The minute the door closed she dropped her bag and sagged against her door, her traitorous body still pulsing. Josh’s attempts at flirting put her on edge. Normally, she could have just brushed it off, especially if it had been a brash CEO type, but there was something endearing in the way he did it that had swept clear under her normal guy-dar. And cleaned up with his new haircut and contacts, he was actually really good-looking, and wealthy, and interesting. Caroline stopped herself mid-thought.
Get a grip! He’s interested in pursuing someone else. I want him to suffer. I can’t let Connor down. Josh is a client. There’s a line.
And she wasn’t about to cross that line, not with her entire plan at stake.
Caroline justified her decision to go to his room in two ways. First, because she was absolutely starving; and second, it wasn’t as if they were really having dinner together. This was pizza, he was a client, and they were both hungry.
Thirty minutes later a delivery car drove up to the hotel, and a few minutes later she heard the knock at Josh’s door. She waited until the delivery guy drove off before crossing the hall. Josh had conveniently left the door ajar and she strolled in, braced for just about anything.
The room, like hers, was large, with a compact seating arrangement of two chairs and a mini-table in the bay window, a small kitchenette with a couple of barstools, a bathroom, and a king-size bed.
She was only too happy to move away from the bed to where Josh waited for her in the kitchenette. He’d dug out plates and silverware and a pile of paper napkins. “Hey,” he said, his voice husky. He opened the large box, and hot, steamy pizza smell filled the room. Her stomach growled in response.
“Hey back. That smells so good. I’m starving. Where did the wine come from?” She indicated the uncorked bottle and two wineglasses nearby.
“Hotel was very accommodating. Ready for a glass?”
“Sure.” One glass was her limit. Plus, she had to keep her wits about her with Josh. Caroline dug a slice of hot pizza out of the box, the cheese pulling away in long white strings. She took a bite and groaned at the delicious combination of soft crust, spicy sausage and pepperoni, rich tomato sauce, olives, green peppers, mushrooms, and caramelized onions.
He put another piece on a paper plate. “This is my favorite kind of pizza. Good, huh?”
Caroline nodded, her mouth already watering as she took another bite.
“Wanna stand here or sit?” Pizza sauce smudged the corner of his mouth. The temptation to lick it off made Caroline take a step back.
She sat on one of the two barstools at the countertop and nudged the other toward him. “Here, have a seat.”
He took the barstool beside her. They sat, just eating companionably for a moment, then Josh turned that vibrant blue stare of his on her. “If you could be anything, what would you be?”
Her slice of pizza stopped midway to her mouth. “You mean like a movie star or billionaire?”
He shook his head. “No, anything, like a unicorn or a star.” He stared at her, intently, then frowned. “You didn’t get much of a childhood, did you?”
The comment struck deep, far deeper than she liked. No one had ever taken the time to peer into her like that before. And if she didn’t get the rest of her teenage experience she should have, she could lay the blame squarely at his feet.
She took a bite and chewed, giving her a polite reason to take time to think before she responded. In her experience, most people accepted what they saw at face value and never bothered looking further. “Wow. Um, that’s rather personal.”
He leaned in closer. She could smell the sandalwood and citrus notes of the cologne she’d suggested he wear. It made him smell…kissable.
“I let you pick out my underwear.” He cracked a sexy smile, then broke the spell he was weaving over her by waggling his eyebrows.
Her discomfort evaporated as she snorted, then broke out laughing. “Yeah, clearly not many women have bought you underwear. But we aren’t going to trade childhood horror stories. I’m your image consultant and nothing more.”
“But you could be.”
“Could be what?” The words came out barely a breath over her tongue and teeth.
“More.” He placed his hand on the small of her back.
“Don’t ruin your progress by flirting with me.”
“Who says I’m ruining anything?”
“I do. That’s my job, to be objective for you when you can’t be because you’re too close to the problem.”
“You’re hardly a problem. More like a fantastic distraction.”
She set her plate down on the counter. “You can’t afford to get distracted right now,” she said sternly.
He pulled back, twisting first one way and then another on his barstool. “I see. So you won’t go on a date with me?”
“Date? Nope. I have a firm rule about not dating clients.”
He flung his paper napkin down on the counter. “Then at least play a game with me, truth or dare.”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you never even did that?”
“I don’t think that’s a good—”
“Oh, come on, you at least owe me a game. One game, Caroline. What can it hurt?”
Plenty. Her reputation. Her company. Her plan. Hell, it had massively stupid decision written all over it, but her heart wasn’t interested in reading the fine print.
“Fine. One game. First to buckle wins.”
He grinned. “So you have played before.”
“Maybe.”
“What does the champion win?”
“Winner’s choice.”
His smile dialed up a thousand watts. “You go first.”
“Fine. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
Perfect. She’d been hoping for a chance to dig a little deeper and find out precisely what made him tick. “Why do you hate crowds so much?”
