| Intense and probing, his gaze seemed to ask for answers. Perhaps his proximity
did it to her. She didn’t feel stable with him near, as if she might say
or do something unbelievably dumb. She loathed feeling like an out-of-control
teen. She hadn’t stuttered in months until this man appeared on the scene
at SIA.
Instead of leaving, he came closer. When he towered over her, only a few inches
away, her breath caught and her pulse did a wicked dance in her veins. “Do
you need someone to walk you to your car?”
Taken by surprise, she spoke hastily. “Y-yes. I mean, no. Of course not.
Why would I?”
“I’m concerned about your safety. I don’t trust Tyler.”
Pleasure settled inside her and she looked away, a little flustered. “Thank
you for caring.”
He reached out and tilted her chin up. The heat in his fingers sparked and
danced over her skin. “You have a difficult time looking people in the eyes,
don’t you?”
His question took her completely off-guard. She couldn’t deny the truth
in what Ian said, even if she wanted. “Yes. I suppose people might think
I was hiding something.”
Ian released her chin, but he didn’t step away. “Are you?”
Only that I think you’re the most hunky guy I’ve ever seen,
and I’d like to know what it feels like to be with you intimately? To know
how your body would feel against me, deep inside me? Oh right. Like I can just
let that information spill out.
“I never think much about it. I guess I learned to be that way when I
was a child.” She laughed softly. “Most people can’t tell that
I’m not looking them in the eyes. I stare at their lips or their chin and
they don’t know the difference. How can you tell?”
His voice lowered the timbre—husky, raw, and caressing. “I can
read people very well, but I can’t read you. I think it’s just because
you won’t look me in the eye in particular.”
Pain rushed across her psyche. God, she wanted know him better. To be truly
understood by a man who appreciated her for what she was, for what she felt and
thought. Sex might be an intimate connection of two bodies, but she craved the
penetration of mind into mind, of feelings into feelings. True connection of souls
she knew must be out there for her somewhere…if only she knew where to find
it.
“But I have looked into your eyes.” She let the floodgates open,
eager to explain. “You just didn’t see it. I’m stealthy that
way. Besides, I pick up as much information about people intuitively. Body language
is great, but sometimes even that can deceive.”
Fascination colored his eyes deeper blue, the impact starting wildfire spirals
deep in her loins. “What do you see in my eyes?”
In my wildest dreams, I see desire. A passion to make love to me.
“Intelligence and a strong determination to run SIA in the best way possible.
Y-you want to make this new position work. You’re compassionate, emphatic,
and like you said, a keen observer.”
He smiled a little. “Thank you. Is that all you see?”
This time she didn’t do a hit-and-run when she gazed into his eyes. She
really looked, sinking into his penetrating stare. Warmth swept into her as his
eyes told her something she couldn’t believe.
She thought she saw hunger increase, build like a storm ready to burst free.
She couldn’t say that to her boss. It would be suicide. “N-no…I
can’t see anything else.”
A little ragged around the edges, his voice held urgency. “Then I guess
I’ll just have to show you.”
Before she could blink, he plunged one hand into the hair at the back of her
neck and drew her toward him until they touched. In reaction, her palms landed
on his chest. His smooth sweater covered hard, tensile muscle that shifted under
her tentative touch. Barely suppressed authority bunched and flexed, and she wanted
to test his rigid muscle against all her inches.
Before anything else registered, he moved in and his mouth touched hers. Exquisite
and gentle, he tasted and explored with a quick gesture that spelled fresh and
new excitement. Pleasure spiked through her veins in wildfire explosions. His
kiss came tentatively, as if he feared she might bolt.
She should run.
She should scram and never look back.
The head of SIA was kissing her.
Oh God.
How could she run when the man she’d fantasized about kissed the stuffing
out of her and the pleasure almost brought her to her knees?
Synna’s soft moan muffled against his lips as she responded mindlessly
to the raging sexual inferno building inside. He might have moved away if she
hadn’t clutched his waist, her fingers encountering his belt as she searched
for an anchor in the storm. Glorious sensations danced over her skin, popping
like embers from a fire. As his mouth moved over hers with ravishing need, she
felt dizzy and elated. Participating in the dance, she welcomed his kiss with
wanton abandon and heady exhilaration. The kiss turned wild, consuming its own
fuel, building like a fire overshadowing a tinder-dry forest. His mouth twisted
this way, then that, tasting, moving her blood in a wild rush.
She wanted his tongue in her mouth, wanted him taking that last step to claim
ownership.
Oh yes. This was the kiss she’d wanted, had waited for all her life.
Nothing had ever felt his good before.
Absolutely nothing.
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