‘Will you be comfortable sharing a room with me?’ His tone was mildly teasing, the glint in his eyes even more so.
Aerin tried to ignore the tiny feather-duster flutter along the floor of her belly. Tried to ignore the sudden leap of her pulse and the hitch of her breath in her throat. ‘I’m sure you’ll be a perfect gentleman.’
His scarred eyebrow came up again in a cynical arc. ‘Me? Perfect?’ He gave a deep chuckle of wry amusement and added, ‘I hardly think so.’ His hooded gaze dipped to her mouth for an infinitesimal moment, the atmosphere in the office charged with a nerve-tingling energy. His gaze came back to hers, and she let out a breath she had forgotten she was holding. That was surely why she was a little light-headed, right? Not just because he looked at her with those intensely dark eyes.
‘I—I’d better get going...’ Aerin scooped up her bag off the floor and slung its strap over her shoulder. ‘I’ll book the flights and get back to you with the details. The dress for the dinner is formal. I know that seems a little over the top, but we’ve always done it that way.’ She turned for the door, more flustered than she cared to admit in his alluring presence. She had never been alone with him for such a long period before. How was she going to manage the weekend?
‘Aerin.’ His deep voice stopped her in her tracks. He had called her Goldilocks for years; she couldn’t remember the last time she had heard her name on his lips.
She turned to look at him, clutching her tote bag close to her side. ‘Yes?’
His dark eyes held hers for a heart-stopping moment, his expression unusually sombre. ‘You’ll be safe with me. You have my word.’
‘Thank you.’ She gave him a quick smile and turned again for the door.
‘Another thing—I’ll book the flights.’
‘But I don’t expect you to pay—’
‘It’s not a problem.’
Aerin knew it would be pointless arguing with him. ‘Okay, that’s kind of you, thank you.’
‘Wait. I’ll come down with you.’ He picked up a folder of papers off his desk and slid them into a leather briefcase, then closed the lid and locked it. He took his jacket out of the cupboard and shrugged himself back into it. Then he lifted his hand to his tie and tightened it back in place close to his neck. The actions were things she had seen her brother and father do hundreds if not thousands of times and yet, when Drake did them, there was something so...so arrantly masculine and so darn sexy about it.
They travelled down in the private lift in a silence that throbbed with something Aerin had not been aware of before. She cast covert glances at him, but his features were set in inscrutable lines. The lift doors whooshed open on the ground floor and she stepped out. She was aware of his tall frame only a step or two behind her, aware of the citrus scent of his aftershave, and aware of her body’s secret reaction to him.
Aerin turned to say goodbye. ‘Thank you again. I hope you didn’t have anything important planned for this weekend?’
His smile was lopsided and didn’t reach his eyes. ‘Nothing I couldn’t cancel at short notice.’
‘Erm... I didn’t think to ask but are you currently seeing anyone? I mean, that could make things rather awkward, and I would hate to complicate things for—’
‘No.’ His answer was unmistakably definitive.
‘Oh, I thought you nearly always had someone on the go.’
‘Not this close to Christmas.’
Aerin frowned. ‘But Christmas is a month away. I thought you changed partners just about every week.’
A shutter came down over his face. ‘I’ve got to rush. I have a mediation meeting at court in ten minutes. See you Friday.’ He turned to leave.
‘Drake?’
He stopped moving to look down at her. ‘Yes?’
Aerin gave him a tremulous smile. ‘You won’t suddenly change your mind and leave me to face the violins alone?’
He gave a quizzical frown. ‘The violins?’
‘It’s a saying Harper used. It refers to the pity symphony I get every year from my school friends for still being single.’
His frown faded and his mouth tilted in a half-smile. ‘I won’t change my mind.’
Change his mind? That was exactly what Drake knew he should do and yet he couldn’t bring himself to let Aerin down. But what the freaking hell was he doing agreeing to partner his best friend’s kid sister to a reunion in Scotland? A weekend pretending to be someone he was not. He was not Prince Charming or Mr Perfect or Mr Right or Mr Soulmate. But how could he let innocent and naïve Aerin take anyone else? She was as trusting and idealistic as he was cynical and jaded. Her confession about still being a virgin had shocked him to the backbone and beyond. He knew she was conservative but not to the point that she had left it so long to experience sex.
Of course he had to agree to take her to the reunion. What other option was there? How could he be sure some other less principled guy wouldn’t jump at the chance to take her virginity as some sort of prize? The most Drake had ever done with her was ruffle her golden hair as a kid. But placing his hand on her arm earlier had sounded a warning in his body. A warning that she was not a gangly teenager any more. She was an adult woman with gentle feminine curves and a soft pillowy mouth he could barely take his eyes off. A mouth he could not stop thinking about tasting to see if it was as sweet and delicious as it looked.