Page 33 of Undoing His Innocent Enemy (Hot Winter Escapes)

He came to the end of the memory card. His gaze connected with hers as he turned the camera off.

‘They are good,’ he said.

Pride swelled in her chest. She banked it, ruthlessly. His opinion of her work shouldn’t matter. She reached for the camera, but he held it away from her.

‘You will not need it, while you are here,’ he said.

She pushed her anger to the fore, to cover the well of disappointment. Apparently, she still hadn’t earned his trust.

‘I promise not to take pictures of you, or your home,’ she offered, tightly. ‘IfI decide to stay,’ she clarified. Because he seemed to assume that was already a foregone conclusion.

Whatever happened now, whatever she agreed to, she refused to be treated like a stranger, or a threat—to be trusted even less than the people he had forced to sign NDAs.

‘But it’s my camera,’ she continued. ‘And if you can’t trust me to have possession of it while I’m here, then Ican’tstay here... I won’t.’

His brows flattened, his lips tightening. And the muscle she’d noticed several times before in his cheek began to twitch.

He did not like the idea of letting her have the camera. But she refused to back down. His gaze roamed over her face, gauging her determination.

The seconds ticked by as her ribs contracted, and the pounding in her ears became deafening.

But finally, he lowered the precious Leica and offered it to her. She took it hastily, determined not to examine the thundering rush of relief that flowed through her.

The concession felt huge though. Especially when he said, ‘While you are here... I want you in my bed.’

It didn’t really sound like a question, more of a demand. So what else was new? But he had at least finally acknowledged what he was really offering her.

And given her the opening she needed.

‘Okay, but I have some ground rules,’ she managed, not even sure what they were yet, but determined not to appear like some witless fool, completely captivated by his potent sex appeal... Even if she was.

Because, after all, the melting sensation in her core didn’t lie as she sucked in a lungful of his delicious scent and sensation pulsed across her lips as his gaze centred on her mouth.

‘Rules?’ he said, the curve in those firm sensual lips even more captivating than the dark awareness she recognised in his gaze. She had no idea what was so amusing. ‘What rules?’

She cleared her throat. ‘I-important rules,’ she managed.

‘Uh-huh...’

The rumble of his reply streaked through her as he stepped closer. Close enough to touch. Close enough to have her body readying itself for him.

The storm of sensation threatened to derail her again. But she found the strength to plant her palms against his chest. The hard pectoral muscles flexed as she edged him back.

‘A week, I can’t stay more than a week,’ she said. ‘If the skimobile isn’t fixed by then, you’ll have to take me back to Saariselkä,’ she managed.

‘Two weeks,’ he countered. ‘A week will not be long enough.’

The fierce need in his eyes made her insides turn to mush. Had any man ever looked at her like that before, as if he could not get enough of her?

No, never.

‘T-ten days,’ she said, even though she had the strange thought she was arguing against herself now, as well as him. ‘And I get to keep working, during daylight hours.’ She could build her portfolio here as well as anywhere—so her time wouldn’t be wasted.

Plus, it was the principle of the thing... Wasn’t it?

He hooked a finger into the waistband of her sweatpants and tugged her back towards him. She dragged in a lungful of his scent—that intoxicating mix of bergamot and pine that drove her wild.

‘Two weeks,’ he demanded again. ‘In my bed. And you may take photos away from the house, as long as I am with you.’

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