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  “Get in the car, Claire, or you’ll be cleaning up your own mess by morning. I’m not here to hurt. I’m here to help. What part am I not making clear?”

  He backed away by a steady step and then another. God, he was gorgeous.

  He was also right.

  More stupefied than ever, I finally relented. Before I climbed in with my purse, I let him stow my briefcase in the trunk.

  Silence stretched as the car moved into traffic again. That was just fabulous by me. I never communicated well when I was furious, and despite his attempt at playing gentleman on the street, anger percolated in my blood. I crossed my arms and looked out of the window, unable to fully pick apart the feeling. Was I more pissed at his high-handed move or that it had instantly turned me on?

  “You never should’ve—”

  “What the hell were you—?”

  We fired our attacks at the same time. Killian swept out a hand, palm up. “Ladies first.”

  Self-righteous bastard.

  “By all means,” I crooned, “after you. That’s what you’re used to, right?”

  He blew out a harsh breath. The gravel beneath his reply was just as stark. “Miss Montgomery, I’m so far out of familiar territory with you it scares the hell out of me.”

  I forced myself to peer out of the window again. His words were as beautiful and riveting as his face.

  I couldn’t fall prey to either.

  It had been less than an hour since my phone conversation with my dad. The pride in his voice still warmed my soul. How proud would he still be of a daughter he had to visit in jail once a month? And what would Killian do if he found out? Player or not—and the more I researched him, the more I was convinced of the latter—the man wouldn’t think twice about cutting ties to another potential scandal for his family.

  About cutting me.

  I twisted my arms again, battling the tightness in my throat, the exhaustion in my body, and the turmoil in my mind. I lost the skirmish. Everything piled up in one awful moment. Tears welled, traitorous and hot, threatening to spill down my cheeks. I gritted my teeth against the attack.

  I felt the padded leather dip as he slid closer, making me plaster myself to the wall of the car. His starched handkerchief came into my vision. I wordlessly accepted it.

  Embarrassment surged. If anyone on the street had caught my behavior on a cell phone, he and I would be all over the internet in fifteen minutes. Had I thought about that at all? Of course not. Because when this man zeroed all his attention on me, I couldn’t function beyond the depth of a Barney the Dinosaur special. “I’m— I’m sorry,” I stammered, “for the drama-queen antics. The ambush? Still not okay. But neither was my stab at Sarah Bernhardt’ing the reaction.” It killed me to finish. “If— if you want to release me from the team, it’s okay.”

  He took my hand in his. “No.”

  I dared a glance at him. “No?”

  “No, I’m not letting you go.” His grip tightened a little. If it was possible, his gaze darkened. “Because I’m just as sorry.”

  “Huh?”

  I raised my face to study him more intently. A smile tugged his lips. I stared harder. I’d never seen such a change in him before. It was as if a soft-focus filter had gotten thrown over our interaction. The whole effect made me woozy, without the pleasure of the wine beforehand. I would’ve felt cheated, except the new look transformed him, Mr. Darcy-style, from brooding and stunning into approachable…and remarkable.

  “Finally,” he murmured, “you’ll look at me.”

  My mouth remained open. “I’m trying to figure out why you’re apologizing.”

  He brought his other hand up so he could flatten mine, engulfing my fingers between his long, strong ones. Despite his confident hold, his smile descended into a subtle grimace. “You were right. About the nickname. Using it on you was out of line. You weren’t the only one working through a little tension out on the sidewalk.” He took a deep breath through my stunned silence. He’d been stressed back there too? “When Walter told me you’d been crying, all I could think about were those tears blurring your vision while you tried tromping down the street in those heels, and—”

  “I don’t tromp.”

  “But you did share that story about your mother with me. I treasured that night, Claire. Every moment of it. You trusted me with that information, with your secrets. I don’t take that kind of trust lightly.” His head dipped a little. “I sure as hell never meant to abuse it.”

