Her throat tightened. Connor—with his sweet face and his floppy hair. And his desire to be liked. A desire that had meant betraying her trust in the most humiliating way possible. He hadn’t quite matched up to her father’s level of unreliability, but then, he’d only been in her life a matter of months.
Of course since their break-up she hadn’t taken a vow of celibacy. She’d gone out with a couple of men on more than a couple of dates and they’d been pleasant enough. But none had been memorable, and right now the only significant living thing in her flat was a cactus called Colin.
She shook her head. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘Anna’s the home bird. I’ve no desire to tie myself down any time soon. I like my independence too much.’
Ram nodded. Letting his gaze wander over her face, he took in the flushed cheeks and the dilated pupils and felt a tug down low in his stomach. A pulse of heat flickered beneath his skin.
Independence. The word tasted sweet and dark and glossy in his mouth—like a cherry bursting against his tongue. At that moment, had he believed in soulmates, he would have thought he’d found his. For here was a woman who was not afraid to be herself. To stand alone in the world.
His heart was pounding. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone—anything. If only he could reach over and pull her against him, strip her naked and take her right here, right now—
But instead a waiter brought over some bread and, grateful for the nudge back to reality, Ram leaned back in his chair, trying to school his thoughts, his breathing, his body, into some sort o
f order.
‘She’s impressive, your partner,’ he said, when finally the waiter left them alone.
He watched her face soften, the blue eyes widen with affection, and suddenly he wondered how it would feel to be the object of that incredible gaze. For someone to care that much about him.
The idea made him feel strangely vulnerable and, picking up his glass, he downed his water so that it hit his stomach with a thump.
She nodded eagerly. ‘She was always top of the class.’
He nodded. ‘I can believe that. But I wasn’t talking about her tech skills. It’s her attitude that’s her real strength. She’s pragmatic; she understands the value of compromise. Whereas you...’
He paused, and Nola felt her skin tighten. That was Anna in a nutshell. But how could Ram know that? They’d only met once, when they’d signed the contracts.
And then her muscles tensed, her body squirming with nerves at what he might be about to reveal about her.
‘You, on the other hand, are a rebel.’
Reaching out, he ran his hand lightly over her sleeve and she felt a thrill like the jolt of electricity. This wasn’t like any conversation she’d ever had. It was more like a dance—a dazzling dance with quick, complicated steps that only they understood.
She swallowed. ‘What kind of rebel works for the system?’
Beneath the lights, his eyes gleamed like brushed steel. ‘You might look corporate on the outside, but if I scratched the surface I’d find a hacker beneath. Unlike your partner—unlike most people, really—you like to cross boundaries, take risks. You’re not motivated by money; you like the challenge.’
The hum of chatter and laughter faded around them and a pulse began to beat loudly inside her head. Reaching forward to pick up her glass, she cleared her throat with difficulty.
‘You’re making me sound a lot edgier than I am,’ she said quickly. ‘I’m actually just a “white hat”.’
‘Of course you are!’
Ram shifted in his seat, his thigh brushing against her leg so that her hand twitched around the stem of the glass. It was a gambler’s tell—a tiny, visible sign of the tension throbbing between them.
‘It’s not like I’d ever catch you hanging out in some grimy internet café with a bunch of wannabe anarchists.’
He lounged back in his seat, one eyebrow lifted, challenging her to contradict him.
Remembering their first meeting, Nola felt her heart beat faster, her stomach giving way to that familiar mix of apprehension and fascination, the sense that there was something pulling them inexorably closer.
But even as she felt her skin grow warm his teasing words stirred something inside her. Suddenly the desire to tease him back was overwhelming—to put the heat on him, to watch those grey eyes turn molten.
‘Actually, wannabe anarchists are usually pretty harmless—like sheep. It’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing you need to worry about.’
She kept her expression innocent, but heat cascaded down through her belly as his gaze locked onto hers with the intensity of a tractor beam. A small, urgent voice in the back of her head was warning her to back down, to stop playing Russian roulette with the man who’d loaded the gun she was holding to her head.
But then suddenly he smiled, and just like that nothing seemed to matter except being the focus of his undivided attention. It was easy to forget he was self-serving and arrogant...easy to believe that breaking the rules—her rules—wouldn’t matter just this once.