The Inconvenient Laws of Attraction Read online

  What?

  Lifting her chin, she brought her mouth closer to his. She looked up at him and informed him, ‘The ceilings are just about high enough for your head to fit in here.’

  Fixing him with a heavy gaze that said gotcha, she leaned back against his arm and smiled tightly. ‘You might want to let me go now. I’d hate to have to hurt you.’

  Judging by her expression, he doubted she’d hate it that much. But conceding a hand didn’t mean the game was over. Releasing her, he stepped to the side and bent down to retrieve the file. ‘What next?’

  She arched a brow as she tugged her jacket straight.

  ‘On the list.’ He waved the file back and forth.

  ‘Another penthouse…’

  ‘Any chance this one doesn’t have a guy in a top hat at the door?’

  ‘I doubt it.’ She reached for the file.

  When she tried to take it from him, Blake held on, waiting for her to look into his eyes before he smiled meaningfully.

  ‘We’re not done.’

  She lifted her chin, a smile sparkling in her eyes and hovering on her lips.

  ‘I know.’

  Relinquishing the file, he turned towards the stairs and held out an arm. Suddenly the next few weeks didn’t feel like such a chore to him any more. He should probably thank her for that. As it was, he would have to up his game. The way he saw it, by the time he was done she was either going to kiss him or kill him.

  He smiled as she stepped past him. ‘Mind the step…’

  Olivia rolled her eyes.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  BREATHING deep, Olivia mentally continued banging her forehead on the edge of the breakfast counter.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid…

  She should never have told her friends how tough she was finding it dealing with Blake. They’d talked about little else ever since. There was no escape from him now.

  ‘I think you should quit working with him,’ Jess said over the rim of her mug. ‘If you’re on a diet, it doesn’t make sense to hang out by the dessert cart.’

  Jo cut to the chase. ‘Apart from the fact you work with him, what’s the problem? Run it past us.’

  ‘It would just be sex.’ Olivia shrugged.

  Jess stared at her as if she’d lost her mind, ‘Not seeing that as a problem unless it’s really bad sex.’

  Nope. She was pretty sure it would fall into the rock-her-world category, judging by her response to his most recent tactics. Since she’d started slipping up and playing him at his own game, he’d pulled out the big guns, breaking down her defences with his irreverent sense of humour and targeting her biggest weakness with his obvious skills in the art of seduction. He was, without doubt, the most annoying man she’d ever met but at the same time there was something almost roguishly charming about—

  Jo narrowed her eyes as she saw Olivia smile. Olivia avoided her gaze and cleared away her breakfast things. ‘I’ve got to go. I have calls to make before I meet Blake at Union Square.’

  ‘There doesn’t automatically have to be a consequence for letting go,’ her friend said from the bedroom door.

  Grabbing her jacket and her briefcase, Olivia pushed her feet into her favourite pair of heels. ‘There’s no point letting go with a guy like him.’

  ‘They don’t all have to be keepers.’

  ‘I’m not looking for a keeper.’

  ‘Doesn’t mean you don’t recognise keeper qualities when you see them… Great sex is on everyone’s wish-list.’ She shrugged. ‘I say go for it if this guy does it for you. How often does that happen?’

  They both knew the answer to that.

  ‘It’s about time you had some fun…’

  Blake most definitely fit the bill in that department. There wasn’t anything about him that yelled steady, stable or long-term. Worse came to worst, she’d already vowed she’d do her damnedest to make sure he caved before she did. If there was one thing that bugged her more than arrogance, it was smugness.

  ‘Know what I’d do if I was in your shoes?’ Jo asked.

  ‘Shoes are off limits. Don’t make me do an inventory.’

  Linking their arms at the elbow, her friend walked her to the door of their apartment. ‘I’d cut my inner bad girl loose and make it impossible for him not to kiss me.’

  Except the problem wasn’t about kissing or not being kissed by him. Maybe—just once in her twenty-eight years—she should have fun with a man who could take her on with a distinct chance of winning: a trait she’d long since recognised in Blake. If anything, with her background, it would be freeing as hell.

