spotting him, she bowled him over with an innocent, dimpled smile.
“Why, Daniel, you look stunned.”
He remembered to breathe. To think.
“Stunned would be the word. Elizabeth, what are you doing here?”
Had Abigail sent her for some reason? No, that made no sense. Her being here didn’t make sense at all.
A mysterious glint in her eye, she moved closer. “Invite me in and I’ll tell you.”
He got his whirling thoughts together enough to step aside and motion her in. She brushed past, that irresistible scent drifting over him, and, breathing deep, he closed the door.
“Is something wrong?”
“Depends on how you look at it.”
She continued on toward the center of the room, her behind hypnotizing him as it swayed in the pale pink fitted skirt. He swallowed against a suddenly dry throat.
“I’d offer you a drink but nine a.m. seems a little early.”
Pivoting around, she shrugged. “If I wanted a drink I’d have stopped at a bar.”
“What do you want?”
“Guess there’s no way around it,” she said, “except to come straight out and let you know.”
As she closed the distance separating them and stepped into his personal space, Daniel’s respiration cranked up and sparks began to fly. When she pushed up on tiptoe, looped her arms around his neck then brought her lips to within a whisper of his, those sparks transformed into a more dangerous form of heat. Then, to really confuse him, she gifted him with a kiss that turned that heat into a world of fireworks. Compared to this, last night’s experience was child’s play.
As her breasts pressed in and her tongue wound out to loop sensually around his, a steamy rush of carnal pleasure swept through him, something similar to the back draft from a twenty-story fire. Hypnotized, he shaped a palm over the back of that silken hair and followed his instincts. He held her tighter, kissed her deeper and told himself to hell with consequences.
As she continued to curl around him and his every inch grew hard, Daniel couldn’t stop imagining the next step. The bedroom. Clothes falling off. Urgent cathartic sex first. Long and slow and gloriously deep sex after that.
When she reluctantly pried her mouth from his, Elizabeth’s breathing was ragged, too.
“I couldn’t have you leave without letting you know how much I enjoyed last night.”
His heartbeat booming, he stole another smoldering kiss. “Up until our discussion on family.”
“That had nothing to do with us.”
“I’m obviously slow, but I didn’t realize there was an us.”
“There can be—” she lavished a lingering kiss on the beating hollow of his throat “—in a here and now kind of way.”
Surging testosterone levels through the roof, he cupped her behind as she pressed against him.
“I know a man in this situation shouldn’t worry about questions,” he admitted as her soft, sweet lips brushed his again, “but where did this come from?”
His gut said she wasn’t the
