He's the One, Jane Beckenham [best new books to read TXT] 📗

her lips, almost tasting the delicious salt.

"Lady to see you."

The moment Cade turned, everything changed. Taylor's voice stalled in her throat, and she knew, when his smiling eyes captured hers, she was in way over her head. He may have been a bad boy, but he was certainly one sexy guy.

Cade wiped his hands on a cloth, and again Taylor's gaze followed. Long lean fingers. Fingers that would touch ... Oh, boy!

He smiled. “You want to see me?"

She nodded and felt herself drowning in that smile. His dark eyes twinkled, a swirl of gold and chocolate brown. Just like Hershey Kisses.

Kisses!

Yep! She was definitely going under.

"Lady, I don't mean to be rude, but I've got a bar to run,” he said, grabbing a knife and cutting a lemon into wafer thin slices.

Taylor shook herself. Okay. Come on. Just say it. “I've got a favor to ask."

"Ask away then,” he said, not looking up.

Taylor burned with embarrassment and eyed the milling crowd. “Actually, it's a proposition."

He definitely looked then, and his gaze focused directly on her. He quietly placed the razor sharp knife on the cutting board. “Sounds intriguing."

Sounds stupid.

He leaned forward and rested both hands on the bar, the flex and tension in his forearms a powerful tease. Taylor swallowed hard.

"Is there anywhere we can talk—privately?"

"Out back in the den.” He flicked a hand towards a door leading from behind the bar.

"More like going into the lion's den,” Taylor muttered.

"You say something?"

"Ah ... no.” Taylor dropped her gaze. Damn. Why hadn't she chosen a different career? One where her clients didn't ask about sex!

Holding herself stiff and feeling as if all eyes followed her movements, she walked behind the bar. As she brushed past him, the musky scent of his cologne teased her senses. Taylor willed the butterflies dancing a tango in her stomach to abate.

They didn't listen.

No more than a storeroom, with boxes piled high along three of its four walls, and a desk barely visible beneath a pile of papers and computer sheets, this room wore many different hats.

Transfixed to the spot, suddenly every word she'd practiced dissolved from her memory. Cade closed the door behind him, the soft click of the latch echoed a thousand-fold. She spun round. He leaned against the door, arms folded across his formidable chest, his gaze candid.

He looked dangerous—but very delicious.

He spoke first. “Do I know you?"

"Not really.” Not yet.

"Shame.” He gave another of his long, lingering smiles, the kind that emphasized the dimples either side of his sexy mouth. It set her toes curling and her body pulsing.

The temperature gauge hit jackpot, and Taylor felt very much out of her depth.

Here goes.

"I'm Taylor Sullivan. We didn't meet—exactly, at Brianna Bennett's wedding. I was her planner.” She jerked out her hand. Cade took it in his, warm strong fingers enveloping hers. The tips were slightly calloused and the friction sent a cortege of goose bumps skittering across her heated skin. Taylor willed herself not to yank her hand from his and held herself in check.

"You touting for another wedding to plan?” Cade pushed away from the door, dwarfing the room. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of jeans that skimmed his long muscular thighs. “If you are,” he said, twisting to face her. “Sorry, but marriage and I don't mix."

Taylor tightened her grip on her bag, desperate to silence the slamming of her heartbeat. “So I heard."

"You've heard more about me than I have of you,” he replied.

A hint of a smile tipped the corners of her mouth. “You're quite well-known, Mr. Harper. Successful and entrepreneurial."

"I work hard."

"And play hard, so the papers say."

"Gossip and innuendo,” he countered, his steely gaze sizing her up.

A sticky bead of sweat trickled between her breasts. Cade hadn't taken his eyes off her since they'd entered the back room.

That has to be a good thing. Shows he's interested, her subconscious reminded her.

Taylor shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

It's now or never, Sullivan.

With a deep, soothing, breath, she pulled herself to her full five-foot-ten height and dived in.

"I want you to have sex with me."

Cade's dark eyes bolted wide. “Whoa."

Surprised? Absolutely.

Heat suffused Taylor's cheeks. “Oh, hell, this is stupid.” How dumb could she be? She reached for her bag, but the over-laden carry-all slid from her fingers and upended, scattering its contents across the floor.

Taylor gasped and for one, long, drawn out second, she simply stared. Her breath strangulated in her throat, and a furious heat burned behind her eyes. There, right at Cade's feet, lay her box of condoms.

"Stupid, stupid.” Blinking back tears, she stumbled to her knees and gathered everything as fast as she could. Cade reached the condoms the second before she did.

"You must be a good Girl Scout,” he said and passed the box to her. Their fingers touched. Their eyes met. Holding. She couldn't breathe. All the oxygen had been sucked from her lungs and her heart beat franticly.

She pulled away, shaking her head, struggling for a semblance of practicality.

"Always be prepared. Isn't that their motto?” Cade chuckled

This was bad. Really bad. Mortified, Taylor refused to look at him, and kept her lips firmly closed. She shoved the box into her bag and zipped it closed with a resounding tug.

Open up again, she warned silently, and you'll be in the rubbish bin.

Straightening, she walked to the door and opened it. Strains of Dr. Hook's “Sexy Eyes” wafted into the small room.

How appropriate! Cade's dark eyes were just that, down right sinful and sexy.

"Wait."

Taylor stiffened and squeezed her eyes shut. “Why?"

"You've just proposed something way out there, Taylor Sullivan, and I want to know why."

Her hand fell from the door, and she slowly turned around. Holding herself in check she fixed her gaze on Cade, keeping it steady, despite her frazzled nerves. “So you can enjoy my embarrassment, tell your mates about this stupid woman who offered sex on a platter,” she countered.

But he didn't laugh. Instead, a deep frown marred his handsome face. “No. You came to me, remember?"

"I know.