The question coming out of the silence threw her for a moment. ‘I—I have very sensitive skin.’
‘The moon doesn’t have UV rays.’
She gave him a withering look as she folded her arms across her chest. ‘Ha ha.’
His eyes grazed the shape of her breasts and then narrowed as they came to rest on her forearms. His gaze came back to hers, dark and concerned. ‘What happened to your arms?’
Lily dropped her arms back down below the water. ‘Nothing.’
‘Doesn’t look like nothing to me. It looks like you got up close and personal with a razor blade. Did you need stitches?’
‘No.’
‘Hospitalisation?’
Lily compressed her lips. She didn’t want to talk about that time in her life. She didn’t want to have to explain why she had felt so compelled to do what she had done. She just wanted to put it all behind her and move on.
She had moved on.
‘Did you cut anywhere else?’ His voice was gentle now rather than judgemental, which totally surprised her. Disarmed her.
She let out a breath of resignation. She was leaving in the morning; he could think what he liked of her. ‘My thighs.’
He winced as if he had personally felt each and every slice of the blades that had marked her flesh. ‘What happened to you?’
‘I bled. A lot.’
‘Not when you cut.’ He frowned at her attempt at black humour. ‘What happened to make you want to do that?’
Lily put on her tough-as-nails face. ‘I was a bit messed up a few years ago. I took it out on myself. Not a great way of handling things, but still.’
‘Drugs?’
‘No.’
‘Relationship problems?’
She gave a little cough of humourless laughter. ‘You could say that.’
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
‘No.’
‘Do you still cut?’
Lily flashed him an irritated look. ‘No, of course not.’
He held her gaze for longer than she felt comfortable with. He seemed to be seeing right through her façade.
It terrified her.
‘I’d like to get out of the pool.’ She gave him a haughty look. ‘Do I have to ask permission or are you going to stand there and watch me freeze to death?’
‘I’m not standing,’ he pointed out wryly. ‘I’m leaning. And you’re not freezing, you’re scared.’
She raised her chin. ‘Not of you.’
His gaze held hers in that quietly assessing way that unsettled her so much. ‘I’m very glad to hear it. How could we ever work together if you’re frightened of me?’
Lily blinked at him. ‘You want to work with me?’
‘Yes.’
‘But... But I thought...?’
‘I’d like you to stay for the month. I’ll pay you double the amount my brother offered.’
She looked at him in bafflement. Why had he changed his mind? Hadn’t her scars put him off? Most people shunned her when they saw her body. He was doing the opposite.
Why?
Who cares? Think of the money. Two years’ wages for a month’s work!
‘But I don’t understand...’
‘I quite like the idea of getting to know you, Lily Archer. I suspect no one else has achieved that before.’
She gave him a guarded look. ‘I suppose you see me as yet another challenge to overcome?’
‘No.’ His eyes glanced briefly at her mouth before coming back to mesh with hers. ‘I see you as a temptation I should resist.’
Her brows lifted. ‘Should?’
‘Can’t,’ he said, and before she could move even an inch out of his way he covered her mouth with his.
CHAPTER NINE
THE FEEL OF his mouth on hers made every nerve in Lily’s body stand up and quiver in delight. He tasted of mint and male heat, an intoxicating blend that made her senses spin out of control. His tongue found hers and called it into an erotic dance that made her insides do a series of frantic somersaults. It was a much harder kiss than his previous one, more focused, even more ruthlessly determined.
Even more irresistible.
His body was flush against hers, his erection pressing against her stomach. It burned like a brand against her, the primitive need it signalled calling out to her own. She felt the tingling of her desire deep in her pelvis, the throb-ache pulse that pounded in time with her blood.