  I had no idea what to say. How to react. My mystification became utter shock as he opened his grip, exposing my hand before lifting it to his mouth. As he touched his lips to my knuckles, I shivered beneath waves of both hot and cold. He lingered over my flesh, his plea for forgiveness turning into an urgent appeal for more.

  I yanked my hand back into my lap.

  Who was this guy, and what had he done with the controlling son of a bitch who normally occupied Killian Stone’s skin? My brow bunched. Black, white. On again, off again. Loki and then Thor. This game was worse than any I’d ever had to play with the media, the most capricious gang of double-talkers in the universe. I couldn’t do it anymore. Not with him. Not when my heart was the damn playing field.

  I was throwing in the towel. In this case, the handkerchief. I flung the white square while crawling forward to knock on the divider between us and the driver.

  “Please pull over and let me out,” I called.

  “Damn it, Claire. Stop!”

  “No, Killian. You stop.” My temper, in all its blazing Irish glory, was ready for this shit now. “What part of stop do you just not get?”

  His fist wadded into the handkerchief. He glared back with eyes that actually flashed at me, onyx ignited. “What the fuck are you—”

  “Exactly. You have no damn idea what I’m talking about, do you?” I crumpled to the floor of the car, my knees beneath me. “I want off your crazy ride, Stone.” My voice broke, and I didn’t care. “Please, please don’t tell me you’re lost about this, because you’re not. For the last three weeks, you’ve taken me to the strangest carnival of my life. Every day, sometimes every hour, is a different damn experience. Every time I turn a corner, I never know what to prepare for—and whether I’ll be racing to get in line for another spin or dashing to the trash barrel to barf my guts out.”

  His jaw tensed. The glints in his eyes got sharper. “And it’s all my fault?”

  “No,” I admitted. “It’s not all your fault. I’m the one tied into the big, screwy knot, after all.”

  “Why?”

  “You don’t see?” I answered his silent scowl by throwing up my hands. “You really don’t see how I have to bust my ass to prove myself on this team? That even though I was hired for my talent and not my dad, everyone now assumes I’ll free-skate because he’s engaged to the boss? And gee, get this—I’m this weirdo who thinks my dad should have happiness now, after sacrificing so much for his only daughter. I think that if he wants to be in love with Andrea Asher, Lord help him, that he should have that gift, even if it means I’ve got to work three times harder than everyone else.”

  “I do see that,” he stated.

  “All right, then listen to this. What I haven’t needed in this house of mirrors is the extra sugar high. Do you get that? I’m having enough trouble keeping my balance without the extra temptation of lust and fantasies, courtesy of the man at the top of the food chain. Thanks to you, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, backward or forward—”

  I interrupted myself with a huff as a wolfish smile spread across his face. What was the man up to now?

  “Lust?” he drawled. “And fantasies?”

  I dropped my head into my hands. “Why is this car still moving? Goddamnit, Killian, let me out, or I’ll call nine-one-one and tell them I’m being held against my will.”

  I yanked out my phone and swiped the screen.

  Killian pulled it from my grip and slipped it to the ledge behind his head.

&nbs
p; In its place, he gave me a perfectly chilled glass of chardonnay.

  I fought against the temptation by fuming harder. “This is not letting me out.”

  “Traffic is heavy. We can’t just pull over. Calm down and take a sip. Being this upset isn’t good for you—or me.”

  I hated waving goodbye to the kinder, gentler Killian, but at least I knew this arrogant bastard. “Thanks for the advice, Daddy.”

  He barely flinched. “You have a father, Claire. I’m not him.”

  Ahhh. No flinch because he saved all the bark for his voice. I’d earned the wrath this time, so I took a sip of wine as an olive branch. I recognized the flavor the moment it crossed my lips, but I didn’t want to let on. It was one of my favorite vintages from one of the wineries in Temecula. Did the man normally have the car stocked with Temecula wine, or was this a recent thing…as in the last three weeks?

  It was best I didn’t know that answer. It was really best I didn’t drink any more or let the vintage’s buttery warmth slide deeper through my veins. I wanted—needed—to stay pissed at him. Damn. Why did he do this to me? Press all my buttons at once?

