after you?”
“I figured he’d find out soon enough and leave me alone.”
“But he didn’t?”
She shook her head. “Whenever we’re in the same room together, he watches me, and he smiles if our gazes meet”
And what a smile,
she thought privately,
enough to melt a woman’s bones,
so, of course it was hell on her reserve.
“And now you know he has kinky sexual preferences,” Erica pointed out with a sinner’s grin.
“Now I know,” Asia corrected, “that he has a healthy outlet Honest, all the documentation I read said that what one fantasizes isn’t generally what one wants in a real-life situation, which is why it’s strictly a fantasy. Fantasies are safe. They are not, however, something we’d ever really try or even want to try.”
“I used to think about getting stranded on a desert island with three hunks,” Erica mused aloud. “None of us had clothes.”
Asia and Becky snickered.
“But granted, I like modern luxuries too much to want to rough it just for male attention. Besides, I imagine one day on an island is all it’d take for me to start looking pretty haggard. No lotion, no scented shampoo, no blow dryer …”
“No birth control,” Becky pointed out
“And three men fighting for my body? That could get ugly.”
“Maybe they’d just share,” Asia suggested.
Erica shivered. To tell you the truth, it’s fine as a fantasy, but the idea of three naked sweaty guysbumping up against one another with me in the middle just sort of ruins the fantasy of them being there for
me.”
They were all still chuckling when suddenly Cameron approached. He had his hands in his pants pockets, a crooked smile on his handsome face.
He looked at each woman in turn. “Afternoon, ladies.”
Agog, Becky wiggled her fingertips in a halfhearted wave.
Erica lounged back in her seat and grinned. “Mr. O’Reilly.”
“Cameron, please.” Then to Asia, “I’m sorry to interrupt your break, but could I speak to you for just a moment?”
Asia felt dumbstruck. She glanced at her friends, who made very differing faces at her, then nodded. “Uh, sure.”
“In private.” He gently took her arm and headed to the back of the lounge, to the large storage closet. Asia almost stalled.
A closet?
She felt workers looking up in casual interest; she felt Erica and Becky staring hard enough to burn a hole into her back.
She felt excitement roil inside her.
As if inviting her into a formal parlor instead of a closet, Cameron gallantly opened the door and gestured her inside.
She only hesitated a moment. He closed the door, leaving them in near darkness. One narrow window over the door let in the lounge’s faded fluorescent light. Shadows were everywhere, from boxes and brooms and supplies. Asia backed up to a wall, a little apprehensive, a lot eager, and waited.
He tipped his head at her, frowning slightly. “I wanted to ask you something.”
Oh no. No, no, no!
He knew she’d called last night! He’d ask her about it, want to know why, and what the heck could she possibly tell him—
“Would you mind too much if I jumped the gun a little here and … kissed you?”
Asia froze, her thoughts suspended, her panic redirected, her heart skipping a beat.
“I know, I know.” He rubbed the back of his neck, agitated. “The thing is, I can’t stop thinking about it—or you—and I doubt I’ll get any work done today if I don’t.” He looked at her, and his voice lowered. “You see, I’m going nuts wanting to taste you.”
Taste her? It was like a dream, Asia thought, far removed from reality. Never had she expected any guy to say such a thing to her.
Asia collected her wayward thoughts and replied stupidly, “You are?”
He gave a slow, considering nod, took a step closer. “Would you mind?”
“Uh …” She looked around. They had privacy here in the dim closet, never mind that a crowd of people was right outside the door, oblivious to his request.
Even in the shadows, she could see
Janwillem van de Wetering