“Brilliant plan.” Christian strode to the jungle of plants and pulled Zoe out of her hiding place. “Hullo, beautiful. Going my way?”
The crowd went wild. Cameras flashed and cell phones recorded their every move.
“Tell me when it’s over,” she whispered, her arm slipping around him. Briefly. He mourned the loss of contact when it fell away, but when she turned right, he found another excuse to touch her.
“Let’s try this way instead.” Guiding her by the elbow, he led her in the opposite direction of the crowd. He still couldn’t believe she’d saved him. A woman like her didn’t exist in his world. Anyone else would have jumped at the chance to be linked with him, but she’d practically hidden from sight the entire time. Zoe hadn’t been up front, posing for the cameras and telling everyone her name. Although everyone would know by tomorrow.
He glanced over his shoulder. Security had stopped the crowd from following them.
“It’s safe, love,” Christian said.
She looked up at him, her lips curving into a smile. “Thank you. It was really sweet of you to defend me.”
“Actually, I should be the one saying thanks.” Although now that he thought about it, the entire incident with Mr. Fulner was rather convenient. He wouldn’t put it past his agent or his father to pay someone or someones to stage the entire thing. His gut told him that Zoe wasn’t in on it. She’d looked horrified that something so dreadful had happened.
Perhaps he would do a little digging of his own into tonight’s incident.
“Well, I didn’t think it was right for Mr. Fulner to look like the victim when clearly he wasn’t. You put him in his place and that kind of behavior should be rewarded, not treated like the next YouTube video gone viral. Besides, who doesn’t know a tree is a plant? It’s leafy and green,” she said.
“So’s the Jolly Green Giant.”
She laughed and he grinned at her.
“I like hearing you laugh.” For once his words weren’t an attempt to hook up with her. “You did that a lot at dinner. At one point I could’ve sworn you were beginning to actually like me.”
“Don’t remind me of that disaster. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peak wants to call the whole thing off. How’s your hand by the way?”
“I’ll live to see tomorrow,” he drawled, feeling slightly guilty. He hadn’t thought of that when he decided to cause a big scene. Okay, so he wasn’t the direct cause, but he had milked it, never considering Zoe’s reputation. “However, I was referring to Act One when you were in your element.”
She gave him a big smile. “You’re my hero.”
“Actually, I’m the villain.”
Her face turned pink and her eyes shifted away, staring at the corridor in front of them. “Is this the kind of the help you wanted?”
Stopping at the elevators, he pressed the button for ‘up’. “I want whatever you’re willing to give me.”
Chapter Six
“Press fifty-nine.” Zoe gestured to the rows of numbers Christian’s body blocked. There was no way she would reach around him. He was too close for comfort as it was. The adrenaline of their performance was quickly waning and cold reality was taking its place.
He hit the button with his elbow and moved to the opposite side of the elevator to lean against the mirrored wall. “You smell delicious, Zoe. Good enough to eat and I haven’t had any dessert… yet.”
Guess the whole talking to her like she was a real person, with goals other than hooking up with him, was over. “Pressure Play.”
“What?”
“I thought we talked about this?” She sighed at his blank look. “You just gave me a line from one of your movies.”
A small frown played on his perfect lips. “How in God’s name do you remember that?”
“It’s a pretty good line,” she admitted.
“And an erotic experience for any woman.”
“You are so full of it.”
“You could be instead.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. A man and woman stepped inside, sparing her from trying to think of a snappy comeback. The young couple looked at them, smiling from ear to ear.
“You two are so cute. Look at him staring at you. Another couple in love,” the ginger-haired woman gushed.
Zoe shifted from one foot to another. “Oh, we’re not together. He’s not—”
“But the way—”
“Don’t listen to her. She’s totally in love with me,” Christian said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Aren’t you, sweetheart?” He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close.
Zoe wanted to shoot him a dirty look, but the woman looked like a puppy that had just had its favorite treat taken away. “Totally,” she said through clenched teeth.
Clearly mollified, the woman smiled. “Aren’t they cute, sweetie?”
Sweetie beamed at his companion, kissing her softly on the cheek. “Almost as cute as you, Mrs. Andrews."
Mrs. Andrews threw her arms around her husband, leaning back in the cradle of his arms. “If you think I’m cute now, wait until we get back to our room, Mr. Andrews,” she purred before whispering in his ear, making his eyes widen.
Mr. Andrews looked at them. “What can I say? I’m a lucky man.”
“Congratulations,” Zoe said, mentally making a note of the Andrews. Quickie wedding in Vegas would be an excellent undercover storyline for her Katrina Steele series.
Christian echoed her sentiments, but his voice didn’t ring true to her ears. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but he was busy playing with his cell.
“Oh, Perry, just wait until our families hear about this. They won’t believe that we did it!”
“They won’t believe I met and married the love of my life after knowing you for only forty-eight hours?”
“Forty-eight hours and sixty seconds,” the really new Mrs. Andrews corrected before she passionately kissed her husband.
A few seconds later, the doors opened again and the now amorous couple got out without a second look at them.
“I give them six months.” Christian slid his phone into his pocket
“Until what?” She ducked out of his side embrace.
“Until they get a divorce.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him. “What a horrible thing to say. They could have a long and happy marriage for all you know.”
He crossed his arms and glared back. “After forty-eight hours of knowing each other? Not bloody likely.”
“I take it you don’t believe in love at first sight.”
“Hardly. My parents have known each other their entire lives and can’t stand to be in the same room for longer than five minutes.”
“Couples fight, but it’s how you make up that counts.”
