‘Yes, well, now that you mention it, you were the one who started this by approaching me in the nightclub,’ she said. ‘Who knows? If you hadn’t been so full of yourself I mightn’t have gone off with the Ealing guy and then none of this would have happened.’
His top lip curled. ‘Is that your version of logic? If so, it’s a little short of the mark.’
Daisy gave a small shrug. ‘I’m just saying…’
He came back over to her, standing right in front of her so she had to crane her neck to keep eye contact. His eyes moved between both of hers, back and forth, as if he were waiting for her to reveal some other motive other than pure unadulterated lust. After a moment he lifted his hand and stroked his fingertip across her jawline. His touch was mesmerising, light as air, and yet every nerve of hers twanged with awareness. ‘I should send you packing.’
‘That would be the sensible thing to do if I had indeed anything to pack before I left,’ Daisy said. ‘I don’t suppose visiting the Grand Canyon in a little black dress and heels is sensible either.’
His half smile made her stomach slip. So did his touch as he cupped her cheek in one of his broad hands. His thumb moved over her cheek in a stroking motion that was as hypnotic as his dark chocolate gaze. ‘No. It isn’t.’
Daisy looked at his mouth, wondering if he was going to kiss her again. Never had a kiss been so exciting. Every pore of her body had responded to him. It was as if he had turned a switch on inside her body. Her inner core pulsated with the need to feel his thick male presence—a real flesh and blood man, not a cold and clinical machine. She could feel the twitching of those delicate nerves in anticipation of his intimate invasion. ‘Maybe I should head back to my hotel and slip into something a little more touristy.’
‘You should.’
She looked at the way his eyes became sleepily hooded, the dark fan of his lashes shielding half of his gaze as it focused on her mouth. ‘Should I bring my things back here, do you think?’
His eyes sprang open again. ‘What for?’
‘Well, if we’re going to hang out together for the next four days it would make sense, wouldn’t it?’
He frowned as if he hadn’t considered that angle before. ‘How far away is your hotel?’
‘It’s down the budget end of the strip. It’s what the girls could afford.’ Daisy nibbled at her lip before adding, ‘I guess I could cab it back and forth…’
‘And make me look like a tight-fisted jerk?’ he said. ‘No. You can move in here with me.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m not sleeping over in some flea-bitten dive.’
‘It’s not that far down the strip,’ Daisy said. ‘Mind you, this place must cost a packet. Do you always stay on the penthouse floor?’
‘I like my space.’
‘For all your wild parties?’
He gave her a stern look. ‘I’m a professional sportsman. If I partied as hard as everyone made out in the press I wouldn’t be able to win a single game.’
She angled her head as she surveyed his frowning expression. ‘And winning is everything to you, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t play polo to lose.’
‘What about life?’
‘That too.’
Daisy acknowledged that with a thoughtful nod. ‘Which is why you don’t invest in relationships, right?’
His lip curled mockingly again. ‘Is the psychoanalysis part of the deal or is that a bonus?’
Daisy ignored his sarcasm as she tilted her head like a dealer assessing a unique work of art. ‘You love your brother and you loved your father, but you hold your mother at arm’s length, as you do all women. Your relationship with her is on your terms, not hers. You have attachment issues. Textbook case, in my opinion.’
Two lines of tension ran from his nose to his mouth. ‘If you want your four days of fun then maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself.’
‘Fair enough.’
His brow was deeply furrowed. ‘That’s it?’
‘What?’
‘You’re going to do what you’re told?’
Daisy gave him an innocent-as-pie look. ‘Sure. That’s what you want, isn’t it? You only sleep with women who don’t stand up to you—correct? They’re not allowed to have a mind or opinions of their own. You just want their body, not their intellect. I can do that. Mind you, four days is about my limit, though.’
He let out another curse as he thrust a hand through the thickness of his hair. ‘You are un-effing-believable.’
The sound of his phone ringing from the desk where he’d left it broke the silence. Daisy watched as he snatched it up and barked out a curt greeting. She couldn’t hear the conversation but his expression went from dark and stormy to a slowly spreading smile that made the corners of his eyes crinkle attractively.