Impulsive. HelenKay DimonЧитать онлайн книгу.
you tracked me here and all.”
“I have my sources but the exact name was tougher.”
Yeah, he had something all right. “Katie Long.”
“The caterer.”
Looked like he didn’t quite know everything. She dropped his hand and backed up a step. No need for them to be this close, sucking up all the air in the room, when there was a big No-Eric zone right behind her. “Her assistant and sister. I’m surprised you went to the trouble to find me.”
His head tilted to the side. The wide-eyed look made him look younger, less imposing, if only for a few seconds. “Why?”
This qualified as the strangest morning-after type conversation she’d ever had. “I guess this is the part where I say I’ve never done that at a wedding before.”
He nodded. “For the record, me either.”
“And where I insist I’m not the kind of woman who engages in thirty-minute sex romps with strangers.” She actually wasn’t, but there was no way to sell that as a convincing story after the way they’d met.
“I’m not judging.”
Of course he was. Hell, she was. When she’d vowed to turn her life around, she’d promised the days of putting herself at risk were over. She wouldn’t do dumb things or get involved with the wrong guys. Eric didn’t appear to be a loser, but he was most definitely wrong. He was her assignment. She was supposed to keep a safe distance and being under him didn’t cut it.
“Maybe just a little judging?” She held up two fingers and squeezed them together.
“Any name I call you would apply to me.”
“Very logical.”
“You weren’t alone in that room.”
She tried very hard not to conjure up a visual image of his hands up her skirt. “Oh, I know.”
“I admit, that sort of thing isn’t a weekly occurrence for me.”
She laughed. The contrast between the serious way his brows came together and the humor in his tone did her in. He might be good at sex, but he wasn’t all that comfortable with the way they’d met.
That made two of them.
“You mean the straitlaced guy running for prosecuting attorney doesn’t have sex with strange women every Saturday?” she asked.
He pretended to mull that one over. “You didn’t strike me as being all that strange.”
“Wait, what?”
“Look,” he crossed that invisible barrier and stepped right into her buffer space. The jokes and sly smile were gone. “I need to deal with something else here.”
The change in direction made her brain shut down for a second. “What?”
“You say that word a lot.”
“How could you know that? You’ve known me for a sum total of two hours.”
“Probably less than half that, but it was some pretty intense time.”
She refused to blush. Women who had sex in the bathroom during a high-class wedding did not blush. “True.”
He smiled. “Which brings us full circle.”
For some reason when he relaxed and his mouth turned up, she got more nervous. “To what exactly?”
“The wedding.”
Here it was. He’d beg her to keep her mouth shut. Throw some money around, maybe a threat or two. Explain how it would be good for her to pretend it never happened.
She’d feel smug if she weren’t so disappointed. She wasn’t expecting a marriage proposal or even a cup of coffee from the man, but being reminded of how little she meant to him chilled her from the inside out. “I was wondering when you’d get to that.”
“Katie, I’m sorry.” He reached down and slipped his fingers through hers. The move pulled her closer, until nothing more than a slip of hot air separated them.
“You’re…what?”
“Honestly, do you just feel compelled to use that word?”
She almost said “what” but stopped the word in time. “Right now, yeah.”
Staring down at their linked hands, she wondered what was happening. She’d made a lot of bad choices with men and slept with a few she should have run away from, but none of them came walking into the middle of her out-of-control life, spouting off about regrets and how they should have treated her better. Not her experience at all.
“I’m sorry.” When she didn’t respond, he ducked his head until her gaze met his again. “I can’t be the first man who’s ever apologized to you for something.”
She did a quick mental check and couldn’t come up with another name for that list. “You’re sorry for the sex?”
His mouth fell into a severe frown. “Hell no.”
“Then I’m confused.”
He squeezed her hand in a gentle move that mirrored the concern in his face. “Clearly.”
“Maybe we should start this conversation again.” In a public place, with a wall between them. And no touching. Definitely no touching. His fingers swept over her skin and her good intentions went down faster than the Titanic. No woman could withstand that sort of temptation. Certainly not one with her record of questionable choices.
“I am trying to apologize for running out of the wedding before I even got your name. That was a pretty shitty thing to do in light of what happened between us.”
Damn, he couldn’t even describe their horizontal bathroom dancing without sounding refined. “Do you have trouble saying the word ‘sex’?”
He smiled. “No trouble saying or doing.”
She wasn’t sure where he was going or what he was looking for. He was either super smooth or an ass in hiding. Unfortunately both possibilities appealed to her. Everything about him appealed to her.
Instead of crawling all over him, she went with the truth. “Admittedly, I was surprised you took a few seconds to zip your pants before you hauled it out of there.”
He winced. “That bad, huh?”
“Does the phrase ‘ass on fire’ tell you anything?”
“Only that I need to work on my skills.”
She had no complaints in that department. None. At. All. “So, now what?”
“Depends. Is my apology accepted?”
Her heart started pounding. The noise drowned out the doubts and questions ringing in her ears. It thundered through her until it muffled everything else. “Is this really why you’re here?”
“Why else would I track you down?”
“I have no idea. Unless you’ve wiped out crime on Oahu, I’m guessing you have work to do, and I figure there are other women who take up your time. Why you’d spare a few minutes to come over here is, well, let’s just say I don’t get it.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Actually I am.”
“Do you own a mirror?”
That’s all it took. A simple bit of flattery and she fell right into her old pattern. She recognized it, heard the warning signal screech through her brain…and ignored it all.
“Is it possible you’re really here for this?” She stepped into him then, pressed her chest against his as she lifted her chin and brought her mouth to the whisper of space right under his.
“Katie?”