  I reverted to habit. Closed my eyes and began counting backward from ten.

  “What are you doing?” Killian’s voice was soft.

  “Trying to calm down.”

  I kept counting. Four. Three. Two. One. When I opened my eyes, it was to see him shucking his Armani jacket before settling back in front of me.

  “Did it work?”

  “Did what work?” I snapped.

  “Are you calmed down?” A smile spread across his lips. Crap. It was that smile, the one Lucifer himself had taught the man. He loosened his tie, another move that screamed player, but my libido refused to see or hear all the warning signs. She was too busy harmonizing with the devil behind his smirk. Traitorous bitch.

  I set my wine back in the car’s holder and slammed my hands against both my thighs, trying to ignore that I was on my knees, on the floor of the Stone Global town car, at the feet of the company’s chiseled demigod of a CEO—and fighting to ignore the obsidian depths of his stare, alive with every sinful possibility for the situation.

  I clashed with myself, as well. Because my mind flared with all the same scenarios.

  “Damn it.” I balled my fists. “What the hell is going on here, Stone?”

  He stroked his chin with one graceful, beautiful finger. “That question’s only as complicated as you make it, Miss Montgomery.”

  His diplomacy smoothed me out a little more. I welcomed the chance to take a deep breath. “Okay. I think we need to put all our cards on the table.”

  “About what?”

  “You know what. This. Us. Whatever this all is or isn’t. I just want the truth so I can get off this Tilt-A-Whirl and stop making an ass out of myself on a daily basis.”

  He slipped that mesmerizing finger to his lips. “I agree.”

  I took another long breath. “Okay, good.”

  “Yes. Let’s get you off that Tilt-A-Whirl.” He didn’t move only his finger this time. He shifted his whole body, forward and down, until I found myself surrounded by him, bracketed by his arms, thighs pressed by his, breath mingling with his. Killian Stone was on his knees now, crouching over me like a panther who’d found prey. “Or perhaps,” he murmured, “I’ll just jump on with you.”

  So much for smoothing out. “Is that so?” I managed. “You may not like this ride, Stone. It’s rough. The safety belts break. You could fall. We could fall.”

  “We won’t fall.” His lips firmed and his jaw tautened, telling me he comprehended the allegory as deeply as I did. “I won’t let that happen.” I opened my mouth, hoping words of protest would come to it, only to be silenced by his fervent, perfect whisper. “Claire…sweet Claire.” He lifted a hand to my face, using that same long finger along my cheekbone. “You utterly fascinate me. You’re genuine and pure, funny and honest…and your layers intrigue me. All of them.”

  Through some miracle, I found enough breath for a reply. “A-All of them?”

  While nodding, he pressed his forehead to mine. “Fuck, yes.”

  “Wh-What do you mean?” Oh, his whispers. His strength. His scent. His desire. He flooded me in all of them, and I gladly gave into the drowning.

  “I want you. I’ve fantasized about having you. I’ve touched myself with the force of it. Is that what you want to hear? I’ve wrapped my fingers around my cock and pretended to be inside you instead. And when I came, it was your name on my lips.”

  “Oh.” It was nothing but a breath. It was all I could manage.

  “I want you in my bed, sweet Claire. I want to make love to you for hours on end, to feel your body wrapped around mine. I want to watch your face as you shatter beneath me, with my name on your lips too.”

  The car lurched forward again. Our heartbeats throbbed against each other. Our heavy breaths mingled.

  “Is that enough cards on the table for you?” No kiss came after it, despite how every cell in my body longed for the contact. I sensed Killian waiting for the right words from me, perhaps the right word, period.

  A simple yes.

  I couldn’t muster it. I was stunned silent. My senses whirled, processing what he’d said. My mind short circuited as I pushed up and grabbed for my wine again, battling the urge to toss it back like a tequila shot instead.

  The car slowed. I looked out of the window at the circular driveway of my hotel. Killian shifted away from me, also quiet. Within ten seconds, the air had transformed from thick and lusty to awkward and unsteady. I felt around for my phone, grateful when he reached back and then handed it over to me. Finally, I screwed together the courage to look up at him again, directly meeting his unblinking onyx gaze.

