Bedding the Billionaire (Book 3) (Legacy Collection) (2 page)

A memory
from
th
e first time he’d met her
came back
to him
with disconcerting clarity.
His body tightened and warmed as if she were once again standing before him, defiantly flipping
her
cascade of
dark
brown
curls over
one
shoulder and waving her other hand back and forth as if underl
y
ing her words.

“
You lied to me,” she’d accused. And waited, practically
tapping a foot
in displeasure
.
The details of the bowling alley she’d dragged him to that night had faded away, but the fullness of her pouting mouth remain
ed
painfully easy to recall.

“You asked me if I lik
ed to bowl, not if I knew how.”
A hint of self-satisfa
ction
had
spilled into his tone and it
’d
bothered him.
Knocking over a set of pins with a spinning projectile was
a simple process of aiming for
a
“pocket,” the space between the front pin and the one angled behind it to the right. N
ot a difficult feat
if you understood angles and velocity.
So
why
had he puffed
up with pride over this achievement?

Lil.

His realization that he
wanted
to impress her
had been the most
unsettling
part of the evening
.
There
had been
far too much going on with
Corisi
Enterprises to waste time
on
what the little s
ister of Dominic’s latest fling thought of him.
He
’d
scowled down at her, more in response to his own
thoughts
than to her words.

Money shaped how most people interacted with him
,
but it wasn’t something that he’d given much reflection
to
until he’d met Lil.
Her displeasure with the reas
on for his visit
had initially
outweighed whatever most women found attractive about him.
She hadn’t asked him to join her
that night
because she wanted to spend more time with him.

No, she’
d taken him outside of what she’d
considered his comfort zone with a
less
than
noble
goal, but she’d failed.
“Disappointed that I don’t look ridiculous?”
he
’d
asked.

She’d rested a hand on one jean cl
ad hip, looking him up and down,
smirking as she
’d
note
d
the clash between his
Dayang
suit
and his
colorful
,
rented bowling
shoes; a perusal that had
sent his blood rushing to places he thought he’d gained control of by his late teens.
“Oh, you still
do
, don’t worry.”

More than the way her
yellow
t
-
shirt
had
clung to her small but tempting
endowments, or how her jeans
had been
t
ight in all the right places–
what
had driven
his blood pressure higher
had been
the bold challenge in her eyes.
He’d never been
the type of man who reached out,
grabbed with passion, and took.
But
that night,
he
’d
wanted to be.

Instead, he’d adjusted his tie and cleared his throat. “Then I suggest you beat my score or risk the same fate.”

She
’d
continued to assess him
, shaking her head slightly.
“I don’t get you.
I mean, aren’t y
ou Dominic’s second in command?”

The memory of that comment elicited the same tight smile it had the first time he’d heard it.
“Something
like
that.”

“Don’t you mind
babysitting
me?”

Her question
had highlighted the heart of the problem.

He should.

His business partner was having a very public breakdown in the middle of one of the most important business deals
in the history of their company
.
He should have accompanied Dominic to China and ensured that his current altered state of mind didn’t leave him open to manipulation.

Instead he’d allowed Domi
nic to sidetrack him with
a
trip to Boston.

A trip that should have ended after he’d ascertained
Lil’s safety from
the
security
detail
that Dominic had sent to watch her.
However, something had happened when
she’d opened the door of her house, baby on one hip, long
rebellious
tendrils
framing her naturally beautiful face. H
e’d felt the floor sway be
neath his usually steady feet.

Her growing
irritation
with him as
he’d explained who he was
had taken him by surprise; as
had her blatant desire for him to leave.
He wasn’t accustomed to women dismissing him quite so easily.
Feeling a bit like he was peddling something door to door,
he
’d almost failed to gain entry to her house.

And he’d enjoyed every moment of it.

Her irritation had returned with force at the bowling alley
, but
had
softened to include a
semi-apology
.
“
Sorry, I shouldn’
t take my bad mood out on you, but
I am perfectly capable of surviving
a few days without my sister. Wasn’t the nanny enough? How much supervision does
she
think I need?” When he’d opened his mouth to say something, she’d said, “Don’t answer that.
It was a rhetorical question.”

He must not have hidden his amusement well because h
er eyes had narrowed in the most adorable
,
piqued expression.
“Laugh away but
I just lost all sympathy for you.
You’re going down
.”

Her comment
had
found its target.
His breath
had
quickened in response as he
’d
met her
audaciou
sly
bold
,
amber
glare
.
“I never lose.”

She
’d
leaned closer as if testing something.

He’d sucked his breath in surprise.

Placing
a
hand on one of his shoulders, she’d stretched up on her
tipt
oes and whispered in his ear, “Ne
ither do I.” Her hand trailed halfway down his buttoned shirt as she turned away.

He
’d
stood immobile, watching the seductive sway of her hips as she sauntered over to retrieve her ball.
Just before she
’d
released it, she
’d
looked over her shoulder at him, catching the guilty shift of
his attention
from her amazing ass to the
sass
in those
brown
eyes.
Her wink
had
almost
been
his undoing.

H
is body
had
surged and craved
.

Strike.

Triumphantly, s
he
’d
brushed by him
, touching him only with her fresh scent.
Normally he would have said that he had little preference regarding female perfumes, but
that evening
he
’d
discovered
the lack of one
to be
strikingly at
tractive,
sending h
is thoughts in wild directions–
some
that
had
included
how
the waxed lane would feel beneath their bare skin.

With what could only
have
be
en
described as a saucy smile, she
’d
said, “Your turn.”

He’d chosen his next ball at random.

Thrown it without thought.

Barely registered that it had left most of the pins standing.

Just as his second had.

Her chuckle
had
removed his last shred of restraint.

Closing the
distance between them
,
he’d
place
d
a hand
on either side of her face and tasted
her smiling lips
.
Just a brief touch, a flick of a tongue, nothing that should have overshadowed his usual distaste for public displays of affection.
Such
banal behavior
was never necessary, but
to his surprise he’d found it
,
oh, so
pleasurable
.