The telling motion had given him the advantage he’d needed. Though the room didn’t bother her, he did. And he didn’t want her bothered in that way. There was a freshness in her face and in her eyes that he’d forgotten existed in the world. And he wanted to make her his woman.
“Well, now I have a better feel of what needs to be done in the lobby, suites and guest rooms. It won’t mirror Seashore Mansion in style, but I think your guests will have that same warm feeling,” she said, jotting another note down in her day planner.
“I’d really like to create the timelessly elegant feeling that the Van Benthuysen-Elms Mansion has. Have you been there?”
“Yes, several times. What do you like about it?”
Her businesslike tone needled him. His body’s reactions to her were leading him into personal territory, and now he had to catch her up. Preston was suddenly glad he’d learned flirting from observing a master—his father.
“Do you have time to stop by there with me? My meeting is being held in the dining room there.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Let me check my schedule,” she said, consulting her day planner again.
“I think I can squeeze you in,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.
“Are you teasing me, Ms. Stone?”
“Yes, I am, Mr. Dexter.” It had been a long time since anyone had sassed him the way she was. He couldn’t remember any business associate behaving that way toward him. He wielded a lot of power in the business world and came from generations of wealth, so others were suitably reserved around him. Not Lily Stone.
“We can continue our discussion in the car.”
“What will I do with my car?”
“I’ll have one of my employees follow us over, and you can leave from the mansion. What do you drive?”
“My ’59 Chevy pickup might be a step down from what any of your employees are used to driving.”
“I’ll offer him a bonus.”
He picked up the phone and called down to the lobby to have his car brought up from the garage and to arrange for one of the security men to follow them in Lily’s car.
“It’s all arranged, Ms. Stone.”
“Call me Lily,” she said, her blue eyes sparkling like the waters of the Atlantic.
“I’m Preston,” he said with a smile he’d been told was irresistible to women.
“No nicknames?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure he liked the way she tried to take control of the conversation. He was the one seducing her, yet he couldn’t help but feel a little bit captivated himself. “No.”
“Why not?” She asked before he could redirect the conversation.
He tried to think of one person he knew who might call him by a pet name. No one came to mind. He wasn’t the type of man who inspired those around him to call him by a sobriquet. Never had been; he’d always been so serious, and intent on making his life a bigger success than his father’s. “I’m just not a casual sort of guy around the office.”
He stood and picked up his briefcase. Lily shoved her day planner into her attaché and stood, as well. Preston congratulated himself on having brought a close to that line of questioning.
“What about your close friends?” she asked, as they exited his office.
She was losing some of her charm, he thought. He preferred women who looked pretty and said little. She forced him to examine something he didn’t really want to—there was a big emptiness in his personal life. Always had been.
“Brit calls me Preston. And I don’t have any others who aren’t also business associates.” Even Brit was a business associate. Preston was a silent partner in the Seashore Mansion.
“That’s odd.”
“Not really. My work is my life.” And he’d learned early on that most people wanted something in exchange for friendship with him—usually money, business advice or social connections.
She pondered that for a minute, worrying her lower lip. Her lips’ natural color was a pale pink that reminded him of the roses his mother had always ordered for the breakfast room. Would they taste as soft as those rose petals had felt?
“My business is important to me, too, yet I still have friends away from it,” Lily said.
She was charmingly naive to compare her small business to his international corporation. He liked that she didn’t fully comprehend the power he wielded in the hospitality industry.
He didn’t want to talk about his personal life or the lack of close acquaintances. Instead he wanted to move their conversation back to her. Why had she raised two younger brothers?
“Well, our lifestyles must be different.”
She laughed. “I’ll say.”
He didn’t want to like her because he desired her and he knew that emotional entanglements were better left as business transactions.
“I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“Is that good or bad?” she asked.
He realized that seducing Lily would be good for him, because she had the kind of charming innocence that everyone needed to remind them of a better way of life. He knew he was going to seduce her, because for the first time in a long while he felt alive. He looked forward to the challenge of taming the feisty woman.
“I don’t know.”
The elevator arrived, and they traveled down to the lobby in silence. Joshua, one of his young security men had brought the Jag up and waited for Lily’s keys.
“We’re going to the Van Benthuysen-Elms Mansion on St. Charles.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lily was busy digging her keys out of her bag. She handed them to Joshua, and he walked away.
“Okay, I’m ready to go,” she said.
Preston deftly grasped her elbow and escorted her outside to his waiting car. Even though she was sassy and confident, she might still fall neatly into his hands. It had been a long time since anyone had challenged him on any level. Longer still since a woman had intrigued him on so many.
