‘Sorry,’ he said with the hint of a smile that sent her stomach into free fall all over again, her head into a spin and made her wonder dizzily what it was about him in particular that had her responding so viscerally. ‘Although fair’s fair, don’t you think?’
‘Is it?’ she said, for a moment not having a clue what he was referring to because all she could think of was how there wasn’t anything fair about him at all. Everything was dark. Smoulderingly, broodingly and sizzlingly attractively dark.
‘I think so.’ A pause. ‘Although, strictly speaking, you’d have to be the one who was naked.’
Abby snapped her gaze back to his, to find him watching her with a look of cool amusement on his face. Naked? What on earth was he talking about? Did he want her naked? For a moment yet more heat rushed through her and her heart galloped and she seriously considered leaping off the chair and throwing herself at him.
But then—thank heavens—sanity struck and it suddenly hit her. The penthouse. His state of undress. The misunderstanding. The half an hour she’d been so badly trying to forget.
Really not wanting to go there, Abby hmmed while her heart rate slowed and her body temperature cooled, and decided it might be safer for her poor overworked organs if she changed the subject.
‘So what can I do for you?’ she asked, trying not to worry because the party had ended an hour ago and why he’d be roaming the ground floor of the hotel at nearly one in the morning she couldn’t imagine. ‘Is there a problem?’
He shook his head. ‘No problem.’
‘Then what is it?’
‘I wanted to thank you for everything you did this evening.’
A warm glow of professional satisfaction spread through her, momentarily dampening the desire. ‘You’re welcome.’
‘It was a great party.’
‘It had good hosts.’ She shot him a quick smile. ‘Not to mention an excellent planner.’
‘The latter is certainly true.’
‘Thank you.’
And then that seemed to be that for conversation because Leo didn’t say anything else, just carried on looking at her, and quite suddenly Abby found that she couldn’t have said anything even if she’d wanted to because their gazes had locked and all she could concentrate on were his eyes. His mesmerising, thought-destroying, soul-shattering eyes...
Dark and bottomless, they were the kind of eyes a girl could lose herself in, she thought dizzily. Totally lose herself in, forgetting everything while clinging to those shoulders and wrapping her legs around his waist and crying out as he smoothly slid inside her, moving slowly at first then faster and harder, until there were no words, no thoughts, nothing but spiralling tension and breathy moans and then lovely, lovely release...
‘Thanking you wasn’t the only reason I came to find you,’ he said, his words—oddly loud and hoarse in the heavy, thick silence—cutting through her thoughts and making her land back on Earth with a bump.
‘Oh?’ she said, her voice a lot breathier and her heart beating a lot faster than was appropriate for a woman who never lost herself or clung, and who’d sworn never again to think about what she’d seen when that bed sheet had slipped.
‘I’d like to apologise for what happened earlier.’
‘You already did,’ she said with an overly bright smile, as if beaming like a maniac might somehow detract from the give-away blush she could feel burning her cheeks and the breathlessness.
‘Not enough. Not nearly enough. I was totally out of order.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘It was a misunderstanding.’
Taking a couple of deep steadying breaths and pulling herself together because she had absolutely no business fantasising about him, Abby twisted round and slipped her feet back into the vices that were her shoes. ‘I’ll say.’
‘But not one I’d ever make under normal circumstances.’
‘No, well, I guess the circumstances weren’t all that normal,’ she said, trying not to wince as leather heel met sore blister.
‘They weren’t. I’ve spent the last month scoping out development possibilities across a dozen countries on three continents. I barely kn
ow what time zone I’m in.’
‘As you said, I must have given you quite a shock.’