  ‘It’s okay, you know.’

  ‘What is?’ She blinked.

  ‘Letting go a little and having fun. You can’t stay shut off for ever, Liv. Not when you have so much to give.’

  Despite the fact she wasn’t sure she was ready to take that step, Olivia hugged Jo before heading down the hall to the elevator. If she let go and allowed herself to get emotionally involved again there was a danger she might open a door it had taken a long time to close. She had an all-or-nothing personality but, with a great deal of time and effort, she liked to think she’d learnt to control her emotions the way she should have a lot earlier. It was better that way, safer for all concerned. Unfortunately, at times it was also something else…

  Lonely.

  And now she was starting her day even more in need of fun than before. That would help.

  ‘I’m starting to think you sleep in a suit.’

  ‘What makes you think I wear anything in bed?’ Walking along the busy sidewalk, she glanced sideways at him while yet another inner bad girl comment slipped off the tip of her errant tongue.

  ‘Understandable in this weather,’ his deep, rough-edged voice replied. ‘Dial up the air con, wait for that first whisper of cool air on your skin as you kick off the covers.’ He nodded. ‘I’m a big fan of sleeping naked.’

  Great, now she’d spend the rest of the day thinking about him lying naked in bed—waiting for her—watching while she dialled up the air conditioning and came back to join him so they could pick up where they’d left off.

  She was beginning to feel like General Custer with advance knowledge of how the battle would turn out.

  ‘A cold shower would help,’ she muttered.

  Blake took a step closer when she stopped walking, leaning in to speak in a low, seductive tone that tested what remained of her resolve. ‘Turn up the temperature some, we could take one together.’

  The woman whose needs had been suppressed for entirely too long dipped a hip towards him, lowered her lashes and fixed her gaze on the strong column of his neck. It would be so very easy to set her lips to the tanned skin there. She could work her way up to his strong jawline, whisper in his ear every little detail of the things she wanted him to do to her beneath the running water of that shower. Looking into his eyes, she caught her lower lip between her teeth.

  ‘You say a lot without words.’

  ‘I have two words for you,’ she said in a purposely low voice.

  ‘Let’s go?’ he asked optimistically.

  ‘We’re here.’ She smiled.

  He glanced at the doorway of the large building beside them, his expression changing. ‘You sure?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right.’ A muscle tightened in his jaw but, before she could ask what was wrong, he was halfway up the steps.

  Inside the grand foyer, he headed for an area filled with comfortable chairs and large pieces of furniture, his back to her—shoulders tense—while Olivia introduced them to the receptionist and asked for the manager.

  ‘How long did he own this place?’ he asked when she stood beside him.

  Olivia checked the file. ‘Eight years.’

  ‘Ms Brannigan, Mr Clayton, I’m Frank Gains, manager of—’ He was shaking Olivia’s hand when his gaze shifted. ‘Blake?’

  ‘Frank.’ Blake held out a hand as he turned.

  The older man seemed flustered. ‘I di
dn’t know.’

  ‘Didn’t you?’

  ‘I didn’t make the connection. Your name…’

  A confused Olivia looked from one to the other. She had absolutely no idea what was going on. Blake nodded curtly as he dropped his arm to his side. When he walked back towards the entrance without saying anything more, she blinked in surprise.

  ‘He’s Charles Warren’s son?’ the manager asked.

  She nodded. ‘I take it you’ve met before.’

  ‘His guys did some of our renovations a few years back. It’s not easy to find skilled craftsmen these days, especially for an older building. We didn’t want to lose the character of the place…’

  Ironic as it was, considering how little of it they’d taken up, Olivia thanked him for his time and followed Blake outside. Standing on the sidewalk, she squinted against the bright sunshine, raising her hand to shield her eyes as she scanned the crowd until she found him across the street in Union Square. He was watching a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty walk by, plastic torch tucked under her arm while she adjusted the foam crown on her head.

  His gaze collided with Olivia’s as he waited for her to get close enough to hear him say, ‘Sell it.’

