Part 12 (1/2)

”Same thing.”

”Maybe.”

”Where are we sleeping tonight?”

He arched one dark eyebrow. ”We?”

”We.” She stepped in close. ”I have an apology to make,” she reminded him.

She was standing so close, Jonas could feel the heat of her body, and smell her perfume, that heady mix of flowers, lemons, and hot, desirable woman. ”I keep an apartment in London,” he admitted. ”For the nights I need to stay in town.”

Lily tilted her head. ”Alone?”

Jonas scowled. ”Now why would you be interested in knowing that?”

Possibly because Lily had admitted to herself she was already halfway in love with him, and the thought of Jonas with any other woman tied her stomach up in knots.

It was so not the time for this, and Jonas was probably the last man she should fall in love with, but... Their time together earlier today had been a revelation.

Beneath that calm, unemotional exterior, she now knew Jonas was a man of deep pa.s.sions. Desire. Want. Need. Overwhelming intensity. He had shown her all those emotions in his lovemaking earlier.

Lily had not only felt owned this morning, but also cherished, appreciated. She doubted Jonas was even aware it. But she was, so how could she help but fall in love with him?

A love she would do well to keep to herself if she didn't want Jonas to start running in the opposite direction.

She had watched her brothers with women the past ten years, seen them enjoying the chase and as quickly losing interest once they had captured and bedded their quarry. And G.o.d forbid those women should ever fall in love with any of them. That was a sure way to end the relations.h.i.+p.

Jonas was too much like them not to react in the same way.

That likeness to her brothers was not only ironic, it was probably also fate's idea of a joke. She had spent years trying to get away from her overprotective brothers, only to fall in love with a man who was exactly like them.

Fate or not, she knew better than to give Jonas even a hint of her feelings for him. ”I suppose we can always change the sheets,” she said dismissively.

His jaw tightened. ”I don't take women to Larchwood Forest or my apartment.”

Lily gave no outward sign of her inner elation at the admission. ”Then where do you take them?” she teased.

He shrugged. ”A hotel. Their apartment.”

”Ah.” She gave a knowing nod. ”It avoids that 'when the h.e.l.l is she going to leave' the morning after.”

”You've spent too much time around your brothers.”

She smiled ruefully. ”Be afraid, Jonas. Be very afraid.”

Jonas was afraid. Not of Lily per se, but of who and what she was becoming to him. The one woman who was capable of getting past his emotional barriers and burrowing deep beneath his skin.

Chapter 10.

Jonas's apartment was absolutely nothing like the house he had built for himself in Larchwood Forest. Instead, it was obviously exactly what he had said it was, somewhere for him to sleep on the nights he had to stay in London.

Lily hated it on sight.

The kitchen was so pristine, she would be surprised if Jonas had ever brewed so much as a cup of coffee in there. The completely white bathroom was also characterless. There were none of Jonas's paintings on the walls, and the sitting room and bedroom had only the bare minimum of furniture.

The bedroom.

Because there was only one bedroom, dominated by the huge king-size bed necessary to accommodate Jonas's height and breadth.

”Sure you don't want me to take you back to Gabriel's house?”

Lily turned from looking at that bed and the images in her head of her and Jonas beneath the bedclothes together. ”Absolutely.”

”Your choice.” Jonas dropped the keys to the SUV in a bowl on the breakfast bar then stepped into the kitchen area to look inside the fridge, as if her answer was of little importance to him.

And maybe it was.

She and Jonas had been thrust together through circ.u.mstances rather than choice. She doubted Jonas would have given an actress a second glance otherwise. But as he had...

Lily followed him into the kitchen before putting her arms about his waist and resting her cheek against his back. Jonas tensed, and then as quickly relaxed as one of his hands moved to encompa.s.s both of hers as they rested on his abdomen. ”I don't want to go to Gabriel's, but can we please go to my apartment?”

”Why?”

”Because I don't like it here.” Her voice was husky. ”There's nothing of you here, Jonas. It's cold and impersonal.”

”I'm cold and impersonal.”

”Oh puh-lease,” Lily dismissed impatiently. ”That isn't going to fly anymore. Not after this morning.” Jonas had been anything but cold and impersonal during his lovemaking. He had been demanding, claiming her totally, time after time without respite. As for the things he said to her in the heat of that lovemaking... Lily felt a warmth in her cheeks every time she thought about them.

”You know exactly what I mean.” He sighed. ”Earlier today was-”

”Exceptional? Mind-blowing?” Perfect. Amazing. Unforgettable.

Lily really wished she could see Jonas's face and somehow gauge what he was thinking or feeling. But he kept a tight hold on her hands to prevent her from moving to face him.

”Yes,” he acknowledged tersely. ”But,” he continued firmly before she could answer him, ”it can't happen again. Not like that.”

”Why the h.e.l.l not?” Lily was too irritated to even attempt to conceal it. ”That isn't what you implied at Gabriel's earlier.”

”I was defusing an explosive situation-”

”So you lied?” Lily pulled her hands out of his grasp before stepping back, the pain in her heart far outweighing the wrenching of her wrists.

Jonas spun round. ”I didn't lie-”

”You exaggerated the truth,” she said scornfully. ”It's okay, Jonas, I get it.” She held up her hand to stop him as he would have moved toward her. ”I was just another one-night stand to you. A diversion to pa.s.s the time away during a snowstorm.”