He winced. “Wow. You go right for the jugular, don’t you?”
Caroline shrugged. “You picked it. Now fess up.” She picked up the glass of wine he had poured for her earlier, which he’d somehow refilled without her noticing, and took a sip, letting the crisp, slightly sweet flavor spiked with pear and plum slide over her tongue.
Josh’s fingers gripped the edges of his barstool’s seat so hard the tips turned white. His Adam’s apple bounced convulsively as he swallowed hard. All cues pointed to something that really ate at him gut-deep.
“I got kidnapped once when I was a kid. Four years old.”
“Kidnapped?” She set her glass down and stared intently at him.
“My parents took me to an art festival. I was obsessed with this one booth that had musical instruments we could play and a box of costumes we could dress in. There were wizard hats and big ears, boxing gloves and bright satin knight clothing. My mother let me play there for the longest time, and I didn’t want to leave. But my father was impatient to watch something that was going to be starting in another part of the park. My mother dragged me away. We stopped partway to the other event at a booth to get something to eat, and while my mother bought a funnel cake she let go of my hand. A man grabbed my wrist. I looked around for my mom but couldn’t see her. All I could think of was he was taking me away, that I’d never see my mom and dad again. The crowd was so thick I couldn’t see my mom. It was just a tangle of legs and tall people who all ignored me, even as I screamed at the man to let me go.”
His breathing was harsh and rapid, his face flushed. She reached out and grasped his forearm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. What happened next?”
“He kept pulling me farther and farther away from my parents. We were almost to the other side of the park and I knew if he put me in his car, horrible things would happen. I sat down, just let my feet out from under me and it was enough that his hold broke on my wrist. I ran back to the booth with the musical instruments. I don’t know how I found my way there. The lady manning the booth reme
mbered me and played with me until my parents came looking for me. When the man came by, he made eye contact with me, but walked away.”
His gaze connected with hers in a way that shot straight through her. Instinctively, she knew he didn’t share this piece of himself with anyone. This was too deep a scar and, like most men in a powerful position professionally, he didn’t like revealing his weaknesses.
“I remember feeling like I was going to be trampled. To this day it makes it hard to breathe or think straight when I’m in a crowd.”
He twisted his arm, placing his hand palm up. Her hand slid down the length of his forearm and slipped into his. His skin was warm and slightly damp against hers.
She squeezed his hand. “I guess that makes it my turn in the game, doesn’t it?”
His breathing slowed to a more normal pace. “Yes. So what will it be, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Why didn’t you get to play with your imagination as a child?”
Caroline tried to pull her hand from his, but Josh tightened his grip, holding on to her. His thumb smoothed an arc back and forth over the top of her hand. His gentle caress ramped up her already muddled emotions.
“I did when I was alone, but the colonel wasn’t a big proponent of imagination.”
“Ah. Your father was strictly by the rules, huh?”
Which he knew damn well, Caroline reminded herself. She hadn’t realized at the time how much it must have wounded him to turn his ridiculous invite to the Sweetheart’s Ball down in front of her friends. He’d been a sophomore and she a senior, and what’s more he was her little brother’s best friend. She tried to be kind, but it had all ended badly. Her rejection led to Josh telling her she wasn’t worth taking out anyway. In response, one of her friends on the football team thought Josh was turning into a pest and punched him, knocking him out cold. Josh had known exactly how to achieve his revenge. It was precisely because he knew her father’s strictness that he’d written that damning letter. Less than three weeks after she turned him down, she was on a plane to boarding school hell.
“The colonel was harsh all the way. If I complained about something hurting, like a sprained ankle, he’d tell me how I wouldn’t know what real pain was until I’d been shot a few times and then had to crawl to the medic over broken glass and dead bodies.”
Josh’s faced paled. “And you were how old when he said that?”
“Five.”
“Ouch.”
Caroline pulled her hand from his and grabbed hold of her wineglass, kicking back a healthy swallow. If only he knew how his own words had wounded her far more deeply and fed her teenage insecurities. “You can say that again.” She took one more drink, then set her glass down and folded her hands lightly.
“My turn. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Chicken.”
He looked at her with mock horror. “I don’t think the truth is easier, do you?”
She gave a mirthless little laugh of agreement. “True.” She met his gaze. “So what’s with your Star Wars fixation?”
Josh shifted in his seat, leaning back and getting comfortable. “It’s not a fixation. It’s a passion.”
“Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “Not when it comes to this. You know how sometimes what we see in the movies or read in science fiction seems so far-fetched until it becomes real? Take cell phones, for instance. Do the flip phones look so different from the communicators on Star Trek? Or what about tractor beams? They’ve actually created those.”
Caroline chuckled. “So you saw something in Star Wars that sparked your passion to go to space?”
“Exactly.”
“We’re going to have starships, space stations, and means of traveling across the galaxy and perhaps even other galaxies through wormholes, it’s just a matter of time.”
