“Hannah?” His voice was like molten chocolate. “Is that you?” He squinted against the sun, and she realized she was mostly in shadow, that was why he couldn’t recognize her.
Despite her agitation, she’d been ready to snarl at him, wondering how many women he’d had to have kissed of late if he’d forgotten what she damn well looked like, but her being in shadow enabled Hannah to forgive him.
Barely.
She nodded at him. Tightly. Unbending enough to smile at him slightly, she murmured, “Yep, it’s me, James. How are you?”
They hadn’t spoken since Labor Day weekend. There was a very good reason for that.
His eyes were filled with flames that scorched her as he raked his gaze over her. She felt every single ounce of that perusal, and though she wanted to reject it, wanted to fail to respond to it, she couldn’t.
Everything female within her clenched down in response. Hard.
Why? Hannah wanted to rail at her body. Why him?
Of all the men, in all the world, why James Arias?
With his cocky, risk-seeking missile nature, and more money than sense, he wasn’t an easy man. He wasn’t a comfort
able one either. And all she’d wanted, for as long as she could remember, was someone comfortable. Someone who, sure, could rile her up between the sheets, but in life? No way. She wanted security. Steadfastness. Not this insanity. Not a man who made her question everything she knew and held dear.
Who, without even being a part of her everyday world, could make her destabilize everything she’d been working toward. The thought had her gulping.
The past week had been… tiring. Well, that was an understatement. She was exhausted, and jet lag wasn’t the source of the kind of fatigue that made her feel shaky in the early winter sun.
“I’m fine. How are you?” he asked, but his voice was husky, and his gaze was still raking over her like she was hot coals and he was being burnt by the embers.
The trite trivialities made her sigh. “I’m okay, I’m here to see Aidan,” she replied. When he flinched, she realized she’d put that point across a little too well.
But it was imperative he realize she wasn’t here to see him.
She wasn’t one of his bunnies that flocked to him whenever he appeared, like he was a magnet and they were rusty iron filings.
He couldn’t just click his fingers and she’d appear.
No way.
She had too much self-respect. Too much pride.
So what, they’d kissed.
A kiss did not mean anything, she reassured herself, as she’d done a thousand times.
And just because the man made her panties reject all laws of physics and spontaneously combust whenever he was in her line of sight, well, that didn’t mean a damn thing either. No, James might be a part of her life because of Aidan, but that was it.
There was nothing between them.
And maybe if she repeated that mantra a thousand times she’d finally start believing it.
“He’s in his office,” he told her, eying her like she was a sundae he wanted to dive into headfirst.
Hannah wanted to snap at him, demand he stop looking at her like that, but instead, she let out a sigh. There was no stopping him from doing a damn thing. He did what he wanted. Always had, always would.
“I know. I called before I came” she said.
James frowned at her words. His lust-filled gaze snapping away to be replaced with concern and curiosity. It wasn’t the first time she’d noticed she was one of the few who could make him look past business. Though he was a risk junkie, he was shrewd. Very, very shrewd. His business acumen was beyond belief, and his head was always in the game. But not with her. Never with her. It was like he was just a regular Joe, except regular Joes didn’t have access to million-dollar prototypes that they drive like joyriding yahoos.
“Why are you here?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts. “Washington’s a long way from Florida.”