Two
Lily knew she must have been temporarily insane to agree to ride anywhere with this man. His car had leather seats, a tracking computer that made adjustments to their travel plan, to avoid traffic, and Vivaldi in surround sound. His touch had traveled through her body like lightning through the night sky. A stark, brief illumination and then nothing but the rumble of aftershocks.
She didn’t usually react to men she’d just met this quickly. He invigorated her. He also enervated her, making her skin feel too sensitive, her blood race through her veins and her senses sing.
He’d been impatient with her, and she knew he’d meant to brush her off after the first five minutes or so because she’d dealt before with busy executives. They always wanted top quality, yet they didn’t necessarily want to invest the time needed to get it.
But an indefinable thing had passed between them. She felt a connection to this man because, despite what she’d told him, her work was her life, as well.
She felt his eyes on her legs as she tried to smooth her skirt down. Never again was she buying a suit without trying it on. His gaze on her legs brought back the insecurities of girlhood.
It was ridiculous, considering she was a mature woman of twenty-five. She ran a successful antique decorating business and had been operating it on her own since her grandmother had retired to Florida a year ago with her longtime love, Humberto.
She couldn’t think when he was watching her. All she could think was that his car cost more than Dash and Beau’s college tuition together.
“This is some car.”
“I know. I had a hand in the design.”
“Really?” she asked. Aside from decorating, the only thing she’d ever designed had been the advertisement she’d run in the phone book, and that had been somewhat limited.
“Yes, I gave them a list of items I wanted included.”
He sounded like her brothers had when they’d gotten the exact gift they wanted on Christmas morning. She smiled to herself. What w
as it about men and cars? “I didn’t know you could do that. Do American car makers offer that service?”
“I think most of them will if the price is right. Anything’s possible if you’re willing to pay for it.”
“I take it you are.”
“Haven’t you found that things you want the most have the highest price?” he asked. He glanced over at her as he cruised to a stop for a red light. She studied the intriguing lines around his eyes. He must spend a lot of time outdoors, she realized.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Name one thing worthwhile that isn’t costly,” he said.
She hesitated. Once the conversation went down this avenue, there was no going back to being casual business acquaintances. Something in his gray eyes compelled her to speak from the heart. “Love.”
The light turned green, and he accelerated, leaving the neighboring car in the dust. “Love is a child’s fantasy. Name something real.”
She couldn’t believe his attitude. Without love she’d have nothing in her life. Her brothers’ and grandmother’s affection grounded her. “Love is real.”
“Sure it is. And so is the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.”
“Love is more than the holiday traditions, and it encompasses them, as well. It’s the warm feeling that comes from knowing you’re not alone in the world.”
“Affection.”
“It’s deeper than affection.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Why don’t you believe in love?” she asked.
“Because it can’t be bought.”
She was silent. There was something about Preston that touched her heart. He made her want to fight battles for him, even though he was the kind of man who’d fight and win his own. He made her want to coddle him and shower him with caring, because there was a big cold dark part of his soul visible in those frozen eyes.
As much as she wanted to mother him, she’d been aware of him as a man. She shivered, remembering the narrowing of his eyes and the practiced warmth of his smile.
And there was something prepared about his charm, she realized. Something that wasn’t quite genuine. Almost as if he’d learned how to manipulate women a long time ago and no longer had to think about what he was doing.
“Haven’t you ever been in love?”
“No. But I’ve tried lust a time or two. What about you?”
“No to both of them. But I’m sure that my one true love is out there.”
“What makes you so sure?”
His voice was dark and deep, sending shivers of awareness through her. She wondered if the attraction she felt toward him was to blame for her reactions. Or maybe it was the fact that for the first time in seven years she was free. She didn’t have to be home by nine to make sure her brothers had completed their homework and were getting ready for bed. She didn’t have to hurry back because Grandmother needed to be reminded to take her medication. She didn’t have to answer to anyone save herself, and that scared her.
“I’m sure because my parents found each other.”
“Maybe their relationship was a fluke.”
“Then why do so many people spend their lives trying to capture that feeling?”
“Because they’ve been brainwashed into believing in something that doesn’t exist. Each generation passes on the brainwashing so they don’t seem foolish.”
“Preston.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Prove me wrong.”
“How?”
He pulled into the parking lot of the mansion, and the valet attendant came to park the car. Lily didn’t want to stop their conversation but knew she’d have to. No matter how fascinating she found their discussion, he was still her client and she needed to remember that.
She was aware that her views weren’t necessarily the views of her peers, but she’d always believed there was a man out there waiting for her. A man who’d want to live in New Orleans with her and help her run the business that had been in her family for three generations. When the bellman opened the door for her, she exited the car and waited for Preston.
But as she watched Preston pass his keys to the attendant and walk toward her, she forgot all of that. Because even though he didn’t believe in love, Preston Dexter made her pulse race, her skin tingle and her mouth long for the feel of his.