“My mother lives in France with her lover while my father divides his time between London and St. Petersburg with his. They don’t plan on making up. Ever.”
“Oh, well,”—She nibbled on her bottom lip.—“Aren’t divorced people allowed to have significant others?”
His beautiful mouth lifted at the corner. “They’re still married.”
She gaped at him for a moment. No wonder he thought what he did. With parents like his, she might be of the same opinion. “That’s terrible.”
“Sorry, love, not everybody lives in Pleasantville or has the fairy tale marriage.”
“Well, I think it’s romantic that the Andrews could do something so life changing on a whim. Maybe you should try it.” She flung her arm out and watched in horror as her purse went sailing into his chest. “I’m so sorry; it slipped. I’m a bit of a klutz at times.”
The side of his mouth quirked as he held the beige Coach bag out to her. “I might have noticed that about you.”
“Sorry,” she said again, her cheeks heating.
He pushed away from the wall. “Anyway, who are you to lecture me about spontaneity? I bet you’ve never done a crazy thing in your life. Hell, you probably sit in church every Sunday in a pure white dress, thinking pure white thoughts while some dumbass of a boyfriend is too busy to notice the naughty lingerie you’re wearing underneath.”
His lashes lowered over his eyes, giving them a slumberous, sexy quality as he added, “And you do nothing about it.”
Had he hacked into her email account and read her messages to Melanie? His assessment of her relationship with her ex was so close to the truth that she wanted to throw her purse at him again. On purpose and at his head.
“I can be spontaneous,” she insisted.
“You need to let me spontaneously screw you.”
“Seriously?” She shoved a finger at his muscular chest.“You need to spontaneously combust.”
“Still not impressed,” he said, catching her hand with his large one. A thrill of heat emanated from where he touched her. “You can do better.”
“I spontaneously got in here with you, didn’t I?”
A smirk fit his lips as a teasing light entered his eyes. “Yeah, riding in an elevator with a man is so spontaneous. Someone alert Perez Hilton.”
“You... you.” She smacked her palm against her dress. Her purse fell to the floor with a thud, but she was beyond caring about something so trivial. “You are so irritating. You drive me insane with your cocky ego and dumb pick-up lines. You make me want to… to just… I want to…” This was her chance. She could tell him exactly what she thought of him. Tell him exactly what a pure asshat he was and let him fend for himself, no matter how nicely he asked her to help him.
He leaned over, lips parted in obvious invitation and she took a small step closer. He tugged her even closer. Heat from his body touched hers. Oh, God. All thoughts of telling him anything dissolved like sugar in hot tea.
“To what?”
She grabbed onto one of his wide shoulders and slammed her mouth against his, almost knocking him over with the ferocity of her kiss until they fell into a corner. He remained motionless at first, letting her kiss him. Then his mouth parted and his tongue teased her lips, and she couldn’t think of any reason why she hadn’t let him do this at the first opportunity.
He cupped her face, tenderly rubbing her jaw with his thumbs as he broke their kiss. “That wasn’t our first kiss.”
“No,” she said, wishing it had awakened him like Sleeping Beauty in gender reversal. Yet another reason why she had to be realistic about things. Fairy tales never came true. Happy endings never happened anywhere but in movies and books. At least not for her.
“Tell me where we met before.” His expression was intense.
She tried to wriggle out of his embrace. “Let go.”
“Oh, no you don’t, love.” He nuzzled her hair. “Please, I want to know.”
She licked her bottom lip, preparing to spill her guts, but something held her back. Mostly pride and embarrassment. “Does it really matter, Ian?” She had to put a wall back up. She had to remind herself of who he was to the world and to her.
“It’s Christian, and hell no.”
One minute she was standing and the next she was crushed against his chest as he gave her a pop-up foot kind of kiss. His mouth slanted over hers, teasing with his tongue, running it over her bottom lip until he could slide it inside again. She returned his kiss, her tongue rubbing against his and licking at the insides of his mouth. He tasted of passion and ecstasy all rolled into one.
Her body was on fire, desire shooting through every nerve ending. She couldn’t get close enough to him, his hard body. His scent, his taste intoxicating. Of their own volition her arms rose, her fingers finding their way to his hair. Tugging him closer.
He moaned into her mouth, rubbing his erection against her.
Too much, too fast, her brain warned, kicking into gear.
She tore her mouth away, laying her head on his chest. His heart beat at a pace that matched hers.
“Put your mouth back on me.”
“Where?”
“Christ—anywhere.”
Unable to help herself, she nipped at his bottom lip. “Here?”
“Yes.” He cupped her shoulders, then smoothed the material of her dress as his hands slid down her back.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on the balls of her feet to kiss the side of his neck. “What about here?”
“I want to be in you. Right here, right now.” Cool air hit her legs as she felt her dress being tugged up. His palm slid under them hem, brushing the inside of her thigh. “Are you willing to give me that?” Without waiting for an answer, his tongue teased her lips open and eased inside.
She allowed him to press her against the wall of the elevator, his hard, male body a foreign sensation that she wanted to experience. Only he wasn’t foreign to her, this situation was entirely familiar and she knew the consequences of giving into the temptation of him.
She made herself stop kissing him, made her arms go back to the place where they belonged, but she couldn’t contain the thrills of pleasure that continued to remind her of how good things could be between them. At least physically. “I can’t. We have to stop.”
His hands fell away, clenching into fists as he struggled for composure. She knew him that well, even if he still had no idea who she was.
Which made it all the more embarrassing.
Covering her face with her hands, she sought the solace of a corner. He caught her as she turned away, encircling her in his arms once more. “At least let me hold you, yes?”