poured the deep red liquid into the waiting goblets and then sat.
From the bowl he extracted a cloth and extended his hand. “May I?”
Surprised by this consideration, Aubrey placed her palm over his. Liam wrapped the warm, damp lemon-scented cloth around her hand and then embarked on the most sensual hand washing of Aubrey’s life. He dragged the cloth between each finger, massaged her palm and the sensitive inner skin of her wrist, and then he repeated the process with her other hand. By the time he finished, the desire he’d so recently sated had rekindled and her breath came in short bursts. All because he’d washed her hands. She couldn’t get over it. How did he get to her so easily?
He lifted his wine glass. “Enjoy.”
“For as long as it lasts.” She touched her glass to his with a clink of fine crystal and then sipped. Liam definitely knew his wines. Aubrey lifted her knife and sliced into the tender beef and then paused. “If we’re going to have this … affair shouldn’t we make some ground rules?”
“Good idea.”
“No calls at work,” she offered and then took a bite. The succulent meat melted in her mouth. “Delicious.”
“Thank you. You’re right. Calling at work was risky even with the precautions I took. We need to keep our business and private lives separate. Completely separate,” he stressed.
Guilt stabbed Aubrey between the shoulder blades. She washed down the lump in her throat with a gulp of wine. She had to destroy the report from the sales department. “Okay. And when either of us wants to end this, all we have to do is say so and that’s it. No further contact. No questions asked. No explanations required.”
“Agreed.”
“No ‘I love yous’ or talk of the future. We both know this is temporary.”
“Got it. Here and now. That’s it.”
A few moments passed as each ate in silence. Aubrey couldn’t imagine being ready to say goodbye anytime soon, but then her mother probably never went into any of her marriages anticipating the messy divorces that followed, either.
She met Liam’s gaze. “Meeting in public is out, and we can’t meet at my apartment. My father owns the building and he lives in the penthouse above me. Besides the risk of running into him, there would be too many prying eyes. But a hotel seems.” She shrugged.
“Sleazy. My place is safe. My neighbor is overseas more often than he’s home, and Carlos the doorman has been here forever. He’s discreet.”
Aubrey paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You mean there was no chance of us being interrupted in the elevator tonight?”
Liam’s lips curled upward. “Not unless there was a fire, and, sweetheart, you came damn close to starting one. Watching you watch us.” He shook his head and then exhaled through pursed lips.
Warmth swept her cheeks at the compliment. “You could have told me sooner. About your neighbor, I mean.”
“And spoil your fantasy?”
A smile twitched on her lips. She’d never had a man ask her what her fantasies were, let alone go to such lengths to deliver one. She said a silent prayer of thanks that baseball season was over and she wouldn’t be expected to play out his fantasy at the stadium. “Fantasies rarely live up to expectations, but this one did. You definitely didn’t disappoint me.”
“Glad to hear it.”
And then Aubrey’s blood chilled. “Oh my God. You don’t have security cameras in the elevator, do you? I should have thought to ask before but I—”
His grin faded and he laid down his silverware. “We don’t. Aubrey, you have my promise that I will never deliberately do anything to hurt or humiliate you.”
Tension drained and panic subsided. That could have been a disastrous mistake. “Nor I you.”
And she meant it. Her father would have to find another minion to investigate EPH.
Liam covered her hand with his on the table. His thumb stroked a trail of chaos along her inner wrist. “Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me to sit here knowing you’re not wearing panties?”
Her appetite for food vanished and a hunger for Liam reawakened deep in her belly. She lowered her gaze from the fire in his eyes and surprisingly discovered her plate was empty. She barely remembered eating. “Let me help with the dishes.”
She hastily snatched up her plate and his, rushed into the kitchen and unloaded them into the sink. After plugging the drain she turned on the water. Liam’s arms bracketed her, caging her against the counter. He leaned forward until his chest pressed her shoulder blades and his erection rested in the crease of her bottom. His breath stirred the tendrils around her ear and she shivered. If it were possible for bones to melt, hers would be in a puddle on the granite floor.
“The dishes can wait. Join me in the shower. I want to get you wet.”
She turned in his arms and pressed her hands to his chest. Her heart echoed the rapid beat of his beneath her palm. “I think you already have, but I’m willing to let you keep practicing if you insist.”
For better or worse, her forbidden affair had begun.
Aubrey dropped her towel and reached for her dress. Liam snapped out of the sensual fog induced by the sight of her damp ivory skin. “Stay. Tomorrow’s Sunday. No need to rush home.”
She turned, chewing her bottom lip. “Are you sure?”
“Without a doubt.”
Barely nine and they’d already had dinner and made love twice. She’d destroyed him, totally wrecked him, and five minutes ago after he’d come unglued in the shower he would have sworn he’d be sated for months to come. So why did hunger still gnaw at his veins? And why did the idea of waking up beside Aubrey make his body twitch to life?
She rested her palms on his chest, sifting through his chest hairs in a way guaranteed to make his soldier salute. He pressed his hands over hers, stilling her dangerous digits. Undeterred, she bent to sip a trail of kisses along his collarbone. He tangled his fingers in her damp hair and gently tugged her head back. “I thought you said you needed to rest.”
Her siren’s smile could tempt a saint—something he’d never aspired to be. “We’ll rest awhile if you insist. You can show me your wine collection.”
He didn’t need to rest. His hard-on proved that, but he wanted to share his wine collection with Aubrey. No one but his grandfather knew the extent of his interest in enology. He laced his fingers through hers, led her back to the kitchen and folded back the wooden cabinet doors concealing his built-in wine refrigerator.
Her eyebrows lifted. How he managed to keep his eyes on her face when her luscious naked body was there to tempt him he didn’t know. “You’re a serious collector.”
“I have more.”
“Show me.”
But instead of taking her to the cases stored in the third bedroom he led
