‘I’m sorry?’
‘Does he know he’s not important?’
Carly frowned, taking the box from his hand. ‘Why are you using that tone again?’
Dare took a deep breath, wondering how it was that he could control a global corporation without batting an eye and yet one woman always seemed to have him on the back foot. Carly was a genuinely nice person—he knew that now. And not only that. She was smart and beautiful and he wanted her.
‘Forget I said anything.’
Carly fidgeted with the box before placing it carefully in her bag. ‘The person who gave me the necklace did so because he wanted to go out with me. There’s nothing else to it.’
Dare doubted that. No man he knew gave a woman expensive jewellery because he wanted to go out with her. It was either a gift to show his appreciation or a parting one. Still...the guy was obviously history and that was all that mattered.
‘You don’t have to explain yourself to me,’ he assured her.
‘Good.’ She stepped back from him. ‘Because, frankly, I’m done with explaining myself to men. There’s nothing more debilitating.’
‘I agree,’ he said, moving closer to her.
‘What...? What...? Dare, what are you doing?’
‘Taking you in my arms,’ he murmured.
Carly flattened her hands against his chest to ward him off. ‘Dare, I don’t want this. I don’t want you.’
Dare kissed her. Softly. Sweetly. Carly’s breath hitched in her lungs.
‘Yes, you do.’
‘No.’ She shook her head weakly. ‘I don’t. I...’
He kissed her again. This time it was more commanding. More urgent.
Carly melted. She didn’t mean to, but she did. His touch, his scent, his heat—they all set off a minefield of emotions and sensations inside her that she just couldn’t fight.
‘Carly...’
Dare groaned her name and Carly clung to his broad shoulders. Maybe sleeping with him just once wouldn’t be a mistake, she reasoned. Giving in to this desire between them that made her forget everything around her but him. That made her burn.
But then what? a little voice of sanity asked. Then he leaves and you’re left once again to pick up the pieces? Alone this time.
Carly moaned in denial even as she kissed him. The voice was right. And yet... And yet... She couldn’t seem to say no to him.
‘Dare, I—’
A beeping sound cut off her weak attempt at resistance and Carly pulled her mouth from his. ‘My beeper.’
‘Ignore it.’ Dare buried his hands in her hair and brought her mouth back to his.
‘No. I can’t.’ Carly pushed at him again. ‘It’s Benson. I need to give him his medication.’
Dare groaned, loosening his grip with obvious reluctance, and Carly moved out of the circle of his arms, walking like an automaton to her bedside table to silence the beeper.
Dare’s heavy breaths filled the room, but Carly kept her back to him. She knew he was waiting for her but she couldn’t do this. She felt frozen. Frozen by her own unbidden desires and the mistakes she had made in the past.
‘I think it’s best if you go,’ she said quietly.
She felt his hard, heated stare before he crossed to her. When he stopped beside her she was almost afraid to look up at him. Afraid she’d back down and tell him she didn’t want him to go at all. That she wanted him to love her.
Oh God, that wasn’t what she wanted at all. ‘Why?’ he asked tightly.
Carly shook her head, deeply held fears governing her words. ‘I just don’t want this.’
‘You did a minute ago,’ Dare said, a hardness creeping into his voice. ‘I felt it. I felt your response.’
‘Physically, yes.’ She gripped her hands together. ‘You’re a virile man—I won’t deny that—but that’s all it is and...and it’s not enough.’
Dare stared at her for long seconds. ‘I think you’re afraid,’ he said.
‘Afraid?’
‘Afraid of the way I make you feel.’
Carly forced out a laugh as his words hit a little too close to the bone. ‘And I think you’re arrogant and full of yourself.’
Time slowed as his eyes scanned her face, and it was all she could do not to crumple and ask him to hold her.