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She knew she shouldn’t do it, shouldn’t push him to see if he meant it, shouldn’t do anything to encourage his interest in her...but just as she hadn’t been able to say no to a dinner with him, now she couldn’t keep the word “Sorry,” from leaving her lips.

Saying the word again was a dare, one he immediately rose to, as he pressed his mouth to hers for one perfect second. “Like I said, I always keep my promises.” She was still trying to find her breath when he asked, “Mugs?”

With her brain still muddled from the teeny, tiny little kiss he’d just given her, she somehow managed to send a signal to her hands to point to the cupboard. Will pulled down one flowered mug and one with black and white stripes.

He filled the flowery mug with coffee from the pot on her counter, then stared into the other one. “There’s something in this cup.”

“It’s a zebra.” By the time she came around him and reached into the cupboard, her synapses were firing again, thank God. Though she still didn’t understand why he’d kissed her if he was only here to discuss something that concerned her brother. “There’s also a giraffe, an elephant, and a tiger.” She pulled down the mugs to show him the ceramic creatures in each. “Jeremy likes the surprise at the bottom of the cup. I have to admit I like them, too.”

“I’d rather be the tiger,” Will said with complete seriousness, and poured into that mug instead.

She laughed, and when he grinned with her, a great deal of the tension she’d been feeling since she’d opened the door and found him standing there vanished. Especially when he said, “I like your brother a lot.”

“Me, too.” And I also like you, she couldn’t help but add silently.

Will leaned back against the counter. “So here’s what I propose. I finished the Cobra several months ago, and I’m ready to build a new car. I’m getting a Maserati kit, and I’d like Jeremy to help me with it, if that’s okay with you.”

Her mouth dropped open before she could stop it. “You mean a Birdcage Maserati? The one he’s been dying for?”

“That’s the one.”

“But you said they don’t make kits like that.”

He shrugged. “I found someone who can pull it all together for me.”

He made it sound so easy, but she knew it couldn’t be. “That must cost a fortune. I can’t let you spend that kind of money on my brother.”

“I don’t waste my money,” he told her, “but I do like knowing I have it to spend on things that are important to me. The fact that this kit car is important to Jeremy, too, makes it worth even more. I wanted to talk to you about it before I mentioned it to him, though.”

Harper knew how thrilled Jeremy was with this new friendship. Will was his first real male friend, not someone Harper had brought home. They didn’t just talk about cars, but sometimes veered off into other guy things, like sports and action movies. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d heard her brother invoke Will’s name over the last few days.

“Look, that’s very nice of you, but—” She put her mug down, stepped back, and forced herself to forget that she was talking to a powerful billionaire who was so sexy he made her knees weak. She needed to be totally honest right now. “My brother really likes you. And when you get tired of him, he’s going to be hurt.”

Will’s expression was unreadable as he repeated, “When I get tired of him?”

“Talking to him on Skype. Buying a car to work on together. That’s the kind of thing a father does. Or a brother. But you’re neither of those things. And I know there must be a thousand other important things that you could be doing instead of hanging out with him. So since I don’t understand your intentions, how can I not worry that he’ll end up hurt?”

Will set down the tiger mug and held her gaze. “First of all, when Jeremy wrote to me, his enthusiasm came through loud and clear on the page. His attitude is refreshing and like I said, I like him.” He moved in on her, one step, then two. “So where Jeremy is concerned, I don’t have any intentions except to build a car I believe he’d enjoy helping me with.” One more step, and he had her backed up against the breakfast bar.

“But with you?” He gently cupped her jaw, stroking it with his thumb, which left a trail of sparks in its wake. “I have a hell of a lot of intentions for you, Harper. So many you wouldn’t believe it. So many I’ve been going crazy giving you that time you said you needed after our first date.”


Tags: Bella Andre, Jennifer Skully The Maverick Billionaires Billionaire Romance