  Not that it was a surprise, but, ‘You didn’t know, did you? When you took the job there, you didn’t know it was your father’s hotel.’

  He frowned.

  ‘I asked the manager how he knew you.’ When he turned away, she followed him. ‘You obviously weren’t close.’

  ‘Good guess.’

  ‘But he left you everything.’

  As they walked into the farmers’ market set up at one end of the park, Blake slowed his pace before stopping to look over some of the produce. ‘There’s very little left of the Warren gene pool. In the end I figure he had a choice between the family bastard and a cousin who’s doing time for illegal possession. If it narrows it down for you, I’m not the one wearing an orange jumpsuit.’

  Olivia digested the information while he headed for another canopied stall that had caught his interest. The market in a tree-filled Union Square was an orgy for the senses, with plenty to distract the eye, but her mind refused to let go of the opportunity to get answers to some of the questions she’d had before she met him.

  ‘Here.’

  She leaned back when he held a small lump of something creamy-coloured in front of her face, ‘What is it?’

  ‘Goats’ cheese, with honey.’

  ‘I’ll pass.’

  ‘That lack of adventure again.’ Shaking his head, he popped the sample in his mouth and chewed. ‘Your loss.’

  Frowning at the comment, she reached out a hand and snagged another sample from the stand, chewing with a smirk before she blinked in surprise.

  ‘Good?’

  ‘Mmm.’ She nodded appreciatively as she swallowed, falling into step beside him as he headed for the next stand. ‘Did you know you were his heir?’

  ‘Did it look like I knew when you told me?’ He stopped and turned towards her. ‘Try this one.’

  Olivia accepted the sample without protest, her grimace making the corners of his mouth twitch.

  ‘No?’

  ‘What was that?’ She frowned at the produce on the stand in disgust.

  ‘Celeriac.’

  Taking a mental note of the offence against taste buds, she followed him to the next stand while trying to scrape the taste off her tongue with her teeth, ‘How well did you know him?’

  ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘It’s unusual for someone to leave everything they own to a complete stranger.’

  ‘If you say so.’ He turned around. ‘Here.’

  ‘What is it?’ Her eyes narrowed, the celeriac memory causing suspicion.

  Blake twirled the sprig of small green leaves between his thumb and forefinger as he held it closer to her mouth. ‘You tell me.’

  When he brushed one of the leaves over the parting of her lips, she lifted her arm and wrapped her fingers around his to still the movement. A jolt travelled up her arm as soon as skin touched skin, instantly tightening her nipples against the suddenly abrasive lace of her bra. Her gaze locked on his as her breath caught. How did he do that?

  ‘I’ve got it,’ she said in a low voice.

  ‘When you put your mind to it, yes, you have.’

  She fought the need to smile at the compliment.

  Raising their hands, he held the sprig of leaves beneath her nose, the backs of long fingers resting lightly against her lips. ‘Breathe in.’

  ‘I know what you’re doing,’ she mumbled as she dropped her hand.

  ‘What is it?’

  Six foot three of increasingly irresistible male, but since Olivia assumed he meant the leaves, she breathed in.

  ‘Mint?’

  ‘Close your eyes.’

  ‘Why?’

  When the movement of her lips became a caress against his fingers, his gaze darkened. ‘Just do it, Liv.’

  Concerned she might give in to the temptation to kiss him if he kept looking at her with an intensity that made it feel as if he were absorbing her into him, Olivia closed her eyes. Theoretically, if she couldn’t see him she could pretend he wasn’t there. If it wasn’t for the touch of his warm fingers against her lips, the scent she found even more addictive with the addition of a hint of mint and the fact she could almost feel the air crackling between them.

  Somewhere inside her head a white flag was waving.

  ‘Keep them closed.’ The rumble of his rough voice resonated through her body, echoing in a hollow place inside her, the existence of which had been denied for a long time.

  He really did do it for her.

  ‘Open your mouth.’

