man I’ll remain to you.”
“Yes, but you’re also Rafael Moreno Salazar, and I’m here attending your ball because my...boss is here to court your favor. And this complicates everything.”
“This complicates nothing, I tell you.”
“Oh, but it does. It tangles business with pleasure in a way I couldn’t have expected in my wildest dreams. Now I can’t spend the night with you. I don’t even know how everything will be affected by what we’ve already shared.”
Ellie’s arms slid off his shoulders and she slumped back. She felt as if he’d hurtled out of her reach when just minutes ago she’d felt he was closer to her than anyone had ever been.
She pitched forward, dropped her head in trembling hands. “Oh, God, why couldn’t you have just turned out to be just another guest here, just a regular man?”
“Well, I’m not.” He pulled her back into the cradle of his arm. “Which is why I can have you. A regular man wouldn’t dream of coming near you.” Before she could scoff at the exaggeration he’d said with such conviction, he went on just as seriously, “But I don’t care that business interests are involved. I’m even thankful they are, since they brought you here. I’m in your boss’s eternal debt for being the reason I met you. So if he is any good, I’ll do business with him. And that will have nothing to do with us.”
She squirmed to put some distance between them. “How can you say that in the same breath you say you’d do business with my boss for me?”
“I did stipulate he be at least ‘any good’ at what he does. I won’t prove my interest in you by gambling on a losing proposition. I’m into winning and would go to any constructive lengths to win you.”
“Constructive lengths.” A giggle escaped her. “Now, that’s an innovative way of putting it. Though you didn’t have to go to any lengths, constructive or otherwise. You stood there and cast your spell, and I ran and flung myself into your arms.”
“You neither ran nor flung yourself. But you will.”
She sighed, acknowledging his confidence. “So will you always be the magnet, with me the helpless iron filings, or is there hope of you doing some running yourself?”
“Command me, and I’ll run as long and as hard as you wish.” His fervor felt so real. But why not, when she felt the same? “I would have run to you this time, too, but I had to draw you away from the crowd.”
Something slotted in her mind with a thud. “You didn’t intend to make an appearance tonight, did you?”
His shrug was dismissive. “Whatever my intentions, I saw you...and nothing else mattered after that.”
“Same here. But you were going to pull another no-show tonight, right? Do you keep gathering people so you can watch them when they think you’re not around? Is this your method of vetting prospective partners?”
“It’s currently a partner. In the singular.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize you’re looking for only one.”
“I am.” The flare in his eyes said he was no longer talking about a business partner.
A thrill darted through her, and she sighed as he gathered her closer, soaking up his warmth and desire. “You do know the moment you touch me you nullify my thought processes, don’t you?”
“Not touching you is like holding my breath. I can only do it for so many minutes at a time. So will you stop pulling away? We can discuss whatever you like, for as long as you like, just with you in my arms.”
Sighing again, she relaxed in his hold, resigned to the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to resist both her need and his.
His lips curved. “So you think I’d judge those I’m considering for such a vital partnership by spying on them in a party? Would I disqualify them for stepping on their partner’s feet or talking with their mouth full?”
“I bet you’d see everything you need to make an accurate judgment in observations like those. Just like you always do.”
His eyebrows rose. “How do you know what I always do?”
“Are you kidding? The past couple of hours are worth a year of intensive...exposure. And I’m connecting what I’ve just learned about you with what I’ve long known of you.”
“And what, pray tell, do you think you know about me?”
“Well, as a virtuoso in your field, you have such nonlinear, multidimensional analytic powers, you have the world begging for your Midas touch. You got where you are by judging every situation and person you’ve dealt with throughout your career perfectly. As perfectly as you judged me from a literal hundred paces.”
He wove his fingers into her hair, wrapped a handful around his wrist and inhaled it. “Get yourself out of any comparison. Nothing with you had anything to do with anything I’ve ever experienced before. There was no judgment involved on my part, not when you zapped me from a literal hundred paces, too. And you did that to me when I had my back to you.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Really. I was at the mezzanine when your aura lashed me with a thousand volts of delight.” He bent and kissed the tops of her breasts that bulged above the now too-tight bodice. “We’ve already agreed there was magic at work.”
“Yes.” There was no contradicting him on that point. “So you’re not orchestrating events only to watch the attendees, at least to weed out those who prove to be blatantly unsuitable?”
“Don’t you think someone as exceptional as you advertise me to be would let résumés choose for me?”
Suddenly she realized what was going on. They’d moved from blinding passion, bypassing any expected awkwardness in the wake of its temporary sating, and plunged right into delightful banter. The seamlessness of it all had her heart soaring.
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