Page 28 of Covert

She pulled away from Dylan, breaking his tenuous contact. “I have no intention of traipsing up the aisle with any man.”

He raised an eyebrow at her sharp retort and she quickly softened it before his curiosity prompted him to ask any probing questions.

“I prefer to keep the hordes of men falling at my feet guessing.”

“Really?”

She nodded, wishing he wouldn’t stare at her with those all-seeing, all-knowing eyes. “Nothing like a bit of mystery to keep a man on his toes.”

“Is that why you won’t tell me anything about yourself? Sticking to the old adage of ‘treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen’?”

“There’s not much to tell.” She crossed her fingers, hoping she wouldn’t be struck down for telling such a monstrous lie.

He smiled, and her heart gave a treacherous lurch. “You didn’t ask if I was keen after the way you’ve treated me.”

The lurch gave way to pounding as her heart thundered in her chest. “I treat you mean?”

“Yet I’m still keen.”

He reached across and squeezed her hand, his touch sending her precarious sense of self-control spiralling downhill, fast.

Hoping her voice wouldn’t shake, she took a steadying breath before responding. “I’ll be leaving in a few weeks and I know I said at the start that I’d love to explore this thing between us. But do you think it’s worth starting something now?”

“It’s too late.” He interlaced his fingers with hers, drawing her hand to his lips. “It’s already started.”

His kiss burned the back of her hand, leaving a scorching imprint like a brand, and she realised theyhadstarted something, yet for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it was.

Mutual attraction, deep friendship, or a whole lot more?

As the plane descended into Sydney, Sam reclaimed her hand and fervently wished whatever this feeling, it wasn’t a ‘whole lot more’.

Falling in love with Dylan Harmon would be the stupidest thing she’d done in a long time—apart from running away from her family and hiding as his employee in the first place.

But what if it was too late?

18

As Dylan slipped into his tux jacket and adjusted his bow tie one last time, he hoped this evening wouldn’t be too boring for Sam.

He’d attended countless dinners like this, where rich landowners mingled, discussing work and not much else. Most of his fellow business associates were years older than him and he had little in common with them, apart from a love of the land.

He would’ve rather avoided this particular gathering altogether, if not for a small niggle in his gut telling him if could get Sam alone, away from work, she might open up to him.

So, he’d booked flights to Sydney, rooms in one of the city’s top hotels, and tickets to the conference and dinner, all in the hope the woman who piqued his interest more with each passing day would come clean and divulge the secrets she hid.

Despite many cunning attempts to drag snippets of information from her about her past, she’d held fast, not giving him one iota. And the more she kept him guessing, the more intrigued he became, until he could hardly function these days without wondering what made Samantha Piper tick.

As for their physical attraction, he’d managed to keep his libido under control. Just. He’d grown used to cold showers atthe end of a day’s work after spending endless hours resisting the lure of her light, floral fragrance, a forbidden glimpse of cleavage as she reached across his desk, or the tantalising sweep of her tongue as it moistened her lips while she concentrated on a particular task.

Yeah, it had been hell working with her these last few months and pretending like he didn’t feel anything for her, but what else could he do?

He valued her astute opinions as a businesswoman and didn’t want to risk losing her, despite his reluctance to hire her in the first place. Sure, he’d toyed with their attraction on a few occasions, but thankfully, neither of them seemed keen to pursue it. He should be glad, yet he couldn’t help feeling disappointed too.

He knocked at Sam’s hotel room door, and when it opened, he gaped at the exquisite vision before him, her body wrapped in a soft blue fabric that hugged in all the right places and brought out the matching flecks in her green eyes. She’d used subtle makeup to highlight her gorgeous eyes and lush lips, and had pinned her curls back in some sort of elaborate arrangement. Her appearance screamed ‘grab me’ and he had to curb the impulse to do exactly that.

“Right on time. I like a man who’s punctual.”

Sam smiled, taking Dylan’s gob-smacked expression as an indication of approval.

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