beg him to take her to his room or she would be hauling him off to hers. Acting silly on your birthday was one thing, but going all-out loco was another.
While she still could, she broke off the kiss, drew in a deep breath, smiled and stepped back. “It was nice meeting you, Lee.”
She watched him lick his lips as if he had enjoyed the taste of her. “It was nice meeting you as well, Carly.”
She turned to leave and made it to the sliding glass door before he said, “It’s a minute before midnight. Leave one of your shoes behind, and I bet I’ll find you.”
Carly threw her head back and laughed. “I’m a loner, remember?”
“And what about that kiss?”
Good question. “I was tempted, and since it was my birthday, I yielded,” she said honestly.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, a sensuous smile spread across his lips. “When it comes to me, you can yield to temptation anytime.”
“I’ll remember that.”
And before he could say anything else, she slipped through the glass door, refusing to yield to temptation by looking back.
Long moments after Carly left, Lee continued to stare at the door she had slipped through. What the hell had just happened? The woman had blown his mind with a kiss he was convinced would remain in his memory forever.
He licked his lips again. Her taste was still there. How? Why? And what had sent him flying across the terrace to catch two elevators to meet this woman who had taken his breath away from a distance?
Her name is Carly.
At least that was the name she’d given. Even without knowing her last name, he could track her down, if he took a mind to do so. But as much as he was tempted by that thought, now was not the time. He had too much on his plate to get caught up in romantic entanglements.
He was putting together the biggest deal of his life. When Carly checked out of the hotel tomorrow he would never see her again. And maybe that was for the best. She had warned him that she was a loner, although he couldn’t help but be curious about why.
There had been something about her—other than her ingrained sexiness—that had touched him. A woman of her beauty should not be alone, especially not on her birthday. He was glad that he had shared a part of it with her.
When he had stepped out on the balcony and had seen her waltzing with her eyes closed, he had stood and stared. There might have been a dark, moonless sky overhead but she had looked totally enchanting beneath it. Her hair had tumbled around a beautiful cocoa-colored face. She had high cheekbones, beautifully arched brows and a mouth so sensuous his body had hardened just looking at it.
And that dress. It had clung to her hips, showing off curves and a great pair of legs. It had also revealed enough cleavage to tantalize and enough thighs to entice. He had found himself moving toward her and asking for a dance. When she had snapped her eyes open and he gazed down at her, he’d fallen under her spell. A spell that hadn’t broken, even now.
The kiss had been the sinker. He hadn’t expected it, but damn, had he enjoyed it. Heat burned his insides remembering how easily his tongue had slid inside her mouth. For the first time in a long time, he had felt unrestrained passion and an unexplained connection for a woman.
As he walked toward the door, he consoled himself with the knowledge that once he finalized the financing on hotel number three he would have plenty of time to date. Maybe he’d even think about settling down, starting a family that could share the wealth he was creating.
His mind returned to the work waiting for him in his office and he pushed all thoughts of Carly aside.
Chapter 2
She had kissed a stranger.
The intensity of that bizarre action weighed heavily on Carly’s mind the next day as she folded laundry. She could claim the “birthday silliness” defense all she wanted, but the bottom line was that it was so unlike her that the excuse didn’t pass muster. And then there was the undeniable fact she couldn’t let go of.
She had enjoyed it.
Carly would even admit that she had enjoyed it so much she hadn’t thought of anything else since. Even when she’d gone back to her hotel room and dressed for bed, a part of her had wondered what would have happened had she left one of her shoes behind. Would he have tried to find her?
She frowned at her thoughts. She wasn’t Cinderella and he wasn’t a prince...although he had certainly been dashing. However, she didn’t deal with fairy tales. This was the real world, and in the real world men like Lee whatever-his-last-name-was probably preyed on women nutty enough to act silly on their birthdays. There was no doubt in her mind that had she invited him up to her room he would have accepted the invitation. After they parted ways, he’d probably wandered around the hotel looking for another woman to pick up. With his looks, there was no doubt he would have been successful.
So why couldn’t she put the kiss behind her?
She knew the answer. The reason she couldn’t forget it was because it had been just that—unforgettable. Never had she been kissed that way, so intensely, so thoroughly. French-kissing a woman undoubtedly came naturally to Lee; he obviously had a lot of experience.
Last night that expert kiss had invaded her sleep. She had dreamed they hadn’t stopped with the kiss, that he had followed her back to her hotel room, that he had undressed her, undressed himself and then pulled her down on the bed. She had awakened more than once from her own loud moans as she’d envisioned him taking her nipples into his mouth and sucking hard on them, envisioned his hand slipping between her legs.
Then, when he had replaced his hand with his mouth, detonating an explosion of passion through her, she had screamed out in her sleep.
Her dream had gone way too far. Really? An orgasm? She could only imagine what the people in the hotel room next to her thought.
She’d heard of women’s dreams feeling so real they climaxed, but she’d never experienced such a thing for herself. Heck, nothing of that magnitude had even happened to her in real life, definitely not with Nathaniel.
Even with all of her dreams, she had quickly dressed and packed after waking up. Since her hotel bill had been prepaid, she’d skipped the checkout desk and gone straight to the parking garage, where she got into her car and drove off.
Carly was glad that she didn’t have to go back to work until tomorrow night. And since she worked in the restaurant’s kitchen and was never seen by patrons, she didn’t have to worry about her path crossing with Lee’s. In fact, she was confident she would never see him again. She fought off the disappointment of that thought, knowing it was for the best. The man tempted her to do things she wouldn’t ordinarily do. That was the last thing she needed.
She wanted to concentrate on her new job and be the best pastry chef she could be. There were a lot of opportunities at the Grand MD and she figured hard work would bring her closer to her dream of one day owning her own café. Ever since she’d moved to town, she’d been eyeing a piece of land within fifteen minutes of where she lived, not far from the mall. She could definitely see a restaurant with her name on it sitting right on that spot. The price was more than she