  While her imagination ran riot with erotic thoughts of him issuing a similar set of demands in a more intimate setting, she took a short breath, opened her mouth and tilted her head back. Placing a small sliver of the leaf on her tongue, the tip of his finger lingered on her lower lip, tracing its shape before sliding along her jaw.

  A languid smile formed on Olivia’s lips as she chewed.

  ‘Chocolate.’ She sighed contentedly. She could taste mint-flavoured chocolate. Apart from the fact it removed the bitter taste of celeriac from her mouth—which was thoughtful of him—combined with his touch, it was bliss.

  ‘That good?’

  ‘Mmm.’ Swallowing, she slowly ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, rolled them in on themselves and parted them to draw a deeper breath as she opened her eyes.

  ‘I should taste it,’ he said roughly.

  ‘You should,’ she agreed.

  Reaching out, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist, sliding them down over the back of his hand. He took a half-step closer, head lowering as she lifted her chin. God, he was tempting. She really wanted to kiss him—just once, so she knew what it was like and didn’t have to spend the rest of her life wondering—but with a twist of her thumb and forefinger she had her prize. The opportunity was too good to miss as she held the mint up in front of his face and smiled victoriously.

  Realisation sparkled into a glint of amusement when his gaze locked with hers. ‘Not what I had in mind.’

  ‘Wasn’t it?’ She batted her lashes innocently.

  ‘No.’

  When his fingertips curled around the nape of her neck, Olivia’s heart punched against her breastbone.

  Kiss me, the woman in her willed breathlessly.

  ‘You’re doing it again,’ he said roughly.

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘You know what.’

  She did. That it was having such a strong effect on him was empowering. She wanted him. He wanted her. For the first time it felt that simple to Olivia. All she had to do was take one teeny tiny step over the line and—

  Kiss me. The words hovered on the tip of her tongue.

  Leaning forward, Blake nudged the tip of his nose off hers, the tantalising jut of his lower lip within millimetres of her mouth as her eyelids grew heavy.
Another hand lifted to frame her face, thumb brushing her cheek. The long fingers of the hand on her neck flexed into her hair and made her sink back into his touch. She knew he’d played the seduction card to stop her from asking questions he didn’t want to answer. Knew it and should have been irritated by it, but she really didn’t want him to stop.

  ‘Blake.’ She exhaled his name like a plea.

  ‘Do you know what I hear when you say my name?’

  It took considerable effort to shake her head. How was she supposed to fight this? It felt futile, especially when she couldn’t summon the energy to try.

  He slid his cheek across hers so he could whisper in her ear. ‘I hear: I want you.’

  ‘Blake—’

  ‘This guy bothering you?’ a voice asked loudly.

  Olivia stifled a groan. ‘You got to be kidding me.’ She turned and glared at the man standing beside them as Blake took a step back. ‘Slow day for parking violations?’

  ‘I’m on indecent exposure watch—reckoned if I left it another minute, I’d have to arrest you.’ He jerked his head towards Blake. ‘Who’s your friend?’

  ‘Didn’t we agree you guys would stop doing this when I left high school?’

  ‘Should I get my notepad out to take his details?’

  She sighed heavily. ‘This is Blake. He’s a client.’

  ‘Really.’

  From anyone else it would have been a timely reminder. ‘Blake, my brother, John Brannigan.’

  ‘Last name?’ Johnnie asked him without blinking.

  ‘Clayton.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ He nodded. ‘And how do you spell that?’

  ‘You run a background check on him, I’ll kick your ass,’ Olivia warned.

  ‘That’s assaulting a police officer.’

  ‘Running a background check on every guy you ever see me with is harassment.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘Don’t make me tell Mom.’

  ‘Go right ahead. She’d appreciate a call more than once a month.’

  Low blow.

  A call came in on the radio attached to his shoulder, ‘Unit nineteen, ten fifty-four…’

  It was an echo from her past—one that still had an effect on her, even after six years. Suddenly it was dark; she could feel rain falling, see coffee cups falling into a trash can and hear a voice calling her name. But at least she didn’t get nauseous any more. That was something.