Page 9 of One Night in My Rival's Bed

The atmosphere tightened. My heart rate escalated. My skin prickled and my palms moistened. Grayson’s gaze dipped to my mouth and this time I didn’t resist the urge to sweep the tip of my tongue across my lips. I couldn’t resist. It was beyond my self-control. He triggered in me a desire so ferocious and feral it frightened me as much as it excited me.

But I had to stay in control. I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted by a man like Grayson Barlowe.

‘You know, I really thought you were going to do something really stupid back then,’ I said in a voice far huskier than I’d intended.

Grayson quirked an eyebrow. ‘Like what?’

I turned to pick up my tote bag from where I had left it on the floor near the sofa. I hung the strap of my bag over my left shoulder and glanced at him again but his expression was masked. Could I have misread the situation? Was I imagining the spark of chemistry that fired between us? I raised my chin a fraction, my gaze steady on his. ‘I thought you were going to kiss me.’

A half-smile began to play about the corners of his mouth. It made him look even more devastatingly attractive and irresistible, especially as it set off a diamond-bright glint in his blue eyes. ‘Do you really think I’d complicate things by doing something like that?’

I gave a one-shoulder shrug. ‘I don’t know you well enough to answer that question.’

Suddenly he wasn’t standing two metres away but was right in front of me. I had to crane my neck to maintain eye contact. I had to control my ridiculous urge to wrap my arms around him and bring him even closer. I had to stop myself from staring at his mouth but looking into his eyes was worse, much worse. A girl could drown in those blue eyes with their ink-black pupils. Pupils that were flaring like spreading black pools just as I assumed mine were doing.

‘How about you answer this question instead?’ His voice was low and deep, his eyes with their flecks of blue and grey mesmerising. ‘Would youlikeme to kiss you?’

Okay, so maybe I overstated my skill at lying a little bit. There was no way I could say ‘no’ and sound convincing. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. Me being the rock and Grayson being the hard place. He was standing so close I could just about feel his hard place. I was imagining it thrusting into me with vigorous energy. God, how I wanted to feel him deep inside. What was wrong with me? I am not the sort of girl to jump the bones of men I barely know, and especially men I don’t even like. Especially men I’m not supposed to like because his grandfather ripped off my poor dead father.

‘What do you think?’ I asked instead, insanely proud of myself for evading a direct answer.

Grayson moved a couple of centimetres closer. I could smell his aftershave, and I had to stop myself from swaying towards him to breathe in more of that intoxicating scent. He lifted his hand to one of my dangly earrings and ever so gently toyed with it, running it over his finger. He didn’t touch me at all, only my earring, but a riot of tingling sensations flooded my entire being.

‘I think it would be crazy for us to go there.’ His voice was so low and husky it sent a shiver across my skin.

‘Go where?’

‘Anywhere that involved touching each other.’

I could safely say I had never wanted a man to touch me more. It was ridiculous because I had once been engaged to be married and yet I had never fancied my ex as I fancied Grayson.

‘You’re touching my earring.’ I injected a touch of asperity to my voice to disguise my wayward drives and urges.

His hand fell away from my earring and he gave a lopsided smile. ‘My self-control had a moment.’

My self-control was having a moment too. A big moment. A moment I wasn’t sure I could handle without a block and tackle or other industrial equipment. How was I going to keep my hands off Grayson Barlowe? Especially when he smiled in that self-deprecating way? I gave a stiff no-teeth-showing smile and stepped back but I could still feel the magnetic force of him.

‘So, what are we going to do?’ I glanced at my watch and winced at the time. ‘It’s getting late. We can hardly barge into Ethan and Niamh’s room at this time of night. They might be...be...asleep.’ There was no way I was going to say anything remotely sexual.

Grayson ran a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘You’re right. We’ll arrange to meet them for breakfast instead.’

‘We?’

‘We have to be united on this, Ash.’ It was the first time I had heard him say my preferred name and it sent a skittering shiver down my spine. When he had been talking to his mother, he had used my full name. At various conferences and awards nights in the past he had always been more formal, addressing me as Ms Clancy. Him using my shortened name made me feel as if we had crossed an invisible boundary line. A line I wasn’t sure could be uncrossed so easily in the future.

Besides, he had touched my earring. That was big. Not my earring, but you know what I mean.

‘I am absolutely with you on this,’ I said. ‘I can’t bear the thought of Niamh making a huge mistake. Marriage is a big deal, it’s not something anyone should rush into without careful consideration.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ he said. ‘Look, I think it’s best if we arrive together tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at half-six.’

Half-six?

‘Just as well I’m a morning person.’

‘I’m an early riser too.’

I was almost certain there was a double entendre to his statement but I was determined to ignore it. He’d said we were not going to touch. I agreed with it...sort of. Although my mind had already run wild with images of him rising early, his gloriously naked body unfolding itself from his million-thread snowy white bed linen that contrasted brilliantly with his deep tan. Yikes, be still my pulse...well, slow down a little at least.

---