  “Aren’t you going to say something?” He could melt me with those eyes.

  “I—I don’t know what to say. I’m not sure I expected what you said. I think I’m a little overwhelmed.”

  He laughed. The sound was deep and oddly comforting. “Can I accept that as a good thing?”

  I tried to join him on the chuckle but couldn’t. He made everything sound so easy. So worldly. Sure, I’d traveled a lot of the world, but being a worldly person was really different. “I just don’t see how it all fits.”

  “And I’m not standing here with a glass slipper, Claire.”

  The driver stopped at the main lobby door, but Killian directed him to proceed to the hotel’s side entrance, where guests were dropped for formal events in the large ballroom beyond a pretty gold staircase. Fortunately, the entrance wasn’t being heavily used tonight. After what had just happened on the sidewalk, the last thing we needed was more lookie-loos with high-resolution camera phones—or Margaux and Andrea during their all-too-regular visit to the lobby bar. When the vehicle stopped, Killian gave me another soft smile. “Maybe sleep will help us both. Perhaps it’s simply time for good night.”

  When he exited the car with his trademark grace, I was plummeted into silence again. He was really going to take the chivalrous route. Killian extended his hand into the open door as proof, open-palmed and ready to help me out. His grip was strong and sure, pulling me into a night that had obtained a biting wind. I was suddenly glad I hadn’t walked all the way back—for a number of reasons.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He released my hand to brush a wild strand of hair behind my ear, though he burrowed his hand against my scalp for a few moments after that, locking it there. His stare pulled me in, dark and bottomless, black pools that entranced with a thousand textures at once. My heart lurched with the certainty that I was the substance of at least a few of them.

  “Okay,” I finally whispered. “Tomorrow.”

  Though I said it, I deliberately lingered until I visibly trembled.

  Killian bracketed my shoulders with his big hands and gently turned me. “Go,” he urged into my ear. “You’re shivering. I’ll wait until you’ve made it in.”

  “Who’s bossy now?”

&n
bsp; His chuckle followed me up to the door. Once there, I pivoted to see him leaning against the side of the town car, hands in his pockets, wind lifting his hair and plastering his shirt to his perfect V of a torso.

  He was the most breathtaking man I had ever seen. And he was standing there, waiting and watching—me. Then lifting a little wave at me, almost dorky and sweetly sincere…

  I returned the gesture, resisting the longing to run back and tackle him for that kiss my lips ached for. But it wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop at the kiss. The rest of my body already thrummed at a higher frequency of need. My chest warmed, my heart danced, and my pulse sprinted from all the words we’d just exchanged.

  He was right. He wasn’t offering a glass slipper, a bed in the castle, or a happily-ever-after. At best, this would be a clandestine carriage ride, filled with stunning vistas, new adventures, and thrilling speeds. But it was getting harder and harder to say no to the invitation.

  No one had to know. No one could know, especially Margaux and Andrea.

  It would have to be enough. It was enough.

  Because, God help me, I was falling hard for Killian Stone.

  Chapter 7

  Killian

  So this was what a kid felt like on Christmas morning.

  After kicking everyone’s ass at polo practice this morning, I quickly showered, shaved, slid some goop into my hair, and finger-combed it in the car on the way to the office, bypassing both the gym’s salon and shoeshine station. For the first time in a long time, I grinned as the SGC building came into view. The place no longer seemed my prison. It was a portal to possibilities.

  And the walls in which I’d see Claire again.

  Going after her last night had been a knee-jerk action, driven solely by visions of her being blown down the street and into the lake by the wind that had been predicted for last night. Silly California girl. Her idea of a weather front was a drop of three degrees and a balmy breeze from the desert. But who was I to call her shit on being silly? I’d chased after her like a desperate boy before slapping my cards on her table in a gamble that had nearly ended with us horizontal and naked on the town car floor. The move had been pure impulse, total idiocy.