Page 30 of Resisting Her Playboy Boss

Ruben choked on nothing but fresh air.

‘I’m serious.’ She smiled as she watched him gasp. ‘We have a lot in common. We laugh together. We’re similar in that work is important to us. We get on well.’

‘And your point?’

She figured she could have him in her life as a friend, or not have him in her life at all. And though she knew she probablyshould,given how attractive she found him, she wasn’t ready to cast him out of her life completely. She was still too curious. ‘We can be civilised, can’t we?’

‘There’s nothing civilised about the things I want to do with you.’

She closed her eyes for a second and waited for the blood to recede from her cheeks. ‘But if we have a fling what do you think will happen in the end?’

He didn’t answer.

‘What usually happens?’ she prompted.

He began to smile, that wry, rueful smile.

‘Are you in contact with any of them?’ she asked softly.

His shoulders lifted. ‘If our paths cross we smile and wave and it’s all lovely and amicable.’

‘Because they have too much pride to show you how hurt they are inside,’ Ellie said dryly.

His brows lifted. ‘Honey, I’m not with any one woman long enough for her to get hurt.’

Ellie’s laugh came out as a snort but his words made her all the more resolved—she didn’t want too few hot nights, she’d rather have long-term laughs.

‘Well, okay, what about you?’ he said firmly. ‘Are you in contact with your exes?’

As if.

‘I haven’t had as many as you,’ she admitted. She was in the low digits whereas he was likely near triple figures. ‘But usually what happens is I have a relationship and, not too long later, the guy moves on. Iusedto try everything to please him, so he’d stick around longer, but I’m not going to bend myself into any more boxes in order to try to keep anyone.’ She was never doing that again. ‘I don’t see any of them any more.’

‘So you’re not going to bend into any boxes for me?’

She shook her head with a laugh.

‘I’m feeling a little insulted,’ he said mildly.

‘Don’t be. Actually you should feel pleased. I want to stay in touch with you.’ She really did.

‘And that’s a first? None of your other men?’

‘How many do you think there’ve been?’ She rolled her eyes when she saw the amused look on his face. ‘No, I’m not in touch with any of the two hundred and eighty-four. They were jerks.’

He laughed. ‘I don’t want to be a jerk to you. I like you. I like talking to you.’

‘Exactly!’ Great, this was easier than she’d thought it would be.

‘I still want to have sex with you, though.’

Okay, maybe not so easy. ‘You’ll get over that.’

‘You’re saying you’re over it?’ He moved towards her.

She darted sideways out of reach. ‘Look—’ she held him off firmly ‘—everybody says you have to feed passion, indulge it, have so much until you don’t want it any more. But the only way to kill a fire is to starve it.’

‘And you want to kill it?’ He paused, clearly in disbelief.

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