Chapter Nine

After Alec’s rather loud exit, Lottie made several valiant attempts to concentrate on her book, but it was useless. Even when he wasn’t in the room, the air still seemed to hum with tension. As if the very atoms themselves restlessly awaited his return. Lottie finally tossed her book aside and turned down the lamp. Perhaps it hadn’t been very sporting of her to tease Alec about sharing the bed, but when she caught his heavy-lidded stare, a wave of heat had seared her from the inside out; his steady gaze pinned her even from across the room, until he blinked and turned positively missish.

She hadn’t really meant anything untoward by the suggestion—the bed was massive, and he had been covertly rubbing his shoulder all day. His scandalized reaction was all the more surprising, given how easily he had brushed off her ogling of his naked person only minutes before. Then when she alluded to their childhood sleep-out, Alec had blushed so furiously she thought steam would shoot from his ears. His clipped response was little more than a growl, but it sounded as if he was fighting against something.

And losing.

Lottie thought she’d buried her ridiculous romantic streak years ago back in London, but for a glimmering moment it had taken hold of her heart and whispered its seductive delusions once again:

He does want you. All this must have happened so you could finally be together.

Until Alec had practically catapulted from the room, leaving her alone with only her pitiful desires for company.

Lottie closed her eyes and tried to will herself to sleep, but instead her mind summoned the image of Alec’s bare chest dusted with dark hair still damp from the bathwater. She had never given much thought to something as ordinary as collarbones before, but now she longed to have another look at his.

No, that wasn’t right.

She didn’t want anything as innocent as a simple look. Lottie craved something deeper. Something darker. To drag her tongue along the length of each one with studied care, so she could savor the taste, the smell, the texture of his skin. She hadn’t ever wanted to do something so purely carnal before. Now she positively ached for it.

Lottie opened her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. This lingering uneasiness between them, as if something had been left unsolved, would drive her mad. That was why she loved puzzles. There was always an answer. But her and Alec…their jagged edges no longer seemed to match. And no matter how hard she mashed them together, they would never fit. At least, not in the way she had once wanted.

That is not the kind of life for a man with a family.