The Best Man for the Job by Lucy King Read Free Book Online Page B

she’d got quite a large part of him badly, badly wrong. That there’d never been a bet and the enormity of what that meant. That ever since that night her attitude towards him—and men in general—had been fuelled by one tiny misunderstanding and could have been so very different if teenage angst hadn’t got in the way.
    So, on top of all that, the news that he wanted her was too much for her poor overloaded brain to take.
    ‘What?’ she said, rubbing her temple with her free hand as if that might somehow remove the ache that was now hammering at her skull.
    ‘I want you,’ he said, taking a step towards her and battering her senses with his proximity. ‘A lot. I think I always have.’
    ‘You have an odd way of showing it,’ she said, edging back a little and feeling the pressure inside her ease a fraction.
    The look in his eyes, dark and glittering and entirely focused on her, made her stomach flip. ‘I don’t take rejection well,’ he said softly.
    ‘No, you don’t.’
    ‘And you haven’t exactly been encouraging.’
    ‘Why would I be?’
    ‘You wouldn’t. Yet despite that you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.’
    Celia swallowed hard and tried to keep things rational because this was Marcus and he had the patter nailed, but it was hard to think straight when she wanted to be anything but rational. ‘Has it occurred to you that I might simply be the one that got away?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Does it matter?’
    Did it? She didn’t have a clue about anything right now except for the desire sweeping through her. ‘I guess that depends on what happens next.’
    ‘What do you want to happen next?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    But she did. Because if she was honest it was what she’d wanted for years now, even though she’d done her best to bury it. Hadn’t she been wishing that the animosity between them would abate? Hadn’t she been wondering what would remain if it did? Hadn’t she had hot, steamy dreams about it?
    And now it seemed as if the ill will had gone, and she didn’t have to wonder what would remain any more because she could feel it. Right down to her marrow. Electricity. Excitement and want. Unfettered by the past. Unleashed by the present.
    He took a step towards her, then reached out and ran his hand from her shoulder slowly, so slowly down her arm, watching as he did so.
    ‘You really don’t know?’ he murmured and she shivered.
    ‘Still working on it,’ she said, because what with the speed this was going, what with the whiplash one-eighty their relationship had undergone, some kind of caution here seemed prudent.
    ‘Did you know your sister-in-law thinks we have chemistry?’ he said softly, his fingers circling her wrist and resting over her thundering pulse.
    ‘I didn’t.’ But it didn’t surprise her because Zoe was perceptive like that.
    ‘She thinks there’s tension.’
    ‘There’s certainly been that.’
    ‘Apparently she also thinks we’re in denial.’
    ‘Right,’ she said weakly because she could barely breathe with the lust slamming through her, let alone speak.
    ‘Although I’m not any more.’
    Celia swallowed and thought that, seeing as how Marcus was being brutally honest at the moment, what else could she do but return the courtesy? ‘I never have been,’ she murmured.
    ‘No?’
    ‘I’ve always been attracted to you. I haven’t wanted to be. It’s been driving me insane.’
    His jaw tightened. His eyes darkened. He twined his fingers through hers and tugged her closer and her heart began to thump wildly.
    ‘So what do you suggest we do about it?’ he said softly, so close that he dazzled her. Scrambled her thoughts. Melted her brain. Rendered her all soft and mushy inside.
    Nothing was one option. The sensible one probably and definitely the one that would cause her the least emotional upheaval.
    But Celia had been sensible all her life and look where it had got her. She had a great career and pots of cash in the bank, but