was humming “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” when she let herself in the front door at eleven the next day.
It was beautiful—sunny and bright with not much wind. Not enough to go sailing, she’d told Max when she left his place, which was fine because she had other things to do.
“Hey, there,” she said dropping her tote bag and kneeling as she threw her arms around Harm who launched himself at her. “Did you miss me?”
“He didn’t, actually,” a harsh male voice said, “because he had me to take him out last night and this morning.”
Neely’s gaze jerked up to see Sebastian standing at the entrance to the living room. He was backlit and she couldn’t really see his features, but she had no doubt he was scowling. She gave Harm one last happy cuddle and stood up warily.
After their two phone conversations during the week, she’d dared hope they had reached some sort of friendly rapport. Obviously she was wrong.
“I didn’t neglect him,” she said firmly. “I arranged for Cody to come in last night and early this morning.
“Because you knew you were going to spend the night?” Sebastian demanded.
“Yes.”
He didn’t say anything, but she could hear his teeth grinding.
“Is there a problem? I called him this morning to make sure he’d come over and he said he did. Are you saying he didn’t?”
Sebastian opened his mouth, then shut it again abruptly. He shrugged irritably and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I never saw him.” He turned away and stalked into the living room.
Neely tossed her tote bag onto the stairs to carry up later, then followed him. “Were you here?”
He turned back to face her. “I didn’t spend the night elsewhere, if that’s what you mean?”
“Unlike me?” Neely said, capable of filling in the blank.
“Yes. Unlike you.” He bit out the words. “Was it worth it?”
“Oh, yes.” She gave him a bright smile. “It was great. We had dinner and then we went upstairs and—”
“Spare me the details,” Sebastian snapped. “How old are you?”
Neely blinked at the sudden shift in topic. “Twenty-six. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“He’s fifty-two!” The words burst from his lips. He wasn’t scowling now; he was glaring furiously.
It took Neely a second to make the leap. Then she narrowed her gaze. “You’re talking about Max, I presume?”
“Damn right, I’m talking about Max! That’s not to say he isn’t well preserved. For his age, I guess he could be considered a stud—”
“A stud?” Neely’s jaw dropped. “A stud?” She stared at him for three seconds, and then a giggle escaped her. It seemed to infuriate him.
“You know what I mean! But for God’s sake, you’ve got skills, talent. You win prizes! You don’t have to sleep with the boss to get ahead!”
She hesitated only a moment. Then she twirled a long curl around her finger as if considering the question.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I believe it’s a tried-and-true method in some companies.”
Sebastian’s jaw locked. She thought she could see steam coming out of his ears. Served him right, she thought.
“And as you say, Max is very attractive…for his age.” She giggled again, as if enjoying some private reflection.
“You’re more attracted to me than you are to Max.” He said the words flatly, yet there was a wealth of challenge in them, and he looked at her as if daring her to deny them.
She opened her mouth, then shut it again. She arched her eyebrows at him provocatively. “You think so?”
“You know you are,” he insisted. “There’s been a spark between us since day one.”
This time she opened her mouth and didn’t shut it, still trying to formulate the words. She gave a careless, dismissive shrug. “In your dreams, Savas.”
But Sebastian didn’t wait. “You want proof?” He closed the space between them so that she had to tip her head up to look at him. His mouth was bare inches away. She could see the whiskered roughness of his jaw, could feel the heat of his breath.
She swallowed. She blinked. She waited.
And the next thing she knew Sebastian’s lips came down on hers.
Neely had certainly been kissed before. She’d known her share of masculine mouths, their hard warmth, their persuasive touch. She’d opened to them, dared to taste them in turn. And she’d always been able to keep her wits about her, to think, hmm, kissing is interesting, but no big deal.
All of a sudden, right now, with Sebastian Savas’s mouth on hers, it became a very big deal indeed.
There was the hard warmth and the persuasion. But there was more—a hunger, a need, a seeking, a question looking for an answer.
And her mouth knew the answer even as it asked questions of its own.
It wasn’t just a spark, either. Though she would have had to admit, had she been capable of rational thought, that yes, she’d sensed it, too.
This was far more than a spark. It was a fire, burning hot and fast, fanned to full flame. And the deeper the kiss, the less the fire was quenched. It raged and consumed, hungry and desperate and edging toward out of control.
His arms came around her, slid up her back, drew her closer so that their bodies leaned, touched, pressed. She had never felt like this, had never wanted a kiss to go on and on. Had never kissed without caring where her next breath came from because she knew—she was sharing his.
She lifted her hands and touched his back, his shoulders, the nape of his neck. Her fingers threaded through short crisp hair, then fell to clutch his shoulders as her need spiraled, her hunger grew.
And then, abruptly, Sebastian pulled away to stare down into her eyes, his own lambent with arousal, his breathing harsh. “Does Max kiss you like that?”
Stunned, shaken and absolutely furious—as much at herself as at him, Neely could barely find the words. “No one kisses me like that!”
Sebastian smiled a satisfied feral smile. “So dear Max isn’t perfect after all? I’m not surprised. It’s what you get, trying to get it on with a man old enough to be your father.”
Neely’s heart was still slamming in her chest as she wrapped her arms across it and hoped she didn’t look as rattled as she felt. “I wasn’t trying to ‘get it on’ with Max. We were working.”
“All night?” Sebastian scoffed.