He pulled her into a small enclave outside of the hotel. “Still want to prove that love exists?”
“Yes.”
“You find one example of someone who married for love and only for love and I’ll give you your heart’s desire.”
She wondered if he was willing to pay the price she wanted, because her heart’s desire might be this dark man with his cynical world view and fallen-angel eyes.
Preston Dexter seemed like an adventure waiting to happen. The male knowledge of intimacy in his eyes sparked an answering need deep within her femininity and promised more excitement than she’d had in her entire lifetime, and that scared her.
But she hadn’t spent a lifetime keeping her family business a success and raising two unruly hellions for nothing. “You’re on.”
Preston asked the hostess to allow them to visit several of the rooms in the mansion. And though she warned it was against policy, she allowed them to tour the house. Preston gave Lily a list of things he liked and pieces he’d love to see her find for White Willow House. They lingered in one of the drawing rooms. The elegant settee was too small for a modern man but just right for the sweet lady who had perched on it to make her notes.
As well as he knew that Lily would be unable to find a couple who’d married for love alone, he kind of wished she would, because he wanted to give her her heart’s desire.
“This place is lovely,” Lily said.
“Not as lovely as you,” he said. He sincerely meant the words. He’d mastered the art of compliments a long time ago and he’d forgotten how to be genuine, but Lily reminded him. She was charmingly naive about things like love and reality but she knew her stuff when it came to antiques and their worth. She’d spoken easily of the Italian sandstone mantels and the imported tapestries.
“Don’t say compliments you don’t mean. I’m not one of your society girls who’ll believe them,” she said.
“I never say anything I don’t mean.”
She walked toward him like an angel in an erotic dream. Her hips swaying in rhythm with the tapping of her heels on the hardwood floor. His pulse picked up the beat, pounding in time to her movement. She moved like sin itself. And though he was a sinner and easily tempted, he knew she’d entice a saint.
The heat of the day lingered in the house but was nothing compared to the fire Lily started in Preston’s body. He didn’t know where it started, only that it spread to every part of his being like a wild blaze out of control.
Every time she walked into a room he started to harden, and for once he wasn’t certain of his self-mastery. She made a mockery of the possession he’d always had over his reactions. He knew why it didn’t bother him: he liked the feeling. There was something forbidden about her.
“Don’t flirt with me, Preston. I still believe in happily ever after, and once I find that married couple I’m going to make you believe in it, too.”
He wished she could, but he knew himself too well. He had learned hard lessons early on. “We’ll see, angel.”
She bit her bottom lip, and he ached to take it between his teeth and suckle the sweet fruit of her mouth. He wanted to ravish her mouth and learn her taste so completely that he’d always know it. Though she’d gone from sweet to sassy in her conversation, her lips promised all sass and spunk with the honeyed warmth of woman.
She was innocence, where he was jaded realism. She was sweet light, where he was dark shadow. She was the warm feeling of home, where he was the cold luxury of an empty hotel room.
His body hardened in a sudden rush, and he knew there was no way Lily Stone would remain simply a decorator in his life. She was going to play a part in his person
al life, too. His skin tightened and his groin hardened in a rush. He didn’t question his success because seduction had always been something he excelled at.
Her eyes widened as they met his, and he knew he’d lost ground on the seduction front because right now he felt elemental and knew that shone on his face. He wanted her with the gut-deep longing that was shockingly new to him. He knew about lust and desire but never had he felt it this intensely.
“Isn’t it almost time for your meeting?” she asked, her voice husky with arousal.
He wondered what she’d do if he leaned down and kissed her. Thrust his tongue deep in her mouth the way he wanted to enter her body. It was a ridiculous reaction from a man so coldly controlled and smoothly sophisticated, yet she’d started a chain reaction in him.
“Yes,” he said, grasping her arm above the elbow to escort her downstairs. Her flesh was soft under his hand, and she smelled like fresh-cut flowers with the dew still on them.
He walked Lily to her truck even though he knew he’d be late to his meeting. She hadn’t said a word since they’d left the mansion.
She looked up at him as she opened the door to her vehicle. Desire danced in her eyes, and she leaned a little closer to him. Double or nothing, he thought.
“Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Why?”
“I want to get to know you better.”
“How much better?”
“On this date or in general?”
“In general,” she said.
“Then, I want to know you as intimately as a man can know a woman.”
“And afterward?”
“What afterward?”
“When you’ve gleaned all of my intimate secrets, then what?”
“Then life will point us in another direction.”
“Separate ones?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
“Lily, I’m not a settling-down kind of guy.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t mean you and I can’t enjoy this attraction.”
The Tycoon's Temptation (HQR Silhouette Desire) Page 2