Dangerous Master
Page 28
“It’s not going to work,” she said. “I’ve known guys like you. You’re an oversexed playboy. You aren’t the serious type, Jonas. You like to play, and I’m not willing to be your plaything.”
He snorted at her description. “Plaything?”
Deanna stiffened and dropped her hands from his arms. Jonas instantly missed the warm touch. “Do you deny you’re a player?”
Damn, she was serious. “That’s what you think of me? That I’m a player?”
She pointed a finger at his chest. “I’ve watched you with women. None of them are ever around for long either.”
Jonas felt his own anger rise. Only Deanna could get to him so quickly and with so little effort. “You think you have me all figured out, but you don’t.”
Her lips twitched. “Oh, really?”
Jonas scowled. “Really.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, and Jonas’s gaze shot to the plump swells. She might well be trying to hide them from his view, but Jonas could’ve told her not to waste her time. The woman put new meaning to the word stacked. A man would have to be blind not to notice Deanna’s voluptuous curves. Jonas groaned. So fucking close, and yet he may as well be miles away.
“How long was your last relationship?”
Her question jarred Jonas back to the conversation. He had to think back quite a few months before he could answer. “Her name was Marissa, and it lasted two months.”
She quirked a brow at him in that regal, slightly bitchy way she had. His dick, which always hardened the instant she came within view, perked right up. “Gee, a whole two months, huh?”
Jonas reached out and tweaked her nose. “Yeah, smart-ass, two months. Sweet lady, but not the one for me.” He chose to leave off the part about not having had a serious relationship ever since the day he’d met one hardheaded, dark-haired vixen, who just happened to be his best friend’s baby sister. “Now you,” he murmured. “How long was your last relationship, Deanna?”
To his surprise, she looked away. As if uncomfortable with the conversation all of a sudden. “I’ve been busy with work lately. Dating has been the last thing on my mind.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. I was honest, sweetheart. Don’t you think you owe me the same courtesy?”
“Fine. I haven’t had a serious relationship since Roger and I broke up.”
Jonas remembered Roger. Deanna had dated him for six months. It’d been six months of pure hell for Jonas as he imagined Roger touching Deanna. Touching, tasting, and loving. Jonas had gotten drunk more than once during those six months. Christ, just the thought sent Jonas’s temperature into the red zone. “That was a year ago.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m well aware of that, but thanks for the reminder.”
Jonas propped his hand against the doorjamb. “Did you love him?”
“I thought so at the time.”
“Are you pining away for him, Deanna?”
She laughed. “Pining?”
At the sound of her quiet laughter, a dam inside Jonas burst and warmth flooded his system. “You’re beautiful when you do that,” he whispered as he lifted his hand and cupped her cheek in his palm.
“What?”
“Laugh. I love to hear you laugh.”
“Jonas, don’t.” She shook her head and covered his hand with her own, but she didn’t remove it. To his way of thinking, it was another step in the right direction.
Jonas dipped his head, slowly, afraid if he moved too fast she’d bolt through the open door. “Are you sure, Deanna?”
Her soft lips parted and Jonas swept in.
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Copyright © 2011 by Tawny Taylor
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