Page 12 of The Lynx and the Llama
“Are you serious right now?” Erika asked in an incredulous tone.
Her blood started to boil. What kind of guy gets a girl all worked up and then doesn’t deliver the goods? Was he a drama-llama?
“Yes, I’m serious! You deserve a gentleman who is on his best behavior. So that is what I’m going to give you,” Quinn said in a firm tone.
“How are we supposed to pull off tonight if you won’t kiss me? And what about tomorrow?”
She almost winced at the whining she was doing right now. If she weren’t careful, it would turn into desperation.
“I’m not worried about looking like a natural couple. I’ve told you, darlin’, your body sings for me. You don’t need any fine-tuning. I’m certain of that. And someday soon, I’ll play your beautiful body with crescendo after crescendo until you scream my name and beg for an extended encore.”
His cocky grin appeared once more, and Erika wanted to wipe it right from his face. But instead, she mewled. She actually mewled for the guy again! What was wrong with her?
“Keep doing that and I’ll definitely start calling you kitten.”
Erika let out a huff. How dare this guy get her all hot and bothered and then deny her!
“Let’s get you to the hotel. I’m not saying another word in fear of incriminating myself.”
The drive to the hotel was silent, which suited Erika because it gave her time to think. This man was turning her libido into a diva, crying, whining, and aching for this man’s touch. But she was nothing special—certainly no Cher who reinvented what was sexy every decade she’d been singing.
All of this made her feel desperate and needy, and Erika wasn’t sure if she liked what she was feeling all that much. She bit her bottom lip in an attempt to figure out how she was going to get herself out of this whole mess. She wasn’t entirely convinced she had gotten into this mess alone. Her boss had been acting weird the entire time they were in his office, and Erika couldn’t figure out what was up with that.
She felt the heat of Quinn’s gaze hit the entire right side of her body as she pulled into the parking area for the hotel. His stare was warmer than sitting beside a coal-burning stove. Scratch that! It was definitely like a walking-on-the-sun type of deal. And then there was the whole date thing.
It was one thing to have a guy try to convince you to go on a date. That felt safe because she could say no—which was what she had fully intended to do! The last thing she wanted to do was to go out on a date because she hadn’t gone on one of those since Jean Claude cheated on her. She wasn’t sure she even remembered what to do on a date.
What would she talk about? She certainly couldn’t keep up a conversation on the pitfalls of fixing a king’s calendar. That would be simply boring! As she placed the car in Park, she searched her mind for something, anything, that would be a decent topic to talk about, but she was going blank. She bit her lip as she came to the realization that her life for the past five years had been composed of only work, stir-fries for dinner, and falling asleep to the sexy voice of Josh Gates fromExpedition Unknown.
Good lord! Even her taste in TV shows was bland and bordered on the geekier side! Who watched archeologic finds for fun? Well, Erika did. She was incredibly excited when Josh had an entire show dedicated to the first look at the face of Nefertiti, King Tut’s mother. Erika’s heart pitter-pattered just remembering the first airing of that show five years ago. It was the first thing she’d seen on TV since leaving Jean Claude, and she continued to replay it to get sleep during those early days of her hurt.
She exited the car and locked it once Quinn pulled out his carry-on and travel bag.
“Do you need help with that?” Erika asked as she tried to grab the rolling bag from Quinn.
“You don’t need to help me with my luggage. I’m perfectly capable of managing on my own.”
“Well, it’s the nice thing to do.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “I’d never have a woman help me with something heavy.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks, and not for a good reason. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I’m man enough to make sure my woman is pampered in such a way that she not only thinks but believes she’s the most beautiful and cherished being on the planet. I want my woman to know I’d do anything for her.”
Erika let out a huff. Clearly, this date would be doomed from the start. She’d dated chivalric guys before. Jean Claude was one of them; they were just too chauvinistic for her taste. Strike one for Quinn.
“Yeah, because a woman should only look pretty. Is that it?”
Her tone was sharper than intended, and more heat rushed through her cheeks. Quinn put a palm out as if to surrender to her kitty temper tantrum. Good! Because if he didn’t submit to her thoughts on the matter, she might have to bite and scratch him. Nothing better than leaving a mark on the ones you lo—like!
Wait… What? Was she just about to use the damned other “L word”? WTF? Clearly, this Quinn was messing with her head on an entirely different level!
She could NOT be in love. Nope! Let’s try a completely different word on for size… One she’d often mistaken for love. She was in lust. Yup! That’s it! Lust! She didn’t even like him! Especially after the whole crap of him wanting to put his lover on a pedestal. Who did that?
“I didn’t say that! Quite the contrary, in fact. I view my lover as an equal. Anything I can do, she can too. But I won’t ever entertain the thought of her working for me! That’s something I refuse to do to a woman! I can cook, clean up after myself, take out the trash—really anything. And I would never have my significant other doing these things for me—ever.”
Did her heart just flutter? And of its own volition? Her insides seemed to warm after the long years of her heart being held captive in an ice-cold trap. Her knees began to buckle as the melting seemed to turn her into a pile of goo.
