Ask Adam (6 page)

“Do you plan on saying anything, Miss Tanner, or should I attempt to infer from your body language your reasons for being here?”

Cold. He was so cold. So distant. Not to mention rude. The man she’d made love with hadn’t been like this. How could she blame him? If she thought she looked like a whore, she could only imagine what he thought. Trying in vain to pull her thoughts together, she straightened her back and considered what to say.

Something else bothered her, something other than her complete and utter humiliation.

“I believe,” he prompted her, “you are here to ask for a donation?”

She tried to focus on his words. What bothered her? It was there, trapped somewhere in her subconscious. If she could just access it…

Think, Tanner.

“Would you care to tell me a little about your…needs?”

There was no mistaking the innuendo in his question. He knew all about her…needs.

His tone made it obvious he wasn’t the least bit interested in her cause, in the real reason she was here. It was aloof and expressionless. It didn’t sound at all like it had in her hotel room. Then it had been warm and sensual. When he’d whispered his carnal wishes in her ear, it had been low and roughened by desire. When he’d lost himself in the throws of a wild orgasm and called out her name, it had been hoarse and hot and completely unrestrained. When…

Oh, Jesus. That was it.

He’d called out her name. She’d thought he hadn’t known her identity…but he’d screamed her name.
“Lexi”.

Red-hot fury pulsed through her. Maybe she used it as a weapon to hide her embarrassment. Maybe she was just pissed off about being misled. Whatever the reason, she was livid. All the warm, content feelings she’d had about their night together rocketed out the window. How could he? How the fuck could he have done that?

She surged to her feet, her movement so fast and fierce she knocked the chair over. It landed with a resounding crash on the carpeted floor. Much the way she wished her fist could smash into his nose.

“You bastard,” she spat at him. “You cold, callous bastard.” She knew her cheeks flamed. She flamed, so angry she could barely see straight.

“You knew all along, didn’t you?” She kicked the chair out of the way—no mean feat, considering its size—and banged her fists on the desk. Pens scattered from his ever-so-pristine penholder and clattered down on the polished cherrywood. She fervently hoped one had gouged a sizeable mark out of his immaculate desk.

“You knew exactly who I was, right from that first moment in the lobby, didn’t you?”

He assessed her with cold eyes. “Of course I did. Do you think I’d sleep with someone I don’t know?”

She gaped at him. “You knew who I was and you never had the decency to tell me? You slept with me without so much as hinting at your familiarity?”

The corner of his mouth turned up. She’d never describe the expression as pleasant. “And I suppose you didn’t know who I was?” He tossed out the idea with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Impossible. You made this appointment weeks ago. You knew exactly who I was. Didn’t you, Lexi?”

“How could I?” she snarled. “I’d never met you. Until one minute ago, I didn’t even know what AJ Riley looked like.”

“Oh, you knew,” he taunted. “And you took full advantage of our unexpected meeting at the hotel. It was quite perfect, wasn’t it? Seduce me first to butter me up, and then ask for money.”

“You weren’t buttered, you were creamed,” she retorted, remembering the sight of her juices coating his cock and his mouth.

Oh… Crap. Had she just said that out loud?

“And what tasty cream it was,” he said, licking his lips thoughtfully.

For just a moment, she caught a glimpse of the lover he’d been in Melbourne, and not the bastard sitting across the desk. He might as well have kissed her between the legs, with the animalistic way her body reacted to the motion.

He eyed her groin openly. “Care to offer me another sample before we get down to business? It might tempt me to give you the money you so obviously need.”

For the first time ever, Lexi experienced a sudden urge to strangle someone, to put her hands around his throat and choke the last breath out of him. She wasn’t sure what pissed her off more. His malicious insinuations, or the fact that she was seriously turned on by the idea of him going down on her again. The combination of anger and arousal made her so hot, she knew she’d go off like a machine gun the second his mouth touched her. Which it never would.

Wait. She was here to discuss the sibling program, not fantasize about fucking him. Or killing him, for that matter. As enraged as she was, the kids had to come first. She had to put her thoughts and emotions aside and focus on her objective.

With as much decorum as she could muster, she looked him dead in the eye. “Contrary to what you might believe, I did not sleep with you for money. Had I known from the start who you were, things would never have…taken the turn they did. As it stands, I have to deal with the repercussions of my impulsivity, and trust me, that is no easy task. If you could see fit to put the night behind us and move on, I would be most grateful.”

He didn’t bat an eyelid. “So why did you sleep with me?”

“Pardon?”

“If you didn’t sleep with me for money, why did you sleep with me?”

Why the fuck did he think she’d slept with him? Because she couldn’t keep her hands off him, that’s bloody why.

“Mr. Riley, please. The night was what it was. Nothing more, nothing less. No hidden agendas, no unspoken needs. I hid nothing from you, because I didn’t know who you were. Now, about the pro—”

“You wouldn’t be the first, you know? To use sex for money.”

Why, of all the arrogant, assholish things to say. Now she didn’t just feel like a whore, she felt like a common whore—just as he’d intended. The rage she’d suppressed minutes ago bubbled menacingly in her stomach. She tried, she
really
tried, but a woman could gather only so much patience before losing it altogether.

Think of the kids.
“About the project, Mr. Riley…”

“Was it worth it? Prostituting yourself like that?”

