“You don’t need to yell,” she said. “You have that voice...” She shuddered.
“Like it ever got to you,” he said. “You never listened to me, anyway.” She had never heeded any of his threats to stay away from his sister, which indicated that maybe it was time he changed his tactics with her.
“So why would you bother coming here?” she asked. “When I have no reason to listen to you now...” The way her voice trailed off suggested she wasn’t entirely confident of that, though.
Was she up to something?
She lifted her chin and squared her slender shoulders. “Blair isn’t in any trouble. In fact, she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
“I agree,” Grant said. And he damn well intended to make sure his sister stayed that happy. But the only relationship Blair had ever maintained was her friendship with Miranda, which Grant suspected had cost her all the other relationships she would have had if not for her best friend’s interference.
“So you have no reason for coming here,” Miranda said, and she glanced down at the delicate gold watch on her wrist, as if implying he’d already taken up too much of her time.
“Don’t you think that gives me every reason to come here?” he asked.
Her lips, with that tantalizing shimmer, curved into a slight smile, and she walked around her desk to lean against the front of it, her shapely bare legs crossed at the ankle. “Oh, are you here to apologize for the hard time you’ve always given me? Are you finally going to admit that you were wrong about me?”
With her standing this close to him, he was the one having the hard time—controlling the sudden surge of attraction pulsating inside him and his damn traitorous cock. How could he be attracted to a troublemaker like her?
Easily.
Grant had always been drawn to the greatest danger, to the biggest risk...
But unlike with the other risks he’d taken, he doubted there would be any reward with her. Only heartache, like all the hearts she’d broken as a teenager.
But still, he couldn’t resist...
He straightened away from the door, which brought him closer to her, so close that he could feel the heat of her slight body. And his began to tingle with awareness.
“Oh, I wasn’t wrong,” he said, and he leaned over more as if there was some cable between them pulling him closer. “Not about you. You’re definitely trouble.”
She uttered a soft sigh, her breath touching his mouth—making him want those shimmery lips to touch his instead. All he had to do was lean a little farther.
But she reached out and pressed her palm against his chest as if to hold him back, as if she’d read his mind and knew how damn badly he wanted to kiss her.
His chest tingled where her hand touched him, where his heart pounded harder with the attraction and desire coursing through his body.
Did she feel it, too?
“And you’re still more trouble than I ever was,” she informed him. “If all you’ve come here to do is call me names again, you can leave.” She used her free hand to point at the door.
She definitely wasn’t going to listen to him any more than she had when she was a teenager. But Grant had always been good at improvising when the original plan for a mission had failed. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have survived.
“Have you considered that I might have another reason for being here?”
She narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Really? What? You had a crush on me all those years ago, and you’re seeking me out now because of your unrequited love?”
He tried to suppress the chuckle that bubbled up the back of his throat, but it slipped out before he could control it. Kind of like his attraction to her...
But that was new. He’d never been attracted to her before. Even though he was only a few years older than her and his sister, he’d always felt much older—too old to have ever looked at her the way he was looking at her now.
She arched a brow. “What? No unrequited love?”
“What about you?” he asked. He was well aware that some of his sister’s friends had had crushes on him. But Miranda hadn’t giggled and flirted with him like those girls, like her very own sister just had. No. She’d only ever glared at him, like she was glaring now.
And she laughed. But it sounded more forced than his had been. Of course, she’d never found him funny before. Why would she now?
A weary-sounding sigh followed her laugh, and again her breath brushed across his skin with the faint scent of cinnamon. He loved cinnamon.
“I really don’t have time for your games,” she said with another pointed glance at her gold watch. “Why are you here, Grant?”
He couldn’t tell the truth—not now—not when she was already so irritated with his visit. She would probably coerce Blair into doing something stupid just to spite him—like he suspected she’d done when they were younger.
“I want to join your dating service, of course,” he said, as if it was obvious.
She laughed again, and this time it didn’t sound forced at all.
“Why is that funny?” he asked. “Blair had such success that, of course, I would be interested in—”
“Are you looking for a billionaire?” she asked, interrupting him. Then shaking her head, she added with pity, “What? Have you gambled away all your money?”
A curse burned the back of his throat, but unlike the chuckle, he was able to suppress it. He grinned instead. “Quite the opposite, in fact. I would make a great catch.”
She laughed again—even harder than she just had, so hard that her beautiful eyes crinkled and a dimple pierced one cheek.
His breath caught, probably on the curse he’d choked back, over her beauty. She was stunning and, unfortunately, almost as damn aggravating as she had always been. He leaned back against the door so that her hand finally fell away from his chest.
She glanced down at it as if she hadn’t realized it was still there.
Obviously touching him hadn’t had her tingling with awareness like it had him. He crossed his arms so that he didn’t reach for her, so that he didn’t try to make her feel the attraction, too.
Could he...
Was that the new tactic he should take? Making her want him?
Damn, the challenge was just too tempting. She was just too tempting...
“Why do you think I’m not a good catch?” he asked.
She drew in a breath, as if she needed it to stem the laughter. “I didn’t actually say that.”
“Clearly, you think it.”
“Come on, Grant, what are you up to?” she asked. “You don’t want to join a dating service. You’ve never wanted anyone to actually catch you.”
She and Blair were apparently even closer than he’d feared. Counting on his ability to bluff, he replied, “I’ve never said that.”
Not like she and his sister had...
Unlike Blair’s other little friends, who’d put pillowcases on their heads and pretended to be brides, Miranda and his sister had done anything but—swearing that they would never marry. That was why he was certain she was going to mess up Blair’s new relationship.
“You’ve always showed it,” Miranda said, “like when you left your prom date alone on the dance floor while you played poker with the chaperones in the janitor’s closet.”
A grin tugged at his mouth with the memory. “I won, too,” he said.
“She didn’t,” Miranda murmured. “And neither would any of the members you might date if I were to let you join Liaisons International.”
“You’re serious?” he asked. “You won’t let me join your matchmaking service?” He’d had no intention of joining it...until she’d told him he couldn’t. That was usually what made him want something—being told he couldn’t have it.
Like her...
She hadn’t told him h
e couldn’t have her, but the way she reacted—or didn’t react—to him said it for her. He would never try to coerce or force a woman into being with him if she didn’t want to.
But Grant had never actually had the experience of wanting a woman who hadn’t wanted him.
Miranda Fox was a novelty in every way—always had been. She posed a challenge he’d never faced before. Could he make her fall for him?
Copyright © 2020 by Lisa Childs
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ISBN-13: 9780369702333
Masquerade
Copyright © 2020 by Cara Lockwood
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Masquerade Page 17