‘Do you want to be included in the video?’ I asked.
She remained silent for several seconds, then shook her head. ‘I’ll let the environment speak for itself.’
I throttled back my surprise. She’d just passed up the perfect opportunity to get in front of the camera. A camera manned by me. According to my agent, her PM hadn’t shied away from tossing his boss’s name into their phone conversations at every opportunity in an attempt to sway me. While I knew now he’d bent the truth to suit his purposes, I also knew most people wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to be photographed by Jensen Scott.
I came within a whisker of being impressed before I reminded myself this was just the beginning. Women like Graciela Mortimer wouldn’t overplay their hand with over-eagerness. If anything, she’d expect me to talk her into it.
She’d be waiting a long time for that. I ignored her, shooting a three-minute video in sharp focus, the white landscape capturing the stark story.
‘Are you ready to go?’ I asked once the echoes had receded and the equipment was packed away.
She nodded. ‘Where to next?’ she asked briskly.
‘Depends. Do you want to show all the gloom or is your piece aimed towards reminding people of the glory too?’
‘The aim is for more shock than awe but I’d like to use the time efficiently. So whatever’s closest.’
‘How about we kill two birds with one stone, so to speak?’
‘As figures of speech go, I wouldn’t have reached for that one. And for some reason I think you wouldn’t have either. Now I’m totally convinced you’re trying to get a rise out of me, Mr Scott.’
I was, and a small part of me cringed at the pettiness. ‘It’s Jensen.’
Again, one corner of her mouth tilted, drawing my gaze to the overfull lower lip. Its juicy plumpness and far too lickable curve. Almost in slow, torturous motion, a perfect picture slid into my brain of those lips wrapped around my cock, drawing sweet torment with every suck. I didn’t have a single doubt that Graciela would know just how to suck me off. She was far too confident in her femininity not to be an expert in all things coitus.
‘Is it?’ she taunted in answer to my offer.
I might have been attempting to rile her, but she was having a ball reciprocating.
‘Is there a reason you refuse to use my first name?’
‘I think we both know why.’
Why the hell was this friction turning me on? This wasn’t the type of interaction that got me off. ‘Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot—’
‘No. I think we got off on the exact right foot. I remind you of the baggage you’re attempting to shed by running off and hiding in the icy wilderness next to the Arctic Circle, and you don’t like it.’
Anger fired up inside me, even while I was thrown by her near-accuracy. ‘I’m not running anywhere,’ I bit out.
‘Aren’t you? Sorry, my bad.’
I snapped the tarp over the equipment with more force than necessary. ‘You don’t sound sorry at all.’
She shrugged. ‘I’ll work on my sincerity while we head for wherever you’re taking me next. Shall we?’
We stared each other down, with the friction and tension increasing with every moment that ticked by.
I’d had enough of that with Stephanie, each moment with her spent on the uncertain edge of judging a mood that could veer from icy indifference to volcanic.
Walk away.
The faster I completed this assignment, the quicker I could be rid of Graciela and the unsettling emotions she evoked.
Slowly, as if she’d read my intentions, her expression changed to one of steady assessment tinged with boredom.
Absurdly, that only riled me further, the need to ruffle feathers she’d effectively smoothed with a dismissive thought firing through me.
‘You get a kick out of being contrary?’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe. Or perhaps you simply don’t like the truth pointed out to you. Either way, we can still talk while we...sled. Is that what you call it?’ She gestured at the animals.
‘You know exactly what it’s called,’ I replied, noting absently that my heart was beating faster, my senses more fired up than they had been in weeks. ‘Pretending you’re less intelligent than you actually are may be a turn-on for other men. Not me.’
‘And you think that’s what I’m trying to achieve here? To turn you on?’
God, the way she said that, with the exact cadence engineered to stroke my cock. Did she practise it to get that perfect degree of hotness and craving?
I had a feeling she knew the exact effect she and her voice were having on me.
‘I don’t think you utter a single word or make a move without calculating the exact effect you wish to achieve.’
Like a switch her expression grew icy, her eyes dimming to a dull brown before she blinked and cast a disdainful glance at a spot over my shoulder.
I’d struck a nerve. For a moment I wanted to take back my words, but then I wanted to know just what I’d done. To explore that nerve, get to know it better. So I might know this woman better?
She’s only here for another day. You don’t move in the same circles so if you don’t want to, you won’t need to see her ever again.
That thought...dissatisfied. I wanted to know Graciela. If for nothing else, to satisfy myself that my instincts weren’t wrong about her. That my craving was misplaced. That she was another wannabe, unworthy of the name...
Dominant.
My senses jumped. Harder than before, my gaze falling once more to those biteable lips. To her clothes and what lay beneath. To how it would feel to receive her command to unwrap her, lay my hands on her bare skin, feel her silky pulse jump beneath my touch. Hear her voice hitch with arousal as she revelled in controlling my every desire.
Even if