In anyone else Caroline could have chalked it up to the person being a bit of a nutcase, but in Josh’s case she believed him. Completely. He’d already accomplished more before thirty than most people did in a lifetime. And if his heart was set on conquering space, she’d bet he could do that, too.
Joshua Martin was impressive.
And she admired the hell out of him for being able to follow his imagination and create reality from it; she just resented the side of him that was mercenary enough to leave his best friend behind and get back at her for not dating him by sending a note to her father. Apparently, based on Mr. X’s enthusiasm to get the plans for Aeon’s first base, she wasn’t the only one Josh had harmed on his rise to the top. “You are truly a visionary who goes after what he wants, aren’t you?”
He looked down and smiled, his intense blue gaze connecting once more with hers. “I’d like to think that some day they’ll say I was the father of the final frontier, not just another rich high-tech geek.”
“That’s what Aeon is about for you, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “That’s why I need your help. I need to make this work. I want this to work, more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
She sat back, stunned at the power and intensity rolling off him. It sent sparks dancing along her skin. Here was passion and drive the likes of which she’d never seen before, and it made him seem to glow with power from within. But it was positive power, not negative like her father’s. Joshua would never beat and yell people into following his vision; they would do it out of the sheer power a dream like that held. Nor was he passive like Connor, who had bent to whatever her father demanded, including staying at MIT instead of following his dreams. Ultimately, Josh left school and took Connor’s ideas to start Softech.
“I think you’ve got me beat. Guess you win the game.”
He chuckled. “Nonsense. At least take your turn. Truth or dare?”
Caroline flipped her hair back over her shoulder. “Well, the risks you’re willing to take on your dreams make me seem timid.”
“That’s not an answer. What’s it going to be? Truth or dare?”
“What the hell. Dare.”
Chapter Five
“I dare you to kiss me.”
The impact of his words took a moment to seep into her brain, and when they did she nearly swallowed her tongue. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. It’s a legitimate dare.”
A predatory light gleamed in his eyes and he leaned in, invading her personal space. “Are you going to take the dare or not?”
She frowned. “I don’t get involved with clients on a personal level.”
“I disagree.” He leaned forward, bringing his face closer to hers, close enough that she could smell the clean soap on his skin and see the stubble starting to darken his cheeks and chin. Close enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath stir her hair by her right ear. Her heart beat faster in response.
“You get very personal with your clients,” he said softly, the tip of his nose brushing lightly over her skin, “but you don’t get intimate. I respect that. You are going to have me practice at some point, aren’t you?”
“Well, generally speaking, yes.”
He leaned back, a serious look on his face, one that belonged to a CEO who expected to have his directions followed. “Did you or did you not say you were going to help mold me into a sex god?”
“Yes, but—”
“And,” he said barreling right over her objections, “would you or would you not agree that part of a sex god’s image is to be able to kiss well?”
“Certainly.”
“Then, Miss Parker, I would say that under the conditions of our contract, if they are to be fulfilled, part of your obligation includes teaching me how to kiss properly. And you can hardly suggest how I can improve if you haven’t even assessed my current abilities.”
Caroline didn’t even try to argue. He’d clearly made up his mind. The problem was he didn’t know she’d made up her mind, too. There was a line, a very firm line, that didn’t in
clude kissing a client, regardless of how much the client thought she should. On the other hand, Josh was a very intelligent man. She could make her point easily enough. “You have a valid point, but I have one as well.”
“What’s that?”
“You don’t realize that there’s far more to attraction than a reaction to a simple kiss. It starts long before then.”
His pupils dilated slightly as she deliberately softened the look in her eye, turning it sultry. His immediate response to the change in her kicked her pulse up another notch.
“It starts with eye contact,” she said softly.
“And then?”
“You have to look into her eyes for a moment longer than necessary for a casual glance, enough to let her know you’re watching her.”
His gaze was fully focused on her now, the deep blue drawing her in, a small smile angling up the corner of his mouth. Caroline suppressed a small shiver that rippled through her. It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t kiss him, if the circumstances were different.
“What next?”
“Proximity. You don’t have to actually touch someone to impact them.”
She angled her body closer, deliberately bringing her shoulder within an inch of his. The heat radiating off his skin increased, warming her. Even though she knew this was an exercise, her brain couldn’t seem to communicate clearly to her body that this was meaningless. Practice. Just an exercise. Instead, her heart pounded and her lips tingled with anticipation. Her body wanted that kiss even though her brain didn’t.
His breath brushed her cheek, ruffling a few fine strands of her hair to tickle her ear. A persistent throb took up residence between her thighs and she pressed them together. Hard. She could close her eyes and forget that the energy sparking between them was an exercise to teach him the power of attraction without physicality.
What are you afraid of?
He leaned in, closing the gap between them. She didn’t dare glance down.
“Close your eyes,” she said.
“What?”
“Close your eyes.”
“And miss the best part?”
The Geek Billionaire Makeover Page 5