Page 43 of The Charmer

Cooper didn’t hesitate, deepening the kiss, challenging her to meet him half way, coercing her with a skilful precision that took her breath away.

He wasn’t the only one who liked a challenge and in the split second where reason warred with passion, she threw caution to the wind and showed him exactly who he was messing with.

Her lips clung to his, frantic, desperate, meshing in a whirlpool of hot sensation that lit a fire deep within.

Her hands took on a life of their own, skimming the wall of his rock-hard chest before sliding higher, tangling in his hair to pull his head closer, to anchor herself in a world tilting crazily out of control.

Heat streaked through her body and she leaned into him, wanting more, needing more, and as his arms slid around her, hauling her across his body to lie on top of him, logic fled; to be replaced by a deep-seated yearning that this should go on forever.

“Wow,” Cooper murmured, breaking the kiss to stare into her eyes, his hands pushing the curls off her face in a gentle caress.

She couldn’t fathom his bewildered expression and reality hit as he shifted slightly beneath her. Here she was, lying on top of an extremely hot guy, a guy she could easily fall for in the blink of an eye if she completely lost her mind, a guy she’d been in the process of vanquishing from her life a few moments ago, a guy who had just sent her spiralling out of control with a simple kiss.

What the hell was she doing?

Maybe the kiss hadn’t been simple. It had been downright amazing, but that wasn’t the point. She still needed to get rid of him, and fast. No telling what her kick-started hormones might do in the next ten seconds.

She disengaged his hands from her face and slid onto the floor in an undignified heap before leaping to her feet like some bumbling clown act in a circus. “That was an interesting diversion but I hate to tell you, it didn’t work. I still want you to get out of here.”

Cooper stood with a lot more grace than she had, his inscrutable expression annoying her. Couldn’t the guy at least look the teensiest bit shaken by the cataclysmic kiss they’d shared?

Then again, maybe it wasn’t so extraordinary for him. He probably went around kissing half the female population in Melbourne like that. And no, that sharp stab of pain in the vicinity of her heart wasn’t jealousy; it had to be all the cheese she’d consumed earlier mixing with the tea to give her heartburn.

“If you don’t shut up, I’m going to kiss you again until you do.”

She opened her mouth with an instant rebuke but shut it quickly as he took a step towards her. Then again, the thought of more of that sensational kissing wasn’t so bad…

“Good, now that I’ve got your attention, I want you to listen. Yes, I want this deal to go through, and yes, it’s very important to me. In fact, it’s more than important, it’s imperative.”

He paused for a moment as if searching for the right words and she waited, prepared to give him a little leeway. After all, it’s the least she could do before she planted her foot on his butt and booted him out the door permanently.

“As for what’s happening between you and me, it’s got nothing to do with business. Do I wish you were some shrivelled up old prune that wouldn’t tempt me? Yes. Do I wish I could separate business from everything about you that entices me? Yes. Do I wish I could seal this deal and not look back without remembering the curve of your smile, the fire in your eyes, the passion of your kiss? You bet.”

He shook his head as if trying to clear it, but confusion clouded his eyes. “But there’s no use wishing for the impossible, and right now, pretending something doesn’t exist between us would be doing just that and I won’t. I can’t.”

Ariel gaped as she absorbed what Cooper had said while he stared her down, the bad-boy businessman daring her to disagree.

She couldn’t help admire that he was man enough to acknowledge the spark between them. It didn’t mean she had to agree with him or encourage him, despite how her heart raced at the wonderful things he’d said about her and that he found her just as attractive as she found him.

He was still the enemy and would tear her world apart given half a chance.

A chance she had no intention of giving him.

“Got nothing to say? Come on, give it your best shot,” he said, the grim glint in his eyes at odds with his sardonic smirk.

“What do you want me to say?”

Apart from the obvious: I like you, I desire you, I can easily lose my head and go crazy for you.

But she wasn’t the type of girl to lose her head. She had too much at stake, too many responsibilities, starting with making the gallery a viable proposition for the next umpteenth years as Barb would’ve wanted.

“How about you start with the truth?”

Ariel compressed her lips, a simple defensive gesture to prevent her from blurting a host of truths Cooper wouldn’t want to hear: how the couldn’t quell the relentless fear that the gallery would slip through her fingers despite how hard she worked to keep it afloat, the guilt that she’d let everyone down, and the biggie of them all, how out of depth he made her feel.

So, despite her penchant for brutal honesty, she opted for the easy way out.

She lied.

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