Frazzled from the delay, then the mad dash, she’d dropped her bags with the bellhop, then quietly snuck into the auditorium and slid into the back row to catch the end of what they’d filled her spot with. Settling into her seat, she glanced to the front of the auditorium and almost fell out of her chair.
No way.
Not even possible.
She was hallucinating.
Maybe she’d fallen during her jaunt through the airport, bumped her head and was in a coma, about to have a fantastic fantasy.
Must be, because the speaker at the front of the room was him.
Mr. Dark and Dangerous from the plane.
He would be a fantastic fantasy.
But why was he teaching her class? And smiling and charming the crowd as if he were a natural-born motivational speaker rather than the dark, sexy overlord she’d painted him out to be on the plane? Seriously, the man was discussing heart deformities and yet you’d think he was revealing the secret of longevity by the way the attendees were on the edge of their seats.
Even as passionate as she was about surgical neonatal heart disease treatment modalities, she didn’t think it was the topic that was mesmerizing the crowd.
It was him.
As he spoke, his gaze met with hers and recognition flashed in those unusual ice-blue eyes that somehow didn’t fit with his pleasant expression. Probably because she’d pegged him as shadowy and menacing, not smiling and charming.
He was smiling. And charming. And had a voice that should be reading the books she downloaded to her smartphone from time to time to listen to at night. What a way to fall asleep.
Dark and dangerous or smiling and charming, the man oozed sex. She wasn’t a woman who got hot and bothered from just looking at a guy. Or even hot and bothered from a whole lot of guy effort, but this man made her think S-E-X.
Hot, sweaty, body-slapping, can’t-catch-your-breath sex.
Which was quite disturbing because Jonathan hadn’t affected her this potently. Ever. Sex had been good, pleasurable, but just the thought of it hadn’t set her nerve-endings on fire.
His presentation didn’t pause, but his gaze lingered on hers, flashing with an awareness that made her nerve-endings burn. Hot, out-of-control burn.
He was gorgeous. Perhaps more so than any man she’d ever seen in real life.
Perhaps? Ha. Life had not thrown men like him into her path. Ever. As much as she’d cared for and found him attractive, Jonathan didn’t have a thing on this guy. Not even on this guy’s worst day and Jonathan’s best. Mr. Dark and Dangerous exuded pheromones by the bucketful. His bucket ran over and was flooding the auditorium.
Natalie picked up a mini-sized notepad with the hotel’s logo at the top and fanned her face. Mercy.
He finished his presentation, then did a question-and-answer session, fielding each question with ease, much more smoothly than she’d have done. She’d have been battling nerves at presenting to a room full of peers.
Whoever he was, he didn’t look nervous. Dark, sexy overlords probably didn’t get nervous. When the power of the universe was at your handsome fingertips, why sweat?
As she was doing. Her reaction had surprised her at the airport, on the plane, and even more so now that she’d seen the allure of his smile.
Applause filled the room. Natalie clapped, too. He’d done an excellent job, as if he’d been meant to give the presentation all along. She owed him for filling in when she wasn’t there.
At the applause, the workshop moderator stood. “Thank you, Dr. Coleman, for volunteering to present when the vacancy opened.” The moderator patted him on the back, shook his hand. “You did an excellent job, Matthew.”
“No problem.”
The man should really smile more because his face transformed into a work of art. Okay, so dark and dangerous had been a work of art, too, but smiling he was heart-stopping.
“I was glad to help, since I understand Dr. Sterling had travel delays,” he continued, not glancing her way, but Natalie felt his awareness of her. As if he had some sixth sense that let him know exactly where she was in the room without those amazing eyes having to focus her way. That sense pervaded her entire being and scorched her insides.
Good grief, the way he affected her. Maybe because she was on the cusp of a huge career leap, maybe because she still felt the sting from Jonathan’s betrayal.
Or maybe it was how pheromonally magnetic he was.