Acid burned her gut.
The siblings. It’s all for them, don’t forget them.

Then, as if he really were just curious, he said, “Do you make it a habit? Sleeping with the people you’re about to request a donation from?”

She blew up. “Fuck you, you arrogant, twisted asshole. Fuck you and the chariot you rode in on.”

“Temper, temper, Miss Tanner.”

Loathing coursed through her. “‘Miss Tanner’?” she hissed. “You were screaming out my name just a few short days ago and now you feel the need for formalities?”

As if unaffected by her outburst, his voice dropped to the husky tone that had driven her wild. “As I recall it, I wasn’t the only one screaming. Lexi.”

Her name came out as a purr and she felt it like a soft caress against her skin. Unbelievable. The man had her livid as she’d ever been, and she was turned on. Un-bloody-believable.

“Yeah,” she agreed, the irrepressible urge to kill him surfacing once again. “I screamed. Does it turn you on? The thought of paying a woman to scream when she fucks you? Do you have other preferences? You know, things women will only do for you for money?”

A small voice in the back of her head reminded her that no matter what else happened, she was still in his office as a representative of the hospital. Hurling profanities at him wasn’t exactly professional behavior.

Oh please. He’d watched her jam her fingers up her vagina. Swearing at him now was hardly going to tarnish her professional image.

“A lot of things turn me on, Lexi. Paying a woman to sleep with me isn’t one of them.”

Darn, did he have to keep repeating her name in that sleep-with-me voice? “And yet you seemed pretty turned on when you thought you were sleeping with me for money.”

He merely lifted an eyebrow. “Or maybe I knew money would never enter the equation.”

“You have a…a…I…oh.” Oh! His words penetrated her fury.

He wasn’t going to sponsor the sibling program. She’d argued the semantics of him paying her to sleep with him, and he’d never had any intention of giving her money in the first place.

Oh. Bugger. All her efforts, all her energies, all the time she’d focused on him. Wasted. He’d known who she was and what she wanted all along, and he’d never intended to sponsor the project.

The fight drained out of her. Before she’d even had a chance to present her case, she’d lost it. She wouldn’t receive the necessary funding from Riley Corporation. Riley wasn’t interested.

The sibling program was doomed.

The thought of spending another minute in his company suddenly exhausted her. She had to get the hell out of his office. Her humiliation was too great a burden to bear in public. In the space of a few minutes, he’d not only rejected her project—the work that meant more to her than anything else she’d ever attempted—he’d also effectively killed every beautiful memory of their night together.

He’d taken their spectacular lovemaking and turned it into nothing more than a cheap, dirty affair. To top it all, her body was still fiercely aware of him, of his masculinity and his presence. Still nudging her subconscious to sleep with him again. Begging her self-conscious. Talk about adding insult to injury—betrayed by her own body.

She had to get away. Using every ounce of energy and dignity she possessed, which, considering the circumstances, was not very much, she straightened the chair she’d knocked over.

Her sense of gloom and humiliation mingled with a need for self-preservation, and as she replaced the papers she’d removed from her briefcase, she looked at Riley. “Just for the record,” she told him, “I slept with a stranger in Melbourne. Someone I’d never laid eyes on before. Our meeting today was my first opportunity to see what AJ Riley looked like.”

“You’re asking me to believe that you had no idea who I was?” The lines around his mouth tightened.

“Believe whatever you want, Mr. Riley.” She no longer possessed the energy to care.

“You knew. I saw the recognition in your eyes as soon as you looked up at me in the lobby.”

“Recognition? I didn’t rec—” Lexi snapped her mouth shut. Riley was half right. She had recognized something then. Only it wasn’t his identity. It was her immediate, overwhelming attraction to him.

She’d hardly grant him the satisfaction of telling him that now. “I repeat—I had no idea who you were.” She closed her bag and prepared to leave. She’d go out looking like a professional, not like some two-bit whore. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, the time has come for me to leave. I’m afraid I made a grave error of judgment coming here today, and I apologize for wasting your time.” Her voice sounded eerily normal. “I’ll show myself out.”

“You’re leaving?” he asked, and even looked a little surprised.

“Apparently my expectations of our eventual meeting were unrealistic. I find you’re not…quite the man I thought you to be, and it’s obvious you want no part in the sibling program. There’s really no point in my taking up any more of your day.” She walked to the door. “Goodbye, Mr. Riley. It’s been…a real delight getting to know you at last.”

AJ, you can be a real asshole when you want to.

He hauled a hand through his hair and shook his head. Sure, he’d needed to get Lexi the hell out of his office, and out of his life, but damn, did he have to act like such a dickhead in the process? Why didn’t he just politely refer her to Matt, who usually dealt with charities and donations anyway?

Because, he admitted to himself, Lexi Tanner scared the crap out of him.

If he’d thought spending a night with her could cure his eternal hard-on, he’d been sadly mistaken. Sleeping with the woman had the exact opposite effect. Instead of getting her out of his system, she plagued him. He spent every available second consumed by thoughts of her. Not just images of her naked—although those did take up a substantial amount of time
¾
images of her fully dressed, drinking coffee, eating dinner, having a bath, working, shopping, swimming, sleeping, waking, walking, standing blah, blah, blah.