between the two of them, and she was prepared to see this through.
'Why not? I'm just being honest, and I think last night proved that we'd be great together.' Despite her outward bravado, inside her nerves were jumping. Never had she been so open and frank with a man before, but she had to admit it was a wonderful, liberating feeling. 'With you, I feel desire and passion and lust. And that's more than I've ever had with either Brian or Jason. And I'd like to think that I aroused you a little bit, too.'
'Yeah, a little bit,' he replied, a sarcastic edge to his voice. 'That's why I'm sitting across from you with a goddamn hard-on straining the front of my jeans. Because just thinking of how responsive you are when I kiss you or touch you makes me want to pull you across this table and have my way with you right here and now.'
A potent thrill shot through her, searing a path straight down to her stomach. 'If we weren't on a time constraint, I'd let you,' she said, her voice taking on a low, husky quality.
He cursed heatedly and abruptly stood up. 'You just don't get it, do you, Christine?'
Calmly, she stared up at him. 'No, I guess I don't.'
'Then let me explain things in a way that you'll better understand. Yeah, I'm attracted to you. I can't deny that.' Placing his palms flat on the table, he leaned toward her, his eyes blazing with intimidation. 'And yeah, I'd like to fuck you every way imaginable that would make your traditional missionary position look tame in comparison. But your father hired me to protect you, not to have sex with you.'
He was trying to make her back off, but she was so done being the kind of good girl who in the past would have dropped the subject and retreated. Hell, a year ago she never would have been bold enough to discuss sex and orgasms with a guy. But most important, she was done doing what everyone else wanted or expected her to do.
'My father has nothing to do with my attraction to you,' she said easily. 'I'm a big girl and if I want to indulge in an affair, that's none of my father's, or anybody else's business.'
He didn't look one bit convinced. 'When the guy you want to have the affair with is me, your security agent, it complicates everything. And because of that, I don't ever mix business and pleasure.'
'You did last night,' she pointed out oh-so-sweetly.
He didn't seem to appreciate the reminder. He straightened from the table, but he didn't say a word or move from where he was standing.
Pushing her own chair back, she picked up her plate and the empty glass of iced tea, and carried both to the sink. Then she turned around to face her bodyguard again.
'Look. Ben. I understand that you have a job to do, and I'm not asking you to compromise my safety in any way. Out in public, you can do what you need to do to ensure I'm protected, but here, in my house, there is no threat and I couldn't be more secure with an alarm system on at all times.'
She strolled toward him, and he watched her approach through narrowed eyes. 'With that said, why can't we enjoy each other like we did last night?'
Again, no reply, but that didn't dissuade her in the least. He hadn't flat out refused her, and if anything, his silence gave her hope that he was actually considering her proposal.
She came to a stop just a few feet away from him. 'I'm not asking for any kind of commitment,' she said, just in case that fear was running through his head. 'I've had enough of that for a while and I want to enjoy my freedom and independence before getting serious with anyone again.'
'So, all you want is sex,' he said, his bland tone belying the heat flickering in his gaze. 'No strings attached.'
'Not just sex. Good sex.
For all her daring, determination, and no-nonsense approach to an affair with Ben, she already knew it wouldn't be so easy to let him go in the end. This was a man who didn't try to be something he wasn't, and accepted her for who she was, as well. That in itself was a novelty for her when it came to the men she dated. He was charming when he wanted to be, and he made her feel alive and sexy and desirable, too. And if a few weeks was all they had with one another, she wanted to make the most of their time together, to take everything he was willing to give.
The rules she'd just laid out between them had been all for Ben. To make it easy on him when the affair was over, so he could walk away without worrying about any expectations or pressures from her. She already knew by previous conversations they'd had, combined with the compact way he lived his life, that he wasn't a man looking to settle down with any one woman anytime soon. She supposed losing the woman you loved and adored in a country torn apart by war had a way of making a person more averse to emotional attachments-and more disposed to a single, solitary lifestyle.
'You're awfully quiet.' She could only imagine what was going through that head of his, and knew there was nothing left to do but ask him one last question. The most important one of them all. 'So, are you interested in a short-term affair?'
His jaw worked back and forth, and just when she thought he was going to give her an unequivocal no, he instead shocked her with his answer.
'I'll think about it,' he said.
She realized that he was attempting to placate her with an answer that wasn't really an answer, but at least he hadn't flat out refused her, and that's all she cared about right now. Sure, she'd give him time to think about it, and then she was going to take matters into her own hands.
Starting tonight after the charity ball.
Chapter Eight
He'd told Christine he'd think about it, and he hadn't lied. For the rest of the afternoon that question buzzed through Ben's mind like the greatest of temptations, seducing his body and senses with a dozen different erotic scenarios. At the most inappropriate times he thought about what it would be like to
On the drive over to the St. Claire Hotel to set up for the charity's silent auction, she kept up a steady stream of conversation, but instead of hearing what she had to say all he could do was watch her mouth move and remember how soft and sweet her lips tasted beneath his-and how badly he wanted to kiss her again.
Deeply.
Hungrily.
Greedily.
They arrived at the hotel, and since he refused to let her out of his sight she cheerfully put him to work setting up tables for the auction items while she and Madison draped them elegantly in panels of beige silk fabric. Christine leaned across the table to smooth out wrinkles in the material before pinning it in place, and her blouse pulled tight across her chest, outlining her perfect breasts and teasing him with a glimpse of those hard nipples he'd plied with his thumb and sampled with his tongue.
She'd bend down to pick something up, and her heart-shaped ass had him fantasizing about one of his favorite sexual positions.
She purposefully flirted and teased and sent him covert glances that kept him keenly aware of her all day long, and made him want her with each seductive smile and throaty laugh she sent his way. He'd spent their hours together in a stranglehold of desire, lust, and yearning for all the things Christine had offered him with one simple question:
After their work in the ballroom was done and the auction items displayed, they went back to Christine's place to take showers and get ready for the evening ahead. Standing beneath the hot spray of water and feeling the sleek caress of water and soap sluicing down his naked frame, it was Christine's hands he imagined were stroking across
